Sermons

Introduction: Did you get what you wanted for Christmas? Did you make up a wish list and leave it out where someone could find it and figure out what you wanted as a gift for Christmas? Sometimes when people are shopping for gifts they ask the person what they need. While this may happen at Christmas time, it also happens in a big way when there’s a wedding in the family. The bride and groom register for gifts so that their wedding guests will know what to get them to help them start their new life together. In our text for this morning, Jesus goes to a wedding. During the course of that wedding, Jesus gives the bride and groom his wedding gift. But Jesus didn’t have to check a gift registry to know what they needed. No one had to leave out a list of needed gifts for Jesus to find, because Jesus already knew what they needed. Like everything else in his life, this gift that Jesus gave fit right in line with his mission, with his ministry. The gift that he gave was also a miracle, a miracle that revealed his glory. (Reading of the text) I. It fits his ministry (1-5) Jesus began his earthly ministry at his baptism. From there he began to call his disciples. At this early stage in his ministry, we find him attending a wedding with the disciples he had already called. We might wonder why Jesus took time out of his schedule to go to a party, why he wasn’t taking the time to teach and preach. But he had been invited, and Jesus often accepted invitations to meals with people. Even when Pharisees invited him to dinner with the intention of trapping Jesus in his words, Jesus went and had opportunities to teach and preach. With Mary helping and being concerned about the meal plans, there is also a possible family connection. Jesus may have been invited to the wedding of one of his relatives. By going to the wedding, he was not only honoring the invitation, but also showing his true humanity. As true man, he hungered and was thirsty, and as we see here, he honored social customs. During the course of the wedding feast, a problem came up. For one reason or another, they were running short on wine. This would have been a more serious problem for them than it would be for us. At a wedding reception today, there are all sorts of different things to drink, and if one runs out, there are plenty of others. But in Jesus’ day, before refrigeration, there would have been little else to drink besides wine. It was a real crisis that Mary brought before her son Jesus. Mary came to her son and merely stated the case. She says, “They have no more wine.” But this was much more than a mere statement of fact. Along with her statement came the implication that she wanted Jesus to do something about the situation. Jesus was not a wealthy man, so she probably didn’t expect him to go out and buy more wine. She was hoping for a special work of her son’s power. But Jesus doesn’t respond with, “Yes, Mother.” He says, “Why do you involve me?” Another way to translate it is, “What does that have to do with you and me?” Jesus doesn’t refuse to act, but he makes it clear that his ministry is not subject to his mother’s rule. The use of Jesus’ power was at his discretion, not his mother’s. We need to be reminded of this as well. We have dreams and goals for our lives, and sometimes crises, and all too often we try to tell God how to use his power. We make plans about how the course of our life should go, and sometimes God causes our life to go in a different way than the one we had planned. We look back on it and say, “If only God would have done it this way instead.” Sometimes as we approach a situation, we take the attitude, “If you look at the situation God, it obvious that you should make my work easier, or improve my health or the health of a loved one, or provide me with this or that physical blessing.” In our sinfulness, we are arrogant enough to tell God what his plan is and how he should reveal it. God rebukes us with his law when our sinful heart tries to dictate God’s course of action. But Jesus’ words of rebuke to his mother also imply a promise. He says to her, “My time has not yet come.” This implies that the time will come, that there will be a time that is right for him to display his power. Mary understood this. Her faith seizes upon the implied promise in Jesus’ words. And that faith leads to action. She gives the servants instructions to do whatever Jesus asks, no matter how odd it might sound to them. She didn’t know what he would do, but she knew that Jesus could do anything if it was his will. Jesus did step forward to help, but the gift of wine he gave them was in line with his Father’s will and with his mission and ministry, God’s plan of salvation. Unlike us, he did everything in his Father’s timetable, not his own. And he did that more than just the instance we have before us today. Jesus perfectly followed his Father’s timetable, and he perfectly followed the Father’s plan for our salvation. Instead of telling his Father how to run things, he followed the path set before him and did not deviate from it, following it all the way to his death on the cross. And that’s Jesus’ wedding gift to us. The Bible speaks of the church and Jesus as bride and groom because they share that close bond. Jesus gave the gift of wine to drink at the wedding in Cana, but it was a sign of the greater gift he would give by sacrificing himself in our place. As a wedding gift to his bride, the church, Jesus gives the gift of salvation. An exchange takes place. We give our sins to him, our arrogance in telling God how to show his power, our second-guessing of God’s timetable. In exchange for all of our ugliest faults, Jesus gives us the beautiful wedding clothes of forgiveness so that we are dressed and ready for the wedding banquet of heaven. Our response is to remain calm when the path of our lives takes an unexpected turn. When we know that our eternal future is certain, we trust God to reveal himself to us in his own way and in his own time. We know that he gives us physical blessings to maintain our earthly lives. Knowing that God provides for our spiritual lives helps us to remain calm when a loved one is sick or there is financial difficulty, or any other difficulty we might face here on earth. II. It Reveals his Glory (6-11) When Jesus stepped in to help the couple with their shortage of wine, the gift he gave fit his ministry, but it also had a second purpose. Its purpose was to reveal Jesus’ glory. The servants at the wedding didn’t know if or how Jesus was going to provide for the shortage of wine at the banquet. But they didn’t have to wait too long for Jesus to give his wedding gift, the wedding gift that revealed Jesus’ glory. The ‘not yet’ that Jesus had given his mother became ‘now is the time’ to the servants at the banquet. Jesus begins to give them commands. He tells them to fill the water jars all the way to the top. And the servants respond in faith to the Savior’s command. They act immediately to begin filling the water jars. None of the servants say, “Are you sure that’s what you want us to do?” They continue to follow Jesus’ commands and take some of the water to the master of the banquet. And here’s where the miracle takes place; here’s where the Savior’s glory is revealed. When the master of the banquet tastes the water, it has been turned into wine. And the wedding gift of wine that Jesus gave was not a standard quality wine, with just enough to go around. The wine that Jesus made from the water was so good that the master of the banquet checked with the groom to make a sure that a mistake hadn’t been made. And even going with the smaller estimate of twenty gallons for each water jar, that’s still 120 gallons of wine! The banquet could last for days, and now they had plenty of wine. When Jesus gives a gift, it exceeds all expectations. But in spite of the many wonderful physical gifts God gives us like food and shelter, we still don’t make the best use of the spiritual gifts God has given us. Instead of living our faith in thanks to God by obeying his commands, we give him half-hearted service and question the guidance he gives us in his Word. When God’s Word tells us to repent, we question whether we really sinned and try to make God’s law sound like it fits our lives. Or when we hear the Great Commission, God’s command to share God’s news of salvation with all people, do we shrug it off and say, “That’s the pastors’ or teachers’ or vicar’s job”? Our sinful nature doesn’t want Jesus’ glory to shine. It wants to keep Jesus hidden so it can live the way that it wants. But Jesus didn’t allow the brightness of his glory to be hidden. His wedding gift of wine to this couple revealed his glory. It was a bright beacon, a flashing neon sign pointing to his divine nature, just like the star that the Magi followed to find the King of Kings. The wedding gift that he gave pointed ahead to the gift he would give all people as the Savior, the gift of eternal life. That gift is ours through faith in Jesus. Jesus’ disciples who were with him at the wedding saw Jesus reveal his glory with his wedding gift. Their only response was trust. John says it simply, “and his disciples put their faith in him.” This is also our response. When we see Jesus’ glory as Savior revealed in God’s Word and look forward to his glory being revealed to us again on Judgment Day, we put our trust in him. We trust him during the hard parts in our lives, those times when God’s plans don’t match our plans of an easy life. Our trust in him also gives us the confidence and motivation to share the gospel with others, letting God’s glory shine. Conclusion: Even if we didn’t know what we wanted for Christmas, God knew what we needed and put it on his list of gifts to give us. In addition to all the physical blessings he gives us such as food and drink, he gave us the best spiritual blessing of all, his Son, Jesus Christ. Jesus revealed his glory so that we would know how much our God loves us. As his bride, the church, we have been given the most precious wedding gift ever, salvation from sin. May we always treasure the wedding gift Jesus gives us. Amen.