Sermon by Rev Dr Max Champion, Epiphany 2, 17th January 2016

Lessons: Isaiah 62:1-5; Revelation 19:6-9 & 21:1-4; John 2:1-11 & 3:25-31

They said to the bridegroom: 

'Why have you kept the good wine until now?' (John 2:10c)

 

John is a master story-teller who weaves deep threads of meaning into familiar social events. In the midst of people's lives he points us to what gives life its full significance. This is evident when Jesus, his mother and disciples are invited to the wedding of an unnamed, probably poor, couple. After the cask wine runs out Jesus turns water into the finest wine. Naturally, the head waiter is astounded, not least because it was usual to serve the cheapest wine at the end of festivities when the guests were well-oiled.

It's a great story. But its meaning is easily missed if we take it at face-value. On the surface, it is a miracle to be welcomed by alcoholics and shunned by teetotallers! But, beneath the surface, it is a miracle of a far different kind! ... We must look for the 'miracle within the miracle.'

It is significant that Jesus' first miracle takes place at a wedding - a joyous occasion lasting many days with much dancing, singing and feasting to mark the union of the young bridegroom and bride. In the Gospels, wedding feasts symbolise the profound joy of the kingdom of God that is embodied in Jesus (Mt 25:1-13; Lk 12:35-38). In Scripture as a whole, the marriage of bridegroom and bride symbolise the bond between God and Israel, Christ and the Church (Isa 62:5). Furthermore, hope for Israel, the Church and humanity is pictured as a feast of fine dining and wining (Isa 25:6-9) or as the 'marriage supper of the Lamb' when the new Jerusalem will be adorned as a bride for her husband (Rev 19:7; 21:2).

Contrary to the joyless, unsociable image of Christians that is often parodied in the media, we are invited to see that, in Christ, God has come to share human gladness and to lavish grace upon us.

The outrageous, wasteful, extravagant love of God is indicated by the quantity and quality of the wine produced. It is the equivalent of about 1000 bottles of Grange Hermitage! God's Christ-embodied-grace, as John never tires of saying, is full, overflowing, immeasurable (1:16). In this first miracle, John plants clues to the grace that has come into the world in Jesus' whole ministry.

Writing in hindsight, he tells the story against the backdrop of Jewish religion and Christ's death-and-resurrection. He tells us that Jesus is the fulfilment of Jewish hopes who does for humanity what religious rituals cannot do. Six is one short of the perfect number. Thus, the six stone water jars used for ritual cleansing signify the importance but inadequacy of making ourselves ready to receive God's grace.

The point is emphasised when 'the mother of Jesus' (John never calls her Mary!) tells him that 'they have no wine.' (v3) This isn't a catering disaster but a crisis of faith! That is why Jesus says, 'Woman, what is that to you and me? My hour has not yet come.' (v4) John want us to see that 'the old and first picked wine' served to Israel is a vital but incomplete part of the festivities of the kingdom of God. The 'new and best wine' will be fully appreciated when the 'hour of Christ's crucifixion has come' and he is raised 'on the third day.' (v1)

The 'mother of Jesus' and John the Baptist link the old and new in John's Gospel. She drinks the 'first wine' and is confident, in a way not yet clear to her, that Jesus will bring the 'best wine' (vv3&5) and he represents the best of the Jewish prophetic tradition. He sees himself, not as the 'bridegroom' who takes the people of God as his 'bride,' but as the 'best man' who is overjoyed to be in the 'bridal party' and witness firsthand Jesus' works of mercy and words of grace (3:25-30).

Through these two figures, the Gospel points to Jesus as the 'bridegroom' who unites himself to his 'bride' (the new Israel) with such lavish, outrageous, wasteful, extravagant love. He alone turns water, used to cleanse ourselves from sin, into wine that is fermented by the superabundance of God's grace.

Thus we see that grace is not a vague spiritual idea but the concrete reality of God's embodied love in Christ. Grace is deeply social, sensual, pleasurable, joyous, this-worldly, secular. Because God has united himself to humanity in Jesus, the miracle of grace, as John sees, is most profoundly symbolised in the personal-and physical union of man and woman, bridegroom and bride, in marriage.

What are the implications of this first miracle for the Christian Life?

First, the union of marriage between a man a woman is sanctified.

Marriage liturgies place the wedding vows in the context of the joy of knowing Christ as the 'bridegroom' who loves the church, his 'bride'. Thus, marriage is uniquely sanctified by grace. ... And grace is seen to be the basis of fullness of life-in-community which springs from the union of husband and wife. Sadly, today, both aspects are widely neglected or ridiculed!

Second, the festive nature of the Lord's Supper is enhanced.

In early Christian art and liturgy the Lord's Supper is often depicted by the feeding of the crowds and the marriage at Cana. This highlights the importance of tasting real food and real wine in the Sacrament to impress on us the sensuality of God's costly grace in Christ. Sadly, the 'communion' that should accompany 'Supper' around the 'Lord's Table' is often watered down!

Third, the future of humanity, twisted by evil, death and affliction, is assured.

While this first miracle points to the miracle of grace in the whole of Christ's ministry, crucifixion and resurrection, it also points to the consummation of history when all will be put right.

There is a moving account of grief and hope in Dostoyevsky's novel, The Brothers Karamazov, set in a Russian Orthodox Monastery. Alyosha, a young novice, is grief-stricken by the death of Fr Zossima. Seeking solace, he goes to the chapel where a priest is reading the story of the marriage at Cana. As he listens, his grief is replaced by a sense of wholeness, joy, gratitude, love and hope.

"Ah, that sweet miracle. It was not men's grief, but their joy Christ visited. He worked his first miracle to help men's gladness ... He who loves people, loves their gladness, too. There is no living without joy. ... Everything that is true and good is always full of forgiveness. ... In the midst of grief, thoughts turn to the great festivities to be enjoyed by the dead who, like Fr Zossima, will rejoice in the new wine of grace already present in Jesus at Cana in Galilee." (my free translation) ......

This first miracle in John is a sign of the lavish, outrageous, wasteful, extravagant love of God who has come among us in the whole of Christ's ministry, crucifixion, resurrection and ascension. Hope for humanity has been embodied in him. He turns water that cannot cleanse us from sin into wine that is fermented by the superabundance of God's grace. As John never tires of saying, 'God's Christ-embodied-grace is full, overflowing and immeasurable (1.16).