- Jan 19
- 5 min read
[John 2:1-11] On the third day there was a wedding at Cana in Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there. 2 Jesus also was invited to the wedding with his disciples. 3 When the wine ran out, the mother of Jesus said to him, “They have no wine.” 4 And Jesus said to her, “Woman, what does this have to do with me? My hour has not yet come.” 5 His mother said to the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.”
6 Now there were six stone water jars there for the Jewish rites of purification, each holding twenty or thirty gallons. 7 Jesus said to the servants, “Fill the jars with water.” And they filled them up to the brim. 8 And he said to them, “Now draw some out and take it to the master of the feast.” So they took it. 9 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 10 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.” 11 This, the first of his signs, Jesus did at Cana in Galilee, and manifested his glory. And his disciples believed in him.
The Best Wine Comes Last
Talk about brides and grooms – white dresses, tuxedos, and flowers – wedding ceremonies – and especially, finally, the wedding feast at the reception – generally brings thoughts of joy. The day of marriage, the uniting of a man and woman, is joyous. Although, the many preparations to make that day possible might be painful.
Another sign of joy in the Bible – the joy of God’s people – is flowing and abundant wine. The wedding feast at Cana in Galilee – which Jesus’ mother attended and to which He and His disciples were also invited – was certainly a joyous occasion, but the wine ran out.
The mother of our Lord, having some idea about what her Son can supply, tells Him: “They have no wine.”
Jesus, who had not yet healed any sick, raised the dead, or performed any signs manifesting (revealing) Himself to be the Son of God – and whose hour had not yet come – says, “Woman, what does that have to do with Me?” (Jesus referred to Mary as the Woman in Genesis 3:15 whose Offspring would be the Savior.)
It was not yet the hour for Jesus to provide the wine He came to provide, but He does concede and provides wine for that wedding in Cana – by means of a miracle, pointing to what He would be accomplishing when His hour does come.
His mother tells the servants, “Do whatever He tells you.” There were six stone water jars present, with a capacity of twenty to thirty gallons a piece. Jesus tells them to fill the jars with water, which they do to the brim. “Now draw some out and take it to the master of the feast,” He says. So they take it.
The master of the feast, upon tasting the water that has now become wine – not knowing that it has come from the Lord – says to the groom, “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.” Usually, the good wine comes first. But, in this case, the good wine has come last.
It is fitting that the first of Christ’s signs – revealing His glory – would be done at a wedding. In Scripture, God and His people are depicted as Groom & Bride: “For your Maker is your husband, the Lord of hosts is His name… for the Lord has called you like a wife… like a wife of youth.” [Isaiah 54:5]
Weddings are joyous and create a life-long bond. The dividing of a marriage is therefore painful and destructive – whether it’s caused by infidelity, abandonment, or abuse – hardheartedness – or by a misguided decision to divorce.
To fix such a division is difficult and takes sacrifice. To fail in marriage is sin. But there is forgiveness in Jesus. Being wronged in marriage hurts. But there is healing in Jesus.
In Scripture, God Himself is found to be Groom in a nearly divorced marriage - due to His people’s unfaithfulness: “You trusted in your beauty and were unfaithful… and lavished your unfaithfulness on any passerby” [Ezekiel 16:15]. “‘You have played the harlot with many lovers, and would you return to Me,’ declares the Lord.” [Jeremiah 3:1]
Yet He did promise to bring her back: “You shall no more be termed Forsaken, and your land shall no more be termed Desolate, but you shall be called My Delight Is in Her” [Isaiah 62:4]. At His hour, Jesus made the sacrifice to reunite us to Himself.
Jesus’ hour is the cross. Upon the cross, Jesus made the atoning sacrifice to forgive your sins – to forgive your unfaithfulness to the One who is yours.
Under the Law of God, marital infidelity was a capital crime – it warranted the death penalty. Upon the cross, Jesus, God-in-the-flesh, suffered that death penalty in His unfaithful Bride’s place – the penalty we owed.
Jesus’ death in our place created a pardon and a washing that makes us His again. What was accomplished fully in His hour on the cross has been applied to us, in our time, in Holy Baptism: “Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for her, that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, so that He might present the church to Himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish.” [Ephesians 5:25-27]
Jesus made you presentable to Him once and for all – “though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow.” [Isaiah 1:18]
What does this mean? It means for us that we now live in the best of times. We often look with nostalgia to the past for better times. But the reality is that whatever might be happening in the world in our day, we, each of us, still live in the very best of times.
You and I do not live in the times of Moses or the Prophets who hoped for this salvation to come. We live in the time when it already has come. We do not live in the time of a rocky relationship with our God. We live in the time when that union has already been repaired by the Savior Jesus. The best of times have come last.
We do not live in the time when we were not His people. We live in the time when we are His people – Jew or Gentile – by faith in Christ, which has spread across the globe. The better wine has come last – the greater joy. We live in the later, better time.
And the best of the best time is yet to come, and many of our loved ones in the faith have gone ahead to it – the wedding reception. The Wedding Feast of the Lamb in His Kingdom. The forever-Wedding Banquet of heaven. The family reunion in Christ Jesus to which we will soon come. That best of the best wine is coming last and forever. Amen.
- Jan 14
- 5 min read
[Luke 3:15-22] As the people were in expectation, and all were questioning in their hearts concerning John, whether he might be the Christ, 16 John answered them all, saying, “I baptize you with water, but he who is mightier than I is coming, the strap of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. 17 His winnowing fork is in his hand, to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.”
18 So with many other exhortations he preached good news to the people… 21 Now when all the people were baptized, and when Jesus also had been baptized and was praying, the heavens were opened, 22 and the Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form, like a dove; and a voice came from heaven, “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.”
Jesus Supplies the Spirit
There’s what a thing is on the outside, and there’s the inward substance of the thing that fully makes it what it is. A stuffed bear without its stuffing isn’t finished yet. Filling it with its stuffing makes it what it is.
Thanksgiving Day is just a day on the calendar until you fill it with family, guests, and food. A body without its soul is lifeless. With its soul it’s a living being.
And water is just water, until it’s filled with Jesus Christ and all He brings to it. Then it’s a Baptism. In today’s Gospel, Jesus brings Himself and the Holy Spirit into Baptism to make it what it is – “a life-giving water, rich in grace, and a washing of the new birth in the Holy Spirit.” [Small Catechism; Titus 3:5-8]
What is Baptism? What does it do? How can water do such great things?
Let’s look at today’s Gospel. John the Baptist – which means John the Baptizer – came baptizing in the Jordan River with “a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins” [Luke 3:3].
Many were coming out to be baptized by John the Baptist, and they began to wonder, “Could he be the Christ?” [Luke 3:15]. John answered them, “I baptize you with water, but He who is mightier than I is coming, the strap of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.” [Luke 3:16]
John provided the water. Jesus would come and provide its saving substance. Not apart from the water, but intimately connected to it. Jesus comes and steps into that Baptism.
“When all the people were baptized, and when Jesus also had been baptized…” we heard today [Luke 3:21-22]. And in the other Gospels, “In those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan.” [Matthew 3:13; Mark 1:9-10]
The sinless Son of God – the “Word of God made flesh” “through whom all things were made” [John 1:1-3,14], including all water – puts Himself into that Baptism meant for sinners. Jesus does this to “fulfill all righteousness” [Matthew 3:15].
Jesus puts Himself into Baptism to connect to it all that He would do to make fallen sinners righteous to God – and to bring to them His Holy Spirit: “…when Jesus also had been baptized and was praying, the heavens were opened, and the Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form, like a dove” [Luke 3:21-22]. “…immediately he saw heaven being torn open and the Spirit descending on him like a dove.” [Mark 1:9-10]
“I baptize you with water… He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire” [Luke 3:16]. All that Jesus would do as Savior – His cross and resurrection to win the forgiveness of sins for the world, to open heaven, to bring down the Holy Spirit for our rebirth and renewal – Jesus brought all this into Baptism, making it what it is by filling it with Himself and His work.
The work Jesus has done for your salvation and His sending of the Holy Spirit are not something separate from the water. They are always connected to the water.
John said “one mightier than I will come” and Jesus came to the water of Baptism, and there in that Baptism we first see the Holy Spirit come.
Jesus completed His bringing of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost, when He poured out the Spirit in full measure from heaven upon His disciples as flames of fire (Acts 2). The Holy Spirit is then, on that very day, promised to the rest of the people – and to us – through Baptism:
(Peter said in his sermon that day) “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.” [Acts 2:38]
And our Epistle reading from Holy Scripture today tells us that it’s in Baptism that we come to the saving death and resurrection of Jesus: “Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.” [Romas 6:3-4]
John baptized with water. Jesus brought to it Himself, the Holy Spirit, the opening of heaven, and the word from His Father: “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.”
This is everything that now comes to you in Baptism. The pastor supplies the water. Jesus supplies Himself, His saving work, and His Holy Spirit as the substance – as the stuffing – which fills that Baptismal water.
This is why Scripture can attach such great promises to the water of Baptism, such as “He who believes and is baptized will be saved” [Mark 16:16] and “Baptism now saves you” [1 Peter 3:21].
Baptism makes us disciples of Jesus [Matthew 28:19], gives us the forgiveness of sins [Acts 2:38], washes the Church clean to be His Bride [Ephesians 5:25-27], and is for our children – “the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off” [Acts 2:39].
Some object that such great things cannot be done through physical things like water. But we should remember that God is the Creator of physical things – and He is saving physical creatures.
In fact, everything God has done for your salvation involves physical means. The Son of God became flesh. He was hung with metal nails upon a wooden cross. He shed His blood. He was raised bodily. As we saw in today’s Gospel, even the Holy Spirt came in a bodily form.
Even God’s Word comes to you physically. It’s written with ink on paper. It’s spoken with a man’s vocal cords, travels as sound waves in the air, and hits your eardrum to make it vibrate.
Unsurprisingly then, God has attached His saving work and His Holy Spirit also to water to be poured on your head – and to bread and wine to be eaten and drunk.
When we call upon the name of the Lord to be saved [Romans 10:13; Acts 22:16], we are calling upon the one who works in these physical ways. When we are saved by faith alone [Romans 3:22; 4:3-5], we are trusting, by faith, in the one who works in these physical ways.
John the Baptist had the water – he had the bear without the stuffing – until Jesus came and filled Baptism with Himself and His Holy Spirit.
Let’s give thanks to God and live every day remembering and aware that Jesus has now given – and gives daily – Himself and His Spirit to us through the same means, through the water of Baptism in God’s triune name. Amen.
- Jan 4
- 5 min read
Updated: Jan 7
[Isaiah 60:1-2] “Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you. For behold, darkness shall cover the earth, and thick darkness the peoples; but the Lord will arise upon you, and his glory will be seen upon you…”
Your Light Has Come
The effective distance of a signal mirror – if you’re lost on your mountain hike – can be upwards of twenty miles. Maybe more. The surface of the mirror reflects the light of the sun, shining out the brightness it receives.
But if you take away the light source, the mirror shines exactly -zero-. The mirror in your bedroom is as bright as the light that’s on and as dark as darkness when there is no light. A mirror is bright because it reflects light from another source.
“Arise, shine, for your light has come” – your Source of Light has arrived – “the glory of the Lord has risen upon you.” You are mirrors. Dark with the darkness that surrounds you. Or light with the Brightness that shines on you.
Jesus is the Light: “The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world” – “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.” [John 1:4-5,9]
The people to whom the words of the prophet Isaiah in our Old Testament reading [Isaiah 60:1-6] were first spoken – the people of Israel – were darkened in the shadow of captivity. Chained and taken captive as a severe consequence for their sins.
To maintain their prosperity and place in this world, they went with the flow and sought the gods which were favorites of the greatest nations around them. Now, in God’s judgment, those nations would become their captors.
But the day would come when light would dawn again. Their Light would arrive. The nations would now come to them, bringing their wealth and gold and frankincense on camel back, to receive the Light reflecting in them.
“Nations shall come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your rising… A multitude of camels shall cover you… They shall bring gold and frankincense, and shall bring good news, the praises of the Lord.” [Isaiah 60:3-6]
These words of Isaiah were spoken around 700 BC, and, about 700 years later, they were fulfilled. Jesus Christ, the Light the World – the One who is Light and God with the Father in all eternity – was born of Mary in Bethlehem.
And, on the backs of camels for sure, came many Wise Men of the gentiles – of the nations – arriving from the east, bringing their gifts of gold and frankincense (and myrrh). And their arrival came with good news – “Where is He who has been born King of the Jews?” [Matthew 2:2]
Today we celebrate Epiphany, which means “a revealing” (a manifestation) – the Light of the world is first revealed to the nations when those Wise Men come from the nations to see Him.
Amazingly, these Wise Men, the Magi, coming from a far away nation, who wouldn’t even be expected to have any clue that there was a promised Savior coming to be born in Judea —
(though, if these Magi were from Babylon, they would have knowledge of the Scriptures from the prophet Daniel 600 years prior, who led the Magi during his time in Babylon [Daniel 2:48])
— these Wise Men are the first to declare to the ruler of Judea, King Herod, that the Savior has been born. This news then became very public: “When Herod the king heard this, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him.” [Matthew 2:3]
King Herod, notorious for his violence and villainy, was king of the Jews. He was a dark cloud over the people. He is troubled to hear of another King of the Jews being born, and, as the people likely feared, his response eventually leads to more slaughter [Matthew 2:16].
But Jesus Christ is the Light that no darkness can overcome. Jesus is not a mirror. He does not need the world around Him to be light for Him to be Light. Jesus is the source of light.
Like a flashlight or a bulb – or like the sun – Jesus makes the dark room light, and His light reflects off those who are in it.
How do you handle light and darkness? Sometimes we find ourselves depending upon the world around us to become light so we can have light. Or we depend on the circumstances of our life to change so that we can have light.
When these remain dark, so do we. We are misplacing our faith.
Jesus is the light that lightens the darkness. From the dangers and darkness of the womb, to the shrieks and cries of His mother’s labor and His birth, to His life in this world – surrounded by the same darknesses of disease and loss and death as the rest of us – to rejection by His brothers and countrymen – to suffering under the hand of cruel rulers
– to carrying our sins in His body and soul on the cross – to suffering God’s judgment against our sins in our place – entering the complete darkness of being forsaken by God for our wrongs that He carried in Himself [Matthew 27:46] – to His last breath and entering the darkness of our death –
In every way, Jesus entered all the dark rooms of sin-fallen human existence – from the womb to the tomb – and shined His Light into every place.
Your light has come. In the troubles of child-bearing – in the hardships of being a child, which we shouldn’t underestimate – in sickness and in death (yours and that of others) – in the tossing and turnings of your conscience – in your terrors of conscience – and in your last hours and the day of judgment. And in the grave. Jesus, your Light, shines there.
Your light has come, and like turning on the sun in a closet, He lightens every bit of darkness. Now, in every circumstance – in your life or in the world – you have the Light of Life and His peace and joy. Peace in trouble. Joy in sorrow. Light in darkness.
He is the Sun. May you be the mirrors. That promise of the nations coming is the promise to His Church for the sake of those lost in a dark world.
As you, the members of His Church, are receiving Him, the reflection of His Light shining in you – even dimly – becomes a signal light for others. A reflected light showing them to come to the same source.
May His Light shine in us more brightly as we receive Him and lean on Him more and more consistently in times of difficulty and in our daily struggles. Amen.
