Epiphany 3

[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.”

A few things here…let us protect ourselves here from over playing what role Marry the Mother of God has. On one hand she is a Jewish woman who God has chosen to being forth Jesus the bringer of the New Covenant. In a way she is a grand representative of the church. She has a special relationship with Jesus. On the other hand, She is offered a light rebuke here. And only when she comes to Christ by faith does she see Jesus’ intervention. We need to look to the heroic role of Mary in the Gospels, but we must also remember that the whole purpose of Jesus is to directly mediate us to God, we dont need any assistance in that mediation. The Old Covenant is about the steps through which we must walk to try and be connected to God, the new covenant is about God directly coming to us and overwhelming what had come before. As High Church Anglicans we look to the saints for inspiration and Mary is chief among them, yet we must keep the main thing the main thing…this particular text is about Jesus initiating the New Thing, the mediation of Man to God, by God himself.

Mary who is probably a widow by this point who had come to rely on her son Jesus, the resourceful God man asks for help, but remember, this is his first Miracle. So she has not come to rely on his miraculou work, she has probably come to rely on his ingenuity. Jesus these people close to us are hosting, and they have run out of wine (a bit of a scandle in those days). I went to a wedding that ran out of food…trust me I was the only one who cared.

Jesus rebukes that she would lean on his resourcefulness, but then by faith she leaves it to him

Do what ever he tells you todo...

This is where the narrative becomes special. Jesus has them take 6 jars for cerimonial washings.

To come into the presence of God in the Old Covenant tradition, one must have had cerimonial cleanliness. They would have washed using the water in these jars as a sign on being ritually clean in the sight of God.

We use a one year lectionary, that means every year we will revisit this event around this time so I am going to pause exegesis here and just focus on the Jars. There is plenty more to say and over time we will explore that together. But think of what the jars represent, what they accomplish. They are furniture of the Old Covenant, that offer a mediated work we can do for a temporary cleaness before God. What do they become, vessels of wine, not just wine but the best wine.

Again we are high church Anglicans, what is wine for us? The same thing it is for all the high church traditions,

Likewise, after supper, he took the Cup; and when he had given thanks, he gave it to them, saying, Drink ye all of this; for this is my Blood of the New Testament, which is shed for you, and for many, for the remission of sins;

It is the blood of Christ that seals the New Covenant, and is shed for the remission of sins. The Old Covenant vessels now hold the New Covenant wine.

[11] This, the first of his signs, Jesus did at Cana in Galilee, and manifested his glory. And his disciples believed in him. (ESV)

The Epiphany of Jesus as God, mediating in a new way. Offering the forgivness of sins by transforming not conforming.

What Jesus offers is better.

Well how do we as the church be a transformed people in all this.

First off we reject anything that would require our own self cleansing. We are offered the wine of God’s cleansing, not because we first ceremonially washed not because we got our act together, but because Jesus with his saving blood covers us, transforms us. We have the Epiphany of the saving God.

Second, now that we have seen the Lord we need to follow in the footsteps of Saint John who ends his Gospel with these words...

John 20:30–31[30] Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; [31] but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name. (ESV)

John sees the Epiphany as news that must be declared…so should it be for us, news that must be declared. Preach it to yourself, to your families, to those around you.

Let me give like a mini application about the wedding. I don’t think the main point of this text is that Jesus sanctifies marriage by having his Epiphany at a wedding. But he is present, and his miracle saves a wedding. If Jesus was underwhelmed by marriage this would have turned out pretty different. Instead he allows this great celebration to continue, with even greater vigour. And so as not to understate anything let us also remember that the celebration of the lamb at the end of all things is a wedding, so let that be the canvas of the Epiphany…but not the point of the Epiphany.

What Jesus offers is better.

I want to always remember to finish by pointing us to the cross…There was a groom here who would have been the object of shame a ridicule of he had allowed the wine to run out, but Jesus intervenes. We also would be the object of heavenly shame and ridicule if jesus does not intervene. There was nothing this groom could have done in the moment to rescue himself from the situation. And there is nothing our own effort can do to rescue us from the coming judgement. We are all guilty of forsaking God and trying to cover it up through the empty ritual of ceremonial washing, we need transformation. On the cross Jesus takes our sin and our shame, and spills his blood to transform us. We can stand before God as new moral creature, because God has transformed us into new moral creatures. So when we take the bread and the wine today, that will be for us the body and blood of Christ let us remember that by his broken body and spilled blood we are changed into something new. Something worthy of the wedding at the end of all things.

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