Text:  John 2:1-11

We all get invited to weddings.  I’ve attended them as a guest.  Officiated at some.   Got to do my daughter Katie’s wedding last July.  And of course there was my own.  I’ve been to churches, to vineyards, backyards, Malibu beach, big halls, town squares.  Some of those weddings were big with many guests.  Others have been very small.  I even did a wedding for a couple where the man was terminally ill and had only months to live.

Yet in every one of those cases, it was a very happy day.  And not just for the bride and groom but also for those who came out.

Of course, things do go wrong.  I tell couples you can count on it.  The best planned weddings have some kind of mishap.  This ring on my hand once went on a groom’s finger because the bride forgot his ring.  Then there was the maid of honor who fainted away and thankfully was caught before she hit the hardwood floor below.  Things go wrong.  But most of the time you can just go with the flow and make it work out.  The joy continues.  Most of the time, we can think back and laugh over those things.

In our Gospel lesson, we come to a wedding where something went wrong.  But when you understand the culture, you realize it wasn’t something to laugh at.  It would have gotten this couple off to a very bad start.

Well Jesus was there as one of the invited guests.   Here a serious wedding mishap turned into a blessed opportunity for us Christians.  To know our God all the more.  Because you see, to know Jesus is to know God.

Learn of God’s Own Son
As he provides
I.  A more than generous gift
II. A quiet miracle
III. A sign for his believers

            On the third day a wedding took place at Cana in Galilee. Jesus’ mother was there, ² and Jesus and his disciples had also been invited to the wedding.  It was the very beginning of Jesus’ public ministry.  He had gone to be baptized by John.  Now he was gathering his first disciples.  He had at least five including:  Andrew, John, Peter, Philip and Nathanael.

But there was this wedding to go to up in Cana which Mary and Jesus were invited to. Maybe they had family up there.  This got the disciples invited too.

We don’t know a lot about marriage in Jesus’ day.  We do know that before the wedding would come a betrothal ceremony.  It was a lot more serious than engagements today.  There before their parents the couple promised to be faithful to one another.  They were all but married except they did not live together.

Now tell me, doesn’t this sounds special?  When the time came for the wedding, the groom and his friends would make their way in a procession to the bride’s home.   When they got there I imagine there were speeches and happy expressions of good will for the couple.  Then bride and groom, friends and family would go in procession to the groom’s house.  Often this would be at night and so you can picture the people walking with torches lighting up the darkness for this happy occasion.

When they arrived, there was probably a religious ceremony.  And then came the marriage feast that could last as long as 7 days.  Not seven continuous days.  But seven evenings where they came together to celebrate.  Marriage was meant to that happy an occasion.

But something happened here that could have thrown a wet blanket on their joy.  The wine ran out.  That was big in this culture where hospitality was so important.  That was not the way for the groom to treat his guests.  And it may have been even more serious.  Both families would contribute to the wedding and offer gifts for the couples new life together.  It was expected.  So expected that the groom could have been sued for not providing enough wine.  And besides wine was a symbol of joy.  Not a very good way to start out.

But here was Jesus.  And before we think of the miracle, let’s think of the gift he gave this young couple.  A more than generous gift.  Wine, that the feast would not end on a sour note.  Wine, and the good stuff, that really made this couple look good in the eyes of their guests.  Wine, a gift sorely needed that God’s own Son provided.

Hasn’t Jesus done the same for us?   I am not talking about the wine.  But I am talking about a gift sorely needed.  A more than generous gift that Jesus has provided for each of us.  For who of us could say, if I were to stand before God on the basis of my life, he would give me that big nod of approval and accept me.  We know better than that.  Our consciences won’t let us forget our sinful failures.  God’s law won’t let us forget where we once stood.  Guilty as charged.

But think of what Jesus has provided us. A more than generous gift.  A gift you and I sorely needed.  God’s forgiveness, the Son of God earned for us when he suffered and died for each of us.

So learn of God’s own son.  Look what he provided.  The right for you to know and say.  I am a forgiven child of God.  And I now have this hope.  I can look death in the eye and say:  I will not die but live.

But there’s more for us to learn about God’s own Son.  Something that went on quietly, behind the scenes in this wedding.

A quiet miracle

³ When the wine was gone, Jesus’ mother said to him, “They have no more wine.”  No doubt, Mary felt for the young couple.  Mary also knew that Jesus was much more than her son.  The angel had told her he would be the promised the Messiah, the Son of God.  So maybe she thought it was about time that others knew what she knew.  Time for a miracle, Jesus. Time for everyone to know you are the Son of God.

⁴ “Dear woman, why do you involve me?” Jesus replied.  Jesus reminded Mary that even though she was his mother, it was not her place to set God’s plans for his Son into motion.  “My time has not yet come.”

Yet  notice, our Lord does not ignore this couple’s dilemma.  It was not time for all to see his glory, but it was time for something else, a quiet miracle.  ⁷ Jesus said to the servants, “Fill the jars with water”; so they filled them to the brim. ⁸ Then he told them, “Now draw some out and take it to the master of the banquet.” They did so, ⁹ and the master of the banquet tasted the water that had been turned into wine. He did not realize where it had come from,

Think about that.  I can’t explain the process, but it takes weeks, if not months, to make wine, time for the grape juice to ferment, time for the sugars to turn to alcohol. And you don’t make it out of water.  It doesn’t work that way.  But the Son of God did.  He changed the one into the other.  And why not, he doesn’t have to work within the laws of Chemistry.  He created all things. He can do as he pleases.  So learn of God’s own Son who provided this quiet miracle.

And you know, this got me thinking.  This isn’t just about what Jesus did long ago.  Think about it.  How many quiet miracles go on every day?  When you visit the sick like I do, you realize something.  How many things have to go right in our bodies for us be well.  And most of the time we are.  It’s amazing.  Each day that quiet miracle of God’s design goes on and we hardly notice.

But today I want you to think of some others.  Quiet miracles that do far more than rescue a wedding day. One of them also starts with water.  Common water that we too use to wash ourselves.  But when we use this as Jesus commands, it washes someone clean of his sin.  In fact, the Bible says, the water of your Baptism saves you.  For It connects us to Christ.  It gives us a new birth as a child of God.  So the next time you witness a baptism, realize what you are witnessing. A quiet miracle.

And what about today.  Think of what Jesus is going to do for us here.  Learn of God’s Son in another quiet miracle.  For in this bread and wine he will come to us.  He will come to us and give us the very same things he gave and shed to win our forgiveness on the cross.  Here He wants you to know, to be sure that you are forgiven.  That nothing can separate you from God’s love.   So here you have it.  A quiet miracle that blesses us so.

But notice the word John uses to describe this miracle in our text.  A miraculous Sign.   Jesus miracles were meant to do more than leave someone saying: how did he do that?  They were signs that told you something about Jesus.  This miracle was no different.  It was a sign for his believers.

Jesus’ disciples had only begun to follow Jesus.  Some had heard John’s testimony.  Behold the Lamb of God. who takes away the sin of the world. Then about his baptism.  The Father’s voice which said, This is my beloved Son.  Now they came to the wedding where they witnessed a first.  ¹¹ This, the first of his miraculous signs, Jesus performed at Cana in Galilee. He thus revealed his glory, and his disciples put their faith in him.

There are places in the Bible where men like Moses and Elijah were able to call upon God to do amazing things.  There God’s glory was clearly seen – when the Red Sea parted or the river turned to blood  or  a little boy was raised back  to life.  But this miracle was more than a testimony to God’s glory.  It was a sign that pointed these men to Jesus and revealed his glory as God’s own Son.

Let it be a sign to you this morning as well. A sign that tells you once more, here is the one to believe in.  Here is the one in whom to place your trust.   Here is the One on whom you can stake your eternal life.  For these things are written that you my believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God,  and that by believing you may have life in his name.  Amen.