I.N.I.
A sermon to be preached on the 2nd Sunday after the Epiphany, or 17 January 2010, and based on the Gospel for the day, St. John 2:1-11, the story of the Wedding at Cana, at Our Savior Lutheran Church, Arlington, Virginia
Grace, mercy, and peace be yours in Christ Jesus our Lord,
[text]
Dear Friends in Christ,
Well, here we are in the season of Epiphany, on the second Sunday after the Epiphany. The Wise Men have come and gone. And we've got a whole lot of Epiphany left before it's over. What should we do with it? And what do our lessons have to say about it?
One of the traditional emphases of the Church during this time of year is the revelation of the Gospel of Christ to the whole world. That is, we often talk about missions during this season. Well, that's all find and good, but today's Gospel is about a wedding reception in the Jewish city of Cana. Not much mission work there. Not much “to the whole world,” either. Or is there? While the words 'sin' and 'forgiveness' don't appear in this Gospel Lesson, if we look again at the text we can find some helpful things for our faith and life in it. We can discover a number of epiphanies in this text, that is, spots where God became apparent to different people when – if this were drawn as a cartoon – there would be a lightbulb turning on over their heads.
I. an epiphany for Mary
II. an epiphany for the servants and steward
III. an epiphany for the disciples
IV. an epiphany for you and me
First of all, we can look at the mother of Jesus and think about how this event may have been an epiphany for her. Over the years people have wished that Mary had sat down to write a Gospel account of her own. What a wonderful set of stories she would have been able to tell about Jesus during his childhood and youth. And then, too, what an interesting light she would have shed on the stories of Jesus as an adult that are so familiar to us from the New Testament. In the story of this miracle at the wedding in Cana, wouldn't you like to know just what Mary had in mind when she said to Jesus “They have no wine”? And wouldn't you like to know what her reaction was when Jesus answered her?
Since we don't have a canonical Gospel by Mary, perhaps the best we can do is to imagine ourselves in her place, and meditate on what our own motivations and reactions might have been. We're probably quite safe in assuming that Mary knew her Son was different from other women's sons. There was the whole background of the miraculous conception while she was a virgin. There were the angelic messages, the shepherds, the wise men. And as the sinless Son of God, Jesus must have been different from other boys. So now, as an adult, Mary must have known that Jesus was different from other men.
Yet He was still her Son. She likely still had expectations about how they would relate to and interact with each other. Their whole Middle Eastern Jewish first century culture filled the air with these expectations. So when the wine at this wedding reception gave out Mary went and told Jesus. She didn't ask anything of Him. She didn't tell Him what to do. She just made a simple statement, understanding that He would know what she meant. Maybe some of you have done this? Anyone here ever just simply announced “The trash can's full” or “The clothes dryer is done” or “The grass is getting pretty long” and expected that the person hearing that would understand that you wanted him or her to take out the trash, empty the dryer and fold the clothes, or start the lawn mower and cut the grass? Mary could have been making the same kind of announcement to Jesus, thinking it was obvious what He should do in dealing with it.
But lest you think Mary was ordering around Jesus, you ought to know that this wedding reception wasn't one of the quickie 4 or 5 hour-long receptions we have after weddings. The party to celebrate a marriage back then would have been quick at 4 or 5 days. They were huge affairs that probably involved the whole village, or certainly a large segment of it. Weddings were big social events with days of eating and drinking, and to cut it short by running out of wine would have been a blunder of tragic proportions. I even read on place that doing that could possibly have been grounds for a legal suit by the guests because it would have appeared as if the offending host was trying to get off easy rather than holding a wedding feast equivalent to the ones his neighbors had held and at which he had feasted and drank in the past. So running out of wine before the multi-day feast was over would have been an embarrassment, an insult, a bad omen, poor manners, an economic disaster, and even possible legal trouble all at once. Mary was hinting strongly that Jesus might be able to do something about preventing all this from happening for a family that were certainly friends, and very possibly even relatives.
One epiphany Mary had was that Jesus didn't say “Sure, Mom” and jump in to lend a hand. He spoke to her as an adult to an adult, addressing her with the respectful “Woman” and saying “what concern is that to you and to me? My hour is not yet come.” Now, if you think about the different times in the Gospels when Mary appears in the story, it won't take you very long to recall the next time we hear Jesus speaking to His mother in the same way: it was when His hour had come, when He was hanging on the cross and said (in John 19:26) “Woman, here is your son” to give over the care of His mother to the disciple John.
For now, however, Mary simply told the servants there to do whatever Jesus might tell them to do. She expressed a simple faith is Jesus's ability to discern the dire needs of the wedding host family, and to act in a way that would meet their needs, maintain their dignity, protect their name, and in every way be the right thing to do. If, earlier on, Mary had ever just expected her Son to lend a hand, now she knew that He was an adult member of the community, able and expected to act independently. Perhaps this was another epiphany for her.
The servants and steward were the next in line for an epiphany. Maybe it is easy to picture these folks as the caterer and his tired college student part-time help; or perhaps the steward was more like today's best man at a wedding, keeping an eye on things so that the groom could enjoy the party. Well that would really be making the story a little too much something of our time, but maybe some of the relationships were the same. The servants were directed first to fill up these large stone jars with gallons and gallons of water. Perhaps so that they wouldn't have to lug more water any time soon, they filled the jars up to the brim. When that was done Jesus directed that they should take some to the steward, which they did.
And that's when amazement struck them all. More wine! Good wine!! Better wine than they had been serving earlier on!!! The epiphany for them all was that Jesus was somehow or other a miracle worker. He was not just a friend or relative of the wedding party. He was definitely something special.
Then there are the disciples. They don't play much of a part in this story, do they? They're only mentioned at the beginning and the end. At the beginning, John writes “Jesus and His disciples had also been invited to the wedding.” (John 2:2). And then they apparently disappear into the crowd. Until the last phrase of the last verse: “and His disciples believed in Him” (John 2:11). The implication clearly is that they had some sort of epiphany about Jesus as they witnessed “the first of His signs ... and revealed His glory” (John 2:11).
It is curious that these disciples apparently were disciples before they believed. A disciple is a learner, a follower, one being instructed. So perhaps their early discipleship consisted mostly of building up their intellectual foundation for faith. (And, admittedly, this “early discipleship” – if we can call it that – had stretched only 3 days for some of them, and only a couple days longer for others.) Still, it was after the working of this “sign” that the Scripture tells us they “believed in Him.” So there was now a deeper or maybe a different attachment to Jesus as their Master. They had seen the sign.
It is significant that John never uses the word “miracle” but rather calls these things “signs” or “works.”. In John's Gospel all these miraculous happenings point to something. They point to God. So when the disciples believed in Jesus after witnessing Him working in this way, they were just beginning their walk of faith. Those people who only believe because of miracles have much room to grow. And these first disciples were certainly in that situation at Cana. They had lots of room to grow, much need for growth. But at least they were pointed in the proper direction. The miracle of the wine at the wedding in Cana pointed the disciples to God.
Their epiphany that day was that Jesus was way more that a really intriguing Teacher. The first chapter of John's Gospel is full, very full, of titles for Jesus, including “Lamb of God,” “Son of God,” “Rabbi (which means Teacher),” “the Messiah (which is translated Anointed),” and “the King of Israel.” And those are just the things that His disciples called Him! Before Cana. Before the first of His signs. Before we are told that the disciples believed in Him. Somehow for them, the miracle wrapped up all the loose ends that they maybe had left sitting around when they first started to follow Jesus.
Now what has all this to do with us? I believe this passage of Scripture can also lead us to and through epiphanies, events where the light starts to dawn on us in the same way that it started to dawn for the actors in the story.
Suppose you ever thought of Jesus as simply another man, maybe one Who would do your bidding, going here or there when you asked simply because you asked, or because of your relative positions in society. Maybe you're a highly educated person, someone well off, someone with position, and power and possessions. Jesus of Nazareth had none of those things. If you were to meet Him on the street today you might not even notice Him, much less recognize Him. Should that be the case, then this miracle story can serve to call you to correction. Like Mary, you can begin to see that Jesus is so much more than the baby Jesus in the manger. You can begin to see Him as mire than Someone to do your bidding for you. He is a strong man, full of character and acting independently for our good whether we ask for His intervention or not. That's just the way God is. And we'd better get used to it.
If, like the servants and steward of the banquet, you are tempted to think that Jesus isn't all that special, then stand back! There is a miracle-worker in our midst. He takes the most ordinary things and uses them for the most extraordinary purposes. Jesus also takes the most ordinary people and uses them for the most extraordinary tasks. A few days ago there was a terrible earthquake in Haiti, one of the poorest countries in the world, and certainly the poorest in the Western Hemisphere. You and I, just ordinary people, can do very extraordinary things for the victims of that earthquake because of our love for Jesus. When you respond to the appeals by Lutheran World Relief or other aid agencies, you extra money will literally save lives in Haiti once the aid workers can get into the country. These won't be miracles in the same sense that Jesus performed, but your gifts will still be signs pointing people to God.
And if, like the first disciples, it takes a miracle for you to believe in Jesus, then so be it. Just know that He is God and that as He reveals His glory to you more and more every day, you will more and more reflect that glory to the world. You yourselves will be turning from sin and pointing others to God. Yes, Jesus is a fascinating Teacher. Yes, He is the Lamb of God. Yes, He is the King of Israel. And, especially, yes, here's your miracle: He is our Savior.
It was on the cross that the glory of Jesus was fully revealed. It was to the cross that all his signs pointed. It was to that high point in history that our eyes turn when we believe in Jesus. With all of His disciples of all time, you and I join hands as sinners who have been bought back from death by the dieing and rising of Jesus. We walk together as forever new believers, washed clean each day, fed at the altar, strengthened in faith for life, drinking the new wine that is so much more beneficial than the legalistic ceremonies symbolized by water in stone pots.
The light has come on for each believer. We have had our epiphanies. And now we spread that light to others.
S.D.G.