John 2:1-11; Romans
12:6-16; Exodus 33:12-23
In the Name of the Father and of the
+ Son and of the Holy Spirit.
And so we are in the midst of the season
of Epiphany. Each Sunday’s lessons were selected over a millennium ago by the
gathering of the faithful, the Church, because they manifest whom Jesus is and
what He has come to do. Therefore, when we consider these Scriptures, we must
consider not only how they would have been heard and understood at the time of
their telling, but also what meaning was intended from their placement within
the Gospel narrative and the Church’s historic lectionary. Thus, the Wedding at
Cana tells us, not merely the story of a particular wedding, although it
certainly does that, but we must consider also the Evangelist’s placement of
this particular story within the Gospel he authored. Indeed, this story appears
only in John’s Gospel, and it is followed immediately by Jesus’ cleansing of
the temple, which the other Gospels place within the account of Jesus’ passion.
What are we to make of John’s inclusion of this wedding, seemingly ignored by
the Synoptics? What are we to make of John’s unusual connection of this
narrative with the cleansing of the temple? These are but two questions to be
considered on this Second Sunday after the Epiphany of our Lord, that Jesus may
be made manifest before us as God’s Son and our salvation in human flesh.
Understood as God instituted it, there
is something about marriage that is connected with death – the death of the
self. For, in marriage, the husband dies to himself and pledges his life to his
wife; likewise, the wife dies to herself and pledges her life to her husband.
In this selfless and self-sacrificial way, the two become one flesh. They are
no longer two, but they are one flesh, even one creature, united by God, which
man must not separate. St. John records Jesus’ first miracle having taken place
at a wedding and, to be sure, passion imagery abounds: The crisis occurred “on
the third day” of a wedding feast. Jesus said that His “hour had not yet come.”
In the casting out of the money-changers from the temple, which follows
immediately upon the wedding narrative, Jesus makes an explicit reference to
His death and resurrection saying “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will
raise it up.” The temple He was referring to was His body. For, it was through
His suffering, death, and resurrection that Jesus perfectly loved His Bride,
the Church, giving His life for Her. He loved Her more than He loved Himself.
He laid down His life for Her in selfless, sacrificial love that She might
live. This is the connection that John, and the Holy Spirit who inspired him to
write, mean for you to make.
Therefore, the crisis was not merely
that a wedding banquet had run out of wine, though that would surely have been
a social blunder and a great embarrassment for the family, but rather the
crisis was that man’s life, joy, and hope for the future had run out because of
his sin – the joylessness and hopelessness of death had become his fate. This was
the crisis that His faithful mother, who believed in Him, asked Him to resolve.
This was the crisis that He did resolve by fulfilling God’s Law for us and by
dying in our place, that we might have life and joy and hope once again. Those
six stone jars held water used to purify men for participation in the feast.
Jesus had those jars filled to the brim so that they were full and complete,
and then He did something more: He changed the water into wine, the finest wine
imaginable. Where the water only purified for a time, His blood that He shed
upon the cross for us purifies forever. Indeed, He gives us His cleansing blood
now in the fruit of the vine which we drink in Holy Communion for the
forgiveness of our sins, the strengthening of our faith, and eternal life
through faith in Him.
John’s Gospel is thought to be
constructed around seven signs performed by Jesus, of which the changing of
water into wine is the first. Thus, John’s Gospel is more a catechism intended
to teach the faithful revealed truths about Jesus than it is a narrative telling
the story of His life and works. Each and every account recorded by John was
selected and recorded for a specific purpose. Ultimately, that purpose was to
demonstrate that, in Jesus, God’s Messianic reign had begun through which Jesus
would restore His Father’s kingdom and make all things new. This is precisely
how we must understand today’s Gospel: Jesus is revealed as God’s Messiah come
to restore His fallen creation by means of His selfless and sacrificial death
on the cross. Where man’s sin had introduced suffering and death into the
world, robbing us of peace and joy and hope, Jesus came, not merely to reverse
the curse, but to fulfill perfectly and completely all that we failed to do and
then, even more, to recreate, restore, and renew His Father’s kingdom.
Jesus is the perfect and sinless
Bridegroom who selflessly laid down His life in death to redeem His Bride,
God’s children, the Church from Her sin and death. His life was Her life. She
had forfeited Her own life, not for Her Husband, but to Satan. While God was
faithful and selfless, His people played the adulterer, the fornicator, the
idolater, and the unfaithful Bride. Because of this, man’s wedding feast had
run out of wine, and there was no human way of getting more, of restoring man’s
peace, hope, and joy. Mary, the mother of our Lord, has long been a symbol of
the entire Church. In this narrative, it is Mary who appeals to Jesus in faith
saying, “Do something!” Mary believed that Jesus was able to do something and
that He would. His odd sounding protest is actually quite revealing, “My hour
has not yet come.” Jesus’ “hour” is the time of His passion, His suffering and
death upon the cross. Jesus answered His mother saying, “The time for me to lay
down my life in selfless sacrifice and death for the Church has not yet come.
Nevertheless, I will give this foretaste and foreshadowing of who I am and what
I will do now. I will change the water of purification into the wine of joy as
a sign that my dear Bride may trust in me and believe that I will purify Her
and restore to her hope for eternal life and joy when I shed my blood for Her
upon the cross.”
When the master of the feast tasted the
water that had been made to be the finest of wines, he exclaimed, “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.” Indeed, this is how it is
with men, but not with God. Whatever you have received from God that you count
as good, now, is but a foretaste of the goodness He has laid up for you. This
is as true for you today as it was for Adam in the beginning, for Abraham,
Isaac, Jacob, and Moses, for David, for the guests at the wedding in Cana, and
for the saints at rest with Jesus now. We are all, still, waiting in hopeful
and joyful expectation for the feast to come, the Great Marriage Feast of the
Lamb in His Kingdom that has no end! Yes! That is how the Revelation describes
heaven, as a wedding feast where the Bridegroom is Jesus and where you, His
Church, are the Bride! It is pictured as Eden, the Garden of Paradise, on
steroids – so much greater still than that which we commonly consider
perfection and paradise!
This kingdom is yours even now, though you
do not see it or experience in its fullness and glory. However, you do see it
and experience it through God’s Word and His Blessed Sacraments, particularly
and especially in the Supper of the Lamb who has died and is alive again. Here
at this banquet table we receive our sustenance and life, our hope and faith is
strengthened and renewed, and we are kept and preserved in eternal life through
Holy Communion with our living Lord and Husband. Yet, as good and comforting
and revitalizing as it is, it is but the dimmest foretaste of that Great Feast to
come! It is like manna during out wilderness pilgrimage. It is like the
overflowing cup as we walk though the valley of the shadow of death. But, it is
enough, it is more than enough for now, for through it, in communion with
Christ, we do not walk alone, but He is with us, just as He promised, unto the
end of the age.
In
the + Name of Jesus. Amen.
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