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 St. John 2:1-11 - Epiphany 2 - 2010
St. Mark Lutheran Church - Wednesday, January 20, 2010
Special thanks to Pastor Weedon and his HT-R interview on this one..
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In the name of Jesus. Amen. Dear friends, read your Scriptures with your eyes on the Cross. Every word, every sentence points to Him.
Today’s Gospel is no different. The sign of Jesus turning water into wine at the Wedding of Cana points us to the cross, to Jesus‘ wedding, where He shows us His glory by giving up His life for His bride, the Church.
So often today, the Scriptures are turned into an instruction manual. Modern Christians want to know what Jesus’ words mean to them, how it applies to their life, what truths they can draw from them in order to succeed or do better in this world.
We must run away from such things, dear Saints of God. They are all about us - what we do, how they apply to us, what they mean to us. What begins with us ends with us and lasts only as long as we last.
The Word of God testifies about the Word made flesh who gave up His life for us on the cross. Him, not us. Talk about us and what we do is Law - law which will always condemn us for what we do not do.
A message all about you, your marriage, your being a good parent, or what you can do for God and fix your eyes on the words, always in God’s condemning word about what you don’t do. Not doing what you are commanded to do always ends in condemnation.
The Gospel is in what Jesus does for us. The Words deliver Jesus. Each word means something. There are no accidental words in the Scriptures. Each one is chosen by the Holy Spirit to deliver salvation to us.
So, today, as we hear about the wedding at Cana, I’d ask you to contemplate the words and phrases that appear in today’s reading: Third day. Wedding. Mary, My hour. Water into wine, His glory. Each word points to something about Jesus, a sign, that by faith we behold the glory of God.
Third day. John begins this account with the simple phrase, “On the third day.” Our eyes, our ears, are pointed to the death and resurrection of Christ, aren’t they?
Words don’t just show up like that in Scripture. You follow them, like a sign, that the Lord would have us follow. So, here we are, before we even see one thing about the Wedding at Cana, at the foot of the Cross and in the empty tomb. After all, this all happened, “on the third day.”
Mary’s there too. She only shows up twice in the Gospel of St. John. Here at the wedding at Cana and in John nineteen at the foot of the cross.
That’s not an accident. It’s not a coincidence. There are other places that Mary could have shown up in the Gospels. But, in St. John, she specifically shows up at His first sign, this sign, and at the Cross.
So, her appearance at both draws us to what’s going on with this Wedding. It points us to the cross.
And if that is not enough, Jesus points us to “His hour.” “My hour has not yet come.” Throughout the whole of the Gospel of John, the Lord is consumed with His hour.
Christ moving to His hour - the hour when the dead will hear the voice of the the Son of God and live. The hour when all in the tombs will hear his voice and live (John 5).
Repeatedly, the Apostle John comments that the Jews wanted to seize Jesus, but they didn’t because His hour had not come.
Jesus’ hour is when they seized Him, when they beat on Him, when they mocked Him, when they crowned Him with thorns as our King, when they dragged Him away, when they drove nails into His Hands and feet. When they crucified.
His hour - the hour where He will be glorified is the Cross, where He dies for the sin of the world.
That’s His glory too - the glory that the disciples beheld today as Jesus changed water into wine. His glory is not only that He’s God and can do something like a water-into-wine sign. His glory is that the God who changes water into wine and saves the wedding, is the God who dies for His people on the Cross. The glory of God is that God would do such a thing as save us.
Today, Jesus saves the wedding by turning water into wine. But, even the word wedding points us to the Cross. Don’t miss that. For the words are pointing us there.
The church has a bridegroom. He is Christ. The Epistle lesson today tells us that Jesus gives up His life on the Cross for her and presents her to Himself as holy, without spot or any such blemish.
And John proclaims this with his reference to Mary. When we hear Mary’s name again in John’s Gospel, Jesus gives His mother away from the Cross.
“Woman, behold your son. Son behold your mother.” That’s what you do before a wedding - you leave your mom and dad to be joined to your bride.
He does this as He gives His life for His bride. Showing us what true love is. Love is not that we love God or make sacrifices for him. God’s love is not that He gives us ways to have successful lives.
No, if you want to find the love of God - look to the water and blood flowing from Jesus’ side as they pierced Him with a spear to prove that He was dead.
Water for purification - not drunk but flowing down our foreheads at the font washing our sins away in Jesus’ forgiveness.
Blood poured into His chalice, where Jesus celebrates His wedding not with good wine, but with His Body in, with, and under the bread and His Blood, in, with, and under the wine.
He’s the bridegroom. His church His bride. He gives His life showing us how to love. Husbands loving wives as He loved the church ready to give His life for us. The church submitting, that is receiving from her Lord, gifts of forgiveness and eternal life.
Today, we see again how to read the Scriptures: look for Jesus’ Cross. It’s all over the wedding at Cana. It’s in the third day. The wedding, the reference to His mother, His hour and His glory.
Today, Jesus also celebrates with us His wedding as He gives us His Body and Blood.
So, that’s how to read your Scriptures - each Word isn’t information for information sake, it’s to deliver Jesus, the One who on the third day saved a wedding at Cana, then went onto the Cross to die for you. In the name of Jesus. Amen.
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