The Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Love of God, and the Fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen.
John 2:1 “And on the third day there was a wedding in Cana of Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there; 2 and Jesus also was invited, and His disciples, to the wedding. 3 And when the wine gave out, the mother of Jesus said to Him, ‘They have no wine.’ 4 And Jesus said to her, ‘Woman, what do I have to do with you? My hour has not yet come.’ 5 His mother said to the servants, ‘Whatever He says to you, do it.’ 6 Now there were six stone waterpots set there for the Jewish custom of purification, containing twenty or thirty gallons each. 7 Jesus said to them, ‘Fill the waterpots with water.’ And they filled them up to the brim. 8 And He said to them, ‘Draw some out now, and take it to the headwaiter.’ And they took it to him. 9 And when the headwaiter tasted the water which had become wine, and did not know where it came from (but the servants who had drawn the water knew), the headwaiter called the bridegroom, 10 and said to him, ‘Every man serves the good wine first, and when men have drunk freely, then that which is poorer; you have kept the good wine until now.’ 11 This beginning of His signs Jesus did in Cana of Galilee, and manifested His glory, and His disciples believed in Him.” (NASB)
The Gospel lesson this morning is a familiar and straight forward story. At one level it is simple and clear. Jesus changes water into wine at a wedding banquet by the power of His word. It’s a demonstration of His divinity. At another level, this event it is filled with Old Testament imagery, subtlety, and purpose that is often overlooked.
It was a traditional Jewish wedding. What made it traditional? Certain rites were to be observed. Certain customs were to be followed. Certain norms and expectations were to be met. At its outset, there was nothing notable about this wedding ceremony and banquet over any other of the day.
But then Jesus did it. He turned the traditional and ordinary into something miraculous, even more than a miraculus. In fact, John himself notes its importance in verse 11. “This beginning of His signs Jesus did in Cana of Galilee, and manifested His glory, and His disciples believed in Him.”
Notice, John doesn’t use the word “miracle” here. He doesn’t use the Greek word for “miracle” at all in his Gospel. He uses a word that translates better into the English as the word “sign.” Jesus performed signs. A “sign” is a miracle done for the purpose of showing that Jesus is the Son of God.
Nowit was “the third day there was a wedding in Cana of Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there; 2 and Jesus also was invited, and His disciples, to the wedding.”
Cana is a village near Nazareth, and Mary, the mother of Jesus, was invited to this wedding. It is likely that either the bride or groom were related to Mary and Jesus, thus the reason for the invite. But there was more to this wedding than meets the eye. The changing of water into wine, saving face for the bride and groom, and avoiding the embarrassment of failed expectations are part of the story, but only part. There’s more here than the performing of sign/miracle.
When Christians read this story or hear it read or preached on, they think that the whole thing was a rather impromptu set of circumstances. And these impromptu circumstances gave rise to a shift in relationship between Jesus and Mary and led to Jesus’s first miracle.
But it was no accident that Jesus performed His first sign at a wedding. It was no accident that the first sign/miracle involved waterpots filled with water that were set aside for the rite of purification, or an exchange over Jesus’s hour, or an order from Mary to the servants to do whatever Jesus tells them to do, and of course water into wine.
First to the wedding. In the Old Testament the Lord God had been clear about the Messiah’s relationship to Israel. The Messiah is the Groom, the second Adam and the Bride of Christ, the second Eve is Israel/the church. And what was done in the fall into sin would be undone by Christ. In the fall the relationship between God and Adam and Eve was broken. Furthermore the relationship between Adam and Eve was also corrupted. But in Christ, that which had been done to all these relationships would be restored. Christ and the church will be one. That was the promise.
That’s why the language and image of marriage is found throughout the Old Testament. Israel had spent thousands of years looking and waiting for her Bridegroom.
The Lord God knew what He was doing when He performed His first sign at a wedding reception. Jesus wasn’t just going to the wedding of a family member.
Jesus was the Groom coming for His Bride. The miracle of changing water into wine wasn’t the only sign. Jesus Himself is a sign. He was fulfilling prophecies of the Old Testament regarding the Bride and Groom.
Joel 2:16 “Gather the people, sanctify the congregation, Assemble the elders, Gather the children and the nursing infants. Let the bridegroom come out of his room And the bride out of her bridal chamber.”
Then there’s the Old Testament lesson for this morning. Isaiah 62, “3 You will also be a crown of beauty in the hand of the Lord, And a royal diadem in the hand of your God. . . you will be called, ‘My delight is in her,’ And your land, ‘Married’; For the Lord delights in you, And to Him your land will be married.”
Then there’s the fact that the bride and groom ran out of wine. That was no accident or mistake either. There are no accidents in the earthly ministry of Christ. He is always where He is suppose to be doing exactly what God the Father puts before Him to do.
Again what has been set before Jesus (a wedding, wine or the lack thereof, water and purification pots, and His disciples) is there because it was foretold in the Old Testament. Its fulfillment of the wedding prophecies and imaginary, was itself a sign/miracle that the Son of God had come into the work to claim His bride. The bride, the groom, and the wine go together and are ordained by God and the marks of the coming Messiah.
Amos 9:13-14 “Behold, days are coming,” declares the Lord, [meaning when the Messiah comes to His people] when the mountains will drip sweet wine And all the hills will be dissolved. . . They will also plant vineyards and drink their wine.”
Along with the Old Testament language and imagery the Bride and Groom, there was also the imagery of banquets of super-abundance, in particular the abundance of wine that comes with the arrival of the Messiah. Isaiah 25:6 “Now the Lord of armies will prepare a lavish banquet for all peoples on this mountain; A banquet of aged wine, choice pieces with marrow, And refined, aged wine.”
So when the wine gave out at the wedding of Cana it was understood as a bad sign of things to come. 3 “When the wine gave out, the mother of Jesus said to Him, ‘They have no wine.’ 4 And Jesus said to her, ‘Woman, what do I have to do with you? My hour has not yet come.’”
Jesus response to His mother consists of a rather difficult Greek sentence structure. A literal translation of what Jesus said to Mary goes like this. “Woman, what to you and to me?” It sounds disrespectful to us. But unlike the contemporary understanding of the word “woman” in today’s vernacular, the Greek word for “woman” and its use in Jesus’s day did not denote any disrespect. By referring to His mother as woman, Jesus was signaling that a new chapter had begun in the relationship between the two.
This is similar to but much greater than what Jesus said to His mother and Joseph at the age of 12 at the temple. “Why is it that you were looking for Me? Did you not know that I had to be in My Father’s house?” (Luke 2:49)
Here at the wedding of Cana, Jesus was indicating that He is was the Groom and He was now about the business of redeeming and saving the Bride. “Woman what to you and to me? My hour has not yet come.”
When Jesus said, “My hour has not yet come” He was referring to His saving ministry. Time and again Jesus tells His disciples and John tells us that when Jesus was spared harm from those who sought to harm Him, that Jesus’s hour had not come yet.
It wasn’t until John 12 & 13 that Jesus tells us what the “hour” means.
John 12:23, “But Jesus *answered them by saying, ‘The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.’” John 12:27, “Now My soul has become troubled; and what am I to say? ‘Father, save Me from this hour’? But for this purpose I came to this hour.” John tells us that Jesus was speaking of His death on the cross; that moment/hour in time when God fully revealed Himself to all of humanity as the all-redeeming sacrifice for sin.
Mary wasn’t deterred by what Jesus had said. She charges ahead and “said to the servants, ‘Whatever He says to you, do it.’ 6 Now there were six stone waterpots set there for the Jewish custom of purification, containing twenty or thirty gallons each. 7 Jesus said to them, ‘Fill the waterpots with water.’ And they filled them up to the brim.”
Marry tells the servants “Whatever He says to you, do it.” She knows her Son. She knows who He is to Israel. He is the Groom to His Bride Israel. She knows the importance of the wine. She knows that He can and He will do what is necessary. She knew those Old Testament prophecies.
In his sermon for the Second Sunday of Epiphany in 1525, Luther preached to his congregation the following.
“In this Gospel lesson you see the mother of Christ directing the servants away from herself unto Christ, telling them not: Whatsoever I say unto you, do it; but: ‘Whatsoever he saith unto you, do it.’ To this Word alone you must direct everyone, if You would direct aright; so that this word of Mary (whatsoever he saith, do it) is, and ought to be, a daily saying in Christendom, destroying all doctrines of men and everything not really Christ’s Word. And we ought firmly to believe that what is imposed upon us over and above God’s Word is not, as they boast and lie, the commandment of the church. For Mary says: Whatsoever he saith that, that, that do, and that alone; for in it there will be enough to do.”
Now here’s something else that was no accident. Jesus worked this sign/miracle with the waterpots and water that was being used to “baptize” the people who came to the banquet. The water contained in these pots had been dedicated for the ritual washings of purification for all those who came to the wedding and banquet feast.
Jesus commanded that the jars to be filled to the brim. He didn’t want any no room for anything else except water. Then the water of cleansing is changed into the wine of the wedding feast. The Old Testament Groom has come to His Bride and provided what was needed, just as was promised in the Old Testament.
On Christmas morning, we celebrated the advent, the coming of the King of the Jews, the promised Messiah. On Epiphany Day we celebrated the advent/coming of the Light of the world to we Gentiles. Last Sunday we remembered and celebrated Jesus’s baptism into His saving work and His saving offices, the advent/coming of our Lord as Prophet, Priest, and King. And this morning, it’s the advent of our Messianic Bridegroom.
Finally, in the sign/miracle at the wedding at Cana, God gave us a preview of the sacrament of the body and blood of Jesus, which we partake each Sunday here, but is also a foretaste of the heavenly banquet to come.
Revelation 19:7, 9 “Let us rejoice and be glad and give the glory to Him, for the marriage of the Lamb has come and His bride has made herself ready. . . 9 Then he said to me, ‘Write, “Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.” And he said to me, “These are true words of God.”
Jesus’s miracle and participation in the wedding at Cana was the beginning of His signs, His works to save us from sin, death, and the power of the devil. The Bridegroom has come. He has changed ordinary water into the saving water of Holy Baptism. He has attached His body and blood to the bread and wine of Holy Communion. Welcome to the feast. Your sins are forgiven you.
AMEN
May the peace that surpasses all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen