John 2:1-11

✠ In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit ✠

We don’t usually picture Jesus at a party, do we.  But that is exactly where we find our Lord today, taking part in a celebration, a wedding feast in Cana of Galilee.  It is likely that either the bride or the groom was a relative of His mother and therefore also of Jesus Himself.  I am sure that in this gathering of family and friends Jesus didn’t sit stoically on the sidelines but joined in the conversation and the merriment of such a joyous event as a marriage.  While Jesus is without sin, He remains fully human as well as fully divine.  He takes part in the common aspects of human life to sanctify them and us.  He shows here that He fully approves of marriage and blesses it.  For He Himself created and instituted marriage in the beginning.

Marriage is not honored nearly as highly as it ought to be.  More and more people see it not as a good and necessary and foundational thing–a God-given estate–but as an optional legal formality and perhaps even a trap and a prison.  Most people think it’s perfectly normal and fine for unmarried people to have sexual relations and to live together apart from marriage.  But when people join themselves together sexually without God first giving them to each other, they are rejecting Him and degrading His gift of marriage.  And too often even within marriage, husbands and wives don’t love and respect each other the way they should.  But Jesus shows us the proper attitude that we should have.  Here at Cana He gives His stamp of approval to marriage by gracing it with His presence.  Whether we’re married or single, we also should honor marital life highly, both by how we talk about it and by how we conduct ourselves in the body.

Now at this particular wedding feast, a problem arose.  They ran out of wine.  Sure, there are worse things that could happen, but still this was a significant problem, something akin to having the caterers or the DJ call you up at the last minute and say they’re not going to show up.  It’s a social embarrassment.  When our Lord’s mother becomes aware of the host’s problem, she tells Jesus, “They have no wine.”  That statement is really a request, isn’t it.  She’s not just giving Jesus information; she’s asking him to intervene and help.

In doing this Mary is an excellent picture of how the church should pray to Christ in faith.  For she lays the needs of her host before Jesus boldly and with confidence that He can and will help.  In the same way we also should pray to Christ firmly trusting in Him and believing that He will hear us and respond.  And Mary persists in this faith even when Jesus appears to brush her off.  Though He answers her a bit roughly, she simply turns and tells the servants, “Whatever He says to you, do it.”  It doesn’t matter to her exactly what His words will be, for she knows and trusts that whatever He says will be good.  So also should we trust and be confident, even in those rough times, that the Lord’s answer to our petitions will be for our good.

When Jesus answered His mother, He said, “Woman, what does your concern have to do with Me?  My hour has not yet come.”  That’s a little bit of a strange reply, isn’t it?  What does that mean, “My hour has not yet come”?  Throughout this Gospel of John, Jesus’ “hour” is a reference to His impending death.  The hour in which He will manifest His glory is when He will offer up His life on the cross in love for the world to save it.   So the fact that the wine ran out is somehow related to the necessity of Christ’s death.  

And the relationship is this:  The reason that the things of this creation fail us and run short is because of the destructive entry of sin into the world.  It is only since the fall of man that these things happen.  The word that is used here to say that the wine failed and ran short is the very same word in Greek that is used in Romans 3 where St. Paul writes, “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”   We ourselves have failed to fear, love, and trust in God as we should.  We ourselves have come up short of reflecting the image and the glory of God in our hearts in our lives.  This has not only brought judgment on us; it has brought a curse on all things that He has made.  And so now the blessings of this creation don’t last.  The wine runs out, clothes wear out, cars rust, pandemics and diseases strike at our health, lawlessness overcomes order, even marriage vows end with the words “until death parts us.”  The Scriptures say that the entire world in its present form is in bondage to decay and is passing away.

So, when the wine failed at Cana, that drew attention to the hour of Christ’s suffering and dying in order to redeem His sapped and fallen creation.  Jesus reminds His mother that if she is going to appeal to him for a miracle, she must also deal with his death.  Miracles don’t come cheaply.  They all are anchored in the cross and point there.  

Through this first miracle of our Lord, then, the changing of water into wine, Jesus was beginning to bring about the redemption of creation.  For He was reversing the draining force of sin so that there was bounty and joy once again.  

In order for this to be fully accomplished so that all of creation would be made new, the curse had to be removed and broken.  And Jesus accomplished that in His flesh at Calvary.  Galatians 3 declares, “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the Law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written: ‘Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree.’”  Jesus took the curse into Himself so that by His death sin’s crippling domination over creation would be undone.  He has subdued and destroyed all that brings deterioration and degeneration.  His holy cross conquered and did away with the impermanence of this old order of things.  

It is written here that the miracle of the changing of water into wine occurred on the third day.  So it is that our Lord performed the greatest miracle of all on the third day by rising from the grave in everlasting triumph over death.  The risen body of Christ is the beginning of the new order of things.  In Him and through Him creation is renewed and revitalized.  We perceive that now only by faith.  But we see signs of it in miracles such as this.  For it was prophesied of the Messiah’s kingdom that there would be an abundance of wine.  The prophet Amos said, “The days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when . . . sweet wine will drip from the mountains and flow from the hills.”  And Isaiah foretold a day when the Lord would swallow up death forever.  He said, “The Lord Almighty will prepare a feast of rich food for all peoples, a banquet of aged wine–the best of meats and the finest of wines.”  In this miracle, then, we begin to see the very kingdom of God and the new creation breaking in, which will be revealed in all its glory on the Last Day.

The water pots were filled to the brim. For the fullness of time has now come.  Jesus fulfills all that was written in Moses and the Prophets.  Out of the water of the Old Testament promises we draw the finest wine of Jesus Himself.

Indeed, just as Jesus used six stone jars in this miracle, so also it was on the sixth day of the week, Good Friday, when He broke sin’s curse.  And just as in the beginning the creation of man took place on the sixth day of the week, so now man is recreated by the water and the blood that came forth from Christ's holy side at Calvary.  Do you see what the water and the wine are signs of at Cana?  They are nothing else than the Sacraments of Baptism and the Lord’s Supper, which flow to us from the cross of Jesus.  This Gospel tells us that the six jars were used for ritual washing and cleansing.  And don’t the Scriptures say that Baptism is a washing of regeneration?  Likewise, it is written that the blood of Jesus cleanses us from all sin.  Our Lord renewed the gifts of creation at Cana’s wedding feast, and now He renews us through His sacramental gifts in water and wine, so that we might be restored to the sweetness of life with God.  As it is written, “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.  Old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new!”

You must learn to see and believe, then, that the miracle of Cana is still going on; it hasn’t stopped.  The heavenly groom, Jesus Christ, is here in the Divine Service for His bride, the church.  He who showed Himself to be Lord of the elements at Cana now shows Himself to be Lord of the elements on the altar.  He causes His blood and body to be present under the wine and the bread, and through this miracle He recreates you with His abounding forgiveness and His indestructible life.  These elements of creation won’t fail you; for they deliver to you the Lord Himself who will never fail you or divorce Himself from you.  His grace doesn’t run out; there is always enough and more.  His wine-blood gladdens your hearts.  So it is that the Scriptures say, “As a bridegroom rejoices over his bride, so will your God rejoice over you.”  “Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for her, that He might sanctify and cleanse her by the washing of water with the word, that He might present her to Himself a glorious church, not having any spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she should be holy and without blemish.”

Dear bride of Christ, the Lord has given you a vintage sign:  at Cana, at Calvary, and on the altar–a sign of His glory, glory revealed in His love for you.  Both then and now, He has saved the choice wine for last.  He has given His best; and it is all for you.  Come, then, in faith to His table, that you may partake in the great wedding feast when He returns.  For it is written, “Blessed are those who are invited to the wedding supper of the Lamb!” (Rev. 19:9)

✠ In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit ✠