Revealing His Glory

John 2:1-11

In the 1758 edition of Poor Richard’s Almanac, Benjamin Franklin published the following poem:

For want of a nail the shoe was lost,

For want of a shoe the horse was lost,

For want of a horse the rider was lost,

For want of a rider the battle was lost,

For want of a battle the kingdom was lost,

And all for the want of a horse-shoe nail!

The moral of the story is: little things mean a lot. Sometimes the small, ordinary, seemingly trivial things in life are overlooked. Yet, they end up being very important. Thankfully, our Lord Jesus knows that. That’s why He never considers anything in our lives to be trivial, no matter how small or ordinary it may be. Even the little things in our daily life are important to Him, because we are important to Him!

We see an excellent example of that in our Gospel lesson for today - the story of the Wedding Feast at Cana in Galilee. It’s a story about something as small and ordinary as not having enough wine for the Wedding Feast. To us that may not seem like that big a deal, but it was to Jesus, because the bride and groom were His friends and He cared about them. He knew that they would be socially embarrassed at running out of wine for their guests. Not only that, but in some cases such an error could be viewed as legal infraction for which you could be sued. And He didn’t want that to happen. So He supplied their needs in abundance.

That seems to be one of the themes of St. John’s Gospel. Wherever there was a loss, Jesus filled the gap. To eyes that had lost their sight, He provided vision. To the 5,000 who had no supper, He provided nourishment. To Lazarus who had lost his life, He provided new life. Yes, in a world where things run out, Jesus supplies the abundance, which overflows. We see that clearly in the amount of water He turned into wine. Our text indicates that it was somewhere between 120-180 gallons - way more wine than any wedding feast would ever need. But that’s how Jesus operates. He longs to supply the needs of His children in abundance.

Dear friends, how good it is to know that He does the same for you and me. When we run out of courage, He gives us the strength of His mighty saving arm. When we run out of answers, He gives us the solutions that come from the wisdom of His Word. When we run out of pardon, comfort and peace, He gives us His very body and blood in the bread and wine for the remission of all our sins. As He Himself declared: “I CAME THAT THEY MIGHT HAVE LIFE AND HAVE IT MORE ABUNDANTLY!” That’s how Jesus supplies our needs.

The only problem is, that you and I have the innate desire to hurry Him up a little bit. We’re kind of like Mary in our text. She came to Jesus, trying to push Him to do something immediately. In the same way, we sometimes try to lend Him a helping hand. But it usually doesn’t work. Instead, we more often completely mess things up. Take the case of the man, who tripped on the stairs and broke his leg. The doctor put a cast on it and warned him that he wasn’t to use the stairs until the cast came off. Four months later the doctor removed the cast and pronounced him well on the way to recovery. “Oh good,” the man replied. “Is it all right for me to use the stairs now?” “Yes,” said the doctor, “if you promise to be careful.” “I can’t tell you what a relief it will be,” the man sighed. “It was such a nuisance crawling outside and shinnying up and down that drainpipe all the time!”

That’s what usually happens, when we try to come up with our own solution to problems, instead of following Jesus. We only wind up hurting ourselves and falling farther down into sin and despair. Likewise, in our prayer life we need to be patient and not try to rush Jesus. For as He told His mother, when she tried to hurry Him along: “DEAR WOMAN, MY TIME HAS NOT YET COME!” It’s a reminder that God will always answer our prayers, but not always when or in the way that we want it. He will do it according to His timing, but He will do it in the way that is best for us.

St. John got at that very thought in our text, when he explained the reason for the miracle: “THIS, THE FIRST OF HIS MIRACULOUS SIGNS, JESUS PERFORMED AT CANA IN GALILEE. HE THUS REVEALED HIS GLORY, AND HIS DISCIPLES PUT THEIR FAITH IN HIM.” You see, Jesus was concerned about more than just rescuing the bride and groom from embarrassment and legal action. He was also concerned about the big picture - revealing His glory to the world, so that people could believe in Him and be saved. By this miracle, He revealed that He is the omnipotent, almighty Son of God, who is powerful enough to rescue His people from their deepest need - the need for forgiveness and salvation from their sins.

That’s why St. John refers to this miracle as a ‘sign.’ A sign is a marker that tells you something, like a stop sign that tells you to stop. Well, the miracle at Cana tells us what Jesus came to do. It’s a picture of His saving grace. You see, the water in the stone water pots was used for purification, to wash away that dust and grime of daily life. It’s reminiscent of our sin and shame - our dirty thoughts, our unkind words, our nasty deeds. They cling to us like dust and grime that we cannot remove. But along comes Jesus and He not only purifies us, He transform us into something completely new and beautifully different. He gives us the sparkling wine of joy and salvation and eternal life, by changing us from weak, frail sinners into pure and righteous saints. For when the time was right, He acted. He laid down His life on the cross to wash away all our sin and shame and to erase all our guilt and iniquity. And that’s how He revealed His glory - by performing the greatest miracle of all - dying and rising again to save us!

The story is told of a little girl, whose prized possession was a cheap necklace of worthless beads. The tarnished chain actually discolored her neck and the piece of cheap jewelry was not attractive. Still, she loved it and wore it constantly, despite the scolding of her parents. The day before her birthday, her father insisted that she give him the ugly necklace. Reluctantly, she handed over the trinket as tears spilled from her eyes. Her mother held her close, knowing how much it hurt her to relinquish her treasure. However, the next day after the birthday cake and ice cream were finished, the little girl opened up her birthday present from her father. It was a string of beautiful, polished pearls. Before he took away her treasure, he had already planned to give her something far better!

My friends, that is precisely what Jesus did at the Wedding of Cana. He took away the water that was used for purification, but in its place He provided something far better. In fact, the wine that He supplied was even better than the very best that was usually served at such occasions. And the Good News is, He does the same for you and me. Has He taken something away from you? Have you lost a friend or a loved one? Have you met with failure or defeat? Have you suffered a great wrong? Then wait upon the Lord. Wait and see what He will do. After all, He took away our sin and replaced it with His righteousness and love. So we can count on Him to turn the water of our needs into the wine of His abundance. We need to simply trust in Him and watch for His help. For as someone said: “We are like the servants whose job it was to fill up the water pots. And Jesus will take care of the rest.” Let us commit ourselves, therefore, to doing just that. Let us daily invite Jesus into our homes and hearts, as we study His Word, as we use His sacraments, as we pray, praise and worship Him. For He will do what is best, in His own time, for our good and to reveal His glory. Amen.