Epiphany 2 [John 2:1-11] (19-Jan-2014)

This sermon was preached at St Paul's Lutheran Church, Darnum (9am), Good Shepherd Lutheran Church, Traralgon (11am) and Holy Trinity Lutheran Church, Bairnsdale (3pm).

Grace, mercy and peace be to you from God our Father, and from our Lord Jesus Christ.

Text: (John 2:1-11)

This, the first of his signs, Jesus did at Cana in Galilee, and manifested his glory. And his disciples believed in him.

Prayer: May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to you, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.

Our Gospel reading today is a wonderful passage about a wonderful, happy miracle, where Jesus turns water into wine at a wedding. At the end of the reading it says: This, the first of his signs, Jesus did at Cana in Galilee, and manifested his glory. And his disciples believed in him.

This is first of Jesus’ miracles. It is not the first miraculous thing that happened to Jesus, and it is not the first miraculous thing that he did—already Jesus’ birth was miraculous, his childhood where he went to the temple as a young boy was miraculous, and also his baptism was a miracle. But now that Jesus has been baptised, his ministry has begun, and people have recognised him as the Messiah, and have begun to follow him. And since this has all happened, this is his first public miracle.

And we read: He manifested his glory. In John’s Gospel, in chapter 1, it says: The Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory. If the disciples are going to see Jesus’ glory, then Jesus also has to show it to them, he has to manifest it to them. So it says in our reading today: He manifested his glory.

So how does Jesus manifest his glory? How does he allow the disciples to see his glory?

We read: On the third day there was a wedding at Cana in Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there. Jesus also was invited to the wedding with his disciples.

It is a wonderful thing that Jesus was invited to a wedding, and it is a very significant thing. Today is a kind of time where pastors really need to take up just about any opportunity they can to talk about marriage—it’s a very big issue. Marriage is a wonderful thing, and it is a wonderful gift of God. And if there is one special thing that the church can really do to help people, it is to encourage people in this area. As you all know, marriage is not in a good state at the moment. Many people–both young and old—(tragically) are not getting married, but are choosing to live together outside of marriage. Some marriages have broken up. Many people are scared to enter into marriage, or avoid it at all possible costs. And also, we know that there is pressure all throughout the world at the moment, including in our own country, for governments to change the definition of marriage to include same-sex relationships, and in some countries—alas!—this has already happened. All these things are bad—they are bad for our society, our country, our world, and also for the church. Sexual sin is a serious sin, and it’s unique because, as St Paul says: Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body. Sexual sin is serious—and it’s certainly not a human right—but it’s not an unforgiveable sin. Let’s remember that. Jesus died for all sin.

There are many things that we can say about marriage. But this is not the focus of our Gospel reading today specifically. It’s easy to curse the darkness, but it’s another thing to light a candle. It’s a really wonderful message to speak the words from our gospel reading today: Jesus also was invited to the wedding. Jesus loves weddings, because he created marriage at the beginning of the world. It is a beautiful thing. And it is a great joy to be able to encourage married couples in married life together, to encourage young people to enter into engagement and prepare to get married, to encourage people in sexual purity, to pray for marriages, and so on. Jesus blesses marriage, because he is the one who created love, and in fact, he is the one, together with the Father, who knows what perfect love is, and shows it to us, even when we don’t show it to each other. He also blesses homes, just as he prepares us a room in his Father’s house. He also blesses families, because he loves children, and wants the little children to come to him, because the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these. In fact, we, the church, are Christ’s bride. Sometimes nuns have been called “brides of Christ”—this is not biblical. The whole Christian church is Christ’s bride, and Jesus is our loving husband, who gave up his life for the church as a loving husband.

Now at this wedding we read particularly that the mother of Jesus was there. She had particularly been invited to the wedding. We get the impression that Jesus and his disciples were invited because they were connected to Mary. And also, we might also assume that Mary also was there as a member of the extended family to help with the food. In the “old days” in Australian country towns, often the local Country Women’s Association would cater for a wedding. This is probably also the kind of thing Mary was doing.

We read: When the wine ran out, the mother of Jesus said to him, “They have no wine.”

Where it says: the wine ran out, it is probably more accurate to translate “the wine was lacking” or “the wine was running short”. Mary had become aware of this fact, and wanted to tell Jesus about it, before it became a major embarrassment to the couple.

And Mary knows that Jesus had been recognised by people as the Messiah, and that he was calling together disciples and had begun his ministry. She knew about all the wonderful miracles that surrounded his birth, and had treasured up all these things, pondering them in her heart. And so, when this problem presents itself, she goes to her son, Jesus, and she puts the problem to him: They have no wine.

Now, this is a wonderful example of prayer. Mary doesn’t try to solve the problem, but she knows who can solve the problem. She doesn’t know how he would solve the problem, but she simply tells him about it. And this is the sort of thing that Jesus is longing to hear from us all the time. He says: Come and tell me not how good you are, how successful, how pious, how holy you are—I know all that. Come and tell me what you need, what you lack, what you desire. Come and give me access to your heart and your needs.

So often we think that we have to kind of twist Jesus’ arm and manipulate him in prayer. We think that we are the ones who have to change Jesus’ mind by constant prayer, prayer in a certain way, with certain words, with a certain amount of effort. We treat Jesus as a government department when everything else doesn’t work—and if he doesn’t work the way we want him to work, we blame him.

But this is not the way prayer works. Jesus is already standing there, willing and ready to give us his gifts—and even a particular gift—and he then comes and knocks on the door of our hearts. As it says in Revelation: Behold, I stand at the door and knock. And if anyone opens the door, I will come into him and eat with him, and he with me.

Jesus knows full well what’s going on this wedding, and what the problem is. We all know that all marriages come with a cross that Jesus places on couples within their marriages, just like this couple at their wedding. But Mary simply opens the door for Jesus, and gives him access to the problem. Jesus doesn’t need Mary to give him access, but he wants to give Mary the impression that this was her idea. He wants to perform this miracle as an answer to her prayer, and to increase her joy when he does answer it. So prayer is the way in which we receive the gifts of Jesus that he already wants to give us. And so Mary says: They have no wine.

However, Jesus gives Mary a rather stern answer: Woman, what does this have to do with me? My hour has not yet come.

Jesus speaks to Mary (his own mother!) in a kind of stern, dismissive way. He rebukes her for her prayer, even though the prayer was good. There’s nothing wrong with the words of the prayer. But Jesus wants to test and shape her heart.

It’s not Mary’s business, as his mother, to tell him when and where and how he should perform a miracle. And Mary has to learn this fact. Sure, as a mother, she has every right to tell her son when and where and how he should do something that is fitting for him to do as her son. So for example, the Virgin Mary had every right to tell Jesus to clean his bedroom like a good son, to dry the dishes, take out the bins, and all those kinds of things that parents ask their children to do. But when it comes to Jesus’ ministry—his work as the Son of God, the Messiah, the Saviour of the world, the mediator between God and mankind—Mary has no special privileges.  She is simply, as Jesus calls her, a woman, like any other woman of prayer. Jesus says: Woman, what does this have to do with me? My hour has not yet come.

Many, many Christians throughout the world—Christians in the two largest churches in the world, the Roman Catholic Church and eastern Orthodox Churches—pray to Mary. And it is common for these people to say, “Jesus is a busy man,” or “I’m not holy enough to pray directly to Jesus. I’ll talk to his mother to put in a good word for me.” Mary is certainly blessed among women because she bore the Son of God in her womb. But she has no special privileges in twisting Jesus’ arm on our behalf.

Jesus says: My hour has not yet come. Mary’s timing to fix the problem is not Jesus’ timing. Mary perhaps wants the couple not to know about this problem, so that they would not be embarrassed. But Jesus wants to manifest his glory. If Jesus is going to manifest his glory, he has to do it in his own time. We know that later many, many people heard about this wonderful miracle—this wouldn’t have happened if it had been done in such a way that nobody knew about it. Mary doesn’t want these people to have the reputation of being the ones who ran out of wine at their wedding. But Jesus actually does want them to have the reputation of running out of wine, but also of being particularly blessed by him in such a glorious way at their wedding that this blessing outshines all the embarrassment.

So Mary then does the right thing. She says to the servants: Do whatever he tells you. Mary doesn’t point to herself, but she points to her son. When the angel told her that she would conceive a son, she said: I am the servant of the Lord. Let it be to me according to your word. Here on this occasion, she says: I am the servant of the Lord. (Jesus is not my servant.) Let it be to me (and to all of us) according to your word. Let it be not according to my word, but to his word.

So we read about the miracle: There were six stone water jars there for the Jewish rites of purification, each holding twenty or thirty gallons. Jesus said to the servants, “Fill the jars with water”. And they filled them up to the brim. And he said to them, “Now draw some out and take it to the master of feast.” So they took it. 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 them, “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.”

What a wonderful miracle this is! The amazing thing about this passage is that Jesus provides them with so much wine, that they have so much more than they would ever need!

Now—these verses are interesting, because there are some Christians—and sometimes for good reasons, in parts of the world where there is a lot of drunkenness—who forbid the drinking of alcohol. There’s nothing wrong with being a tee-totaller, if you want. But there are a lot of Christians who say that drinking alcoholic drinks and wine is inherently sinful, and even go so far as to change the Lord’s Supper to fit this opinion so that they use unfermented grape juice as a substitute for wine. This is completely wrong, and is an example of Christians elevating their own opinions above the example and the words of Jesus himself.

On the other hand, there are a number of passages in the New Testament which prohibit drunkenness, and drunkenness is a sin. There is no way that Jesus in this passage is promoting the people attending the wedding to limp and flop home down the street, completely sozzled and legless! We have a lot of problems in our country surrounding drunkenness—a young man has been buried in Australia this week who was a victim from alcohol-related violence—and the Lutheran Church should never have the reputation for being “the drunk church”.

But at the same time, Jesus doesn’t forbid the drinking of alcohol, but here creates wine for the people’s enjoyment! The passage about drinking the good wine first, and so on, makes no sense unless the grape juice is fermented into wine. Jesus always turns grape juice into fine wines, all throughout the world, all year round! Here, he does it in a few seconds, and creates the finest wine, the best wine, the most superb vintage—and he makes so much of it, so that people can come from all throughout the town and the surrounding area and taste it for themselves.

So what a wonderful passage this reading is! There are so many things to glean from this reading, so many left over grapes to go and pick up from God’s wonderful vineyard! And what a wonderful and happy and occasion and celebration it is when Jesus manifests his glory! Jesus turns the water into wine, because he wants to make people happy, and show that he is the source of happiness! Jesus is the one who really wants to make us happy, not in a fleshly way where the happiness runs out and eventually turns into even more sadness and despair, but in a truly heavenly way, where the happiness, the wine, never runs out.

Amen.

Lord Jesus Christ, we thank you for your great gift to this couple at their wedding at Cana. Teach us to pray through the leading and guidance of your Holy Spirit, so that we may also receive the wonderful gifts that you are so eager to pour out on us and shower over us. Amen.