Unknown: And the text for our sermon this morning comes from John's gospel, where, in chapter two, be reading the first 12 verses. And as you hear this, I remind you once again that this is the very Word of God, so please give it your careful and undivided attention John Chapter Two beginning with verse one. On the third day, there was a wedding at Cana in Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there.
Unknown: Jesus also was invited to the wedding with His disciples. When the wine ran out, the mother of Jesus said to him, they have no wine. And Jesus said to her, Woman, what does this have to do with me? My hour has not yet come. His mother said to the servants, Do whatever he tells you. Now there were six stone water jars there for the Jewish rites of purification, each holding 20 or 30 gallons. Jesus said to the servants, fill the jars with water. And they filled them to the brim. And He said to them, now draw some out and take it to the master of the feast.
Unknown: So they took it when the master of the feast tasted the water, now become wine, and did not know where it came from, though the servants who had drawn the water knew the master of the feast, called the bridegroom and said to him, everyone serves the good wine, first when the people have drunk freely, then the poor wine, but you have kept the good wine until now. This was the this the first of his signs Jesus did at Cana in Galilee and manifested His glory. And his disciples believed in him. After this, he went down to Capernaum with his mother and his brothers and his disciples, and they stayed there for a few days.
Unknown: Thus far, the reading of God's Holy Word. Let us pray, Lord God, we thank You for this record of this first of the signs which Jesus did, and we ask that You would help us to understand it well, both in its context and its meaning, both for the audience there, and in particular, for our lives and what you have called us to do and be we ask these things in your name. Amen. Please be seated. History is full of events which seem very small and perhaps insignificant in the moment that they take place, but later in retrospect, are seen to have huge implications over time. One such event was the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo in 1914 though seemingly insignificant at the moment. It ended up precipitating the fall of the Austro Hungarian empire and the outbreak of World War One.
Unknown: Literally millions of lives were changed, and the entire map of Europe was rewritten by an event about those who fall only who followed geopolitical events closely in that day would have even been aware, let alone understand the significance of it at the time, and our passage could perhaps be seen as such a moment, though this is the least of all the signs or miracles that Jesus performs in John's gospel, or really throughout the New Testament, it nonetheless, will have a big impact, and the impact is going to come not from those who immediately benefit from the sign, but rather from those who witness it. And so this morning, let us take a look, first at this wedding, and then the sign that is performed, and finally, the outcome of that sign. First, the wedding. Now John continues here for the only time in his Gospel with a strict chronological account, which began in chapter one, verse 19, with the baptism of Jesus and everything that led up to it.
Unknown: Then we have this wedding at Cana in Galilee, which we're told takes place on the third day. Now that would be two days after the most recent recorded event at the end of chapter one, which was the calling of Nathaniel, who's also from Cana.
Unknown: And this forms the opening of a section in John's gospel, which is going to end in chapter four, also at Cana. And the theme of this broad section is the old passing away and being replaced by the new, which has come now, if we follow John's chronology, this wedding is likely the seventh day from the beginning with John the Baptist in.
Unknown: Chapter One, and it would culminate a week of introduction of Jesus's earthly ministry. And what is going to happen at this wedding. Would be the initiating sign. We're told that Jesus's Mother Mary is at this wedding now that his presumptive father, Joseph is omitted from mention.
Unknown: Here may indicate that he has passed away at this point and that she is a widow, which is almost certainly the case at Jesus' crucifixion later in the Gospel, Jesus and his disciples have also been invited to this wedding. Now, presumably these are the disciples He has just called in the preceding days.
Unknown: And that would be Andrew and his brother, Peter, Philip and Nathaniel, who may in fact be Bartholomew. That may be another name for Bartholomew and an unnamed disciple who accompanied Andrew, who was almost certainly John, the author of the gospel himself. And if it is in fact John, then there is a case to be made that his brother James would also be among them at this point, and this wedding feast that they are attending here would have been a celebration which would have been paid for by the groom. I'm sure that many of you who have daughters might long for such a arrangement to make a comeback, and the feast itself, the celebration might last for as long as a week. And so it's possible that they're there because these are relatives of Jesus' family who are getting married, and that would account for Mary's concern at the exhaustion of the supply of wine. It's even possible that she played a role in arranging the feast, and that's why she's informed that the wine has run out, and such an event would have been a cause for particular shame in a culture that maintained order by threat of shame, as do many cultures today, actually, and the fact that the wine had run out would have been a closely guarded secret until it would have become impossible to hide. Thus, this seemingly innocent announcement they have no wine, that she says to Jesus is actually fraught with implications for the groom and his family. Jesus's response to her is far from Oh, that's terrible. How can I help?
Unknown: Rather, he addresses her as woman, which is hardly a term of endearment. It's somewhat difficult to render in English.
Unknown: Woman is, in fact, a literal translation of what it says in the Greek, but it carries probably a somewhat harsher tone than it had in the original. But this is definitely not the way a son would speak to His Beloved Mother, certainly not to someone who many, many centuries later would be claimed to be the queen of heaven. Jesus's use of it marks a change in his relationship with Mary, which probably carries a tone of mild rebuke, and that's confirmed in him saying to her, what does this have to do with me now that that phrase also is somewhat difficult to translate, but it definitely indicates a distance between two people, or a person in a certain matter, that the it's a statement that they aren't related. Jesus is further says that His hour has not yet come. Now it's a little bit unclear what he means by that.
Unknown: But later in chapter 13, we're told that his hour has come when he is near his betrayal and crucifixion, the passion, if you will. And so his hour, probably at least there, encompasses the whole of the passion, weak His crucifixion, His resurrection and ultimate ascension.
Unknown: But how that relates exactly to this notification from his mother, which carries a tone of request, isn't wholly clear, but it's likely bound up in Jesus's clear desire to keep a low profile, at least in the early parts of His earthly ministry, you may recall that he would frequently admonish those whom He healed to tell no one about it. Now they rarely did keep their mouth shut. Usually they went and told everyone and Jesus. His fame and renown grew as a result. In any case, this all signals a shift in Jesus's relationship to Mary. He is no longer just her son. He is the Son of Man. Still, Jesus's admonition seems to have done little to dull Mary's faith in him as she instructs the servants to do whatever He tells them to do. She clearly still remembers all of the extraordinary events surrounding his birth and early life, which Luke, in his Gospel, tells us she treasured up in her heart, and so now the scene is set for Jesus's first sign, which happens as follows. We're told that there are six stone water jars present for the Jewish rite of purification. Now these would have been different from the earthenware jars which would have been for ordinary use as being hewn out of stone, they would have not allowed any impurities to seep into the water contained within and together, they would have held something between 100 and 150 gallons, maybe even a little bit more than that, and the water that they contained would have been reserved for ritual washings under the Old Testament, which were meant to make one clean, if only temporarily. Jesus orders that these jars be filled with water, and the servants dutifully fill them to the brim at Jesus's command, they take some of the liquid out of the jars and take it to the master of the banquet.
Unknown: Now, the master of the banquet would likely have been some combination of a wedding planner and a Master of Ceremonies who directed the festivities, and he would have likely been somebody of somewhat elevated social status. Now it's easy for us to wonder what was going on. Going through the servants head as he fulfilled Jesus's command, taking water, which was meant for ritual washing in the place of wine, to a man such as the master of the banquet would only have compounded the shame and embarrassment of the bridegroom to fall in the bridegroom. They might have thought that Jesus had it in for this groom. But of course, when it gets to the master of the banquet, it is no longer water, but wine, and not just any wine, but superior wine, far better than what had been served previously. Rather than shaming the bridegroom, the master of the banquet, compliments him on serving the better wine later, when people have been drinking and lost their capacity to tell the difference. And I suspect you understand the principle at work here, you're open the banquet with, say, a lovely red burgundy, and later, when people are too inebriated to tell the difference, well, you break out the two Buck chuck or antifreeze. For that matter, it really doesn't matter. Nobody can tell what they're drinking at that point. And this, this is significant. This is a significant miracle in and of itself. Water has been turned into fine wine. We only see the account of this miracle here in this passage, and it stands alone in many respects, Jesus doesn't heal the blind or the lame or the leper or feed a crowd of 5000 with a couple of loaves and fish. Rather, all he does here is spare a bridegroom significant shame and embarrassment, and frankly, it's unclear that the bridegroom even knows what has been done on his behalf, as the original shortage might have been hidden even from him. Although, if that was the case, the compliment of the quality of wine would have been perplexing. Still, there is great significance in what Jesus does here first, in what it symbolizes. Jesus takes the water of purification of the old covenant and transforms it into the new wine of the New Covenant, something which is markedly better and entirely different. Second, there is significance in the audience.
Unknown: This is a miracle performed very much on the down low, only the servants who will have a story to tell. For the rest of their lives, his mother and most significantly, his disciples, know what took place here, and it is the in the audience that this first sign finds its significance, which brings us to the outcome. We're told in verse 11, that this was Jesus' first sign that manifested His glory, and that his disciples believed in him. Now this is the glory that John spoke of in chapter one. Verse 14, we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth, that certain, this certainly won't be the last manifestation of that glory, but it is a significant one for its effect on the disciples. For even though it would seem that they already believed in him based on their respective confessions of faith in chapter one, here they come to realize that they are in contact with something greater than all their previous categories of belief could imagine. At the end of chapter one, in response to Nathaniel confessing Jesus as the Son of God and the king of Israel, Jesus says the following, because I said to you, I saw you under the fig tree. Do you believe you will see greater things than these?
Unknown: And He said to him, Truly, truly, I say to you, you will see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man, which is a fulfillment of Jacob's vision in Genesis, 28 two days after that, Jesus performs this miracle at the wedding at Cana, the first of the greater things which Nathaniel and the rest of the disciples will see, and which will, as Jesus promised, ultimately result in Heaven itself being opened up and becoming accessible, though they would have reckoned the reckoned themselves as believers before, the disciples are now seeing what they have actually attached themselves to, the symbolism of the medium of cleansing of the Old Covenant being transformed into something far more desirable would likely have not been lost on them, something now which cleanses far more thoroughly is being inaugurated.
Unknown: To be sure, their understanding at this point would have been incomplete, but it was just shoved into another plane, and is the beginning of their preparation as successors to the work which Jesus will begin going forward in John's gospel, there will be many who benefit from Jesus' Miracle much more tangibly than the bridegroom does here, which all culminates in Lazarus being raised from the dead in chapter 11. But the audience, and indeed the focus of those miracles will not change. It is the disciples, their faith is what is being undergirded as they will see all the miracles. Now, in that sense, this miracle, which can come across as almost a throw away in comparison to those which will follow, actually serves as the archetype. And even though the disciples are not going to come to full understanding until Pentecost, the foundation is beginning to be laid here, they are going to graduate from disciples, that is followers, to apostles, those who are sent out the focus. Of Jesus's ministry is revealing himself as a son of God to no one more than his disciples.
Unknown: Those who along the way benefit from the confirming signs he performs would only benefit temporarily from their to the from their earthly relief as evidence, none of them are with us today. The man born blind, Lazarus, they all eventually left the earth, but Jesus's revelation would benefit all who believe eternally through the agency of these apostles. As Paul says in Ephesians, two the household of God is built on the foundation of apostles and prophets. Christ Himself being the being the cornerstone in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord and. In Him, you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit. The beginning of that building begins with the sign that we have here. The disciples are beginning to grow into apostles who will transmit the teaching of Christ, which will form that foundation, it's a chain that reaches us even today. We have this scriptural account that brings us into that very household, as we, like the disciples, believe in Jesus.
Unknown: Beyond the disciples, we are witnesses to this sign because they believed and followed Jesus, even unto death. We who believe now have the same privilege to follow Jesus, who opens heaven for us, like the disciples, it will lead us some places which we don't expect and perhaps even some places we don't particularly want to go, but the most important thing is the ultimate destination, which he told them, Nathaniel, Heaven itself. Apart from him, no one shall reach it. How blessed are those who have found him, the one who opens heaven, and this sign is the beginning of the journey of those who will show it to us. Let us pray, Lord God.
Unknown: We thank you for the record that you give us in scripture of all that you've done throughout the ages and the progression of your redemption that has culminated in Christ. We thank you that we have come to know the one who unlocks heaven for us. We ask that you would bolster our faith even this morning through what we see here, let us know that the miracles that Jesus performed on Earth confirm that he will ultimately perform the miracle of resurrection in us and that we shall be with Him forever. We ask these things in his name, Amen.