Jesus Christ: Manifestation of God’s Glory

2nd Sunday of Epiphany – January 17, 2010

Isaiah 62:1-5; Psalm 96:1-10; 1Corinthians 12:1-11; John 2:1-11

Archbishop Loren Thomas Hines D. D.

The first miracle at a wedding feast is a proclamation of God – God and man becoming one; heaven and earth joining together; the two becoming one and together, changing the world and bringing into the world the provision of God and the grace and the mercy of His love.  What a joy! What a hope this gives to us.  We are no longer destitute; no longer fearful of condemnation or of people looking and wondering: are we going to make it?  Jesus now changes the water and it becomes wine.  It saves our reputation.  It saves our life and it gives us the ability to hold our head high – not in pride, but in thanksgiving.  This is the greatness of God’s commitment to His own, to the Church. 

As we progress into the Calendar year, we find the Season of Epiphany a declaration of God’s favor upon man.  God with us – no longer separated.  In the events of the Garden of Eden, God and man walked in the cool of the evening.  There was this fellowship together; but when man disobeyed God, He separated man from Him. There was no longer this presence that was known before; but in God’s heart and plan, His commitment to man was not going to be easily destroyed. So He sends Christ at the proper time to become flesh – incarnation – to dwell with us. This dwelling with us is an awesome and powerful event that God speaks to us.

In most of our lives, we simply read the story and we do not listen to the words or do not allow the words to speak to us.  We don’t get the full picture of God’s commitment and fulfillment of promise.  Last week, we looked at events of the baptism of Jesus that spoke and proclaimed to us of Sonship – “This is My beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.”  It also showed to us the cleansing of the water – the hope that came because of what Christ had done on our behalf. How that God reveals Himself to us; how that He marks this as the fullness of time.  He proclaims His oneness with us. 

Today in the Gospel, we find a marking of time and it says, “And on the third day there was a wedding in Cana.”  This wedding marks the time after the baptism of Jesus by John and it shows us that Jesus was invited and attended the wedding in Cana of Galilee.  It is in this wedding when Jesus performs His first miracle. In the writing of John, there are seven major events that marks God’s presence–His divinity in Christ and His commitment to man.  This is the first of that series of events.  It speaks very powerfully to us of God’s plan, His purpose and the events that were taking place – what they were accomplishing and what they were performing.

Isaiah 62 talks about God not being silent, “He was going to bring a crown of beauty and royal diadem…your land will be called “Married,” and how that He delights in you and to Him your land will be married. For as a young man marries a virgin, so your sons will marry you.”   It is a proclamation of fulfillment.  In Genesis, when God created man, man came first, male came first. God worked with the male for a period of time.  In solitude, he prepared him to be able to handle the responsibility that He was placing upon him.  Scriptures tells us how that he named all the animals; he was working and cultivating the garden and all that was necessary in bringing forth the fullness of the earth as God had created it to be.  During this time, God made a statement in Scriptures that man could not do this alone and he needed some help.  So, He proclaimed to man that He was going to give him a helpmeet.  He then put man to sleep. From his side, He took the rib from which was said the rib was the very foundation of the life that was going to be given, and He created a woman to be with man.  He brought and gave her to him. Man speaking from prophecy said, “From this time forward, man would leave his father and mother and cling to his wife and the two shall become one.”

It was the fulfillment of the plan that God had set before the foundation of the earth.  Before He said, “Let Us make man in Our image and Our likeness.”  He then, on the second part said, “And They made man in His likeness, male and female.”  Here was the completeness of God’s plan.  We call it today marriage - man and woman becoming one.  This is the fullness of God’s provision for man and the completion of the ability of man to be able to fulfill the gifts and the promises and the responsibilities of man.   In Isaiah, God speaks of a prophecy that the nations will be called married.  In other words, they are brought to fulfillment, to completion.

On the third day after the baptism of Jesus, Jesus comes to this wedding feast to perform a miracle.  In Jesus’ life, things just didn’t happen.  We might read this story and say, “Oh, it is good that Jesus was there because they run out of wine.”  Jesus was there because God so ordained a manifestation of Christ’s presence and His divinity among the people especially in front of the disciples so that they would know who Christ was.  He chose a wedding. The first miracle of Christ was performed at a wedding. This wedding was then going to be marked by the event as one of the major provisions of God for man because it was the place where God performed the first miracle through the life of Christ.

In ancient days, a wedding feast was a mark of prophecy to the family and the couple of their future.  They were setting the future by the event of the feast.  The feast made a declaration from the groom to the bride, to the bride’s family, and to the community:  “This is how I am going to take care of my bride. This is how my family is going to set themselves.”  They planned it out; the groom set everything in order and everything was set in perfection.  The fact that they would run out of wine would be a mark of failure.  It would have meant that the groom had not planned well and it would be a mark of future of the family.  It meant that the groom couldn’t handle his responsibility.  He was poor in the provision or in his planning that he failed.  It would bring a cloud over the relationship. It would be bring a cloud from the family of the bride as to what was going to happen to the family after the wedding feast. The wedding feast was a very important event. You will find it throughout the Old Testament that the proclamation of the wedding was in a feast and it made a declaration of the groom’s commitment to the bride – how he was going to take care of her; how he was going to provide for her.  The fact that here was a situation where that the wine which was to be used in the feast was no longer sufficient; they run out of wine. We see then Mary coming to Christ and saying to Him that they don’t have anymore wine.  So it brought a question as to the potential of the groom. 

I want us to look at marriage.  Why was it important that this first miracle was going to take place in a wedding feast?  Jesus comes born of a Virgin; impregnated by the Holy Spirit. God becoming flesh and He, in so doing, brings heaven and earth together.  He brings flesh and divinity into one life.  He joins God and man in a marriage, a wedding.  Jesus, three days after His baptism, makes a miracle and makes a declaration: “I am here to make this declaration to you, as My bride, that I am coming to be one with you.”  He is so saying that at this feast, He is making a commitment of provision: “I will never fail you; I will never forsake you.”  Marriage is the two becoming one flesh.  This is why the event is so important. This is why this is the manifestation of the first miracle in the wedding feast.  God was speaking to us, “I am joining together with you.  I am one with you.  We are going to be one family and I commit Myself to take care of you.”  Scripture tell us that what God had put together, let no man put asunder or separate.

It would appear that Mary was concerned for the reputation of the groom. She comes with this concern on her heart to Jesus.  She says to Him, “They have run out of wine.”  In our Scriptures it appears that Jesus is irritated with Mary. As I have read this many times, I thought that I can’t believe that Jesus would be irritated with Mary.  There has to be something here that we don’t see, something that we don’t comprehend.  As I was preparing for this homily, I went back to the older writings of Scriptures and in those things it says differently than the way we receive it.  In most of them, it says, “Woman.”  This is not a statement of embarrassment or belittling. In that particular time, to call a female “woman” was a sign of dignity.  Today, perhaps, if we would say, “Woman,” it would be belittling a person, but in their time, it was not. It was a sign of respect. Jesus said, “Woman, what does your concern have to do with Me?”   It is a different statement.  She was concerned for the bride and the groom and was concerned on how the community that was there was going to receive this situation.  Jesus responds by saying, “What does that to do with Me?” He then adds this statement, “My time has not yet come.”  At the Last Supper, He took the wine and said, “This is My blood, which I am giving to you.”  He speaks to the two disciples who desired to be one on one hand and the other hand and He asked them, “Are you willing to drink this cup?” It was an identity with His death and He was saying to Mary, “My time has not yet come. I haven’t come to a point where that I am going to get all these things straightened out yet. My time hasn’t arrived.”  If He was speaking to her in a negative way and putting her down, He would not have proceeded with the events that had followed. But He was speaking about that which was to come- a prophecy.  “I haven’t drunk the wine yet.  I haven’t brought it to what it is supposed to be.”   Mary then speaks to the servants and she said, “Whatever He tells you to do, do it.”   

The Gospel then speaks to us of the six stone water pots that were there for the Jewish tradition of purification.  Scriptures tells us of the Pharisees and the Sadducees who were very upset because the disciples didn’t wash their hands before eating. They were not following all the Jewish rules of purification.  Here were these six stone water pots that were meant for purification so that all the guests of the feast could purify themselves before eating.  In the Moslem temple in Jerusalem, the Dome, before the men go into the temple to pray, they take off their shoes, wash their feet and their hands, and they purify themselves according to the old tradition. This has significance in it.  They are stone water pots because they believed that the stone would not absorb imperfections or disease. They would use these stones for storing the water and for bringing the water for purification.  People would not wash their hands or their feet in the pots but the water would be taken from the pot for the cleansing.  It was very evident that the pots were empty because the feast already began.  Everybody had purified themselves, the pots were empty.  These were pots for purifications -six of them would be less than perfect; seven would be a number of perfection. So it was making a statement: the purification, the law that man was under at that time, was not perfect.  But yet, Christ was going to use the pots so He told the servants, “Fill the pots with water.”  They did fill the pots with water.

Last week, the water washed away the sin of Jesus.  Now, He is bringing the symbolism for us to understand what is happening in His life.  He wants us to see and to understand how that God is setting a course and a direction. He wants us to understand before it happens because He promised, “Before I do anything, I will tell you.”  He was speaking in symbols. For most of us, we don’t understand symbols.  He was using the pots.  They filled the pots and when they filled them, Scriptures tells us that they filled them to the brim.  There was not any space left in the pot.  What is the purpose of this?  First purpose, when God does anything, He does it completely.  He doesn’t leave any space.  Secondly, if anybody wanted later to say, “Well, what Jesus said was He had it filled partly with water, and He put some wine into it to make it real wine but it was really water down.”  There was no opportunity for counterfeits for the pot was full.   The water was of the law, and Jesus was going to use it to bring grace and mercy to the bride and the groom.  He then gave the instructions to the servants to take out from the pot some of the wine, draw out some, and take it the headwaiter. They did take it to the headwaiter.  The headwaiter did not know that it had come out of the pots.  He did not understand that it had been water.  When he tasted it, he immediately reacted.  He went to the groom and said to him, “What is this?  It is common, ordinary tradition that when you serve a feast to your guests, you give the best wine first and after they had drank the wine and they are little woozy, then you serve the cheaper wine.  Why is it that you have held the best till the end?” 

Some would say creation was the best.  Quite obviously, the statement here was what God was doing among men; and now what is coming is actually the best.  He has held the best until the end.   The marriage was saved.  The reputation of the groom covered because of what Christ did.  The water of the law became a wine of grace. The water not only was cleansing, but that cleansing now became the joy of this relationship.  Psalm 104:15 says, “Wine makes a man’s heart glad.”  The cleansing now comes beyond the fact that the sin is gone; the iniquities wiped away; but now, the joy of our salvation is made real because of what Christ is proclaiming to us.   Ecclesiastes 10:19 says, “Wine makes life merry.”   It shows to us the cleansing of our lives by Christ; the giving of His own blood.  As we drink of it, it becomes the joy of our lives.  It makes our lives happy.  Look at Christ’s ability.  Look at what happens when Christ is present.  He takes the plainness of water. The water is just water but He changes it instantly.  It required potency – color, fragrance and flavor.  This is what God does to our lives when Christ comes in as Lord and Master.  No longer is life just blah, but He adds potency to it.  He adds energy; He adds ability; He adds color. There is that joy, that confidence, that assurance. He adds fragrance, not the bitterness of odor; but it is sweet, pleasing, and it has flavor like the salt and the spices to life. The power of His presence, the power of the Creator changed the water into wine and flesh into divinity. 

What a proclamation that He speaks to us!  What provision that He gives to us!  This happens on the third day.  What happened on the third day?  Resurrection – new life! Jesus is proclaiming and declaring what was going to take place.  He is showing us in symbolism the events of this marriage and the water becoming wine.  He says to us that we like Him should turn the water into wine – not physically, but spiritually. The plainness of life for others, we may fill with potency, with fragrance, with color, with flavor.  We make certain that life has value to it and that life is pleasing.  This is our baptism. This is our hearing the voice, “Thou are my beloved son, in whom I am well pleased.”  This is the equipping of man by Christ to accomplish all things. 

We see this in the epistle of Paul to the church of Corinth. We have been given all the gifts to make certain that the water does not remain water but the water becomes wine. We have been given the ability and the power to change things that are not what they should be into what they are supposed to be as given by God. The gifts proclaimed and given to us are for the sake of others, not for us.  Jesus did not make this wine for Himself.  He made it for the bride and the groom, and for the community that was present.  The gifts that God gives us are for the ministry to others – wisdom, knowledge, faith, healing, miracles, prophecy, distinguishing of spirit, tongues, interpretation of tongues. These are for the common good. God equips us with these abilities.  Jesus was equipped with this divinity and He changed the plainness of the water to the beauty of the wine, to the excellency of the wine.

This is God’s provision for us and He speaks this to us in the second Sunday of Epiphany He is with us for what?  He changes our lives from plain to fragrant and flavorful.  But He also gives to us the potential that we can help change the lives of others, that we can bring the joy to others, and we can give Him the glory because He is the One who equips us to do so.  The first miracle at a wedding feast is a proclamation of God – God and man becoming one; heaven and earth joining together; the two becoming one and together, changing the world and bringing into the world the provision of God and the grace and the mercy of His love.  What a joy! What a hope this gives to us.  We are no longer destitute; no longer fearful of condemnation or of people looking and wondering: are we going to make it?  Jesus now changes the water and it becomes wine.  It saves our reputation.  It saves our life and it gives us the ability to hold our head high – not in pride, but in thanksgiving.  This is the greatness of God’s commitment to His own, to the Church.  May we begin to realize all that God has given to us.  May we realize the gift of Christ and what that gift does in our lives – how it changes us and how it brings us out of the embarrassment of lack and takes us into a place wherein the manifestation is awesome and great – even greater than what we will be able to provide. 

I shared to you how that I have prepared a list of Scriptures that you would be able to know what Christ has done for us, and what He has given to us.  I would encourage you to study them, to know what belongs to you.  Partake of that new wine that is yours and let your life begin to have flavor, fragrance, color and potency.  No longer disturbed. No longer distressed.  No longer anxious but filled with the joy of your salvation. That wine was meant to bring joy to life.  May we partake and may we bring life to others.  Amen!