Sermon
for Epiphany 2, January 19, 2020
Grace, mercy, and peace from God our Father and Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen.
John 2:1-11 Three days later, there was a wedding in
Cana of Galilee. Jesus’ mother was
there. 2 Jesus
and his disciples were also invited to the wedding. 3 When the wine was
gone, Jesus’ mother said to him, “They have no wine.” 4 Jesus said to her, “Woman, what does that have to do with you and me? My time has not come yet.” 5 His mother said
to the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.” 6 Six stone water
jars, which the Jews used for ceremonial cleansing, were standing there, each
holding twenty or thirty gallons. 7 Jesus
told them, “Fill the jars with water.”
So they filled them to the brim. 8 Then
he said to them, “Now draw some out and take it to the master of the
banquet.” And they did. 9 When the master of
the banquet tasted the water that had now become wine, he did not know where it
came from (though the servants who had drawn the water knew). The master of the banquet called the
bridegroom 10 and said to him, “Everyone serves the good
wine first, and when the guests have had plenty to drink, then the cheaper
wine. You saved the good wine until
now!” 11 This, the beginning of his miraculous signs, Jesus
performed in Cana of Galilee. He
revealed his glory, and his disciples believed in him. (EHV)
Jesus provides the very best.
Dear beloved wedding guests,
Years ago,
there was a commercial jingle that went, “N E S T L E S, Nestlé’s makes the
very best—chocolate.” Those of you who
know me, and my love for chocolate, are probably not surprised that I remember
that little ditty. Now, I don’t know that
I would be willing to say which brand of chocolate is truly the best, and most
certainly, Jesus is not in the business of producing fine wine, but what you
should know is that, in everything you truly need, Jesus provides the very best.
Because of
the appointed Gospel reading about Jesus attending the wedding feast in Cana, the
second Sunday in Epiphany is often used by the church to celebrate marriage and
the family. By blessing that wedding
celebration with the manifestation of His glory, Jesus put His stamp of
approval on marriage. Thus, we say that
along with everything else, Jesus provides the best in marriage.
Now, some people may question that
statement. Experience tells us that not
every marriage turns out as we would hope, that most marriages are full of
problems, and sometimes those problems start even before the marriage is
solemnized. However, we dare not blame
God when our marriages are unhappy, for God definitely intends every marriage
to be a blessing for all involved. The
problems come when one, or both people, fall short of fulfilling their end of a
good marriage.
The new couple in our sermon text
also fell short. The groom had planned
this grand celebration for the start of their new life together, but somehow,
someone had miscalculated the supply of wine.
Wine was the staple drink for such a gathering. To run short would be very embarrassing,
especially for the groom. It was such an
awkward situation that after the new wine was brought forth, the master of the
banquet almost seems to hint an accusation that the bridegroom had been holding
back the fine wine in reserve for himself, though that was not the case.
Note also that Jesus’ mother seems
to have had a role in serving the wedding party. Thus, when the awkward situation occurred, she
came to Jesus quietly seeking His help. I
can’t say whether Mary was asking Jesus to perform a miracle, but Jesus does seem
to rebuke her just a bit as He said, "Woman, what does that
have to do with you and me? My time has
not come yet.”
Please don’t misunderstand; Jesus
certainly wasn’t dishonoring His mother nor refusing her request. Rather, Jesus wanted Mary, and all of us, to
understand that the everyday food and drink concerns of this world were not His
main mission. Jesus was on a mission to
supply something far more important than the wine for a wedding
celebration. Later, He had to withdraw
from those who wanted to make Him their bread King who could provide for all
their earthly desires. Still, Jesus
provided an extraordinary gift to that newly married couple. The six large jars of the finest wine were
almost assuredly far more than needed for just that party.
I already mentioned that the young
couple fell short in their planning as evidenced when their supply of wine ran
low. Likewise, all of us fall short,
especially, in our holiness before God.
When we look at our marriages, we can see how often we fail to live and
love as God intends. We fall short in
loving and honoring as we should, the spouses with whom God has blessed
us. That can be seen in the high rate of
divorce in our country, in the many couples living together outside of
marriage, in the prevalence of spousal abuse in our world, but most often
simply in the unhappiness so often experienced in the marriage God intends as a
blessing for each couple. All because
each one of us falls short of God’s holiness in every area of our lives, and
our marriages are part of that.
Now, Mary gave us the right instruction,
one we all should heed. She said, "Do
whatever he tells you." Ah
yes, we should, but how well do we? Even
though so much of the Old Testament law has been lifted from our backs, we
still find ourselves failing to obey God’s commands. Not one of us measures up when Jesus says, "So then, be perfect, as your heavenly
Father is perfect.” (Matthew 5:48) Thank the Lord, we have the comfort of the
Gospel. One of our forefathers wrote:
The water in the vessels of purification, prescribed by the Law of Moses,
Jesus changes into wine which strengthens and delights. The sinister and oppressive sternness of
legalism must give way to the joy of the Gospel; the Old Covenant gives place
to the New. Moses turns water into
blood, Jesus into wine. Moses wounds,
Jesus heals.[1]
Jesus made
it His mission to provide the perfection we need. St. John
reports, “This, the beginning of his miraculous signs, Jesus performed
in Cana of Galilee. He revealed his
glory, and his disciples believed in him.” The miracle at the wedding in Cana provided proof
for Jesus’ newly-called disciples, and for all of us, that He is the
long-promised Savior of the world. Jesus
turned that ordinary water into the best of wine so that no one should doubt
His identity. If you remember the
Genesis account of how God created the earth and everything in it, recall the
simple statement that summarizes God’s entire work, “God saw everything that He had made, and indeed it was very good.” (Genesis 1:31)
On the day
of that wedding feast in Cana, no one would have guessed that the servants who
bore that cup of water-made-into-wine to the master of the feast were carrying
the very best wine available. Yet,
that’s exactly what that man declared Jesus had provided. “The master of the
banquet called the bridegroom and said to him, ‘Everyone serves the good wine
first, and when the guests have had plenty to drink, then the cheaper
wine. You saved the good wine until now!’” Ordinarily,
the first glass of wine shared at a celebration, even today, is the very best
that will be served, and the servers move to the lesser quality beverages as
the party goes on. But here, near the
end of the celebration, Jesus provides
the very best.
We should never let go of that point;
Jesus provides the very best. For every failure in our lives, Jesus
provides His perfect holiness to cover us.
For every sin we commit, Jesus is the cure. For every time we fall short, Jesus provides
His life, His body, His blood, His righteousness. For all the sinners of the world, including
you and me, Jesus gave Himself as the final sacrifice, “The Lamb of God, who
takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29) And, Christ’s holiness is credited to each of
us, because “God made him, who did not know sin, to become sin for us, so
that we might become the righteousness of God in him.” (2 Corinthians 5:21)
Jesus had the servants fill the
water pots full to overflowing. St. John
tells us that this was somewhere between one hundred twenty and one hundred
eighty gallons of wine, likely far more than was necessary to conclude the
party, even if all the people of Cana were attending. That, too, should be a sign for us. Just as the wine Jesus made from plain water
was far more than needed to finish the celebration of that wedding, so His
righteousness is sufficient for the whole world. Jesus’ holiness isn’t going to run out. God declared, “'It is too small a thing that You should be My Servant to raise up the
tribes of Jacob, and to restore the preserved ones of Israel; I will also give
You as a light to the Gentiles, that You should be My salvation to the ends of
the earth.'" (Isaiah 49:6)
There is no substitute for what
Jesus gives. We cannot substitute works,
either ours or anyone else’s. There is
no other cure for our failings. Only Jesus provides the very best. Jesus is the only solution for our falling
short of God’s holiness.
My friends, Jesus took simple water
and made it wine. Today, He takes simple
water in Baptism and makes each believer holy in God’s sight, washing away all
our sins. He takes simple bread and wine
and feeds us with His true body and blood as evidence that He has paid the full
price for all our failures. He thereby
strengthens us to live according to His will.
On the cross, Jesus carried all the
sins of the world, yours and mine included, while offering to our Father in
heaven His own life of complete obedience and perfect holiness as the final
sacrifice for the sins of the world. For
Jesus’ sake, you and I were declared holy in God’s sight. Nothing more is needed for you to enjoy the
best thing you could ever want or need, your home in heaven, wherein by Jesus’
holiness, “You shall be perfect, just as
your Father in heaven is perfect.” (Matthew 5:48) Today, there is nothing more needed for us to
be saved than to follow the examples of Jesus’ disciples and believe in Him,
for Jesus provides the very best. Amen.
The peace of God, which passes all
understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus unto life
everlasting. Amen.
[1] Joh.
Ylvisaker, The Gospels: A Synoptic Presentation of the Text in Matthew,
Mark, Luke, and John (Minneapolis: Augsburg Publishing House, 1932), 137.
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