Genesis 2:7, 18-24/Ephesians 5:1-2, 19-33/St John 2:1-11
In the Name + of JESUS. Amen.
They have no wine, the Mother of our Lord petitions to her Son. And what was He supposed to do about it? Pass the hat and make a run to the liquor store? This isn’t His hour. This isn’t His wedding. If it were His hour, if it were His wedding, He would make certain that the wine would continue to flow so that empty cups would runneth over and empty hearts would be filled with gladness, and the finest of wines would be upon the lips and in the mouth of His beloved Bride waiting to be discovered by her Bridegroom’s kiss.
But this isn’t His hour. This isn’t His wedding.
They have no wine. This man and woman. This Adam and Eve. Before its even begun their marriage has run dry. Oh sure they have everything else: the dresses and tuxedos, the flowers and favors, the pictures and gifts. And soon enough they’ll have the honeymoon, the furniture, the little house with the two-camel garage. And everything else. But they have run out of wine. The wine they once had isn’t there anymore.
They have no wine. This bride and this groom, this Adam and Eve, and soon their family and friends, their guests and acquaintances will notice. Mother Mary notices. She sees the empty cups. She hears the whispers. The bridegroom off seeking advice. The bride in her seat, fighting back tears. And then it happens, the first angry look in their marriage, “What are we going to do?” “How did this happen?” “To whom do we turn?”
Pretty soon they will no longer address one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs or sing melodic lines of poetry into amorous moonlight hours. The wine has run out. Its just a matter of time before gracious lordship turns into spiteful dominion and joyous submission becomes passive aggression. They have no wine.
But they do have water. They could try to serve their guests water. The bridegroom and bride could try to quench one another’s thirst, with just plain old water. But when you’ve had a hearty taste of wine, the taste of water means just one thing: the party’s over. After wine has gladdened the heart and blushed the cheek, even the best intentioned water is just a buzz kill.
How many marriages try to make the best of it with just water? Smiling as they drink the drink of prisoners and slaves. Water, just surviving. Water, because their marriage has become hard work in thistled ground. Water, it means the party’s over; that the gladness of wine has long left two cold hearts. They have no wine, Mary says. And what are they to do?
If no one goes to Jesus the poor embarrassed couple will have no choice but to do what other couples do when the wine has run out: put on happy faces, say the right words, and try to survive. Make it through this moment, through this day, through this year. Make it through until the kids go off to college. Continue on in a generic marriage where Jesus is not at work. Continue on in generic lives where Jesus is not at work. If no one goes to get Jesus, thats what happens to marriage.
But Mary goes. She goes to Jesus. They have no wine, this man, this woman, she tells Him. Its not His problem. Its not His business. Its not even His wedding! Woman, what does this have to do with Me? But Mary, who already knows what wonderful and impossible things her Son, her Lord, can do she takes that problem right to Jesus. She made it His problem. She made it His business. Its quite the perfect picture of prayer.
And without any positive answer from Jesus, she turns to the servants, and Mother Mary speaks words of wisdom, saying, Do whatever He tells you. These are the last recorded words of the Blessed Virgin in the Gospel. In the New Testament. And it is pretty good marital advice: Do whatever He tells you.
If the wine is gone. If the gladness has ended. If the love has run dry. Do whatever He tells you.
Fill up those jars with water, the Lord said. And they filled them up to the brim. Six, huge stone jars filled to the brim with water, not wine. Six huge stone jars filled with everything their marriage was lacking. They might as well have been six huge stone jars filled with disappointment! Six huge stone jars filled with bitterness and resentment! Fill them up.
Because this wedding guest, Jesus, Mary’s Son, can take that water and turn it into wine. He can take disappointment and turn it into joy. He can take heartache and sadness and turn them into mercy and forgiveness. Because this Wedding Guest takes all that you put into those jars: sin and guilt and shame and anger and He turns them into forgiveness and life and salvation and joy and peace and mercy. He can do for this married couple what they cannot do for themselves. He can turn that water and into wine.
Because this Wedding Guest is not only Mary’s Son, but also Mary’s Lord; the very Lord and Giver of Marriage, the heavenly Bridegroom, Jesus Christ. Who when His hour had come, when His wedding arrived, gave the best of wines, the good wine, saved until last.
For when His wedding had come, Christ Jesus, the second Adam, left His Father’s house and His Mother’s side, and was lifted up as a joyous Bridegroom calling to His Bride. He fell into the deep sleep of death and from His riven side fashioned a Bride, His Church: washed in His bloody water, glorious and splendid, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing. You are bone of His bone and flesh of His flesh; beloved and holy, without blemish. You are called Christian, for you were taken out of Christ.
This is His fragrant offering, His worthy sacrifice, His loving act in which He has wed Himself to you: His Crucifixion. This is His hour. (And it is no coincidence that it is on the third day.) He took your sin and gives you forgiveness. He took your death and gives you life. He took water and made it wine.
And He takes wine and makes it His Blood. And it is the the sweetest, choicest wine; a gracious, fragrant wine that is meant to be savored on the palate and swirled in the mouth. A glorious wine that when drunk gladdens the heart in faith and enlivens love.
Do whatever He tells you. Take and drink. For in this, the blessed Sign and Promise of His wedded love and faithfulness, He pledges to you His Body and His Blood, given into death for you. He loves you as His own body, nourishing and cherishing you, as His beloved Bride, whereby receiving such love the Church submits in joy and faithfulness to Christ, doing whatever He tells her, walking in love and submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ, because on the lips of His Bride and in her mouth is the finest of wines as awaits her Bridegroom’s kiss.
In the Name of the Father and + of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
In the Name + of JESUS. Amen.
They have no wine, the Mother of our Lord petitions to her Son. And what was He supposed to do about it? Pass the hat and make a run to the liquor store? This isn’t His hour. This isn’t His wedding. If it were His hour, if it were His wedding, He would make certain that the wine would continue to flow so that empty cups would runneth over and empty hearts would be filled with gladness, and the finest of wines would be upon the lips and in the mouth of His beloved Bride waiting to be discovered by her Bridegroom’s kiss.
But this isn’t His hour. This isn’t His wedding.
They have no wine. This man and woman. This Adam and Eve. Before its even begun their marriage has run dry. Oh sure they have everything else: the dresses and tuxedos, the flowers and favors, the pictures and gifts. And soon enough they’ll have the honeymoon, the furniture, the little house with the two-camel garage. And everything else. But they have run out of wine. The wine they once had isn’t there anymore.
They have no wine. This bride and this groom, this Adam and Eve, and soon their family and friends, their guests and acquaintances will notice. Mother Mary notices. She sees the empty cups. She hears the whispers. The bridegroom off seeking advice. The bride in her seat, fighting back tears. And then it happens, the first angry look in their marriage, “What are we going to do?” “How did this happen?” “To whom do we turn?”
Pretty soon they will no longer address one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs or sing melodic lines of poetry into amorous moonlight hours. The wine has run out. Its just a matter of time before gracious lordship turns into spiteful dominion and joyous submission becomes passive aggression. They have no wine.
But they do have water. They could try to serve their guests water. The bridegroom and bride could try to quench one another’s thirst, with just plain old water. But when you’ve had a hearty taste of wine, the taste of water means just one thing: the party’s over. After wine has gladdened the heart and blushed the cheek, even the best intentioned water is just a buzz kill.
How many marriages try to make the best of it with just water? Smiling as they drink the drink of prisoners and slaves. Water, just surviving. Water, because their marriage has become hard work in thistled ground. Water, it means the party’s over; that the gladness of wine has long left two cold hearts. They have no wine, Mary says. And what are they to do?
If no one goes to Jesus the poor embarrassed couple will have no choice but to do what other couples do when the wine has run out: put on happy faces, say the right words, and try to survive. Make it through this moment, through this day, through this year. Make it through until the kids go off to college. Continue on in a generic marriage where Jesus is not at work. Continue on in generic lives where Jesus is not at work. If no one goes to get Jesus, thats what happens to marriage.
But Mary goes. She goes to Jesus. They have no wine, this man, this woman, she tells Him. Its not His problem. Its not His business. Its not even His wedding! Woman, what does this have to do with Me? But Mary, who already knows what wonderful and impossible things her Son, her Lord, can do she takes that problem right to Jesus. She made it His problem. She made it His business. Its quite the perfect picture of prayer.
And without any positive answer from Jesus, she turns to the servants, and Mother Mary speaks words of wisdom, saying, Do whatever He tells you. These are the last recorded words of the Blessed Virgin in the Gospel. In the New Testament. And it is pretty good marital advice: Do whatever He tells you.
If the wine is gone. If the gladness has ended. If the love has run dry. Do whatever He tells you.
Fill up those jars with water, the Lord said. And they filled them up to the brim. Six, huge stone jars filled to the brim with water, not wine. Six huge stone jars filled with everything their marriage was lacking. They might as well have been six huge stone jars filled with disappointment! Six huge stone jars filled with bitterness and resentment! Fill them up.
Because this wedding guest, Jesus, Mary’s Son, can take that water and turn it into wine. He can take disappointment and turn it into joy. He can take heartache and sadness and turn them into mercy and forgiveness. Because this Wedding Guest takes all that you put into those jars: sin and guilt and shame and anger and He turns them into forgiveness and life and salvation and joy and peace and mercy. He can do for this married couple what they cannot do for themselves. He can turn that water and into wine.
Because this Wedding Guest is not only Mary’s Son, but also Mary’s Lord; the very Lord and Giver of Marriage, the heavenly Bridegroom, Jesus Christ. Who when His hour had come, when His wedding arrived, gave the best of wines, the good wine, saved until last.
For when His wedding had come, Christ Jesus, the second Adam, left His Father’s house and His Mother’s side, and was lifted up as a joyous Bridegroom calling to His Bride. He fell into the deep sleep of death and from His riven side fashioned a Bride, His Church: washed in His bloody water, glorious and splendid, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing. You are bone of His bone and flesh of His flesh; beloved and holy, without blemish. You are called Christian, for you were taken out of Christ.
This is His fragrant offering, His worthy sacrifice, His loving act in which He has wed Himself to you: His Crucifixion. This is His hour. (And it is no coincidence that it is on the third day.) He took your sin and gives you forgiveness. He took your death and gives you life. He took water and made it wine.
And He takes wine and makes it His Blood. And it is the the sweetest, choicest wine; a gracious, fragrant wine that is meant to be savored on the palate and swirled in the mouth. A glorious wine that when drunk gladdens the heart in faith and enlivens love.
Do whatever He tells you. Take and drink. For in this, the blessed Sign and Promise of His wedded love and faithfulness, He pledges to you His Body and His Blood, given into death for you. He loves you as His own body, nourishing and cherishing you, as His beloved Bride, whereby receiving such love the Church submits in joy and faithfulness to Christ, doing whatever He tells her, walking in love and submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ, because on the lips of His Bride and in her mouth is the finest of wines as awaits her Bridegroom’s kiss.
In the Name of the Father and + of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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