Bible Passage: John 2:1-11
Pastor: Joel Jenswold
Sermon Date: January 16, 2022

Bulletin January 16, 2022

In the name of, and to the eternal glory of, Jesus,

“What a glorious wedding!”  I suspect those words have been spoken many times in history.  And those words have been spoken for many reasons.  Maybe it was a spectacular wedding venue, or church where the wedding took place.  Maybe the bride had an amazing dress.  Some of you here remember watching the wedding of Lady Diana to Prince Charles and the camera view from behind Diana as she walked down the aisle and the almost unbelievable train she had on her dress.  Maybe it was said about the food served at the reception or the dazzling, multi-tiered cake.  Any number of things might cause one to exclaim, “What a glorious wedding!”

But only once in history could those words be uttered in the way we are going to say them today.  Because today we are not thinking about dresses and trains, and venues and cakes.  Today we are going to say those words about a wedding that was truly glorious!  Glorious because Jesus Christ, the Son of God, manifested his divine glory there!  It was that now-famous wedding in Cana about which we can truly say:  What a Glorious Wedding!

Our text begins by telling us Jesus and his mother and his disciples were invited to a wedding in Cana.  Cana was a little village not too far, a few miles, from Jesus’ hometown of Nazareth in Galilee.  We don’t know who the bride and groom were.  Were they relatives of Jesus?  Friends?  Don’t know.  But at this point we might say, “What a fun wedding!”  It’s always fun to go to a wedding with family and friends.

But things take a turn.  At the celebration, they run out of wine.  Might not seem like a big deal.  But it is if it’s your wedding.  Now at this point, some might want to blurt, “Oh, what a disastrous wedding!”  Mary, however, says something different.  She says to Jesus, They have no wine. (v. 3)  That’s interesting, isn’t it?  She doesn’t ask him to do a thing.  She doesn’t advise him to do a thing.  She simply lets him know.

What Jesus says in response has often been misunderstood.  He says to his mom, Woman, what does that have to do with you and me? (v. 4)  Some hear in Jesus’ response a harsh rebuke to his mother.  Almost as if Jesus is saying, “How dare you presume to advise me what to do!”  I don’t think that is the tone at all.  Is it possible to see a very kind look on Jesus’ face, even a smile, as he says, Woman, what does that have to do with you and me?  And then he adds something that Mary will grab hold of.  My time has not yet come (v. 4)  Aha!  “Not yet.”  Mary senses in “not yet” the germ, the sprout, of something brewing.  She finds the staff, Do whatever he tells you. (v. 5)

“Not yet” becomes “now.”  At the reception six, stone jars were on hand that contained water for ceremonial cleansing, for example, like washing their hands before eating a meal containing bread.  Jesus tells the staff to fill each jar with water.  They do, each jar filled to the rim.  Jesus then instructs, Now draw some out and take it to the master of the banquet. (v. 8)  They do.  When the master of the banquet tastes it, he is taken aback.  It’s wine!  Good wine, too!  Shockingly good wine!  The best!  And a lot of it!  Using the numbers given in Scripture, we can calculate that Jesus provided as much as 130 bottles of wine! The master finds the groom.  Everyone serves the good wine first, and when the guests have had plenty to drink, then the cheaper wine.  You saved the good wine until now! (v. 10)

What a glorious wedding!  Not just because there was more wine to drink!  But because HOW that wine was provided.  Our text tells us that by changing that water into wine, Jesus revealed his glory (v. 11)  John calls what Jesus did here the beginning of his miraculous signs (v. 11).  We all know what signs do.  Signs are meant to get your attention.  “Road closed.”  “Danger. Stay out.”  We need to pay attention to signs!  This was a sign.  It was saying, “There is more to this man than meets the eye!  This man can completely upend the laws of winemaking.  Usually it takes grapes and sugar and time.  For this man, it took water.  Who can do such a thing but God!”  Indeed, who but God!

How many people at that wedding knew what happened?  Our text tells us that the master of the banquet didn’t know where the wine came from.  The servants who had filled the jars knew.  Did anybody else?  Or did they just continue celebrating, occasionally filling their cups with this unusually good wine?  The disciples knew.  And we are told what this sign did for them.  And his disciples believed in him. (v. 11)  This miracle confirmed, strengthened, solidified, “shored up” their budding trust in Jesus.

Friends, that is what the miracle stories of Jesus in the Bible are to do for us.  They are recorded for us so that we might see Jesus’ glory, and believe!  When we go to this wedding reception and see this miracle, it is so that we might stand in awe and say, “Surely, this is the Son of God!”  When we see every miracle recorded – the healings, the feeding of the 5000 and the 4000, the calming of the storm, the walking on water, the raising of the dead – every one of them is recorded so that we see Jesus’ glory and stand in awe and say, “Surely, this is the Son of God!”  And it all leads up to that Friday afternoon and a cross.  And there is a man on that cross.  And eternity hangs in the balance with the proper identification of this man.  Who is this man?  Is he just some overzealous Jewish teacher who challenged religious and political authority and paid dearly with his life?  Or is he the Son of God, whose death on the cross atones for the sins of the whole world, mine included?  We have seen the wine!  We have seen the signs! We have seen his glory!  We stand with the centurion at Calvary on Good Friday and we say, Surely this man was the Son of God!  (Mark 15:39)

And it doesn’t end with a cross and a death.  It ends with a resurrection and…a wedding!  You see, everything Christ did was in preparation for a wedding.  Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy…He did this so that he could present her to himself as a glorious church, having no stain or wrinkle or any such thing. (Ephesians 5:25, 27)  And the glorious day is coming when the cleansed and radiant bride and Groom will be together..  Soon. On the Last Day.  Of that day John writes in Revelation: 6 And I heard what seemed to be the roar of a large crowd or the roar of many waters or the sound of loud rumblings of thunder, saying: Alleluia! For the Lord our God, the Almighty, reigns. 7 Let us rejoice and be glad and give him glory, because the wedding of the Lamb has come. His bride has made herself ready, 8 and she was given bright, clean, fine linen to wear. (In fact, the fine linen is the “not guilty” verdicts pronounced on the saints.)  9 The angel said to me, “Write: Blessed are those who are invited to the wedding supper of the Lamb.” (Revelation 19:6-9)  What a glorious wedding!

Amen.

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