Epiphany 2, 2024

Rev. Thomas Van Hemert

St. John 2:1-11

Epiphany 2

January 14, 2024

In the name of the Father and of the +Son and of the Holy Spirit.

Our Lord gives wine to those who are already well drunk. This means that they do not need any more wine. No one, no matter how large in stature you are, no matter how much of an iron liver you have, no one needs, at most, four glasses of wine. In fact, no one needs wine at all. And yet our Lord gives them all more wine anyway.

There are two points that I want to take up this morning. First: what’s the point of the text. The second: what do we need to hear from the text?

• The main point of the text is that Jesus gives wine, in an extravagant way, to those who do not need it. No one ever needs more wine. In fact, no one needs wine in the first place. Wine is not milk. Wine is not water. Wine is not drunk so that our lives might be sustained or strengthened. No one, ever, needs more wine. And yet, “Wine makes glad the hearts of men.” (Psalm 104:15) So Jesus gives it to those in attendance at the wedding at Cana in Galilee anyway. The master of the feast did not understand this; those in attendance could not appreciate it, for their tastebuds were already numb.

This is what we need to hear

• This giving of wine to those who are well drunk shows the nature of the character of His grace—He gives over and abundant grace to those who cannot understand it, or who do not appreciate it and might abuse it. Our cups runneth over. (Psalm 23:5)

• John records that this is the first of His signs. John isn’t concerned with miracles as he is with our Lord’s signs. Though His signs are miracles, they are more than miracles.

  • Many of the prophets and apostles were given divine authority to perform miracles, that is, divine acts that go against the laws of nature.

    • Moses

    • Elijah

    • Elisha

    • Examples from the 72 disciples and in Acts

• But these signs that Jesus performs, recorded by John, show that He is more than a prophet or an apostle. They show that Jesus is the Messiah, God in the flesh, come to earth to reveal Himself to those who dwell upon the earth, that He is Immanuel: God with us.

• This is what we must recognize. This is what we must realize. He performs these signs so that we might know He is God among us, and even today, much in the same way that He gives us His Body and Blood, hidden in bread and wine. It can be abused. Much of the world around us thinks such a sacrament is either silly or frivolous. But nonetheless, it does provide us with our Lord’s own, very much crucified and risen Body and Blood, given to us for the forgiveness of our sins.

•  In this, He shows and proves that He is the Messiah in our midst, come to save us.

• And yet, at the same time, we must not forget, that like the wine given to those at the wedding at Cana in Galilee, that the grace of God, given to us by Jesus Christ has, and always will be misunderstood by those who do not have faith and may be very well abused.

• But wine makes glad the hearts of men.

• There’s a reason Jesus comes to us not only in bread—the food that sustains—but also wine—the drink that gives joy. But He comes to us, also in wine that we might have joy in Him, that that our joy may be full.

• Our cups runneth over.

In +Jesus’ name.