The phrase "Love and marriage" summarizes the littler gallery below: I introduce to you Pic #1 which is the artwork entitled "Beloved" by the late Amy McCutcheon. Her theme is written "His banner over me is love" - Song of Solomon 2:4; Pic #2 is from the 16th century German artist, Hans Sebald Beham, "The Wedding at Cana" (Circa 1520); Pic #3 reverts to the Old Testament Song of Solomon, with the beautiful contemporary art of Columbus, Ohio native, Cody F. Miller. He has this to say about his wonderful work: "Biblical love is the revelation of God Himself" and, lastly is Pic #4 known as "Adoration of the Mystical Lamb" by the Flemish artist Jan Van Eyck, showing the great love the Lamb of God had for His Church by the shedding of His blood.
This brings me to this morning's address:
“Changing Water into Wine: The Glorious Manifestation”
John 2:1 11 On the third day there was a wedding in Cana of Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there.2 Now both Jesus and His disciples were invited to the wedding.3 And when they ran out of wine, the mother of Jesus said to Him, “They have no wine.” 4 Jesus said to her, “Woman, what does your concern have to do with Me? My hour has not yet come.” 5 His mother said to the servants, “Whatever He says to you, do it.” 6 Now there were set there six water pots of stone, according to the manner of purification of the Jews, containing twenty or thirty gallons apiece.7 Jesus said to them, “Fill the water pots with water.” And they filled them up to the brim.8 And He said to them, “Draw some out now, and take it to the master of the feast.” And they took it.9 When the master of the feast had tasted the water that was made wine, and did not know where it came from (but the servants who had drawn the water knew), the master of the feast called the bridegroom.10 And he said to him, “Every man at the beginning sets out the good wine, and when the guests have well drunk, then the inferior. You have kept the good wine until now!” 11 This beginning of signs Jesus did in Cana of Galilee and manifested His glory; and His disciples believed in Him. NKJV
My friends in Christ: God speaks through John as he records for us a heaven on earth, speaking to us of water, wine, and the wedding feast that our Lord Jesus graces with His presence. God’s word also speaks to us of another wedding feast — a heavenly feast that is yet to come. In the wedding feast at Cana, Jesus was present as an invited guest; in the feast yet to come, He will be present as the Bridegroom. At both wedding feasts, the glory of Christ is manifested. In the wedding feast at Cana, the glory of the Lord is miraculously shown, by virtue of the Son of Man changing water into wine, and what the disciples see strengthens their faith in Christ. In the feast yet to come, we too, will behold His glory with our own eyes.
Throughout Scripture the people of God are portrayed as the Lord’s bride. The central theme of the often misunderstood book of the Bible, the Song of Solomon, is the relationship between the Messiah and God’s people that is comparable to the loving relationship of a man and a woman, a bridegroom and his bride; and yet the central theme of another prophet, Hosea, is of spiritual whoredom, that Israel has been unfaithful to her faithful Lord and Husband. These same themes are found throughout the Old Testament: Israel is portrayed as the Lord’s chosen bride but as one who is constantly unfaithful. Yet in all of this, the Lord himself is faithful. He does not abandon His people; He promises that He will remain faithful and will bring about their reconciliation.
The prophet Isaiah records this promise of the Lord: “No longer will they call you Deserted, or name your land Desolate. But you will be called Hephzibah which means “My delight is in her” and your land Beulah [translated “married”]; for the Lord will take delight in you, and your land will be married... As a bridegroom rejoices over his bride, so will your God rejoice over you.” (Isaiah 62:1-5)
This promise was fulfilled in Christ. At the beginning of Jesus’ ministry, followers of John the Baptist became perplexed that the people were beginning to follow Jesus rather than their teacher, John. When they complained about this, John responded by saying: “He who has the bride is the Bridegroom; but the friend of the Bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly because of the Bridegroom’s voice. Therefore, this joy of mine is fulfilled.” (John 3:29) He who has the bride — He whom the people of God are following — is the Bridegroom. Here, John specifically identifies Jesus as the long-awaited Messiah, the Christ. The Bridegroom has come. And already the bride for whom He came is being drawn to Him. But the betrothal is not complete during Jesus’ earthly ministry. At that time, a woman’s preparation prior to a wedding would include bathing in water and being clothed in new wedding garments.
Preparation was also needed for the bride of Christ. How this was accomplished is described for us in the fifth chapter of Ephesians. There, in a section devoted to marriage, Saint Paul writes: “Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her, that He might sanctify and cleanse her by the washing of water with the word, that He might present her to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish. So, husbands ought to love their own wives as their own bodies.”
Although we, by our fallen sinful nature, are not worthy to be Christ’s bride, Paul writes that Christ loved us and gave Himself for us. He died for us, that we might be His bride. St. Paul explains that Christ gave Himself for us that He might present us to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle but holy and without blemish. Jesus takes us, who are clothed in the filthy rags of sin, and makes of us a pure and holy bride, adorned in the spotless white of a pure, innocent virgin.
How does God accomplish this miraculous transformation? According to St. Paul, having given Himself for us, Christ now sanctifies us and cleanses us by the washing of water with the word.
It is in this washing of water with the Word of God, the baptismal regeneration, that Christ washes us clean. We are clothed with the garments of salvation, arrayed in the robe of righteousness (Isaiah 61:10) — not because of any merit or worthiness in ourselves, but because Christ adorns us in His perfect righteousness. He who has suffered for our sins gives us His righteousness; He who has paid the price for our impurity gives us His perfect purity, which we simply receive in and through faith alone. That is how Christ prepares us so that we might be presented to Him as His pure and holy bride.
This is what we sing about in the popular hymn “The Church’s One Foundation”:
“The Church’s one Foundation is Jesus Christ her Lord;
she is His new creation by water and the Word;
from heaven He came and sought her to be His holy bride;
with His own blood He bought her and for her life He died.”
Luther preached on the Wedding Feast at Cana, and the water in the pots made of stone as were the tables of the Law. Dr. Luther said: “The water in the pots is the contents and the substance of the Law by which conscience is governed, and is graven in letters as in the water pots of stone...To turn water into wine is to render the interpretation of the Law delightful...Thus the right interpretation and significance of the law is to lead us to the knowledge of our helplessness, to drive us from ourselves to another, namely, to Christ, to seek grace and help from Him. Therefore, when Christ wanted to make wine He had them pour in still more water, up to the very brim. Then comes the consoling Gospel and turns water into wine. For when the heart hears that Christ fulfills the law for us and takes our sin upon Himself, it no longer cares that impossible things are demanded by the Law...Water is no longer in the pots, it has turned into wine, it is passed to the guest, it is consumed, and has made the heart glad.”
(Luther’s Church Postil for the 2nd Sunday after Epiphany.)
And this is what Martin Luther saw as the servants who listened and did what Jesus told them, namely, “And these servants are all preachers of the New Testament like the apostles and their successors. The drawing (the wine) and passing to the guests is, to take this interpretation from the Scriptures, and to preach it to all the world, which is bidden to Christ’s marriage.”
What has happened to such servant preachers today within the Christian churches and especially within the Lutheran Church? These churches serve everything to their guests but the finest wine, which is the pure Gospel. God help us!
Mary, in today’s Gospel, encourages those servants to do what her Son says, and the Old Testament for today states emphatically, “The Lord thy God will raise up unto thee a prophet...Unto Him ye shall hearken.” (Cf. Deuteronomy 18:15-19) Have they not believed and therefore have spoken that their Christian guests have been washed in water and the Word, that they are the bride of Christ, and yet the wedding celebration is still to come? If our preachers serve up other than the best wine, what do they offer to those who desire to taste the Gospel’s message?
I invite you to take a good look and inspect an unfaithful servant’s gospel, of the likes of those which are representative of the new U.S. Senator from Georgia, the Reverend Raphael Warnock. His first name is rather ironic since Raphael means “God heals.” Those who pretend to be servants of Christ always serve the inferior wine since they have perverted the pure Gospel of our Lord (not having listened to Him) and totally confound the roles of Church and State. Many preacher/servants, therefore, are merely social workers (and Marxist ones at that) who do not know how to heal the broken hearted and those kept imprisoned by their own flesh, sin, and the devil.
But listen to how it actually is: In two of His parables, Jesus portrays the last day for the Christian as the time of a wedding celebration. In both parables, Jesus Himself is the Bridegroom. Those who join Him in the wedding celebration are described in one parable as those having oil in their lamps. That is, faith in their hearts and in the other parable as those wearing the wedding garments He has provided, namely, the robe of Christ’s righteousness that He freely gives in Word and Sacrament and that we receive through faith. In other words, it is those who receive the free gift of Christ’s righteousness in faith that will join Him in His marriage feast.
This is also seen in the book of Revelation, where God reveals that the marriage feast of the Lamb comes at the end of time, and the Bride of the Lamb is revealed to be the Church. And so we live already as His bride, but still awaiting the marriage feast in His kingdom that knows no end. We wait. We don’t have to worry, but we are to be confident that our faithful Lord will come for us to take us into His kingdom of glory and welcome us to the great wedding banquet.
Meanwhile Christ is bringing even more people into this body, the Church. He does this in Holy Baptism — washing them in water and the Word, just as He has washed you — especially through the proclamation of the Gospel, which creates faith as the Word of Christ crucified is heard. As St. Paul wrote Titus (3:4-6), “But when the kindness and the love of God our Savior toward man appeared, not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior.”
In the wedding at Cana, Jesus miraculously provided wine for the wedding celebration. And at the wedding feast to come, you will personally join Christ in partaking of the fruit of the vine. On the night that He was betrayed, after instituting His Holy Supper, Jesus said to His disciples: “I tell you, I will not drink of this fruit of the vine from now on until that day when I drink it anew with you in my Father’s kingdom” (Matthew 26:29). As faithful Christians, you earnestly desire that day. In the meantime, Christ has given you a foretaste of the feast to come; a little heaven manifested here on earth. He has given you not only wine to drink — but something much more precious. In the Lord’s Supper, our Lord graciously serves you by giving you not only wine, but wine that is miraculously united with His true and essential blood. It is as the Lord says to you through Saint Paul in the tenth chapter of First Corinthians: “The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a communion in the blood of Christ? The bread that we break, is it not a communion in the body of Christ?”
It is also little known that in the Song of Solomon, God associates wine with His love. For example, there the Lord’s bride expresses her joy in the Bridegroom with the words, “He brought me into the house of wine, and his banner over me is love.” Our translations actually use the words “Banqueting house” but the literal translation from the Hebrew is “house of wine” Beth-aiyin. In the Lord’s Supper, we are given a gift of His immeasurable love — not only wine, but along with wine the blood of Christ that has been given for us in the greatest act of love ever known, His shed blood upon Calvary’s Cross.. Christ bought us with His blood, He has washed us in His blood, and now He feeds us with His own body and blood.
All are invited to the wedding feast. But there are those who refuse. And there are also those who first receive the good news in faith — receive the wedding garments prepared for them in faith — but then turn away, abandoning their heavenly Bridegroom, preferring to live in a state of spiritual adultery. They find themselves staying away from church and no longer interested in studying God’s infallible Word, and eventually find themselves void of faith. These people will not enter into the feast but will be cast into everlasting darkness. But for those who by faith receive the white robe of righteousness from Christ and who are found faithful at the end, there is the sure promise of everlasting joy and peace that awaits them.
Through Jesus’ body and blood given for you in the Lord’s Supper and through the Word of the Gospel, Christ continually washes and brightens the spotless wedding garments in which He has so lovingly and freely clothed you in holy baptism. In this way, Jesus manifests His glory to you as He graciously strengthens and preserves you in the one true faith unto everlasting life. Amen.
