Epiphany two 1/20/13

Second Sunday of Epiphany 1/20/13 Text: John 2:1-12 Title: "The First Sign" Last week someone told me a funny story that is appropriate for us today since our gospel reading is on Jesus making wine out of water. While funny it also makes a profound statement concerning Jesus. It went something like this: A small boy was asked by a visiting relative if he attended Sunday school. When he said he did, he was asked, "What are you learning?" "Last week," came the reply, "our lesson was about when Jesus went to a wedding and made water into wine." "And what did you learn from that story?" the relative inquired. After thinking for a moment, the lad answered, "If you're having a wedding, make sure Jesus is there!" It is a good thing to have Jesus at our wedding ceremonies; indeed it is good thing to have Jesus in our lives every day, for only in him will we have certainty in our uncertainty and joy in our sorrow. The season of Epiphany, the time of the church year we are in now, is about reinforcing what we all know, that Jesus is God; not just the Son of God, although he is, but fully God in the flesh, Immanuel, God with us. Last Sunday we heard that Jesus is the beloved Son of God when the Father proclaimed his love for him. We also learned that Jesus, in a very real sense replaced the temple, as the place where God resides. There is no need for the temple to be rebuilt. Maybe that is why after it was destroyed in 70ad it has not been rebuilt after 1,943 years. So today we see further unfolding of Jesus being God in the miracle of Jesus making wine out of water. You might have noticed that Saint John does not call the making of wine, really good wine, out of water, a miracle. He calls it a “sign”, as he does six other miracles in the Gospel of John “signs.” This is important to know, for while miracles are “WOW” events, “signs” point to something greater than themselves, for those who are willing to learn from them. The signs point to Jesus being God, so we are to look at him and not just the sign or miracle itself. Thus we can learn a lot about Jesus in this first sign, but time will not allow me to cover them all, so I am going to talk about only four lessons that we can learn from this first sign. First of all Jesus' turning water into wine is in itself a picture of all that he came to do. Jesus takes what is common, plain stone jugs, and ordinary water, and by his word the water becomes wine, not just any wine, but the best wine that could be made. Saint John tells us that the stone jugs were large, holding around thirty gallons each. These large stone jugs were used to hold the water which the guests used to make them ceremonially clean. Jesus in using these ceremonial jugs to hold his perfect wine, and it had to be perfect, for when Jesus does a miracle or sign; as John calls his miracles they are perfect with no defects. The time for ritual cleansing was drawing to an end, for when Jesus died on the cross there was no need for ritual cleansing. Thus this sign is a foreshadowing of his death and resurrection. We also see in this story that when Jesus does a miracle he does it in a big way, way beyond anyone’s expectations. The wedding guests went from having no wine at all to having more than enough, just as Jesus did when he took five loaves and two fish and fed 5000 men with twelve large baskets of food left over. John wrote about the abundance of wine because the Jewish people expected the time of the Messiah to be one of abundance for their prophets had written that the banquet tables of the Messiah would be overflowing with great food and the cups of wine would never be empty. Thus this miracle is a sign of Jesus’ Messiahship, for those who have eyes to see. He is the long-awaited deliverer of Israel. He is the one who will purify Israel and all people. He is the one who provides more than is needed. As you know, if you have read the Bible at all that God uses marriage as symbol of the relationship that God has with his people. God particularly Jesus is the groom while those who believe in him are the bride. We see that in the Old Testament reading for today from the book of Isaiah, where the prophet tells us that at the time of Israel's restoration and vindication, “God will take delight in them and their land will be married. As a young man marries a maiden, so will your sons marry you; as a bridegroom rejoices over his bride, so will your God rejoice over you.” The people of God that John was writing to some 53 years after Jesus made wine out of water recognized the connection with Jesus doing what he did at the wedding with the Old Testament, thus the sign that Jesus did at the wedding feast was not lost on them. It was their belief that when the Messiah came it would be a time of plenty. Everyone would be able to sit at the banquet table, for the food would never end and the wine would never run out. Psalm 23 says in the last two verses, “You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.6 Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the LORD forever.” The messiah would make everything wonderful. Unfortunately for the people of Jesus’ day were looking for an earthly king and thus missed the meaning of the signs that proclaimed Jesus is God. This still goes on today, as people look for the return of the earthly king Jesus when times are going to be wonderful and the enemies of the Christian community will be subjected to God’s rule. They, just like the people of Jesus’ day did then do not properly read the signs of Jesus’ miracles. The last thing I want you to take away with you this morning concerning this first sign Jesus did in John’s Gospel is that the miracle at the Cana wedding is a preview of the Lord’s Supper, the hour when Jesus at his final Passover meal transforms not water into wine but wine into blood, his blood that was going to be shed for all humanity. The best is saved for last. Now we have the wine of salvation, a salvation won for us completely by Christ Jesus when he gave up his life for us, a salvation that is not just for one day, or the one week, but forever. A salvation that we proclaim to the world every time we eat and drink at his table. So to wrap it up today we have learned that Jesus, God in the flesh takes the ordinary things of our lives; water, wine, bread, and words making them into holy things from which we receive forgiveness, salvation, and eternal life. As we receive in a few minutes Jesus’ body and blood in, with, and under the bread and wine in his Supper, it is my prayer that our lives, be filled to overflowing with God's gifts of grace. The best is yet to come, for the glory of God is at hand. Blessed be the name of God. Amen.