The Second Sunday After The Epiphany - January 19, 2025

Summary

Mother Suzanne explores Jesus's first miracle at the wedding in Cana of Galilee (John 2:1-11), explaining how this Epiphany story reveals Christ's glory not through dramatic displays but through transforming purification water into celebration wine. This transformation symbolizes a profound theological shift: Jesus replaces ritual purification with direct access to God, inviting all people without exception to the feast of the new covenant.

THE GOSPEL                                                                                                                            John 2:1-11         

On the third day there was a wedding in Cana of Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there. Jesus and his disciples had also been invited to the wedding. When the wine gave out, the mother of Jesus said to him, "They have no wine." And Jesus said to her, "Woman, what concern is that to you and to me? My hour has not yet come." His mother said to the servants, "Do whatever he tells you." Now standing there were six stone water jars for the Jewish rites of purification, each holding twenty or thirty gallons. Jesus said to them, "Fill the jars with water." And they filled them up to the brim. He said to them, "Now draw some out, and take it to the chief steward." So they took it. When the steward tasted the water that had become wine, and did not know where it came from (though the servants who had drawn the water knew), the steward called the bridegroom and said to him, "Everyone serves the good wine first, and then the inferior wine after the guests have become drunk. But you have kept the good wine until now." Jesus did this, the first of his signs, in Cana of Galilee, and revealed his glory; and his disciples believed in him. 

Artwork: The Wedding at Cana by Paolo Veronese (1562-1563)

Transcript

Mother Suzanne:

How priceless is your love? Oh God. Your people take refuge under the shadow of your wings. They feast upon the abundance of your house. You give them drink from the river of your delights. In the name of the Triune God, father, son and Holy Spirit. Amen. Amen. Please be seated. As Episcopalians besides baptism and holy Eucharist, the church recognizes other spiritual markers, what we call sacraments in our journey of faith, including holy matrimony. Sacraments are outward and visible signs of inward and spiritual grace. And these help us to be sacramental people seeing God always at work in and around us. In fact, in the preamble to the marriage service, in the Book of Common Prayer, our book of worship, the first miracle at a wedding in Cana of Galilee is referenced every time a wedding happens in the Episcopal Church. We remember how in the gospel of John, the first miracle of Jesus and the start of his public ministry happened at a wedding.

It's no coincidence that we hear about this miracle during the season of epiphany as it provides an example of an epiphany and manifestation of Jesus's glory. So glory, John's not talking about the traditional way we might think with bright lights, halos, angels singing hallelujah, but glory. And John comes from the Old Testament idea in regards to the power of God evidenced in epiphanies from the onset of this story. The author mentions no words when he says this. Jesus did this, the first of his signs or miracles at Cana and Galilee. He revealed his glory and the disciples believed in him.

So this asks the question, why would the gospel writer set about starting the public ministry of Jesus in a village with regular people during a wedding, not in the temple surrounded by religious people, but with everyday folk celebrating a wedding? Well, back during the first century, wedding feasts in ancient Israel were serious affairs, often lasting days and weeks on end. Did you know the preferred day of weddings in Israel even today, continues to be Tuesday? Now, the thought behind that is it is the third day. The reason for this goes back to the creation story in Genesis. On the third day, God declares twice that his creative activity is good, very good. Therefore, if married on the third day, those being married will be twice blessed because they honored this day with their wedding.

It's significant that the water was transformed into wine. On the third day this morning, the gospel recounts probably one of the biggest events of Cana for that year. The wedding party would last for days, sometimes weeks, and everybody who was anybody was there there to celebrate those in attendance included Jesus, his disciples, and his mother Mary, in the midst of the celebrating Mary being a mother and probably looking for ways to help overheard one of the servants say to the wine steward that they were almost out of liquid refreshment. I bet you didn't know. I didn't know in this time and at Jewish weddings, running out of wine was a huge no-no, you didn't do that. Why? Because it was a source of embarrassment for the married parties and their families.

So Jesus' mother knows this and doesn't want this to happen. So she goes to Jesus and seemingly motivated by his mother's faith in him, Jesus decides that something has to be done. And so he performs his first sign by turning 180 gallons of water into wine. That's roughly 900 bottles of wine from water. And if that wasn't extravagant enough, Jesus turned the water into the best wine that the party goers had tasted all night. So what's interesting is that John, the gospel writer, takes careful note that the containers that holds this water are stone jars.

So they weren't made in the typical ceramic way out of clay, worked and baked, but instead they were VAEs sculpted out blocks of stone. These jars were really costly. They were the very best you could get and always pure because they were non-porous. So those jars were present because of Jewish purification rituals. What Jesus does is not only unheard of in that he changes this water into wine, but what is significant is that he replaces the water of purification with a fine wine of celebration, which means that Jesus is doing something extraordinary here. He's doing something that hasn't been done before. He's reinterpreting Jewish tradition in that he is saying, now that I'm here, the need for purification is replaced. You can now go to God yourself. You now have direct access to God. All people are welcome at the feast of celebration without exception. In other words, the bridegroom has arrived with new wine and the wedding party of the new covenant has begun.

To put it another way, at one time, access to God was by means of ritual purification getting as clean as you could. But now we find our way to God through Jesus. In the story of the wedding of Cana, far more is going on than an affirmation that Jesus liked a good party and didn't want it to end, or even that he was affirming the institution of marriage. Yes, both of those things are going on and they are true. But for the gospel writer of John, the wedding feast at Cana is nothing less than the revelation of divinity in Jesus as word made flesh.

Again, John doesn't recount that Jesus blessed marriage by being at the wedding. He and his family and friends were simply there and joy. The importance of the wedding setting is that a wedding banquet was a prophetic image of the time of fulfillment and consummation of joy. For John to do this radical thing of opening the public ministry of Jesus with a wedding feast reveals his glory, the messianic time of fulfillment has come, and that the best wine has been saved till now that the Jewish rights, a purification vacation are now obsolete in this new age of banqueting. So Jesus, in his most gracious way, offers wine as a gracious host who invites everyone to the feast. Jesus says, come to me, all you who desire me and eat the fill of my fruits for the memory of me is sweeter than honey, and the possession of me sweeter than honeycomb, those who eat of me will hunger for more, and those who drink of me will thirst for more. If you are hungry, if you are thirsty, come the banquet has been set for you. Amen.