When Jesus comes to a wedding

Scripture Lessons

Isaiah 62:1-5                         The nations will see Your righteousness, and all kings Your glory.

Psalm 128                             “Blessed is everyone who fears the LORD.”

1 Corinthians 12:1-11         There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit.

John 2:1-11                          Jesus’ miracle at the wedding of Cana

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

What happens when Jesus comes to a wedding? That is the question that we’ll answer this morning.

Throughout the Old Testament God refers to Israel with the imagery of a bride and bridegroom. Our lesson from Isaiah 62 shows this: “For as a young man marries a young woman, so shall your sons marry you, and as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so shall your God rejoice over you.” The prophets brought God’s word to the people and sometimes that was a word of law, condemning them for their unfaithfulness with rebukes such as, “whoring” after false gods, prostituting themselves in idolatry. Sometimes that was a word of comfort, a word of God’s faithfulness to Israel even in the midst of their unfaithfulness. That comfort was presented often with the imagery of marriage. God rejoices over Israel just as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride.

John tells us about the wedding in Cana in Galilee. The synoptic gospels (Matthew, Mark, and Luke) don’t tell us about this wedding, but John does.

“On the third day there was a wedding at Cana in Galilee.” If you’re wondering what “third day” this refers to, the Lutheran Study Bible has this note at chapter 1, verse 29

John may not be using precise reckoning of time but may be creating a comparison with the six-day week of creation. He began his account with creation themes from Genesis, including reference to “light” (which forms days) and water (an important element of creation). Verses 19-51 suggest a passage of 4 days. At 2:1, John begins to count again, starting on day 4. So, “on the third day” would make a total of six days – a week that ends with yet another Genesis theme: the blessing of marriage.

This is also the understanding which the author of the Concordia Commentary, William Weinrich, affirms. John’s accounting places this first miracle on the 6^th day of his timeline and coincides with the day that God created Adam and Eve, blessed them, and instructed them: “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” Genesis 1:28.

A wedding is a fulfillment of God’s command and a blessing. It is a favorable image, or at least it ought to be. That is why God uses this image to convey to us the notion of God’s love for true Israel, that is the Church. Ephesians 5 teaches husbands to love their wives and wives to submit to their husbands. Paul compares the ideal love of a husband for his wife with the love that He bore the Church, that is to say, He laid down His life for her. “³¹ ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.’ ³² This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church.” Ephesians 5:31-32. In other words, the best marriage on earth, which still joins one sinner with another, can merely point to the best marriage of all, that is the marriage of Christ, the Bridegroom to the Church, His bride. That’s you and me. Christ loves you perfectly and sacrificially. Husbands ought to love their wives this way and wives ought to be loved this way, but Christ loves you this way, perfectly.

Understanding this theme, in which God uses idealized marriage as a means to provide you with a picture of His great love for you, you can see better what is happening in John’s gospel.

When Jesus comes to a wedding, He brings good gifts. He brings joy. He meets our needs and more. In fact, He brings wedding gifts in abundance. John states clearly: “This, the first of his signs, Jesus did at Cana in Galilee, and manifested his glory. And his disciples believed in him.” Jesus turned water into wine. In so doing, he manifested His glory. That is to say that the glory of God was revealed in this creative act. Mary had a need and she expressed it to Jesus. He wasn’t being disrespectful in His response. “Woman” is exactly as Jesus addressed Mary from the cross as he tenderly conveyed responsibility of her car to the apostle John, “²⁶ When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to his mother, ‘Woman, behold, your son!’ ²⁷ Then he said to the disciple, ‘Behold, your mother!’ And from that hour the disciple took her to his own home.” John 19:26-27.

John’s gospel features Mary, the mother of Jesus, twice, here in Cana in Galilee at the wedding and again at the foot of the cross as Jesus was crucified for the sins of the world. These are book ends encapsulating the work of Christ. At the wedding feast in Cana, Jesus turned water into wine. He revealed His glory and His disciples believed in Him. He supplied the need expressed by Mary. The wine He supplied was a picture of the blood that He would supply at the cross.

At the wedding feast in Golgotha, Jesus shed His blood for your sins. Was the crucifixion a wedding feast? Yes, it was the wedding of the bridegroom Jesus Christ and His bride, the Church. In His act of giving himself up to be crucified, He was the bridegroom who claims His bride. The cost to redeem His bride was His own blood, shed for you, for the forgiveness of sins.

We have a glimpse of the wedding feast that is to come from Revelation. “Let us rejoice and exult and give him the glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and his Bride has made herself ready; it was granted her to clothe herself with fine linen, bright and pure.” Revelation 19:7-8. Today you receive a foretaste of this feast as you gather at this altar where Jesus is present, once again, performing a miracle, turning wine into blood and giving it to you for the forgiveness of sins.

 The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.