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This beginning of signs Jesus did in Cana of Galilee, and revealed His glory; and His disciples believed in Him.

᛭ INI ᛭

As you know from reading your Bible, John begins His Gospel with these words: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” A little bit after that, John continues, “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we [have seen] His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.” We have seen His glory because He reveals His glory.

CHRIST REVEALS HIS GLORY. That’s what Epiphany’s all about. He does it first in Cana of Galilee. By turning water into wine, CHRIST REVEALS HIS GLORY, that He is your Creator, that He is your Redeemer, that He is the One who sanctifies you, that is, He makes you holy. When CHRIST REVEALS HIS GLORY by turning water into wine, we see His glory as Creator, Redeemer, and Sanctifier. And

CHRIST REVEALS HIS GLORY BY MAKING SOMETHING MORE THAN WHAT IT WAS BEFORE.

(I. He reveals His glory as your Creator by elevating water into wine.)

Christ makes the water something more than was it was before. He turns water into wine. This reveals Christ’s glory. This reveals the glory that the Creator of the Universe has come in human flesh and is hanging out at a wedding reception. This reveals that Christ has the same power over Creation as His Father.

We’re used to saying that the Father’s Creator. The Small Catechism directs us to confess this twice a day in the Apostles’ Creed: “I believe in God the Father almighty, Maker of heaven and earth.” At Communion in the Nicene Creed we confess a bit more: “I believe in One God, the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible.” But Christ is also involved with creation, as we just confessed in the Nicene Creed, “By whom,” by Christ, “all things were made.”

CHRIST REVEALS HIS GLORY as your Creator, by making the water more than what it was before. He changed it into wine! This reveals that He’s Creator because at creation Christ also made something more than what it was before. He made nothing become more than nothing. He made something—all the atoms of the universe—from nothing. Genesis also tells us that Christ made light, dry land, and sea creatures from water (Gen 1). As 2 Peter says, “The earth was formed out of water and through water by the Word of God.” (3:5) So also in Cana, the wine was formed out of water by Christ, and by doing that CHRIST REVEALS HIS GLORY as your Creator.

(II. He reveals His glory as your Redeemer by elevating blood and death.)

CHRIST doesn’t only REVEAL HIS GLORY as Creator at Cana. He also REVEALS HIS GLORY as your Redeemer, that He alone redeems you from sin, death, and the power of the devil. Christ redeems you “with His holy, precious blood and with His innocent suffering and death.” You are justified, forgiven before God, because Christ “was delivered for your trespasses and raised for your justification.” Christ reveals His redemption, the glory of His redemption, at Cana.

CHRIST REVEALS HIS GLORY BY MAKING SOMETHING MORE THAN WHAT IT WAS BEFORE—not just water into wine, but also death. Before Christ’s death, death was useless. As you’ll see in the daily readings this week, the Kingdom of Judah was worse off when King Josiah needlessly died at the hand of Necho, King of Egypt, as you read about last week. Death didn’t profit anything lasting, but then the eternal Son of God, the Creator of the Universe, your Lord and Savior IHS Christ came and gave His life!

The sinless Creator laid down His life for sinful creatures like you and me. He gave His life as a ransom for many. When the Son of God gives His life into death, death is suddenly redemptive. His death means life for you. His blood means payment for you. Not just His last breath but His breathing again three days later means that “IHS lives! And now is death but the gate of life immortal!” (LSB 490)

Everything that happened at Cana culminates at Christ’s cross at Calvary. Christ calls Calvary “My hour.” There He’s glorified and exalted, as Christ repeats throughout John. Cana’s wedding feast on the 3rd Day eventually ends, but Christ’s Wedding feast is eternal and was kicked off when He rose on the 3rd Day. Like a good husband, He left His mother at Calvary. And finally, “that miracle divine when water reddened into wine” (LSB 399) is echoed with the water and blood that flowed from spear-pierced side of Christ, the Bridegroom.

(III. He reveals His glory as your Sanctifier by elevating water and wine and you.)

This gets us to the third way CHRIST REVEALS HIS GLORY BY MAKING SOMETHING MORE THAN WHAT IT WAS BEFORE. Christ reveals His glory as Sanctifier, as the one who makes and keeps you holy. Only He does it! Just like the water couldn’t make itself wine, you can’t make or keep yourself holy. Only Christ, “the LORD who sanctifies you” (Lev 20) does that! Like changing water into wine, Christ makes something more than it was before. He sanctifies—water and wine and you.

Christ sanctifies the water of Baptism by adding His Word to it. He “sanctifies and cleanses the Church with the washing of water by the word.” (Eph 5) In fact, He does this for all who are members of the Church. Those who are “in Christ by baptism through faith.” (Gal 3)

He sanctifies the wine, along with the bread, at Communion. They are blessed by His holy Words, and then they are what His Words say they are “My body given for you and My blood shed for you for the forgiveness of sins.” His Holy Words, “along with the bodily eating, are the main thing,” the very most important thing, “in the Sacrament, and whoever believes these words has exactly what they say, ‘Forgiveness of sins.’” Since His Words actually “are the main thing in the Sacrament,” as the Small Catechism literally teaches us, well, that specific line in the Catechism lies behind the practice of the deliberate and reverent repetition of Christ’s Words.

Finally, CHRIST REVEALS HIS GLORY BY MAKING [you] MORE THAN WHAT [you were] BEFORE. He takes you from being plain water into the finest vintage. One couple at a time, He elevates one man and one women by uniting them as husband and wife. Unless, of course, He gives the special gift of chastity to elevate a man or a woman in their singleness. He elevates couples, according to His good pleasure, to be parents, or He gives them other unique gifts to be fathers and mothers in the faith, encouragers or mentors or teachers maybe aunts and uncles, to however many more, maybe countless, people it may be! One Christian at a time, through baptism, through the daily contrition and repentance that the Spirit works in your heart by the Word, through His Supper, Christ is killing and resurrecting you, crushing and fermenting you, taking you from “being formerly useless to [Him] but now you are truly useful to [Him]” (Philemon 11) and to all. Not only that, but by suffering and His Word—“we’re conformed to the image of [God’s] Son,” and in the midst of suffering, pain, loss, stands His eternal promise that He will translate you from the temporary wine vat of casket and grave into a vintage that will never spoil—raised forever to live with Him.

Only when Christ sanctifies you through His Word and Sacraments, are you no longer in danger of being lukewarm. Depending on you or the circumstances of your life, He might make you hot and soothing by the the Spirit’s fire burning in the Word, or He might make you cool and refreshing, as the Spirit’s streams of living waters flow from your lips. Whether hot or cold, the Spirit makes your mouth Christ’s mouth to proclaim His Word. In fact, Christ is bringing you out from being common water to joy-filled wine, “wine to gladden the heart of man” (Ps 104) not only by Word but by your good works done for your neighbor.

(Conclusion.)

CHRIST REVEALS HIS GLORY. That’s what Epiphany’s all about! He first reveals it at Cana, by turning water into wine. There CHRIST REVEALS HIS GLORY as your Creator, as your Redeemer, as your Sanctifier. And

CHRIST REVEALS HIS GLORY BY MAKING SOMETHING MORE THAN WHAT IT WAS BEFORE.

Water into wine, something from nothing reveals Christ as your Creator. Death into resurrection, water and blood from His spear-pierced side reveals Christ as your Redeemer. Holy Baptism, Holy Communion reveals Christ as your Sanctifier, who through His Spirit uses Baptism, His Word, and Communion to make you something more than what you were before, even a child of God the Father. Truly, “we [have seen] His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.”

᛭ INI ᛭