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Grace, mercy, and peace be to you from God our Father, and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, the text for this morning comes from the Gospel reading. You may be seated. I am sure you cannot tell me how many times you have heard this parable, or this first miracle, I should say. Forgive me. It’s only recorded in the Gospel of John. This miracle of water into wine, this seemingly frivolous miracle. For there was no one who was lame that could walk afterwards when this miracle was done. There was no one who was blind who now can see once this miracle was completed. And there was no one who was deaf who now hears once the water had been changed into wine. So it seems so frivolous. And yet at the very end, John makes it clear to us he manifested his glory in this miracle.
Now, water to wine is definitely revealing that God is there in Jesus Christ. For no human being can do water into wine. But is there something much more available to us to hang our salvation on in that miracle? And there is a great deal. John, above all the other gospels, is the only one that records this miracle. And water is the center key, changing into wine. In John’s gospel, there are other miracles that only John writes about in his gospel that have something to do with water. This happens in the second chapter. In the third chapter, along comes Nicodemus to Jesus, and Jesus tells him, you must be born again by water and the Spirit.
A little later on, in the fourth chapter, Jesus meets with a woman of Samaria outside the city at a well and tells her, I have water for you that you may drink and never thirst. Long later, in the ninth chapter, the man who was born blind, and the disciples are arguing with themselves, whose sin that this man was born blind, this man is told by Jesus to go to the pool of Siloam and wash and be cleansed and see. Water involved. In the 13th chapter, only recorded in John, does Jesus wash the disciples’ feet before or during the supper, the Passover meal. Water again. And finally, after the spear is removed from Jesus’ side, John records, and only John, that from the side of Jesus did flow blood and water.
This miracle is the picture of Christ’s sacrificial death and resurrection for us. Because again, in the Gospel of John, does Jesus say about the death on the cross event, Father, glorify thy name. And he talks about this being the glory. So if this water to wine is supposed to manifest his glory, and later in the Gospel of John, he talks about that manifesting his glory, there is that connection. Oh, but there’s much more. There is much more in beauty in God’s word.
This event is an epiphany that the only way to know Jesus as God in the flesh is to know him through the cross of Jesus Christ, his sacrificial death and resurrection. Not to know him only in the miracles, but to know him in the cross. Not to know him only in what he did among the people, but to know the ultimate act of his completion of his life among us. The text begins with a phrase that should send off lights in your mind: “On the third day.” Not mentioned again until his resurrection. Interesting that John would make this a point. Because he’s trying to make us look at this and see this differently. It’s just a frivolous miracle of water to wine, but rather a revelation that Jesus is the God who came to die for us and rise again.
Of all the events that Jesus could have done his first miracle, of all the events that he could have done it, he chooses to do it at what kind of an event but a wedding because the only reason he came into this world is to be married to you, to become one flesh with you. To join himself to you, to buy you from the bondage of sin, death, and the devil. So the very one who comes to a marriage to change water into wine is the very one who comes to bleed for you, water and blood from his side, to make you his child.
It is very obvious that by Jesus doing this at a wedding of all places, Jesus is highly affirming marriage to be what God has always created it to be: a union between one man and one woman. He honors marriage by coming to this marriage, not like how this modern world wishes to define the concept of marriage.
Secondly, that raises a bigger question or a bigger statement. He wants to remind you as his bridegroom, there is no other man for you. There is no other savior for you. There is no other groom for you but me. I’m the only one. You cannot create the groom of your own understanding or own desire. I am the one created for you by my loving father. And you have been created for me. Just like in marriage, what God has joined together, let not man separate.
Now in an earthly marriage, man gives his bride a gold ring, some with large diamonds, some with small diamonds, some with no diamonds, but a ring is a symbol that you are mine now, possessed by me. Your bridegroom does not buy you with a mere gold ring, but with his blood does he buy you. He has joined himself to you in the womb of his mother, the virgin, where God and man became one. But he has betrothed himself to you and joined himself to you personally in your baptism, where you are buried with him, as we said, in his death and in his resurrection.
Now here’s something else that’s interesting about this text. In the Gospel of John as a whole, there’s only two places where Mary is mentioned by name. That’s it. Two. This instance, at the first miracle in Cana in Galilee, and the only other instance where Mary is mentioned by name in the Gospel of John is when she stands at the foot of the cross, and as Jesus is dying, Jesus says to her, Woman, just like he calls her here, behold your son, behold your mother. And gives Mary to the responsibility of whom? John, who wrote this gospel. Very interesting indeed.
But it’s more interesting what Mary says. At the cross, she says nothing. For there is nothing that she can add or give, other than receive what God has given to her in trusting her into the hands of John. But it’s here in this text, in the first miracle, that she speaks. And she probably does not know the depth or the breadth or the width of what she is saying, but God’s word surely reveals it to us.
They’ve run out of wine. What a great symbol. They’ve run out of wine. That there is no more that they can do. They have done all that they can do and they’re out of wine. Just like you and me, we’re always found lacking. She cries out, we have no more wine. Jesus rightly says, woman, what does that have to do with me? My time has not yet come. The time of which he speaks is this: though she does not realize it at the time, but that’s the time—the time of which he speaks, which is his time. Where the Father’s name is glorified in the death. Where the bride has been joined to the bridegroom in the death and resurrection of him.
But she does answer in faith. She knows not what he’s going to do. She says, do whatever he tells you to do to the servants. Now the servants are like children, like you and I should be. The servants do not question but do exactly what he says to do. They don’t understand. It does not dawn on them. So they take action: 6 jars that hold between 20 to 30 gallons each. And why did Jesus tell them to fill those jars above all jars? What were those jars used for? They were used for purification of the Jews, meaning they would wash themselves to fulfill religious laws and not God’s law.
God, through Jesus Christ, who is God in the flesh, is showing them that what you think purifies yourself does not purify yourself. I purify you. And I will show you that it’s me by having them fill it with water, which is what you would always do. And now I’m going to completely eliminate their use as a purification bath because you can no longer use that as purification because it’s no longer water, is it? It’s now wine. Wine. And Jesus’ wine purifies.
Just like the gospel writer John, in his epistle, says, The blood of Jesus purifies us from all sins. Again, the servants willingly, obediently, unquestioningly do it. And isn’t it interesting that they’re the ones who know where the wine got changed from water into wine? But the master of the feast is unsure. Hmm. And notice what kind of wine this was. This was not just any wine. This was the best of wine. The finest of wine. Jesus speaks and it is done.
Wine is always used in the scriptures as God’s blessing, God’s blessedness. Yes. The great text is from the 25th chapter of the prophet Isaiah, who says, On the mountain of the Lord we shall eat the finest of wine, and eat the finest of meats, and the best of wines, it says. And in fact, every time the concept of wine is used, there’s always this connotation of abundance, blessing, and fruitfulness. But there also is something that’s said whenever the lack of wine is seen.
For the lack of wine always connotes God’s judgment, God’s lack of blessing, God’s withholding. You and I have a romantic view of marriage, and that’s okay. We’re human beings who see things differently with emotion. There is always this concept that white is to be used for a woman who is a virgin on her day of wedding. Even if her physiological aspect is virgin, her heart and mind are not virginal.
Even though the man may stand up in a white tux or as the bridegroom in a marriage, and even if he may physiologically be a virgin, he is not a virgin in his mind and in his heart. He’s already transgressed God’s law as the bride has. And yet we want, because that’s how we are as romantic people, that bride to be the most beautiful bride in the world as she comes down the aisle. Is that what God…
A Lutheran Christian sermon. Clothe you with his righteousness of white and cleanliness. Not just the physical part of you, but your mind and your heart. This miracle of water to wine is really God revealing himself to you in that death and resurrection, where he takes what you and I think and changes it into the best of wine. He changes what you and I think cleanses to that which truly cleanses—the blood and water which flow from his side.
Oh, we’re such good caregivers, aren’t we? Responsible people, making sure we take care of all the things that we need to take care of. And our water still is water. And we lack wine, God’s blessing. And we lack his robes of righteousness. He’s not attracted to you because you and I think of ourselves in a certain manner. He’s attracted to you because he is love incarnate. He is grace in the flesh.
He is mercy before us. And he feeds us himself and clothes us with himself and wraps his arms around our ugliness and our deformity and our mire and says, you are my beloved. You are my beloved. Remember the words that were spoken to you at your wedding day? Husbands, love your wives as Christ loved the church. Amen.
And gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle, or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish. And so you are. Believe in the name of Jesus. Amen.
The peace of God which passes all understanding. Keep your hearts and minds on Christ Jesus to life everlasting. Amen.
