Bible Text: John 2:1-11 | Preacher: Pastor Andrew Richard
On the sixth day of creation there was a joyful wedding as the Lord joined Adam and Eve together in marriage. The wine of gladness flowed freely there in paradise. But then that wine ran out as Adam and Eve sinned, suffered corruption, and got pain and death, which, through Adam, has come upon the whole human race. Yet at that time the Lord promised a Seed of the woman who would defeat the devil and restore to us joy and gladness. Today we see Him arrive to the wedding, and by His mercy the wine of our joy flows once more.
We don’t know who the bride and groom were at the wedding at Cana. John obviously knew. He was there. He doesn’t say, because the wedding at Cana isn’t about that couple. The only man and woman who receive any focus in the account of the wedding are Jesus and Mary, and that’s worth our attention. Jesus is the true Bridegroom, the ultimate Husband, the one on whose account the earthly office of husband exists at all. Indeed the whole institution of marriage is based on the marriage of Christ to His Church, as you heard in the epistle reading. So it shouldn’t surprise us that Jesus looks like the bridegroom at the wedding.
As for Mary, she acts toward Jesus as the Church acts toward Jesus, because she’s a Christian, a member of Christ’s Church, and thus does what the bride of Christ does. She encounters disaster, and she goes to Jesus with it. That’s the natural reaction of faith. I have a problem? Jesus will help. He will fix it and make it all better. And the problem doesn’t even seem a particularly large one in the grand scheme of things. But you’ve probably been at a wedding reception before and seen a woman who spots a problem and feels some responsibility for the fact that it isn’t right and gets wide-eyed and frantic. You can’t walk up to her and tell her that the problem isn’t a particularly large one, both because you wouldn’t convince her, and also because it’s probably the last thing you would ever say. It might as well be the end of the world, that’s the sort of problem it is in her mind. And Christ’s bride, the Church, is like this. Each Christian must acknowledge, “I’m like this.” I fixate on little things and look at anthills as if they were mountains, and I see the wind and the waves and cry out to the incarnate Son of God who is right there in the boat, “Do You not care?” as if it were possible that He would become a man and not care about men, and bend the entire course of world history toward accomplishing my redemption and then cast me off. Who do you think you are? Some pagan whose false god doesn’t love him? No, you’re a Christian! Stop worrying so much! Yet even when our sinful flesh sins by its anxiety, faith nevertheless takes that anxiety in hand and brings it to Jesus and casts it on Him and trusts that He will make it His problem, and faith knows it will not be disappointed. So in faith Mary approaches Jesus and says, “They have no wine” (Jn. 2:3).
Now Jesus’ response is very interesting. He says, “Woman, what does this have to do with me? My hour has not yet come” (Jn. 2:4). Whenever Jesus speaks of “My hour,” He is referring to the hour of His death. In John 7 and 8 when people try to seize Jesus, it says, “No one laid a hand on Him, for His hour had not yet come” (Jn. 7:30, 8:30). But then at the Last Supper it says, “Jesus knew that His hour had come…” (Jn. 13:1). And when Jesus prays before His passion, He begins by saying, “Father, the hour has come” (Jn. 17:1). When Jesus tells Mary, “My hour has not yet come,” it’s like He’s saying, “You are right to look to Me to make the wine of gladness flow once more. Indeed, for this reason I have come, to provide the wine of My own blood for the forgiveness of man’s sins. Rest assured, I will pour it from my side when I wed Myself to My Church in My death. But that’s not the wedding at Cana, but the wedding at Golgotha, and that hour has not yet come.”
Yet Jesus is not refusing to hear Mary’s request. He’s teaching her what she’s ultimately asking, and Jesus often does that with our prayers. We ask for something little, thinking that it will meet the need we perceive. Yet the need requires much more than that, and Jesus doesn’t hesitate to show us how much He’s willing to give. We pray, for example, for healing from a cold, when in reality our need is to live in a world where there are no colds, no sickness and no death. And Jesus is willing to do much more than take one little cold upon Himself. He’s willing to die to atone for the sins that brought colds into the world, so that one day we can live with Him in a new heavens and a new earth where we’ll never have to sniffle and sneeze again. As Jesus said to Mary so He says to us: that hour is not yet. But just as Jesus heals us from our little colds now as a pledge that He has forever redeemed us from death and will cause us to live forever, so also He caused wine to flow at the wedding at Cana as a pledge that He would make His own blood flow for our salvation on the cross.
Mary knows that Jesus is not putting her off. Jesus never closes His ears to His dear Christians. So she turns to the servants and says, “Do whatever He tells you” (Jn. 2:5). Again, this is the response of faith. Faith brings requests to Jesus, then puts all that it has at Jesus’ disposal, and leaves the rest to Him. Mary doesn’t dictate or presume. She doesn’t try to tell Jesus how it’s going to be. She defers to Him, trusts His wisdom and judgment, and very contentedly leaves herself at His mercy. This is a beautiful image of what we heard in the epistle reading, “the church submits to Christ” (Eph. 5:24).
Now the world turns up its nose at the word “submission.” This is because the sinful nature wants to be over everything and under nothing, completely autonomous, answerable to nobody. In short, the sinful nature wants to be God. The sinful nature cannot see any blessing in submission, but equates it with being oppressed and tyrannized. Yet is that what we see in Mary? Is she oppressed as she leaves all her cares to her Lord who loves her? Is she tyrannized as Jesus takes up her problems as His own and does something about them? Of course not! Submitting to Jesus leaves her carefree. She has the same peace and rest that you enjoy in submitting to Jesus. Think about it. Would you rather be independent, look after your own life, solve all your own problems, try to figure out how to forgive your own sins? You know not to choose that. That’s stupid. That’s the path to hell. Or would you rather be completely dependent on Jesus, have Him look after your life, have Him solve your problems, have Him forgive your sins? What great blessing there is in submitting to Christ!
And this is how we should think of all submission to God-given authority, as beneficial for the one under that authority. God explains this in the Fourth Commandment, “Honor your father and your mother that it may go well with you.” The one under authority is the one who benefits. This is how the Apostle Paul teaches wives, as you heard in the epistle, “Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord” (Eph. 5:22). Wives should see that their husbands hold an office that most properly belongs to Jesus Himself, and just as you Christian wives don’t think ill of having Jesus as your eternal Bridegroom, so you shouldn’t think ill of your earthly husband, but regard him as standing in the stead of Christ in your marriage, because he is. Speak of your husband as the Church speaks of Christ, with honor and fondness, and not with complaint or slander. Act toward your husband as the Church acts toward Christ, respectfully and meekly, casting your cares on him, taking refuge in him.
Young ladies who are not married, you should also keep these words of Paul in mind. While you have no call from the Lord to submit yourself to every man you meet, you should nevertheless be practicing that submissive spirit. You can’t be a flirt or a shrew and expect to suddenly become something else when you’re standing at the altar saying your wedding vows. You can’t speak condescendingly about men, scoff at them, and think them stupid and then expect to be happily married. Now’s the time for adorning yourself “with the incorruptible ornament of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is very precious in the sight of God,” as it says in 1 Peter 3:4. The best way to do that is by recognizing what a joy it is to submit to Christ, for in Him you see what great blessing there is in being under the authority of a man.
Just see what Jesus does with Mary’s petition. She brought her problem to Jesus, subordinated herself and everything she had to Jesus, trusted that He would hear and act. And Jesus at once spoke to the servants in gracious answer, “Fill the jars with water… Now draw some out and take it to the master of the feast” (Jn. 2:7-8). And suddenly there was more wine. See what Jesus is willing to do to grant the prayers of His Christians. He makes water change into wine. He takes one thing and turns it into another. And Jesus continues to do this all the time for you, as you well know who pray and pay attention to the answers to your prayers. Jesus takes a hopeless situation full of tears and makes it a cause for smiles. He makes you sing in Psalm 30, “You have turned for me my mourning into dancing” (Ps. 30:11).
But these everyday changes are nothing compared to the changes Jesus has caused by making ordinary human things His own. Jesus has taken human birth and made it the advent of God in His birth. Jesus has taken death, and by making it His death, He has made it your life. Jesus has taken a sinner and turned him into a saint. In the Old Testament Samuel said of Saul, “The Spirit of the Lord will come upon you, and you will…be turned into another man” (1 Sam. 10:6), and so it has happened with you. He who turned the sea into dry land (Ps. 66:6) and turned the rock into a pool of water (Ps. 114:8) by His Word turns ordinary water into a washing of regeneration and renewal by the Holy Spirit. Jesus takes bread and wine and with the same voice that said, “draw some out and take it to the master of the feast,” he turns that bread and wine into His own body and blood. “True wonders still by Him are wrought.”
And notice in all these things how Jesus uses His authority over us. He uses it to give of Himself, as we heard in the epistle, “Christ loved the Church and gave Himself up for her” (Eph. 5:25). Jesus does not see authority as getting, but as giving. He says of Himself, “The Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many” (Mt. 20:28). This is why it’s so pleasant to submit to Him: because He uses authority selflessly.
Husbands, you should see that this is the use of authority to which Christ has called you. As a husband you hold the office of giving of yourself for your bride, because that’s what Jesus does with that office. Mary brought her problem to Jesus, and Jesus didn’t go off to enjoy the wedding and leave her to deal with it, but He took the trouble and let her have the joy, and so it must be for you. You bear burdens, for the Lamb of God bore the sin of the world, and you sacrifice, for Jesus loved not His life even unto death.
And you young men who are not married, bear this in mind, and practice now. You can’t be a chauvinist or a wimp before you’re married and expect that you’ll suddenly become a good husband afterward. You can’t view women as objects for your personal pleasure or be selfish toward them now and then expect to be happily married later. But practice denying yourself and taking up your cross and following Jesus now. Practice going out of your way for ladies and treating them well and regarding them highly. This isn’t any shame to yourself. When Jesus went out of His way in the reading for one of His dear Christians it was called a manifestation of His glory.
And let us return to that. The master of the feast tastes the water become wine and declares, “Everyone serves the good wine first, and when people have drunk freely, then the poor wine. But you have kept the good wine until now” (Jn. 2:10). We should hear these words spoken of our Lord, who is the only Bridegroom and wine steward we actually meet in the reading. “Jesus, You have kept the good wine until now.” The Old Testament was full of grace. Indeed, if our Lord hadn’t taught us otherwise, we would have said He had already served the best. What could be greater than the Passover meal in which He sheltered His people from the angel of death? What could be greater than the exodus, when He parted the Red Sea and led the sons of Israel through on dry ground and drowned pharaoh and his host? But Jesus has shown us a greater exodus and a greater outstretched arm than the arm of Moses. He has given us better wine than that served at the Old Testament Passover, for He has given His very blood in that cup of the New Testament. And that’s the epiphany of the season of Epiphany: that the Son of God has come in human flesh to outdo His own grace which He showed in the Old Testament, to make the wine of His own blood flow, and to restore to us joy and gladness. Thus “He manifested His glory, and His disciples believed in Him” (Jn. 2:11), and may the Lord preserve us likewise in that true faith forever and ever. Amen.