Bethlehem Lutheran Church—Bremen, KS || AUDIO
Immanuel Lutheran Church—Bremen, KS || AUDIO
“Jesus did this first sign in Cana of Galilee and revealed His glory, and His disciples believed in Him.”
INI + AMEN.
There’s no reason to go to a Feast where Jesus doesn’t provide His Wine. When Jesus provides His Wine, He’s being God for you, for your salvation. His provision, His delivering His Wine sustains faith in Him. If He doesn’t deliver His Wine, His disciples won’t believe in Him. Through His Wine, Jesus reveals His glory.
The Feast would come up short without Jesus. That’s how things go without Jesus. That’s because we come up short. We run out. We do things in life and in church only as long as we’re interested. How empty and without Jesus’ glory we are!
Jesus never runs out, though. Always more from Him! Always more for you, especially His Wine. It was like that in our Gospel reading: “six stone water jars…each holding twenty or thirty gallons.” Not just a lot, but the best: “you have kept the good wine until now.” That’s how Jesus reveals His glory.
You are His disciple. “Made” one when you were baptized “in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” Kept one by Jesus when you receive His “teaching.” But your believing, your being a disciple, also flows from Jesus’ Wine. It’s the same way today as it was in Cana.
Through His Wine and “the water become wine” Jesus reveals His glory. There is no Feast, no glory without Jesus’ Wine. Without it the Marriage Feast is empty. But when Jesus provides His Wine, He’s being your God and Savior because JESUS’ WINE REVEALS AND DELIVERS HIS GLORY TO YOU.
((I. Jesus’ glory isn’t what we think, but it’s His cross.))
When it comes to “the water become wine,” we misunderstand Jesus’ glory. You do; I do, too—“daily and much.” As sinful human beings, we think God’s glory, Jesus’ glory is some powerful act. Now, Jesus does have power over creation. He changed water into wine! He could also heal the sick, raise the dead, calm storms. But so what? Why doesn’t He use that sort of power for me, instead of that guy? Or why does she have more of that going for her than I do?
When we come up short on this sort of glory, we believe Jesus comes up short. If we don’t get whatever it is we’re looking for from Jesus, we look for other things to fill that void. We pay Him lip service all the while hungering and thirsting for something else. We refuse to take ownership of the fact that we want the wrong things or that maybe Jesus’ true glory isn’t what we think it is.
Jesus’ glory is NOT that He makes problems go away, or that the diagnosis or death won’t happen, or that He does whatever we think He should. The glory He reveals is the glory of His cross. In John’s Gospel, Jesus’ true glory is His dying on the cross for you, but also rising from the dead, too. That’s what Jesus means by “My hour.” His “hour” is His cross. His cross, His death for you is His glory.
((II. Jesus still delivers His glory, His cross, to you in His Wine.))
Through His Wine and “the water become wine” Jesus reveals His glory. There is no Feast, no glory without Jesus’ Wine. Without it no Marriage Feast. But when Jesus provides His Wine, He’s being God for you, for your salvation. JESUS’ WINE REVEALS AND DELIVERS HIS GLORY TO YOU.
He still does it that way. Just like in Cana—the glory of His cross, His death for you—is delivered in His Wine. But not just like Cana—more! Always more with Jesus. “Six stone water jars…filled to the brim.” He fills up God’s pure expectations required of you, and He does it for you, “by canceling the record of debt that stood against us…nailing it to the cross.” There His glory, His glory for you, your salvation.
And now Jesus delivers His Calvary glory, His shed blood right to you. He does it so that you believe in Him. He does it with His Wine, the Wine that’s His blood. He also does it with the Bread that’s His body. “This is My Body; this is My Blood; given and shed for you.” He really can do it. He holds creation in His hands. He changed water into Wine. He can certainly deliver His body and blood through bread and wine in His Supper.
Jesus giving His Wine is how He’s God for you, and through His Wine He sustains faith in Him. If He doesn’t deliver that Wine, you won’t believe in Him, continue believing in Him. You wouldn’t believe in Him, if He didn’t shed His blood for you, blood that flowed with water from His side when He died for you. In the same way, your believing also flows from Jesus’ Wine, the Feast of His body and blood, “given and shed for you for the forgiveness of sins.”
((Conclusion.))
Through His Wine Jesus reveals His Calvary glory. There’s no Feast without Jesus’ Wine. Without it the Feast is empty. But when Jesus provides His Wine, He’s being your God and Savior.
Your believing, your being a disciple, flows from Jesus’ Wine. It’s the same today as it was in Cana. Jesus turns water into wine and takes some other guy’s servants as His own and tells them basically to say, “Drink.” “And His disciples believed in Him.” In doing this, He reveals His cross, where the blood and water flowed for His Bride, the Church. It’s works the same way today. Jesus delivers His Wine to you through a minister who says, “The body of Christ given for you. The blood of Christ shed for you.”
Jesus never comes up short for you in the giving of His Wine. In and through His Wine you never run out of faith toward God and love for each other because Jesus continually pours it into you through His body and blood. But without His Wine the Feast and your daily life come up short. Jesus does provide His Wine, though. Why go without it? Jesus providing His Wine is how He’s your God and Savior. JESUS’ WINE REVEALS AND DELIVERS HIS GLORY TO YOU.
And besides everything else I’ve said in the sermon, His body and blood also prepare you for the Marriage Feast of the Lamb in His Kingdom which has no end.
INI + AMEN.
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