The Signs Pointing You to Jesus Second Sunday After the Epiphany The Confession of St. Peter January 18, 2015 John 2:1–11
In the Gospel reading today Jesus is at a wedding and He turns water into wine. John says that this was the first of His signs and that the disciples believed in Him. Jesus didn’t turn water into wine to save the day at the wedding when the wine ran out. He did this action so that we may believe in Him. So how was it that His doing this action led the disciples to believe in Him? And how is it that His doing this action leads us, who already believe in Him, to remain firm in our faith in Him and to be strengthened in that faith? Finally, how is that what He did there at Cana can lead those who do not believe in Him to believe in Him? When John tells us how it unfolded that Jesus turned water into wine, he gives certain signs that the disciples saw, leading them to believe in Jesus. One sign is that His miraculous action of turning water into wine occurred at a wedding. The disciples knew that the Savior God promised to bring would Himself celebrate a wedding. It would be the wedding of Himself and His bride, His people, the Holy Christian Church. Jesus accomplishing this miraculous action at a wedding was a sign that He was that very promised Savior. Another sign was His replacing the water in the jars that was for purification with what He brought into being. The promised Savior would come to do away with the old and bring in the new. The disciples recognized that Jesus was bringing about a new age where there would no longer be ceremonial laws necessary for forgiveness but rather the new things the Savior Himself was bring about. Yet another sign was His bringing about wine in abundance. Not only did Jesus create wine, He made choice wine. The Savior promised in the Old Testament was the one who would yield wine in abundance. These are signs the disciples readily recognized. In turning water into wine John says that Jesus manifested His glory and His disciples believed in Him. It wasn’t that Jesus accomplished something amazing and so the disciples thought that Jesus must be the one who is the Savior. It’s that He accomplished a miraculous action in a certain setting and in a certain way that showed the disciples that He was the one coming in fulfillment of the Old Testament prophecies of the Savior. Those were the signs pointing the disciples to Jesus. What are the signs pointing you to Him? Jesus manifested His glory in this sign and they believed in Him. What signs does He do where you believe in Him and are strengthened in your faith in Him? When you hear of the wedding at Cana and what Jesus did there and what happened there, consider what you already know. In the second chapter of his Gospel account John tells you this story of Jesus at the wedding of Cana. But as you hear this story you already know the rest of the story. You already know who Jesus is and why He came. You know that He followed the changing of water into wine at Cana with a three-year ministry. You know He closed His ministry in going to the cross and accomplishing salvation for the world. You know that He followed that up in rising from His grave. You know that soon after that He ascended into heaven. You know that as He has done that He lives and reigns to all eternity. Knowing everything else Jesus accomplished, there are signs pointing you to Him. When His mother told Him that the wine had run out He asked her what concern that was to Him, because, He said, “My hour has not yet come.” Jesus knew the purpose He came for. He knew His hour wasn’t yet. He knew that His hour wouldn’t come until He would go to the cross and accomplish the salvation promised in the Old Testament that the Savior would bring about. When you see Jesus manifesting His glory at Cana you see it in light of the greater manifestation of glory He would bring about at Calvary. You believe in Him not because you saw the signs at Cana but because you have seen the signs at Calvary. You believe in Him not because He manifested His glory at a wedding but because He manifested His glory in His suffering and death. You know that since Jesus has accomplished this salvation that you celebrate in the wedding feast of the Lamb. He is the groom, and you, the Holy Christian Church, are the Bride. He invites you to celebrate with Him in His eternal wedding feast. He has not come to make sure there’s enough wine whenever there’s a wedding and the wine runs out. Rather, instead of changing water into wine, He takes wine and gives you in it His blood that was shed on the cross for all of your sins. He takes bread and gives you in it His body that He offered up on the cross for your forgiveness. Wine was prophesied to flow in abundance at the coming of the Savior. Jesus brought this about. Now that He has accomplished the salvation He came to bring, His blood flows in abundance. It poured out of His side at His crucifixion and is poured out for you for your forgiveness in His Supper, His wedding feast He invites you to. These are the signs pointing you to Jesus. The Holy Spirit works through these signs to create faith in you. You believe in Jesus and in remaining in the signs God gives you you are strengthened in faith. As John says at the end of his Gospel account, you have life in the name of Jesus. What does this life consist of? Your life first is of being in those means of grace your Lord gives you to strengthen you. It is then lived out in service. You serve others in how you live, in being humble, in loving others. These become signs, then, for others who do not believe. They are not going to see how Jesus changing water into wine at a wedding shows that He is the Savior of the world. But they will see you and how you live. They will be the recipients of your love and serving them. You will be a sign to them pointing them to Jesus. You have the opportunity to point them to the Savior who has paid for all of their sins. You have the opportunity to show them something they otherwise might not be able to see. This is why God works through signs. They point us to His Son. They point us to the salvation He accomplished in fulfillment of the promises in the Old Testament. Now that we have the New Testament we can see that Jesus has done everything we need for our salvation. This is what the disciples had come to see. After Jesus rose from the dead they saw what you see. They saw the signs of His suffering, death, and resurrection. They saw the signs that God points people to Jesus through the Gospel that is proclaimed and the Sacraments He gives. In the Church these are the signs we continue to be strengthened in. They also become signs for those who do not believe, because in the Gospel and in the Sacraments Jesus is proclaimed to the world. These are the actions He does which manifest His glory so that people may believe in Him. After the disciples saw fully the glory of Jesus in His suffering, death, and resurrection, they spoke of it. They made known this glory. They did it so that people would believe. They did it because this glory Jesus manifested is His grace, His mercy, and His eternal salvation. Amen. SDG -- Pastor Paul L. Willweber Prince of Peace Lutheran Church [LCMS] 6801 Easton Ct., San Diego, California 92120 619.583.1436 princeofpeacesd.net three-taverns.net It is the spirit and genius of Lutheranism to be liberal in everything except where the marks of the Church are concerned. [Henry Hamann, On Being a Christian] _______________________________________________ Sermons mailing list Sermons@cat41.org http://cat41.org/mailman/listinfo/sermons
