The Wine Sign

 Jesu Juva

St. John 2:1-11                                              

January 19, 2025

Epiphany 2C                               

 Dear saints of our Savior~

        I’m old enough to remember when Orson Welles would pop up on television, reminding us that Paul Masson would “sell no wine . . . before its time.”  Unfortunately, the “time” for “wine” has come and gone in my opinion.  Wine has fallen on hard times.  Turns out, it’s really not good for you.  Some California wines contain traces of Round-Up herbicide.  Wine’s effect on brain and body is all bad. 

        But why whine about wine today?—when we commemorate how our Lord Jesus once served up 180 gallons of the very finest wine ever tasted?  Well, our Lord’s wine is more than just wine.  His wine is a “sign.”  A “sign” stands for something more than meets the eye.  In fact, Saint John tells us that this transformation of water to wine is the very “first” of our Lord’s “signs.”

        To put it in simple terms, a “sign” is something we see which causes us to take action.  You probably encountered a “stop sign” on your way to church this morning.  You saw the sign; and you took action—you hit the brakes.  Wine as a “sign” stands for things like: fellowship and Gemütlichkeit and good cheer and “here’s to you” and “here’s to you.”  The wedding wine made by Jesus meant all of that and more.  This “wine sign” manifested His glory.  This “wine sign” led the disciples to believe in Him.

        This first sign occurred at a wedding.  Wedding feasts at that time were often week-long affairs to which the whole town was invited; and food and drink were expected to be provided for all the guests.  Toss in a few unexpected guests, a handful of wedding crashers, some cousins from up north—these could quickly put a dent in the food and wine.  Running out of either would have been a big embarrassment for both families.

        Since weddings are family affairs it should come as no surprise that Jesus’ mother, Mary, is also at this wedding.  It’s Mary who first tells Jesus that the wine had run out.  And at first, Jesus doesn’t seem eager to do anything about it:  What does this have to do with me?  My hour has not yet come.  Jesus’ “hour” was a reference to His death on the cross.  That was why He came.  That’s also why the artwork on the cover of this morning’s bulletin has a wooden cross hidden in the background.  Did you catch that?  Jesus seems almost irritated at his mother for hinting that He should make things right.

        But Mary is a model of faith; and she forges ahead in faith, confident that Jesus will act.  She says to the servants: Do whatever he tells you.  Those happen to be the last recorded words of Mary in the Scriptures.  And we really can’t go wrong listening to those words of Mary:  Do whatever [my Son] tells you.  After all, He’s the one who died on the cross and rose from the dead to save you.  If Jesus says to love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, then we should do it.  If Jesus says to forgive those who sin against us, then we should do it.  If Jesus says give to Caesar what is Caesar’s, then we should pay our taxes.  Do whatever He tells you.

        It starts to get interesting when Jesus tells the servants to fill up six stone water jars.  Now these big water jars were used for Jewish rites of purification.  And that fact is important.   In other words, the Jews washed with this water for reasons of godliness, not cleanliness.  By washing with that water they thought they could make themselves more acceptable to God (more on that in a minute).  Well, you know what happens next.  The master of the feast takes a sip of the new wine and immediately calls the groom over.  Listen, he says, someone’s made a mistake here.  You’re supposed to serve the fine wine first.  Then, after everyone’s senses are a little dulled, then you slip in the cheap stuff.  But, “you have kept the good wine until now.”  You have saved the best for last!

        Now, remember, this text is like fine wine.  So let’s savor what’s going on here.  When Mary says, “They have no more wine,” she might just as well have been talking about the Jews of the Old Covenant.  Their time was just about up.  They were hopelessly mired in the law—in keeping rules and regulations and ceremonies—with nothing to show for it but six stone jars of water.  That’s about as far as the law of God can take you.  At best, it can give you clean hands; but it can’t purify the heart of a sinner.  And that’s where the problem lies for us.  “The law came through Moses,” St. John writes, “but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.”

        In Jesus the old has gone, and the new creation has come.  Jesus brings a new and better purification.  In Jesus, Old Testament bath water becomes New Testament wedding wine.  Jesus fills up the commandments of Moses with His own perfect obedience.  That’s why He came—to fill it up to the brim with Himself, and then to die an innocent death on the cross, to pour out His blood like fine wine from heaven to make glad every heart with the joy of His forgiveness, life and salvation.

        When the bartender says, “You’ve saved the best until now,” that’s more than a comment on the wine.  It’s a comment on Jesus.  God has truly saved the best for last in His Son, Jesus Christ.  In many and various ways God spoke to His people of old by the prophets, but now in these last days He has spoken to us by His Son.  The promises, the prophets, the priests and the ceremonial laws of the OT—they were good gifts of our good God.  But something far better comes our way in Jesus.  He is truly the best vintage, God’s private reserve, set aside from before the foundation of the world and appointed to be poured out generously in the fullness of time.

        Jesus is the fulfillment of the Law for all who believe.  He’s the end of using the law to get in good with God.  He’s the end of all hand-scrubbing religion—the end of all attempts to purify ourselves and clean up the mess of our own sin.  You can’t do that no matter how much you wash and soak and scrub.  You’ll never be pure enough.  But Jesus does it for you in His dying and rising.  He takes your sin and gives you His purity.  All who believe in Him are completely cleansed and purified—by grace.  And that’s something worth celebrating (and, I’m sorry, but grape juice just doesn’t cut it).  In Jesus you have a place at the wedding feast of the Lamb in His kingdom, where the meat is richly marbled and the where the wine never runs out.

        Have we made too much of this wine sign? No way.  In fact, there are a few drops more of this text left to enjoy.  We can’t quit until you recognize this:  that what goes on right here at Our Savior every Sunday is more marvelous and more meaningful than what happened at the wedding at Cana.  Here Jesus takes water and makes water a sign—a baptism—a sacrament of His death and resurrection life which is given to you in the splash of your own baptism.  Here Jesus takes bread and gives it as His body; here Jesus takes wine and gives it to you as His blood.  Right here every Sunday we have a wedding feast where Jesus is the groom, Jesus is bartender, Jesus is even the food and drink.  And you are His honored guests.  Here all signs point to Jesus!

        One day it will all be clear—how our God always saves the best for last.  And, He has one more vintage yet to uncork—you.  You are still aging in the bottle, so to speak.  Your hour—your time—has not yet come.  But it will come soon enough, at a time when the world’s party will have run dry, when Jesus appears in glory to raise the dead to life.  And then, with a new, resurrected body and joy overflowing, you will fully experience what today you can only believe:  God has saved the best for last; and the best always comes with Jesus. 

        In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.