The kind of Savior who changes water into wine

Sermon for Epiphany 2

Romans 12:6-16  +  John 2:1-11

Since Christmas, the Scriptures have been introducing Jesus to the world as the Savior, who is Christ the Lord. We saw Him as a baby in the stable, and with the wise men, and in the temple. We saw Him again as a 12-year-old child in the temple. And on Wednesday we saw Him as a 30-year-old man being baptized, and anointed with the Holy Spirit, and acclaimed by God the Father as His beloved Son, in whom the Father is well-pleased. The next event in Jesus’ life was His 40-day fast and temptation in the wilderness, which we’ll talk about during the Lenten season. But the next events after that are recorded in today’s Gospel, which includes the very first miracle Jesus performed. In all these stories, the world is getting to know the Savior whom God has sent, and each account teaches us something important about Him.

As our Gospel begins, Jesus has just been called the Lamb of God by John the Baptist, just a few days earlier. He has just gathered to Himself His first five disciples, still part-time apprentices for the time being, and all of them were from up north, from the region of Galilee, just like Jesus. After teaching them for just a day or two, they headed up to Galilee to a wedding, to which both Jesus and His mother Mary, and these five Galilean disciples, had all been invited. Stop and think about that for a moment. This wedding must have been planned for some time. Those invitations must have gone out months before, probably before Jesus was baptized, certainly before He called these first disciples. It wasn’t by chance that they met Jesus or started following Jesus when they did. It was God’s providence and plan that brought Jesus and these five disciples to the wedding that day, just as these disciples were starting to get to know Jesus.

What’s the first thing we learn about Jesus here? We learn that, as the God-Man sent on the most important mission in all of history, He is happy to attend a common wedding celebration. That says something about how He views marriage, as something good, as something worth celebrating. It says something about how He views human interactions, as necessary and important. It shows something about how He wants to interact with people. For the last six months or more, Israel had been getting to know God through the prophet John the Baptist, who lived an isolated, austere life alone in the wilderness, always serious, never drinking even a drop of wine, much less attending parties or joining in social activities. Jesus would not be like that.

Now, understand. Both John and Jesus were doing exactly what God wanted them each to do. But John’s was a ministry that focused almost entirely on recognizing and repenting of sin, and pointing people away from himself to Jesus, in whom they would find forgiveness and salvation, and so his own ministry was austere, solemn, and not what you would call “friendly,” while Jesus’ ministry was focused on receiving those who recognized their sins into God’s grace and into God’s house. A much friendlier kind of ministry. Both kinds of preaching are essential, and Jesus would do His share of condemning sin in the impenitent, and calling sinners to repentance, sometimes angrily berating the hypocritical religious leaders who were leading people astray from God. But it’s a matter of focus, a matter of goals. The goal of Jesus’ ministry would not be to leave people terrified because of their sins, or pointing them somewhere else for salvation. The goal of His ministry would be to bring sinners to Him, leaving them at peace, blessed, even happy, with a godly sort of happiness. We begin to see that in Jesus’ decision to attend a wedding celebration as the first public act of His ministry.

What’s the next thing we learn about Jesus as we’re “getting to know Him”? We learn that His relationship with His mother has changed from what it was. Up until very recently, Jesus had been living at home with her in Nazareth. Now He has begun His ministry as the Christ. Now He has begun to gather disciples to teach them as their Rabbi. Now He would no longer be consulting her, seeking her advice, or involving her in His decisions. Mary needed to be instructed about that change.

She seemed to think that Jesus ought to do something about the wine running out at the wedding reception, and she seemed to think it was her place to prompt Him to do something about it. When the wine ran out, Jesus’ mother said to him, “They have no wine.” It wasn’t an order. It was just a bit of information, but it came with an implied suggestion. “Maybe this is Your opportunity to reveal Yourself to the world!”

But we see that Jesus didn’t say, “Yes, mother! You’re right!” or “Thanks for letting me know!”  He used a Hebrew idiom that’s used in a few places in the Old Testament and a couple of times in the New. In every place, the phrase can be translated, “What have I to do with you?” It was a phrase used by the king of Egypt to King Josiah of Judah. It was a phrase used by the prophet Elisha to the wicked king Joram of Israel. It was a phrase used by a demon when talking to Jesus. What have I to do with you? Jesus is putting some distance between Himself and Mary, as having different aims, different goals, different purposes. And He calls her, not “mother,” but “woman,” not a harsh thing to say, but it’s a very direct indication that Jesus’ role as the Christ has nothing to do with His personal relationship with Mary. She will always be His mother, of course, but that motherly role or motherly relationship will have no special influence on Him or on His ministry. If only the generations after the apostles had paid attention to that!

My hour has not yet come, Jesus adds. “My hour” is a reference to the time when Jesus to bring His ministry to its fulfillment in giving Himself up to His enemies and allowing Himself to be put to death on a cross. That was “His hour” to reveal Himself to the world, to complete His God-given mission. Already at the outset of His ministry, Jesus has an eye on the end of it. In other words, He knows the plan. He doesn’t need or want Mary’s help.

Nevertheless, in spite of those words, Mary suspects that Jesus might yet do something about the wine situation, so she tells the servants, Whatever he says to you, do it. And He did use this as an opportunity, not to put on a big show, not to reveal Himself to the world, but to just a handful of people—His new disciples, and, of course, the servants to whom He would give instructions.

He told them to fill up the six stone jars that were standing there with water, and then to draw some out and take it to the master of the feast, the man in charge of inspecting and approving everything for the party. And it says that When the master of the feast had tasted the water that had become wine, not knowing where it was from (but the servants who had drawn the water knew), the master of the feast called the bridegroom and said to him, “Everyone sets out the good wine first, and when the people are drunk, then he sets out the inferior wine. But you have reserved the good wine until now.” And in this simple miracle of changing water into wine, we learn so much about Jesus, and about the kind of Savior, the kind of Christ He is going to be.

First, notice the low-key nature of this miracle. As we already said, it was only known to a handful of people, most importantly, to Jesus’ new disciples, and it had the intended impact on them. As John writes, This was the first of the signs Jesus did in Cana of Galilee, and he revealed his glory, and his disciples believed in him.

Second, notice the power-of-creation aspect of this miracle. Jesus didn’t perform any magic here. He used the same divine power He had used at the creation of the world to take water molecules and turn them into something else with a word, with a thought. He didn’t have to pray for God the Father to do this, or wait for a word from God, telling Him or enabling Him to do this. He did as He pleased, knowing that it would bring glory to His Father.

Third, notice the high-quality aspect of this miracle. He didn’t make something that could barely pass for wine. He made real wine, and, according to the master of the feast, the best wine.

Fourth, notice the generous nature of this miracle. Jesus didn’t have to help out the bride and groom. It wasn’t His responsibility. But He chose to do it, both out of kindness toward them and to teach His disciples these lessons. And He chose to make, not just a few bottles’ worth of wine, but the equivalent of about 300 bottles of wine.

Finally, notice the celebratory nature of this miracle. It’s not healing a debilitating disease, or casting out fiendish demons. It’s not calming a raging storm, or raising the dead, or even providing sustenance for the hungry—all of which Jesus would do during the course of His three-year ministry, where He fixed a few of the many problems that plague the human race. No, this was a miracle of transformation, for the purpose of enjoyment, for the purpose of celebration. Wine is not necessary. It’s not a need. And it’s not there to fix a problem. It’s for our enjoyment, and for rejoicing together when we celebrate something worth celebrating. (Obviously it has other uses, but that’s what it’s for, from a Biblical perspective.)

When we put together all these lessons, Jesus’ disciples got a good first picture of the kind of Savior Jesus was going to be, and it also helps us to see Him for who He is. He is a Savior who doesn’t seek to impress people, but to teach people about God’s promise to save us from our sins through Him. He is a Savior who is both true God and true Man, both our Brother and our God, and we do well to remember both things. He’s a Savior who didn’t come to help us scrape by, but that we might have the best future, the best inheritance in heaven, to have life and life in abundance. He’s a Savior who is overflowing in generosity toward all who come to Him, and who would have His people be generous to others, as He has been generous to us. And He’s a Savior who gives us something worth celebrating—true happiness in God, in His Word, in the fellowship of His Church, in His salvation, in the love God had for us, that He would send His Son to suffer and die for our sins, that He would bring us to Baptism and call us His children, that He would give us a celebratory meal of His body and blood, joined to enjoyable things like bread and wine, that He would choose to dwell among us forever and celebrate with us forever. That’s the kind of Savior Jesus reveals Himself to be in today’s Gospel, and throughout His life—a Savior who gives us reason to celebrate, a Savior worth celebrating. Amen.