Exodus 33:12-23; Ephesians 5:22-33; St Jon 2:1-11
In the Name + of JESUS. Amen.
St John could have said, “the next day,” or “the day after that,” or “on Friday there was a wedding at Cana in Galilee.” He does not. By inspiration of the Holy Spirit, who spoke by the prophets, he writes, on the third day. He wants to stir your mind as a good decanter aerates a well aged wine. He wants you to draw the connect between this, the first of Jesus’ signs, and the final, culminating sign of Jesus’ own wedding, as it were, at Golgotha. For this sign not only is first, but has primacy. It is a principal sign of Jesus, a telling and revealing sign, in which He manifested His glory and His disciples believed in Him.
For until now His glory had been hidden. Revealed dimly to men of old. Abraham saw Jesus’ day, but only rom afar. It was a long way off and not clearly perceived. Moses beheld the back of the Lord God, but was prohibited from looking upon His face. Isaiah saw Jesus’ glory, says St John, and spoke of Him (Jn 12:41). In fact, He spoke of the glory of the crucified Messiah with such detail and description that some have called Isaiah the fifth evangelist. Yet he also wrote, Lord, who has believed what he heard from us, and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed (Is 53:1)?
They saw in a glass darkly. The shadow was there in the Old Testament, the type was present - in the near sacrifice of Isaac, in the Passover Lamb, in the Day of Atonement. Now, in the revelation of the Christ, the substance has come. The glory of the Lord is revealed and manifested before your eyes that you may see and believe. And that by believing, you may have life in His name.
For on the third day there was a wedding at Cana in Galilee. And Jesus, who led Israel out of the house of bondage, out of slavery by the blood of a lamb and a baptism through the Red Sea; Jesus, who spoke to Abraham from above and stayed his hand from slaughtering his only son, whom he loved; Jesus, who was a husband to His people (Jer 31:32). This Jesus, attends a wedding at Cana in Galilee. His mother was there along with His disciples.
This is YHWH Incarnate, the Word-made-Flesh, who blesses this marriage, and all true, Christian marriages between one man and one woman, with His abiding presence and creative power. Jesus here, as elsewhere, extols the virtue of marriage, blesses it as a godly union in one flesh for mutual companionship and procreative purposes.
To say it simply, marriage is a good and blessed gift from God our Father. We give thanks to God for all the wonderful marriages you experience. We ask His blessing upon those in our midst who are preparing to enter into this holy estate and to grant patience and wisdom to those who long for a pious spouse, but have not yet been given this gift. We also grieve with one another over marriages that have been unlawfully dissolved. We lament divorce, marital discord and strife, and know that such things are the schemes and devices of the Evil One, who continues to disrupt the one flesh union of husband and wife as he did to our first parents.
As important and culturally relevant as all of that is - and if we lose our voice in the public square regarding the Scriptural understanding of marriage, we do, as St Paul says, loose our voice to proclaim the deeper mystery of which marriage is an icon, that is, the mystical union of Christ and the Church. In short, to despise and give up marriage is to despise and give up the Gospel.
And St John would have us see that. He would have us taste that, if you will. For there is more here than weddings and wine. There is the profound mystery of the “Bridegroom’s exceeding wealth and ineffable kindness which He shows to His bride. Behold the sordid past from she is is escaping and the glorious future she is about to enjoy. He does not have her come to Him as His bride because He has longed for her comeliness, or her beauty, or the bloom of her body. On the contrary, the bride He has brought into the nuptial chamber is deformed and ugly, thoroughly and shamefully sordid, and, practically, wallowing in the very mire of her sins” (Chrysostom, Baptismal Instruction 1.3).
Thus does all of Israel plead with the Mother of our Lord for more than wine. She longs for the wedding feast of the Lamb in His Kingdom. She pleads for the blood of Jesus to cleanse her from all unrighteousness. For this alone can sin destroy! All the Church of God in Christ Jesus submits to Christ her Savior and petitions for the wine of His blood which purifies from sin and bestows eternal life through the gift of the Holy Spirit.
For this is His blest epiphany! Did you not sing last Sunday regarding Holy Baptism:
All that the mortal eye beholds
Is water as we pour it.
Before the eye of faith unfolds
The pow’r of Jesus’ merit.
For here is sees the crimson flood
To all our ills bring healing;
The wonders of His precious blood
The love of God revealing
Assuring His own pardon. (LSB 406:7).
The Jewish rites of purification are being filled up in righteousness and replaced by another, different, yet greater purification. This wine purifies, even as God purified His chosen people at Mt Sinai before He gave them His Torah (Ex 19:10). Jesus has taken the six jars, which like our hearts have been hardened and become hypocritical according to the Law; full of fear and dread of God’s judgment. And He transforms the water, with its Jewish rituals, into a sweet and delightful bath. “For when the heart hears that Christ fulfills the Law for us and takes our sin upon Himself, it no longer cares that impossible things are demanded by the Law. This is because the heart now has in Christ all that the Law demands.” Behold not the six stone jars of the Law, but the eight-sided stone font of His Holy Gospel. Here Christ Jesus has sanctified you, cleansed you by the washing of water with His Word, so that He might present you to Himself in splendor, without sport of wrinkle or any such thing. You are holy and without blemish. “The Law is delightful now and easy which before was disagreeable, difficult, and impossible; for it lives in the heart by the Spirit” (Luther, House Postils 2:67-68).
For as the servants, the diakonoi, whom He commanded knew where the best wine came from, so too do you. As Jesus says, If anyone serves, diakone, Me, let Him follow Me; and where I am there shall My servant be also (Jn 12:26). The “servant” is the disciple, and the disciple is “where” Jesus is, that is, in His death.
Beloved, Christ has drawn you to Himself and wed Himself to you as His own flesh, which He nourishes and cherishes as beloved members of His own Body, the Church. He is the Rock which was cleaved open for you, pouring out water and blood, already foreshadowed here at the wedding of Cana. And as He placed Moses in the cleft in the rock as His glory passed by, so it is for you, only greater.
For He who is the Rock hides you within Himself and He reveals to you His glory. That is, as St John the Evangelist declares, He takes you to Himself in the glory of His death. That is His hour. Not merely the moment to give the best wine, but the fullness of time and the great glory of only begotten Son of the Father who has revealed to us the fullness of His grace and truth. Jesus said, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. Truly, truly I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruits. Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. If anyone serves Me, he must follow Me; and where I am, there will My servant be also. If anyone serves Me, the Father will honor him. Now is My soul troubled. And what shall I say? ‘Father, save Me from this hour’? But for this purpose I have come to this hour. Father, glorify Your name.”
Then a voice came from heaven: “I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again.” Jesus answered, “This voice has come for your sake, not Mine. Now is the judgment of this world; now will the ruler of this world be cast out. And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to Myself.” He said this to show by what kind of death He was going to die (Jn 12:23-28, 30-33).
There, upon the scaffold of the Cross, the glorious death, the “hour” of the Son’s passion, where He joins Himself to you in the profound mystery to which marriage points. Husbands, this is how you are to love your wives. Die for her. Wives, standing at the foot of the Cross is your example, St Mary, who represents the Church, which joyfully submits to the servant lordship of Christ.
There He leaves His Father in heaven, obediently submitting to His will, and He leaves His mother to hold fast to His Bride the Church.
The water which poured forth from His side fills the font, by which your soul is adorned in gladness with the wedding garment of Christ’s own righteousness in Holy Baptism.
The blood, which was shed from His riven side and fills the Cup, is presented to you here, in His Supper, the Foretaste of the Marriage Feast of the Lamb in His Kingdom, which has no end.
Come, join in the fulfillment of Cana’s feast, the wedding banquet of your Bridegroom, His true Body given for you, His precious Blood, shed for you for the forgiveness of all of your sins, for the cleansing from transgression, the restoration of the joy of salvation, the sweet wine which gladdens your hearts in Christ Jesus.
In the Name of the Father and + of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
In the Name + of JESUS. Amen.
St John could have said, “the next day,” or “the day after that,” or “on Friday there was a wedding at Cana in Galilee.” He does not. By inspiration of the Holy Spirit, who spoke by the prophets, he writes, on the third day. He wants to stir your mind as a good decanter aerates a well aged wine. He wants you to draw the connect between this, the first of Jesus’ signs, and the final, culminating sign of Jesus’ own wedding, as it were, at Golgotha. For this sign not only is first, but has primacy. It is a principal sign of Jesus, a telling and revealing sign, in which He manifested His glory and His disciples believed in Him.
For until now His glory had been hidden. Revealed dimly to men of old. Abraham saw Jesus’ day, but only rom afar. It was a long way off and not clearly perceived. Moses beheld the back of the Lord God, but was prohibited from looking upon His face. Isaiah saw Jesus’ glory, says St John, and spoke of Him (Jn 12:41). In fact, He spoke of the glory of the crucified Messiah with such detail and description that some have called Isaiah the fifth evangelist. Yet he also wrote, Lord, who has believed what he heard from us, and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed (Is 53:1)?
They saw in a glass darkly. The shadow was there in the Old Testament, the type was present - in the near sacrifice of Isaac, in the Passover Lamb, in the Day of Atonement. Now, in the revelation of the Christ, the substance has come. The glory of the Lord is revealed and manifested before your eyes that you may see and believe. And that by believing, you may have life in His name.
For on the third day there was a wedding at Cana in Galilee. And Jesus, who led Israel out of the house of bondage, out of slavery by the blood of a lamb and a baptism through the Red Sea; Jesus, who spoke to Abraham from above and stayed his hand from slaughtering his only son, whom he loved; Jesus, who was a husband to His people (Jer 31:32). This Jesus, attends a wedding at Cana in Galilee. His mother was there along with His disciples.
This is YHWH Incarnate, the Word-made-Flesh, who blesses this marriage, and all true, Christian marriages between one man and one woman, with His abiding presence and creative power. Jesus here, as elsewhere, extols the virtue of marriage, blesses it as a godly union in one flesh for mutual companionship and procreative purposes.
To say it simply, marriage is a good and blessed gift from God our Father. We give thanks to God for all the wonderful marriages you experience. We ask His blessing upon those in our midst who are preparing to enter into this holy estate and to grant patience and wisdom to those who long for a pious spouse, but have not yet been given this gift. We also grieve with one another over marriages that have been unlawfully dissolved. We lament divorce, marital discord and strife, and know that such things are the schemes and devices of the Evil One, who continues to disrupt the one flesh union of husband and wife as he did to our first parents.
As important and culturally relevant as all of that is - and if we lose our voice in the public square regarding the Scriptural understanding of marriage, we do, as St Paul says, loose our voice to proclaim the deeper mystery of which marriage is an icon, that is, the mystical union of Christ and the Church. In short, to despise and give up marriage is to despise and give up the Gospel.
And St John would have us see that. He would have us taste that, if you will. For there is more here than weddings and wine. There is the profound mystery of the “Bridegroom’s exceeding wealth and ineffable kindness which He shows to His bride. Behold the sordid past from she is is escaping and the glorious future she is about to enjoy. He does not have her come to Him as His bride because He has longed for her comeliness, or her beauty, or the bloom of her body. On the contrary, the bride He has brought into the nuptial chamber is deformed and ugly, thoroughly and shamefully sordid, and, practically, wallowing in the very mire of her sins” (Chrysostom, Baptismal Instruction 1.3).
Thus does all of Israel plead with the Mother of our Lord for more than wine. She longs for the wedding feast of the Lamb in His Kingdom. She pleads for the blood of Jesus to cleanse her from all unrighteousness. For this alone can sin destroy! All the Church of God in Christ Jesus submits to Christ her Savior and petitions for the wine of His blood which purifies from sin and bestows eternal life through the gift of the Holy Spirit.
For this is His blest epiphany! Did you not sing last Sunday regarding Holy Baptism:
All that the mortal eye beholds
Is water as we pour it.
Before the eye of faith unfolds
The pow’r of Jesus’ merit.
For here is sees the crimson flood
To all our ills bring healing;
The wonders of His precious blood
The love of God revealing
Assuring His own pardon. (LSB 406:7).
The Jewish rites of purification are being filled up in righteousness and replaced by another, different, yet greater purification. This wine purifies, even as God purified His chosen people at Mt Sinai before He gave them His Torah (Ex 19:10). Jesus has taken the six jars, which like our hearts have been hardened and become hypocritical according to the Law; full of fear and dread of God’s judgment. And He transforms the water, with its Jewish rituals, into a sweet and delightful bath. “For when the heart hears that Christ fulfills the Law for us and takes our sin upon Himself, it no longer cares that impossible things are demanded by the Law. This is because the heart now has in Christ all that the Law demands.” Behold not the six stone jars of the Law, but the eight-sided stone font of His Holy Gospel. Here Christ Jesus has sanctified you, cleansed you by the washing of water with His Word, so that He might present you to Himself in splendor, without sport of wrinkle or any such thing. You are holy and without blemish. “The Law is delightful now and easy which before was disagreeable, difficult, and impossible; for it lives in the heart by the Spirit” (Luther, House Postils 2:67-68).
For as the servants, the diakonoi, whom He commanded knew where the best wine came from, so too do you. As Jesus says, If anyone serves, diakone, Me, let Him follow Me; and where I am there shall My servant be also (Jn 12:26). The “servant” is the disciple, and the disciple is “where” Jesus is, that is, in His death.
Beloved, Christ has drawn you to Himself and wed Himself to you as His own flesh, which He nourishes and cherishes as beloved members of His own Body, the Church. He is the Rock which was cleaved open for you, pouring out water and blood, already foreshadowed here at the wedding of Cana. And as He placed Moses in the cleft in the rock as His glory passed by, so it is for you, only greater.
For He who is the Rock hides you within Himself and He reveals to you His glory. That is, as St John the Evangelist declares, He takes you to Himself in the glory of His death. That is His hour. Not merely the moment to give the best wine, but the fullness of time and the great glory of only begotten Son of the Father who has revealed to us the fullness of His grace and truth. Jesus said, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. Truly, truly I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruits. Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. If anyone serves Me, he must follow Me; and where I am, there will My servant be also. If anyone serves Me, the Father will honor him. Now is My soul troubled. And what shall I say? ‘Father, save Me from this hour’? But for this purpose I have come to this hour. Father, glorify Your name.”
Then a voice came from heaven: “I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again.” Jesus answered, “This voice has come for your sake, not Mine. Now is the judgment of this world; now will the ruler of this world be cast out. And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to Myself.” He said this to show by what kind of death He was going to die (Jn 12:23-28, 30-33).
There, upon the scaffold of the Cross, the glorious death, the “hour” of the Son’s passion, where He joins Himself to you in the profound mystery to which marriage points. Husbands, this is how you are to love your wives. Die for her. Wives, standing at the foot of the Cross is your example, St Mary, who represents the Church, which joyfully submits to the servant lordship of Christ.
There He leaves His Father in heaven, obediently submitting to His will, and He leaves His mother to hold fast to His Bride the Church.
The water which poured forth from His side fills the font, by which your soul is adorned in gladness with the wedding garment of Christ’s own righteousness in Holy Baptism.
The blood, which was shed from His riven side and fills the Cup, is presented to you here, in His Supper, the Foretaste of the Marriage Feast of the Lamb in His Kingdom, which has no end.
Come, join in the fulfillment of Cana’s feast, the wedding banquet of your Bridegroom, His true Body given for you, His precious Blood, shed for you for the forgiveness of all of your sins, for the cleansing from transgression, the restoration of the joy of salvation, the sweet wine which gladdens your hearts in Christ Jesus.
In the Name of the Father and + of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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