Grace Evangelical-Lutheran: Hebrews 12,12-18 (19-21) 22-25a. 2. Sunday after Epiphany

✠ One Message: Christ crucified and risen for you ✠

The Word of the Lord Endures Forever

Verbum Domini Manet in Aeternum

Hebrews 12,12-18 (19-21) 22-25a 0914

2. Sonntag nach Epiphanias 015

Sarah

19. Januar 2014

1. O Christ, by Your Divine power You turned water into wine, by Your holy gospel the Holy Spirit creates saving faith in You and by Your words of institution You truly unite Your body and blood to bread and wine. When we see Your mighty glory in the Word and Sacraments may we believe and marvel in Your Divine glory. Amen.

2. »On the third day there was a wedding at Cana in Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there. Jesus was also 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 arrived.“ 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 twenty or thirty gallons. Jesus said to the servants: „Fill the jars with water.“ And they filled them up to the brim. And He said to them: „Now draw some out and take it to the master of the feast.“ 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, and when people have drunk freely, then the poor wine. But you have kept the good wine until now.“ This, the first of His signs, Jesus did at Cana in Galilee, and manifested His glory. And His disciples believed in Him« (John 2,1-11).

3. The Epistle to the Hebrews tells us that: »Jesus is the Mediator of a new testament, and His sprinkled blood speaks a better word than the blood of Abel. See that you do not refuse him who is speaking« (Hebrews 12,24-25). We see this New Testament and its Mediator in our Gospel Lection for today where Jesus manifested this new testament by turning water into wine. The Apostle John calls this „a sign“, and it is his way of saying Jesus performed a miracle.

4. Some might ask: „Why this miracle? Why not heal a sick person? What’s the big deal about providing wine at some wedding feast?“ It is true that the Synoptic Gospels (Matthew, Mark and Luke) do not record this miracle, opting instead to showcase Jesus healing the infirm. John, however, tells us that this miracle at Cana was the first miracle performed by Jesus. This sign manifested His glory, and it would not be the last of His signs, miracles or epiphanies.

5. A wedding feast is a celebration. In Jesus’ culture it was a community celebration, and in a small town like Cana just about the entire town could have been in attendance, plus other relatives, friends and acquaintances from neighboring towns. It seems that Jesus’ family was related or friends with the bride, the bridegroom or perhaps both, and thus Jesus, Mary and His disciples attended the wedding festivities. The bridegroom’s hospitality is on display as he honors his neighbors with food, wine, music and dancing. The tradition was that one always opened the good, expensive wine to start the festivities off, and then the average, cheaper wine continued to be served throughout the remainder of the feast. This allowed wine to be plentiful and in full supply ... except for this unfortunate bridegroom in John 2 who has run out of wine! If there is one way to bring the wedding celebration to a screeching halt it is to run out of wine. Such a mismanagement of wine would be socially embarrassing for the bridegroom and make him the butt of jokes for years to come. John the Evangelist tells us how Jesus stepped into the midst of this embarrassing situation, ensured the wine continued to be poured and made the bridegroom a local celebrity.

6. But there is more going on here than a simple wedding feast. The Holy Scriptures use the wedding feast as an image and symbol for eternal life in heaven with God and all the heavenly hosts. John tells us that Jesus used this event to make a powerful statement about Himself and the reign of heaven: Jesus made it so that the bridegroom served the good wine last, just as Jesus is the Good Wine served last in God’s salvation history. The old testament inaugurated at Sinai was average wine that was to be surpassed by the good wine of the new testament consummated at Calvary. Jesus said: »People do not put new wine into old wineskins: else the wineskins will break, the wine runs out, and the wineskins perish; but they put new wine into new wineskins, and both are preserved« (Matthew 9,17).

7. Jesus is also the Bridegroom who will throw a wedding feast that will overshadow all the wedding banquets ever thrown throughout human history. We are presently in the waiting period. The marriage has been agreed to and Jesus has paid the dowry price with His death and resurrection. The Church now awaits His arrival when He will usher us into the banquet hall and celebrate the wedding feast. Our Lord is now making preparations for our celebration and eternal life with Him. When all is ready He will return for us.

8. Jesus is the testament that is far superior than the old testament, and His blood is more precious than that of Abel. The Epistle to the Hebrews exhorts us to listen to those who proclaim this glorious new testament founded by and upon Christ Jesus. Many, however, don’t want to let go of the old testament with its numerous precepts. Many also do not want to lose their long-standing traditions: „We have never done it that way!“ is the excuse that is often put forward, and it is an excuse that is intended to put an end to the discussion and ensure that the old, comfortable traditions are not abrogated. It is plausible to imagine that some wizened Jewish elders balked and said: „What is this? We serve the good wine first and the cheap wine last at our weddings! This is just the way it is to be done.“ While Jesus often upheld the Jewish traditions He was brought up with, He also did not hesitate to go against them. Their was a tradition to only eat after washing your hands, but Jesus didn’t always follow this. Their was another tradition that you did not heal people on the Sabbath, but Jesus made it a point on several occasions to do such work on that very day of rest. Would you then expect Jesus to turn water into some common, cheap wine similar to that which had just run dry? When Jesus healed the blind He did not restore partial vision to the afflicted so that they saw shadows and blurry images but He gave complete vision to both eyes. When Jesus healed the crippled He did not restore partial mobility so that they limped along with a gimpy leg but He restored them to full mobility so that they leaped and ran with joy. Likewise, Jesus is going to make the best wine for this wedding feast. He can do nothing less, for He is God Almighty.

9. Too many Christians today are nostalgic for the old testament. We are comfortable with all those laws that regulated the most intimate areas of Jewish life. We are tempted to try and stuff all those laws of cleanliness, dietary restrictions and everything else into the new wineskin of new testament Christianity. Some Christians told Paul they wanted to follow the old testament dietary laws and circumcision. They thought this would showcase just how good Christians they were because they were following the precepts of the old testament. Paul told them to stop it! Why are you giving up your freedom under the gospel to be returned to the bondage of the old testament (Galatians 2,4; 4,9)? Why do you want to drink the cheaper wine when Jesus has brought forth the best wine?

10. What is this best wine? Jesus is this best wine, for He is the fulfillment of the law and the old testament. You don’t run up to me your pastor and ask me to say a bunch of prayers and offer an animal sacrifice to cover your sins. No, you do not. Rather you come and tell me: give me absolution and point me to the Lamb of God who has taken away the sin of the world, yes, also my sin! And that is what a good pastor does: he points you not to the old testament with its legal bondage but to the new testament with its gospel liberation. When your conscience is terror stricken I point you to solus Christus: Trust in Jesus and give Him your concerns, for He is Your Savior who has redeemed you from all your sinfulness. That is the pure gospel that is the best wine. It is liberating! This is why I often point you back to your Holy Baptism, for in that Sacrament the Triune God washed you clean. I do not want you to forget that great means of grace that was given to you when the water and the word of God was poured upon you and spoken over you. Your Baptism and all the good blessings that flow from it are the sweet gospel of the new testament. The blessings of Holy Baptism are that it continues to work forgiveness of sins, delivers from death and the devil and gives eternal salvation to all who believe this, as the words and promises of God declare (Small Catechism Part 4 § 5-6). Today you will again receive another Sacrament: the Lord’s Supper. This is not merely some memorial meal of bread and wine wherein we only remember that Jesus died for our sins, but as the Words of Institution say: »This is the body of Jesus. This is the blood of Jesus shed for your forgiveness. Eat and drink it, for this is the good wine of Christ that He gives to you. He gives you forgiveness and salvation in this Sacrament.

11. You have the new wine of the new testament. You have Jesus, His Word and His Sacraments. Take them and receive them with joy and be assured of your right standing before God the Father because Christ has made it so and has proclaimed it so. Amen.

12. Let us pray. O Christ Jesus, Divine Image of the Father, through You comes grace and truth; help us to believe Your signs, hear Your Word and receive Your Sacraments so that through them we receive by faith all grace upon grace. Amen.

To God alone be the Glory

Soli Deo Gloria

✠

All Scriptural quotations are translations done by The Rev. Peter A. Bauernfeind using the Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia, 4. Edition © 1990 by the Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart, and the Novum Testamentum Graece, Nestle-Aland 27. Edition © 1993 by Deutsch Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart.

Löhe, Wilhelm. Seed-Grains of Prayer: A Manual for Evangelical Christians. Wartburg Publishing House, Chicago circa 1912. Concordia Publishing House; Concordia on Demand.

Grace Evangelical-Lutheran

Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church

Monday, January 20, 2014

Hebrews 12,12-18 (19-21) 22-25a. 2. Sunday after Epiphany

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