In the Name + of Jesus. Amen.
On the third day our Lord went to a wedding in Cana of Galilee where, as His first sign, He gave good wine to drunks.
This is the third day since He called Nathaniel. It may have been the forty-third day since His Baptism. It has been nearly thirty years since the arrival of the Magi.
It was apparently historical tradition that the visitation of the Magi, the Baptism of our Lord, the miracle at Cana all occurred on the same day, only different years. Luther held to this. Doesn’t mean you have too. But it does help convey the great significance of these events – the manifestation, the epiphany of our Lord.
We join these events in our hymnody: “Songs of thankfulness and praise, Jesus, Lord, to Thee we raise, Manifested by the star To the sages from afar, Branch of royal David’s stem In Thy birth at Bethlehem; Anthems be to Thee addressed, God in man made manifest. Manifest at Jordan’s stream, Prophet, Priest, and King supreme; And at Cana wedding guest In Thy Godhead manifest; Manifest in pow’r divine, Changing water into wine; Anthems be to Thee addressed, God in man made manifest” (LSB 394:1,2)
Whether the same date in different years, I don’t know. But that it’s the third day is important. Saint John could have written, “on the next day,” or “on Wednesday,” or “the day after that.” By inspiration of the Holy Ghost he wrote, on the third day. These words are fraught with meaning. Any creed confessing Christian hearing the phrase, on the third day, immediately makes the mental jump – the Resurrection! John wants us to see the connection between our Lord’s first sign and His ultimate sign. He wants us to notice that the first sign takes place at a wedding outside of Judah.
For Jesus has come to end the divorce; the divorce between men and women, Jews and Gentiles, neighbors and brothers; the divorce between body and soul, God and man. In our heavenly Bridegroom we shall be reunited with the Father as we were meant to be – at harmony and peace with ourselves, with one other, and with Him. Babel’s curse and Adam’s curse will both be removed. Jesus provides the wine because He is the true Bridegroom.
Is this not what the prophet Amos wrote? In that day, I will raise up the Succoth of David and repair its breaches. The mountains shall drip sweet wine, and all the hills shall flow with it. Wine is the drink of paradise; the libation of the eschaton. The Lord gives wine that makes glad the hearts of men, writes the Psalmist.
There is so much here that the most significant thing is usually missed. The Gospel of John doesn’t have any spare parts. Everything he writes has full meaning. This is our Lord’s first sign. This isn’t merely an indication of chronology. This is His primary sign – preeminent; it has significance for the rest of His signs. Which begs the question, “Signs of what?” “If this is the first, what is the final and the greatest? And how are they connected?”
John puts it all right here – the third day, Mary, water and wine, a wedding, the manifestation of His glory. Where do we encounter all these again? Where and when do they all come together again in John’s Gospel? Remember the Holy Spirit does not speak uselessly. Jesus did many signs in the presence of His disciples which John does not record. But these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have Life in His Name (Jn 20:30-31).
As John writes chapter 2 he already has in mind the events of chapter 19. Behind the sign at Cana is the greater sign – the sign of the Cross. It is the crucifixion that permeates the story of Cana’s wedding feast and fills it to the brim with meaning. John chapter 2 drips with the sweetness of the death and resurrection of our heavenly Bridegroom.
Consider the events of chapter 19: Jesus, bruised and battered, is hanging upon the Cross, dying. Mary is there. The only other time she is mentioned in John’s Gospel. In fact, her last words are recorded here in chapter two: Do whatever He [Jesus] says. Excellent advice from the woman who represents for us the Church.
As Jesus hangs upon the Cross, forsaken by His Father, He gives Mary into the keeping of the beloved Disciple. He is leaving her – just as Simeon had foretold in the temple: A sword shall pierce your own soul as well. But when is it that Scripture says a man shall leave his father and mother? Why, it’s when he’s getting married! Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and shall cleave unto his wife; and they shall be one flesh (Gn 2:24, KJV).
Is Calvary about a wedding? Is the Cross a marriage?
Before you dismiss this as absurd; before you say, “Come on, Pastor, you’re making too much of it,” consider this: What did God do in Eden when He instituted marriage? Is it not like unto what He did upon the Cross? Then, the man was put into a deep sleep and from his side was taken that from which his bride was made. So it is as Jesus enters the sleep of death, that from His side flow water and blood. From that water God fashions a Bride for His Son – the Church! And from His Blood you are given Life.
We bristle at those words of Ephesians 5, the old Adam and Eve get riled up: Wives, submit to your husbands, as to the Lord. But it’s not in subjugation or domination; rather in humility and requited love, even as the Church submits to Christ. Indeed this is how Christian wives serve Christ and honor His ordered creation. If the husband is the head of marriage, the wife is the heart.
Men, you are not let off the hook; the word to you is even more difficult: Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the Church and sacrificed Himself for her. Did you catch that? Love your wives as Christ loved the Church and DIED for her!
I have said it before: being married is like being crucified. Perhaps now you understand the context a little better. This is marriage and it is symbolic of Christ and His Bride, the Church, for whom He gave Himself that He might sanctify her, that is, make her holy with His own holiness, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the Word, so that He might present the Church to Himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing; holy.
Christ does not find a perfect and pure Bride to take unto Himself. For Adam a suitable helper was not found. She is made. Christ Jesus takes a harlot, an adulterous Bride and purifies her with His own righteousness. She is not lovely in herself. It is His love that makes her lovely. “Love to the loveless shown, that they might lovely be” (LSB 430:1). This is the radical nature of our Lord’s love – taking a Bride that did not love Him, giving wine to drunks who do not appreciate it, dying for some who would not have Him.
How does Jesus respond to Mary at Cana? Woman, My hour has not yet come. Woman. The word seems harsh, disrespectful, unloving. It is the proper name of Eve, remember.
And again at the Cross, Woman, behold your son; the beloved Disciple, who shall outlive the others and care for Mary, the Mother of our Lord as if his own mother. And He also said, The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified! By His “glory” He is speaking of His crucifixion; for when He is lifted up He will draw all men unto Himself (Jn 12;32).
At Cana Jesus takes the Jewish jars of purification and filled them to the brim with good wine. Six for the number of the days of creation; the day of the creation of man and woman. For here, upon the Cross, Jesus, the second Adam, the true Man, creates for Himself a perfect Bride from that which is taken from His side – water that fills the Baptismal font and weds you to Christ’s victory over sin and death. For it is written, All who have been baptized into Christ are clothed with Christ. You are given the virginal garment of His righteousness; a pure and holy baptismal gown that covers all your sin and shame.
And the blood that spills from His side fills the chalice to the brim; not the jars of the old covenant, but His blood of the new and everlasting testament; a wedding feast supreme!
Dear Bride of Christ, your Jesus, your Redeemer, has become one flesh with you in order that all that is His might become ours even as all that is ours became His – there, in the nuptials of Calvary. Ours the sin, the death, the darkness, the judgment. His the love, the light, the life, the glory. You are His beloved; flesh of His flesh and blood of His blood. He nourishes and cherishes you.
Our Lord revealed Himself at Cana. He revealed Himself upon the Cross. Our text translates it, And He manifested His glory. That’s fine. But in the Greek it reads, He epiphanied His glory. This is where we get the name of the season.
Glory at either Cana or Cross, it is a hidden glory that our Lord epiphanies. Is it a glory wasted? The best of wines given to men who are already drunk? The death of God for sinners who would reject Him? Is it a waste? Hardly. It is the glory of a God who is determined to go to the uttermost lengths because of His great love for His Bride. Some would not have Him. But it does not stop Him. He gives. Grace upon grace. Love overflowing.
It is the glory of love that no human hatred can destroy, that even death cannot wipe out. A love that ends in Resurrection, which is no end at all, but only the beginning. And that too is in Cana. For remember, this is the third day; this only the first of His signs. The best is yet to come.
And so the Church has always celebrated the Eucharist as the wedding feast of Christ. For in the Eucharist the heavenly Bridegroom, Jesus Christ, comes to His Bride, the Church, and unites Himself to her, so that she might live from His Life.
Here He who took our own flesh from Mary in order to carry our sins to death, places in our mouths that very flesh and blood in order to bind us to Him as “one flesh;” so that as He is risen, you will be raised; so that as He lives in the Father’s glory, you will come to live in the Father’s glory. By this His disciples believed in Him. So to you. Come, join in Cana’s feast. Eat and drink. Believe and live. Amen.
On the third day our Lord went to a wedding in Cana of Galilee where, as His first sign, He gave good wine to drunks.
This is the third day since He called Nathaniel. It may have been the forty-third day since His Baptism. It has been nearly thirty years since the arrival of the Magi.
It was apparently historical tradition that the visitation of the Magi, the Baptism of our Lord, the miracle at Cana all occurred on the same day, only different years. Luther held to this. Doesn’t mean you have too. But it does help convey the great significance of these events – the manifestation, the epiphany of our Lord.
We join these events in our hymnody: “Songs of thankfulness and praise, Jesus, Lord, to Thee we raise, Manifested by the star To the sages from afar, Branch of royal David’s stem In Thy birth at Bethlehem; Anthems be to Thee addressed, God in man made manifest. Manifest at Jordan’s stream, Prophet, Priest, and King supreme; And at Cana wedding guest In Thy Godhead manifest; Manifest in pow’r divine, Changing water into wine; Anthems be to Thee addressed, God in man made manifest” (LSB 394:1,2)
Whether the same date in different years, I don’t know. But that it’s the third day is important. Saint John could have written, “on the next day,” or “on Wednesday,” or “the day after that.” By inspiration of the Holy Ghost he wrote, on the third day. These words are fraught with meaning. Any creed confessing Christian hearing the phrase, on the third day, immediately makes the mental jump – the Resurrection! John wants us to see the connection between our Lord’s first sign and His ultimate sign. He wants us to notice that the first sign takes place at a wedding outside of Judah.
For Jesus has come to end the divorce; the divorce between men and women, Jews and Gentiles, neighbors and brothers; the divorce between body and soul, God and man. In our heavenly Bridegroom we shall be reunited with the Father as we were meant to be – at harmony and peace with ourselves, with one other, and with Him. Babel’s curse and Adam’s curse will both be removed. Jesus provides the wine because He is the true Bridegroom.
Is this not what the prophet Amos wrote? In that day, I will raise up the Succoth of David and repair its breaches. The mountains shall drip sweet wine, and all the hills shall flow with it. Wine is the drink of paradise; the libation of the eschaton. The Lord gives wine that makes glad the hearts of men, writes the Psalmist.
There is so much here that the most significant thing is usually missed. The Gospel of John doesn’t have any spare parts. Everything he writes has full meaning. This is our Lord’s first sign. This isn’t merely an indication of chronology. This is His primary sign – preeminent; it has significance for the rest of His signs. Which begs the question, “Signs of what?” “If this is the first, what is the final and the greatest? And how are they connected?”
John puts it all right here – the third day, Mary, water and wine, a wedding, the manifestation of His glory. Where do we encounter all these again? Where and when do they all come together again in John’s Gospel? Remember the Holy Spirit does not speak uselessly. Jesus did many signs in the presence of His disciples which John does not record. But these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have Life in His Name (Jn 20:30-31).
As John writes chapter 2 he already has in mind the events of chapter 19. Behind the sign at Cana is the greater sign – the sign of the Cross. It is the crucifixion that permeates the story of Cana’s wedding feast and fills it to the brim with meaning. John chapter 2 drips with the sweetness of the death and resurrection of our heavenly Bridegroom.
Consider the events of chapter 19: Jesus, bruised and battered, is hanging upon the Cross, dying. Mary is there. The only other time she is mentioned in John’s Gospel. In fact, her last words are recorded here in chapter two: Do whatever He [Jesus] says. Excellent advice from the woman who represents for us the Church.
As Jesus hangs upon the Cross, forsaken by His Father, He gives Mary into the keeping of the beloved Disciple. He is leaving her – just as Simeon had foretold in the temple: A sword shall pierce your own soul as well. But when is it that Scripture says a man shall leave his father and mother? Why, it’s when he’s getting married! Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and shall cleave unto his wife; and they shall be one flesh (Gn 2:24, KJV).
Is Calvary about a wedding? Is the Cross a marriage?
Before you dismiss this as absurd; before you say, “Come on, Pastor, you’re making too much of it,” consider this: What did God do in Eden when He instituted marriage? Is it not like unto what He did upon the Cross? Then, the man was put into a deep sleep and from his side was taken that from which his bride was made. So it is as Jesus enters the sleep of death, that from His side flow water and blood. From that water God fashions a Bride for His Son – the Church! And from His Blood you are given Life.
We bristle at those words of Ephesians 5, the old Adam and Eve get riled up: Wives, submit to your husbands, as to the Lord. But it’s not in subjugation or domination; rather in humility and requited love, even as the Church submits to Christ. Indeed this is how Christian wives serve Christ and honor His ordered creation. If the husband is the head of marriage, the wife is the heart.
Men, you are not let off the hook; the word to you is even more difficult: Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the Church and sacrificed Himself for her. Did you catch that? Love your wives as Christ loved the Church and DIED for her!
I have said it before: being married is like being crucified. Perhaps now you understand the context a little better. This is marriage and it is symbolic of Christ and His Bride, the Church, for whom He gave Himself that He might sanctify her, that is, make her holy with His own holiness, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the Word, so that He might present the Church to Himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing; holy.
Christ does not find a perfect and pure Bride to take unto Himself. For Adam a suitable helper was not found. She is made. Christ Jesus takes a harlot, an adulterous Bride and purifies her with His own righteousness. She is not lovely in herself. It is His love that makes her lovely. “Love to the loveless shown, that they might lovely be” (LSB 430:1). This is the radical nature of our Lord’s love – taking a Bride that did not love Him, giving wine to drunks who do not appreciate it, dying for some who would not have Him.
How does Jesus respond to Mary at Cana? Woman, My hour has not yet come. Woman. The word seems harsh, disrespectful, unloving. It is the proper name of Eve, remember.
And again at the Cross, Woman, behold your son; the beloved Disciple, who shall outlive the others and care for Mary, the Mother of our Lord as if his own mother. And He also said, The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified! By His “glory” He is speaking of His crucifixion; for when He is lifted up He will draw all men unto Himself (Jn 12;32).
At Cana Jesus takes the Jewish jars of purification and filled them to the brim with good wine. Six for the number of the days of creation; the day of the creation of man and woman. For here, upon the Cross, Jesus, the second Adam, the true Man, creates for Himself a perfect Bride from that which is taken from His side – water that fills the Baptismal font and weds you to Christ’s victory over sin and death. For it is written, All who have been baptized into Christ are clothed with Christ. You are given the virginal garment of His righteousness; a pure and holy baptismal gown that covers all your sin and shame.
And the blood that spills from His side fills the chalice to the brim; not the jars of the old covenant, but His blood of the new and everlasting testament; a wedding feast supreme!
Dear Bride of Christ, your Jesus, your Redeemer, has become one flesh with you in order that all that is His might become ours even as all that is ours became His – there, in the nuptials of Calvary. Ours the sin, the death, the darkness, the judgment. His the love, the light, the life, the glory. You are His beloved; flesh of His flesh and blood of His blood. He nourishes and cherishes you.
Our Lord revealed Himself at Cana. He revealed Himself upon the Cross. Our text translates it, And He manifested His glory. That’s fine. But in the Greek it reads, He epiphanied His glory. This is where we get the name of the season.
Glory at either Cana or Cross, it is a hidden glory that our Lord epiphanies. Is it a glory wasted? The best of wines given to men who are already drunk? The death of God for sinners who would reject Him? Is it a waste? Hardly. It is the glory of a God who is determined to go to the uttermost lengths because of His great love for His Bride. Some would not have Him. But it does not stop Him. He gives. Grace upon grace. Love overflowing.
It is the glory of love that no human hatred can destroy, that even death cannot wipe out. A love that ends in Resurrection, which is no end at all, but only the beginning. And that too is in Cana. For remember, this is the third day; this only the first of His signs. The best is yet to come.
And so the Church has always celebrated the Eucharist as the wedding feast of Christ. For in the Eucharist the heavenly Bridegroom, Jesus Christ, comes to His Bride, the Church, and unites Himself to her, so that she might live from His Life.
Here He who took our own flesh from Mary in order to carry our sins to death, places in our mouths that very flesh and blood in order to bind us to Him as “one flesh;” so that as He is risen, you will be raised; so that as He lives in the Father’s glory, you will come to live in the Father’s glory. By this His disciples believed in Him. So to you. Come, join in Cana’s feast. Eat and drink. Believe and live. Amen.
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