Epiphany 2
Dear friends in Christ. In the Epiphany season we continue to catch glimpses that that was no ordinary Baby Who was born in Bethlehem but that that Baby is also the very God Himself. Today’s Gospel account is our Lord’s first recorded miracle after He began His public ministry, which began with His baptism by John: turning water into wine at the wedding in Cana. This account ends with the words [John 2.11]: This beginning of signs Jesus did in Cana of Galilee, and manifested His glory; and His disciples believed in Him. That little phrase, manifested His glory, is Epiphany language—Jesus showed that He is the true God; His divine glory shone through the cloak of His humanity; all there—and we today—caught a glimpse of His divinity.
Then there is also that phrase: This beginning of signs Jesus did in Cana of Galilee. Although this was definitely a miracle, St. John does not call it a “miracle” but rather a “sign.” What does a sign do? It points to something else—a sign with an arrow at the side of a road shows you the way to a certain city or town. Here—turning the water into wine—is a sign pointing to the One doing it; it points to the one doing it and says: this is no ordinary man; this is the God-man.
But why water into wine? Why such a seemingly mundane miracle or sign? Why a miracle that many Christians today wish were the opposite: turning wine into water? For His first miracle why didn’t Jesus instead heal somebody or raise someone from the dead?
Looking at this miracle a bit, we see it is quite fitting. At its heart and core, turning water into wine—into a product that normally requires much time to make, ferment, etc.—is a beautiful way of showing that Jesus is really the God of the creation. Just as at the original creation He spoke and it was—the earth, plants, animals, people—all with built in age, to forever confound evolutionists—so here, Jesus, the God of Creation, by His word creates an “aged” product.
Also note the context of where Jesus turned the water into wine: a wedding. Here again we go back to the original creation when God instituted marriage between one man and one woman for companionship/ completeness and for procreation and raising of children. How fitting on the Sunday observed by many as a “Sanctity of Human Life Sunday”! How fitting when our weak-kneed politicians are caving to political pressure and redefining what is not theirs to redefine.
1. But why water into wine? Couldn’t Jesus have done something else to show He was the God of Creation? He did elsewhere when He calmed the storm at sea, for example. Couldn’t He also have reaffirmed marriage in some other way? What is so significant about wine? Why would wine be a sign for the coming Savior?
For that, we have to look at the OT prophets—like our text from Amos: "Behold, the days are coming," says the LORD, "When the plowman shall overtake the reaper, And the treader of grapes him who sows seed; The mountains shall drip with sweet wine, And all the hills shall flow with it." In the prophets the phrase, Behold, the days are coming, is the OT way of saying “in the days of the Messiah”; “in the time when the Messiah has come;” “in the NT Church.” The Lord, through the prophets, is describing the time when Jesus has come, the NT era, the days in which we now live, using words/ pictures that the OT believers could easily understand—like here, great agricultural abundance is a picture of the abundance of blessing and peace that the Messiah would bring. So by the sign of Jesus turning water into wine, He is pointing out that He is the Messiah and the age of the Messiah has come.
How wonderfully and graciously Jesus does this! Although the OT prophets gave an image that was figurative: The mountains shall drip with sweet wine, And all the hills shall flow with it—Jesus actually literally fulfilled it with much, abundant, and excellent wine about 150 gallons worth for this wedding. He was reminding the people of prophecies like our prophecy from Amos and stating that those days of the Messiah had come; He is the Messiah! Where Christ comes, He comes bringing the greatest gifts and blessings in all their fullness.
Notice how in the time of the Savior, the time of the NT Church, our age today, The mountains shall drip with sweet wine, And all the hills shall flow with it. The image is of the abundance of something good—here sweet wine.
What is the good, abundant thing that we are enjoying now that Jesus has come to be our Savior? What is it that He has left to His Church and which through His Church He brings into all corners of the world, so that mountains drip? His most sweet holy Gospel that is being preached in our midst and throughout the world. The world is full of and resounds with the sweetest promise of the Gospel. Jesus commissioned His Church to go out into all the world and to preach His word. And as we as the Church, and we personally/ individually tell others the Good News about Jesus, He is there with His Word and Sacrament giving all the spiritual gifts and blessings He won for us by His holy, sinless life and innocent suffering and death.
That sweet wine of the Gospel, that sweet wine of the fullness of the graces and blessings of forgiveness of sin, life and salvation that Jesus obtained for us is not limited, confined, or only paltry amount that Jesus is reluctant to give us. Instead the mountains and hills drip with it and flow with it—that is, wherever Christ is proclaimed there His gifts and blessings are given us fully and freely. Here’s the abundance of the NT era: the forgiveness of sins is announced and given. Wherever there is a sinner sorry for his sin, there the forgiveness of sins, earned and obtained by Christ, is proclaimed and given. Just as Jesus made the best wine abundantly, just as The mountains shall drip with sweet wine, And all the hills shall flow with it, so is Christ’s grace and the forgiveness of sin rich and abundant. And He wants us to receive them!
Epiphany has a theme of Missions. Just as Christ revealed Himself to us in His word and sacrament—an Epiphany for us—so also we remember and pray for mission work that through the word we share, through our missionaries we pray for and support, that the Gospel, that sweet wine, be brought to people near us and far away from us that by the work of the Holy Spirit they, too, may have “an Epiphany” and recognize Jesus as who He really is: the Son of God and the world’s—their—Savior from sin.
Each time the Gospel is shared—be it from our lips or the lips of others—the Holy Spirit is mightily at work through that word to create faith in the hearts of people, just like He did for us. The Gospel is the sweetest wine, offering/ giving the greatest joy and blessings—giving us what we really need: the forgiveness of sin and peace and reconciliation with God.
Precisely through that sweet wine of the Gospel proclaimed and given in Christ’s Church, Jesus is establishing and causing His Church to grow! This NT era—just as the Lord promised through Amos—is a time of great growth and abundance. Amos depicts it this way: the plowman shall overtake the reaper, And the treader of grapes him who sows seed. The picture is one of great speed—the ripe grain is cut while the plowman is preparing the soil; the grapes are being stomped on for wine while the seeds are still being sown. That’s the glorious picture of the swift spread of the Gospel into all the world. That’s the picture of the kingdom of the Messiah being established and growing.
Lest somehow we get the idea that we are part of Christ’s Church because of our “decision” or some “good work” or something in us that makes us more “worthy” than others, we have God’s word in our text: I will plant them in their land. It’s the Lord’s work that we are in His Church; it’s His grace that we are in His kingdom and enjoying His gifts and blessings. That we are His dear Christian is all God’s work: He planted us in the Kingdom of grace, His Church. We are that abundant crop that came up from His planting the Gospel seed.
When Jesus turned the water into wine and by that reminded the people of this and similar prophecies, it was a sign pointing them to Jesus—that He is the Messiah and that He was establishing and setting up His kingdom.
2. Because Christ came to us in His word and sacrament and brought us into His kingdom and gave us the fullness of His abundant spiritual blessings He won for us on the cross, we now have peace—that glorious peace of conscience. Our Lord describes it this way in our text: I will bring back the captives of My people Israel; They shall build the waste cities and inhabit them; They shall plant vineyards and drink wine from them; They shall also make gardens and eat fruit from them. As Christ has come to us and brought us into His kingdom and given us the fruit and blessing of His work—first and foremost the forgiveness of sins— we have been released from imprisonment to sin, death and devil. That’s something we couldn’t do, but Christ has done for us. Our lives are now lives of joy and meaning—the curse of senseless futility which rests on life under judgment is taken away! We now have the joy of the Spirit—my sins, which have earned me nothing but God’s wrath and damnation, have been forgiven; I have been given the holiness of Christ; I am now God’s dear child and heir and heaven is opened to me. In Christ’s Church there is the greatest security, peace and joy of conscience. That’s the kingdom Christ was announcing by turning the water into wine; that’s the kingdom Christ brought us into by water and the word; that’s the kingdom in which we now live and enjoy its blessings and benefits—obtained for us by Christ and given to us by Him in His holy word and sacraments.
What by our sin we have destroyed, Christ makes new in us as He comes with His graces and blessings in His word and sacrament. By His Holy Spirit He makes new people of us as He creates a new heart in us—one which loves Him and strives to do His holy will in the place and position the Lord at this time has placed us. They shall build the waste cities and inhabit them.
And what joy and peace we now have since Christ has come to us giving us the fullness of His gifts! They shall plant vineyards and drink wine from them; They shall also make gardens and eat fruit from them. What peace we now have as we are in Christ’s kingdom, the Church and by faith receive His gifts He gives us. In the Church we eat/ enjoy the fruit of the Gospel as we receive by faith and apply to ourselves the Gospel, the absolution, the gifts Christ gives us in the holy sacraments [Mathew 11.28; Romans 5.1]: As He says: Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest…I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls; and through the apostle: Therefore, having been declared righteous by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Not only does our Lord bring us into His kingdom to enjoy the fullness of His gifts, but working through the same word and sacrament He will keep us in the faith, keep us in His kingdom: "And no longer shall they be pulled up From the land I have given them," Says the LORD your God. We live our lives now in that glorious promise and assurance that nothing can separate us from God’s love for us in Christ.
What a glorious kingdom Jesus announced by the miracle of water into wine. He established it by His life, suffering and death; called us into it by the Gospel; and lets us now enjoy its security, peace of conscience and joy and in full measure one day in heaven. Like we saw at the wedding in Cana, where the Lord is, there is the fullness of His gifts. INJ Amen.