- Psalmody: Psalm 66:4, 1-2; Psalm 107:20–21; Psalm 97:1; Psalm 66:1-2a, 16; John 2:7a, 8b, 9a, 10b, 11a
- Lection: Amos 9:11-15; Romans 12:6–16a; John 2:1–11
In the Name of the Father and of the ✠ Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
At the Epiphany, it was revealed to us Gentiles the wide-reaching love of God in Christ Jesus, born King of the Jews, born King of heaven and earth and all who dwell therein. Last week, it was revealed to us that the divine Boy was to be the culmination and fulfillment of all His Father’s holy things that had been instituted for our reconciliation and salvation. Today, Jesus’ words and actions at the wedding in Cana of Galilee reveal to us the very sympathy that He, the Lord incarnate in our poor flesh and bone, has for those He comes to redeem. It is good to gain sympathy from the Most High and to then herald His love in the morning and His truth at the close of the day. Nothing passes out of His reach or out of His tender care. What we behold of Him in Cana is a reflection, a glimpse, a gladdened toast to what He has gained for us forever. There is nothing inferior in His giving hand.
St. John has this as the first in his gospel of all the miracles that the Christ did while upon the earth. He refers to it as this beginning of signs, meaning that by it the heart, intent, and certainty of all others to follow may be seen. It is similar to a difficult situation into which we engage or when there’s a challenging conversation to be had. Often, the tone set in the first sentence or two likely reveals how the course of the conversation is likely to go, which reminds us that a fruit of the Spirit is self-control. If we have it not about us as default before we encounter times that put our patience to the test, then the likelihood of being able to corral our brutish flesh in the heat of the moment is slim to none at best. Christ’s beginning miracle reveals His good heart and its peaceful, restorative trajectory and goal.
For, it is not only in the tumultuous times that this sympathetic Christ desires to be of heavenly Aid. He comes to make all things new; to restore all that which was lost. Much is corrupt in these evil days, even the rightful celebrations of gifts such as marriage. Weddings are clearly and definitively times that not only warrant but require great feasting and joy. God’s clear definition of marriage as between one man and one woman, just as He instituted between our First Parents, is that blessed union by which His design of life is carried out and carried on. No corrupted abomination of man with man or woman with woman can be called marriage, because by godly definition it is not. Jesus, the revealed God Man, is here already well into His three-year long Ministry, a time filled with great demand put upon Him, great sacrifice, great mercy, great urgency. Yet, consider how significant His endorsement and love of marriage is that He, along with His disciples, attend a wedding in His home region of Galilee. It shows how this beginning of signs is a majestic part of God’s salvation and what is shall look like in full fruition. Truly, marriage is to be that important to us as people, married or single, as Christians, as a society, as a nation. Marriage is the very image of Christ the eternal Bridegroom united to His Bride, the Church, the Body of all believers washed and sanctified by our sacrificial and sympathetic Helper. Marriage is to be cherished, preserved, honored, and supported with every effort, including fervent spoken or silent prayers, for even the marriages of which we are not a part are themselves part of us all; blessed united members among others in the collective godly good of the whole Body being lived out by God’s design. Pray for the health and vitality of marriages surrounding you, for we shall not go unaffected by their demise, nor shall we lack in benefit and joy at their success.
By Jesus manifesting His glory, His deity, His divine sympathy with man at this wedding in this great beginning, He was also showing His intent to sanctify humanity and all that takes place in our relationships. It is a holy and sanctified thought to ponder upon the fact that in the beauty that we see shine in the midst of relationships that are every one tainted with sin to various degrees, they are all not yet in their full joyous measure. For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. The Lord of sympathy has come not to condemn, nor to break, nor to quench, nor to scatter, but to fulfill all righteousness in Himself and to unite us in Him. Human relationships are made aright when those in them are reconciled to God through the Man Christ Jesus. In so many wrong ways with so many wrong things, we love too much, but He shows us that in Him and toward others, we love too little. He tends to this by His beginning example, by His divine insertion of Himself into our stone hearts so that they beat like His, especially in affection for one another in brotherly love, and in honor giving preference to one another. He sympathizes by seeing what is lacking and by rejoicing in giving it to us. Yea, let us strive to love one another as Christ does!
He also manifested Himself in Cana so that He may give us sanctified pleasures. By God’s design, we have no problem desiring pleasures. For that basic blessing, it is fitting to thank Him. But by the devil’s design, we have no problem desiring the wrong pleasures. For that temptation, it is fitting to pray against him and against the fleshly desires that please him to see us succumb to. Yes, our fault is that we seek far too many of the wrong pleasures: uncontrolled desires for food, lust, greed, wrath, vengeance. About this it is wise to lift our voices with Christ as He prayed from the Psalms, Thou wilt show me the path of life: In thy presence is fulness of joy; At thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore. At God’s right hand are all the pleasures that He intends for us to rightly have and to enjoy rightly, such as wine given as a gift for feasting, not for overindulgence unto drunkenness, but as part of God’s gifts that gladden the heart in the right way at the right time. A wedding is that right time, yet just as much good in this life appears to be stifled in a fallen world, moments of true celebration clouded with sorrow, so it was at the wedding feast in Cana. Christ has come to redeem all things. Later, He visited a home stricken with grief and raised His friend Lazarus from the dead showing that death shall lie defeated at His pierced feet. Here in Cana, He shows how thorough and glorious shall be His reckoning, setting aright the lack of good wine at a good feast. Jesus Christ your Lord attends to every care of your heart, no matter the severity. You are His and He is yours. He numbers the very hairs upon your head, or your chin, if the northern most regions have been laid bare.
So, at the wedding, There is no wine, the mother of Jesus said. The ways of this sin-ridden, lacking world struck the celebration in which God was uniting two to become one flesh. This must not be. This will not be in Christ once His complete act of redemption has played out at the Last Day. For now, in Cana, in our lives, we receive the good news to believe by faith; that we are to trust that though the water of sorrow may abound in our lives, seemingly able to drown true and rightful godly joy and celebration, it shall not remain. It shall pass, both temporally and eternally. All that is sorrowful now Jesus shall make sweet like the good wine to be drunk at the marriage feast of the Lamb. Until then, if we are to abide in Christian hope, if we are to thrive in the midst of all sorrow this life brings, let us by faith look to the Man manifesting His glory as God. Let us do just as St. Mary, His mother, bids us, “Whatever He says to you, do it.” Believe Him. Trust Him. By this, He shall sweeten all our days, ensuring that the time is to come when there will be nothing inferior ever to be set out, but only that which is good from Him Who alone is good. By all that He has done, by all that He faithfully does, and by all that He has promised yet to do, we may trust and believe in our revealed Lord’s sympathy for us, no matter the situation, for it is the Lord Himself Who has come into our midst to give to us true pleasures that shall last forevermore.
In ✠ Jesus’ Name. Amen.
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