Epiphany Two (Revised Common Lectionary) | 01.19.25 | John 2.1–11 | Carl A. Voges |

The Passage

On the third day there was a marriage at Cana in Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there. Jesus also was invited to the marriage, with his disciples.

When the wine gave out, the mother of Jesus said to him, “They have no wine.” And Jesus said to her, “O woman, what have you to do with me? My hour has not yet come.”

His mother said to the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.”

Now six stone jars were standing there, for the Jewish rites of purification, each holding twenty or thirty gallons. Jesus said to them, “Fill the jars with water.” And they filled them to the brim. He said to them, “Now draw some out, and take it to the steward of the feast.” So they took it.

When the steward of the feast tasted the water now become wine, and did not know where it had come from (though the servants who had drawn the water knew), the steward of the feast called the bridegroom and said to him, “Every man serves the good wine first, and when men 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.” [Revised Standard Version]

“Now concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I do not want you to be uninformed…I want you to understand that no one speaking by the Spirit of God ever says, ‘Jesus be cursed!’ and no one can say, ‘Jesus is Lord’, except by the Holy Spirit.” [1 Corinthians 12.1,3]

In the Name of Christ + Jesus Our Lord

As we push into this Epiphany season, that time of the Church Year where we dig into the impact of the Son’s Incarnation on this world’s life and are fresh from marking Jesus’ Baptism, we open on this Sunday with the first of Jesus’ seven signs in John’s Gospel. [The signs range from today’s Gospel to the seventh one where Jesus raises his friend, Lazarus, from death.]

This first sign – Jesus turning huge amounts of water into excellent wine at a marriage in the village of Cana – is stunning! It stuns because it shows our Lord glimpsing us with his Life among the realities of this world’s life. There is a man and a woman in a village, along with their families and friends, who have prepared for and are now celebrating their marriage.

Our Lord, with his family and disciples, is participating in this joyous event. But then, in ways hidden to most of the participants, Jesus glimpses us with his Life to those who are starting to recognize who he is and why he is here in this world. This glimpse reflects the glory that will tumble out of his crucifixion, resurrection and ascension while deepening the trust that his disciples are beginning to have in him.

We have come into Lord’s presence this morning, not to participate in a marriage, but to be drawn from realities of this world’s life so we can be exposed to the holy places from where his Life pours in on our own. Such exposure pulls our attention from the disasters in the world, whether they are occurring in California, our cities or our parish communities, and pushes us back to the Life given us by the Holy Trinity. The gods of this world (the ones we love to create and adopt!) delight in the unleashing of disasters which tumble out from wildfires or the attitudes and actions of self-absorbed individuals.

We begin the exposure by looking at this passage from John 2; Jesus’ action in it is the unfolding of his glory [the following themes are spelled out more fully in Raymond E. Brown’s commentary, The Gospel According to John (I-XII), pages 103-110].

First, as the promised Messiah, Jesus replaces everything that used to be between the Father and his people; in such replacement he gives his Life abundantly. Water, ordinarily used for the Jewish rites of purification, is mysteriously replaced by the choicest of wines in staggering amounts. This shows that Jesus, sent by the Father to this world, now is the only way to the Father. For those people inclined to bring all the world’s religions under one huge roof, we would encourage them to not waste their time and energy – the Father’s Life is distinctive and stands apart from all the others! Thus Jesus’ action in Cana not only replaces all the Old Testament feasts, customs and institutions, it also pushes aside any attempts to come up with alternatives that may be more understandable and acceptable to us!

Second, it is no coincidence that Jesus turns water into excellent wine at a marriage. In the Old Testament marriage always symbolized the emergence of the promised Messiah; thus, although most people at the marriage in Cana may not have a clue, Jesus’ presence and activity there is marking him as the Anointed One! Also in the Old Testament, the abundance of wine is a consistent picture for the joy of Messiah’s days. There is the description of the Banquet at the End-of-Time in Isaiah 25 (a passage often used in the Church’s burial liturgies). There are also the reminders from biblical teachers that these six jars had capacities ranging from one hundred twenty to one hundred eighty gallons!

Third, in mysterious ways, this sign completes the call of Jesus’ disciples. In the first chapter of John’s Gospel two of John the Baptizer’s disciples hear Jesus described as the Lamb of God and they follow him. Near the end of that chapter we see Nathanael (also known as Bartholomew) beginning to recognize who Jesus is and Jesus promises that Nathanael’s eyes will be opened to the coming salvation. This sign, then, is deepening the belief and trust of Jesus’ disciples in him.

Fourth, in very deep ways, the sign is also revealing the huge changes in how the LORD God feeds his people. In the Old Testament, where the Law is often described as Wisdom, there is a shift here in Cana from that Law doing such feeding to Jesus feeding his people directly. For those people who are brought to recognize who he is, Jesus is really the Incarnation of that Old Testament Wisdom!

Fifth, there is one other part of today’s Gospel that presents a seeming difficulty – the conversation between Jesus and his mother! This is not easy to unpack because Mary, the mother of our Lord, is pulling together two biblical women. The first one is Eve, from Genesis 3; the second one is the woman from Revelation 12. Recall that in Genesis 3, after Adam and Eve concluded they wanted to be like the LORD God, the Lord placed hostility and fear between the snake and Eve (her name, in Hebrew, refers both to an individual as well as to all women).

Recall, too, that in Revelation 12 there is a woman in pain, giving birth to a male child who is the promised Messiah (this birth turns the great dragon against the woman and her child). Because of Mary’s Son, the destructive and deadly ways unleashed by Adam and Eve are going to be overwhelmed by Jesus’ dying and rising!

Mary makes a forceful appearance here at the Cana marriage; she is also present at her Son’s crucifixion. Remember, too, that while Jesus was dying on the cross, he announced Mary as the mother of the Beloved Disciple (who is John the Evangelist). John became a model for all people in every generation of this world’s life who are drawn into Jesus’ Life. Mary then became a model for the Church, the temporary yet eternal reality that is given people by the Holy Trinity so they are continually aware of their redemption, are steadily held together by the Trinity’s Life and are mysteriously protected as they live that Life out in this world.

This awareness pushes us through the apparent difficulties stirred up by the conversation between Jesus and his mother. It leads us away from thinking that Jesus’ activity is determined only by a human mother telling her human son what he should or should not be doing! This awareness also makes it clear that Mary does not have a role in his ministry. His work (and this sign) reflect what the Father has ordered him to do. His work and his seven signs do not reflect what people want him to do (a dispiriting reality that carries over into the life and work of the Church today!)

As Mary birthed her Son and observed how his ministry emerged in this world, it did not make her life any easier. Over the three years of Jesus’ ministry it became clear that, as the mother of the Messiah, Mary was thrown into the struggle with the satanic serpent, a struggle that surfaced at her Son’s birth, throughout his ministry and then finally at his crucifixion.

In John’s Gospel these struggles are described as Jesus’ Hour, a highly significant word that describes what the Father sent Jesus to do in this world. When Jesus uses that word while talking with his mother, he is signaling that this Hour is driving everything that goes on in his Life. His mother’s part in all this is to be a participant, she does not do the initiating, she willingly carries out what is already in motion. Along with the disciples at the Cana marriage, she will be glimpsed with the glory that emerges from her Son’s crucifixion, resurrection and ascension; she, too, will have her trust in him deepened.

Admittedly, this is lot of background for the people being exposed to this passage this morning! What occurred at the Cana marriage, however, spills over into the lives of the Lord’s parish communities today because his activity is always tumbling out of the Holy Scriptures along with the Sacraments of Baptism, Forgiveness and Eucharist.

The Lord’s parishes are unique because they are grounded in the rescuing, sustaining and creating actions of the Holy Trinity. For the people who belong to these parishes or visit them, this reality is vital. Coming into them provides a refuge from the world’s gods who are continually whipping into and around our lives with their attractions and destructions. Being a part of their life and work floods us with the strength and greatness of the Trinity’s Life.

Finding and coming into this reality is not easily done. The world’s gods always prefer that our parishes be places where the life and work is all about us! This is an attractive preference because it is so natural and so easy. Thankfully, the actions of the LORD God in his parishes are continually pulling us away from such preferences. Last Sunday the Church marked the Son’s Baptism – noting he was fully entering our lives so as to rescue us from the world’s life! This Sunday we are seeing how the Trinity’s Life splashes into a marriage, giving them (and us) a Life far superior to the one offered by the world!

Thus it is vital that the Lord’s parishes faithfully (perhaps stubbornly?) reflect his activity as it spreads out from his Scriptures and Sacraments. There are many people outside those parishes whose lives are being ground down by the world’s life. Thankfully, the Father, Son and Spirit create and maintain faithful parishes so dispirited and exhausted people can find the Life brought to the world by the incarnate, crucified, resurrected and ascended Son! Today’s Gospel is stunning because it shows our Lord glimpsing us with his Life among the realities of this world’s life, a glimpse for which we are deeply grateful!

Now may the peace of the LORD God, which is beyond all understanding, keep our hearts and minds through Christ + Jesus Our Lord

Pr. Carl A. Voges, STS, Columbia, SC; carl.voges4@icloud.com