Grace, mercy and peace be to you from God our Father, and from our Lord Jesus Christ.
Text: (John 2:1-11)
When the master of the feast tasted the water now become wine, and did not know where it came from (though the servants who had drawn the water knew), the master of the feast called the bridegroom and said to him, “Everyone serves the good wine first, and when people have drunk freely, then the poor wine. But you have kept the good wine until now.”
Prayer: Let the words of my mouth, and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.
When I was in Adelaide in October last year, I had the privilege of hearing a sermon in Nuriootpa, South Australia by a Lutheran pastor from Madagascar, Joseph Randrianasolo. Now there are 3 million Lutherans in Madagascar, and it is one of the fasted growing Lutheran churches in the world. During his sermon, the pastor made a comment about our reading today, which went like this:
“Why did Jesus turn the water into wine? Because he wants to make the people happy, and Jesus is the source of happiness.”
What a simple, clear answer to this question! But I want you to think about this very deeply: Jesus wants to make the people happy, and Jesus is the source of happiness.
Think about this little statement and churn it over. Jesus is the source of happiness, not just in terms of what we look forward to in the future but he is the source of everything that has brought us happiness in the past.
Everything that brings happiness we can trace back to Jesus, because Jesus is not simply any old man, but he is also the Son of God, the second person of the Trinity, the Word of God, who existed without a body before he was born of the Virgin Mary. And he is truly God, God of God, Light of Light, true God of true God, and he created the world together with the Father and the Holy Spirit. St John says: “All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.”
This is the same person, the same Son of God, Jesus, who was there at the creation of the world, and who made the world together with the Father and the Holy Spirit, who took human flesh from his virgin mother, and now comes to this wedding in Cana and turns the water into wine. It’s the same person.
And so we say: Jesus wants to make the people happy, because he is the source of happiness.
Everything that could possibly make us happy comes from Jesus, because he is the creator of the world. He invented happiness. He came up with the idea. And happiness comes from his eternal light, which he shines on all people. St John says: “In him was light, and the light was the light of men.” The light shone around all people.
So the fact that we have all kinds of different things that make us happy: food, clothes, houses, homes, family, friends, marriage, children, music, laughing – all these things come from Jesus. All these different things come from him and he invented them and made them. Of course, we haven’t even mentioned the gift of faith and the gift of the Holy Spirit, which turn all things sad into things of joy and happiness. These gifts, the gifts of Jesus, the gifts of the church, the forgiveness of sins, the word of God, the sacraments – all these things bring about a new creation. All these things water all the dead plants, everything that is dying, and makes them new again, makes the flowers bud and produce life. Isaiah says: The grass withers, the flowers fade, but the Word of God remains forever. There’s an old English Christmas carol that says: “But why should we on earth be so sad, since our Redeemer made us glad?”
This is what is happening today in reading, where Jesus goes to a wedding in Cana. When he performs this miracle, he is at a wedding: and a wedding is such a celebration of so many happy things in life: people wear nice clothes, they like to eat nice food, there’s going to be a new house, a new home, a new family, people like to play their favourite music, and people generally have a good time.
They also like to drink nice wine.
And the fact that they have run out of wine is a real embarrassment. Also, in those days, it wasn’t as if people had a choice to drink lemonade and Coke if they wanted. The fact that the wine ran out would be something that people would remember for many years to come. People might say: “It was a nice wedding, but they ran out wine. The tab ran out.”
But before we delve too deeply into the reading there a couple of things about this reading and the events described in this reading that we need to understand first.
The first thing, is that what is described in this reading is no fairy tale. It’s not a little story that just makes us feel good, and then we say, “Isn’t that nice!”, and then we blink and move on with our lives as if nothing happened.
It’s sometimes easy for us to dismiss the miracles of Jesus as if they never happened. But Jesus himself speaks about them as proofs of the fact that he was the Messiah. You remember when John the Baptist was in prison and he sent his disciples to come and ask Jesus if he was the Messiah or not, and Jesus said: “Go tell John what you have seen and heard: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have the good news preached to them.”
If we don’t believe that any of the miracles of Jesus are true, then we’ll have a hard time believing that he was born of a virgin, and that he rose again on the third day. Right from the beginning of Jesus life, from his conception, the angel Gabriel speaks to the Virgin Mary words which mark his life as a life which is surrounded by miracles: “Nothing is impossible with God”, the angel says.
Also, since Jesus is God of God, Light of Light, true God of true God, eternally begotten of the Father, and since he is the only person like this who has ever lived, then we know that the miracles of Jesus are unique. Also, Jesus’ miracles are different from Moses’ miracles which are frightening and show God’s anger: plagues, blood, darkness, and death. Jesus doesn’t turn the River Nile into blood, he turns water into wine. He doesn’t put to the death the first born children in Egypt, he raises people to life: Lazarus, Jairus’ daughter, the son of the widom at Nain, and then of course he himself rises from the dead.
So, this miracle of Jesus turning water into wine, we should treat as a real event that happened in history at some point. Because without the historical reality of this miracle, anything else we want to say about it will have no power and useful effect at all.
The second thing we should notice in this reading that Jesus glorifies marriage. He blesses the wedding, and he blesses the couple. After all, he invented the idea. I could of course say a lot at this point about in what a poor state marriage is in our country at this point of time: we all know how much social dysfunction there is, family breakdown, broken homes, domestic violence, suffering and confused children, and such like. And it’s a very significant thing, that in a time where marriage is suffering so badly, that people want to change the definition of marriage to include gay unions. In politics, people care more about being popular rather than what is good and healthy for our society as a whole. Last year’s debate on this issue has not been about clear reason, common sense, facts and truth, but about being politically correct.
Marriage and weddings is not simply a piece of paper: it’s a community celebration where a man and a woman are united together in a life-long commitment to each other. And marriage is the foundation for the rest of society, it’s the backbone which holds everything else together. There’s no easy fix to the social problems of the world, like sex education in schools (anyone in the last 30 years who’s had to endure this at school knows what an absolute joke it is): we need a renewal and an enthusiasm for the estate of marriage.
But it’s easy for us to groan and carry on about what is bad. Jesus himself turns up to this wedding at Cana and he blesses it. He blesses every wedding, church weddings and civil weddings. And good marriages bring light and blessing to everyone around them.
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But right at the heart of this reading there is a simple prayer and simple reality. Mary, the mother of Jesus, comes to him and she says: “They have no wine.”
Notice that Mary doesn’t tell Jesus how he should fix this problem, or even that he should fix his problem. She just tells him what the need is: “They have no wine.”
Jesus even gives her the cold shoulder a bit and says: “Woman, what does this have to do with me? My hour has not yet come.”
But Mary won’t take no for an answer, she won’t let Jesus go until he blesses her. And so she says to the servants: “Do whatever he tells you.”
Now, this is one of the most foundational prayers of the Christian life: “They have no wine.”
When Jesus begins his sermon on the mount he says: “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”
He says: “Blessed are those who have nothing, who are empty handed, and need to ask for everything.” Those people are blessed who know what they don’t have and they know that they need everything from God.
And so Mary says: “They have no wine.”
And we have nothing. St John says: You say, I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing, not realising that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind and naked.
We have nothing. Jesus gives us everything.
And so, in prayer, we simply put before him what we need.
Everyone who is born into this world has no faith, no respect and no fear of God, no love for God, nothing good in their flesh. If you don’t believe me, read the book of Romans, chapter 3 and chapter 7: St Paul says:
None is righteous, no, not one, no one understands, no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one. I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh.
When we know these things, the only prayer we can make is: “I have no wine.”
And then we know the promises of God: “Nothing is impossible with God.”
We know what the master of the wedding feast says: “Everyone serves the good wine first, and when the people have drunk freely, then the poor wine. But you have saved the good wine until now.”
Ask and you will receive. Seek and you will find. Knock and the door will be opened to you.
Don’t we see that we would have no faith at all, not a drop of it, if you hadn’t heard God’s own words and if you hadn’t received all the gifts of God in holy baptism?
And as you come to the Lord’s Supper, come as one who has nothing: “I have no wine”. Let Jesus give you his wine, his bread – in fact not just that, but his true body given for you and his true blood shed for you for the forgiveness of sins. Taste and see that the Lord is good!
We know that he can turn water into wine: we know that on the last day he will change our mortal bodies to be like his, and we will be transfigured like him. And why do you think he does all this?
He wants to make the people happy, and Jesus is the source of happiness. Amen.
Lord Jesus Christ, we come to you as beggars, with empty hands, we ask that you would fill them. We have no wine. Give us everything we need for our bodies and souls. Send us the gift of the Holy Spirit, and give us the happiness, the gladness, the joy that comes from him. Amen.
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