Third Sunday of Epiphany 2024 St Andrew’s Milngavie
Today we continued to celebrate the season of Epiphany accompanied by Alison.
Thia Week
Tuesday 10am – Prayer Group in the Garden Room.
Wednesday 7.30pm – Book Group Pamela’s
Thursday 10am – Said Holy Communion followed by coffee in Friendship House
Readings for next Sunday – Candlemas – Presentation of Christ in the Temple – Malachi 3:1-5 Hebrews 2:14-end Luke 2:22-40
Today’s readings – Genesis 14:17-20, Rev 19:6-10, John 2:1-11
The wedding at Cana is one of the best-known passages of the bible. I suspect, simply, because the story’s focus is a wedding and more significantly wine and lots of it! For many it may be one of only a handful of stories they know.
There are lots of references to wedding feasts in the gospels: The story of wise and foolish virgins Matt 25:1-13; the story of the king who gave a wedding feast and no one came Matt 22:1-10; the story of the guest who turns up but is thrown out for not wearing the proper clothes Matt 22:11-14; the story of the guests who choose the highest or the lowest place to sit at the wedding feast. Luke 14:7-11
This morning we had a reading from the book of Revelation where heaven itself is described as a wedding feast of the Lamb and the ultimate union of Christ and his Church. Rev 19:7
In ALL these cases the wedding is a symbol for the kingdom of God. And the wedding at Cana must be understood in this same symbolic way.
This miracle was the first of what John calls Jesus’ signs. And the chief focus of this “sign” as in all John’s miracle stories is the revelation of Jesus himself as Christ – the Messiah. It is for that reason the reading is set in the season of Epiphany – the season of the revelation Christ to the world.
At the feast of the Epiphany Christ was revealed by the witness of the wisemen Matt 2:1-12. At Christ’s baptism he is revealed with the voice of God saying, “This is my Son” Matt 3:17
Today it’s through Jesus’ miraculous powers to change water into wine at a wedding at Cana.
Weddings in Jesus’ day were often very big occasions lasting sometimes up to a week! Banquets could be prepared for mhjjany guests, often the whole town was invited and there would be large numbers gathered. So, to run out of wine was a social disaster and a disgrace.
But Jesus steps in and shows compassion. A compassion that we will see and is typical of him throughout his entire ministry. Time and again Jesus will respond to people’s needs, often in the most unexpected ways. And here he transforms the water into wine, he saves the party – the celebrations could go on. And not only was there more wine but it was even better wine!
But none of this would have happened if Mary hadn’t have said to the servants “do whatever Jesus tells you to do”
- Mary’s presence in this story is quite significant. We may often hear the expression “Trust in God”, it is easy to say but challenging to do. Mary’s trust and confidence in her son is shown when she advises the servants at the wedding in Cana to “Do whatever he tells you”. Jesus had seemed reluctant at first to solve the wine shortage “Women, what concern is that to you and me? my hour has not yet come.” But Mary had faith in Jesus, she obviously believed that something would be done, she trusted him.
Throughout his ministry Jesus encouraged people to trust in God through him. His disciples grew close to him as they watched him heal the sick and support the vulnerable. Each encounter and experience deepened their faith. They grew close to him.
“He let his glory be seen and his disciples believed in him” John 2:11
In John’s gospel we only meet Mary twice. On this occasion and at the foot of the cross which relates to Jesus’ strange remark in v 4 “My time hasn’t come yet” Words which point, even at the beginning of Jesus’ ministry to the cross and to the resurrection – the ultimate moment when heaven and earth meet, the ultimate moment of transformation.
But stories like this one sign post us to that moment. The wedding is a foretaste of the great heavenly feast in store for God’s people as described in the book of Revelation.
In this first miracle in John’s gospel Jesus reveals his glory to us by his miraculous act of turning water into wine and so saving the day from social disaster.
He also transforms our relationships by the depths and divinity of his character showed through the relationship with his mother.
Furthermore, the water jars used for Jewish purification rites are a sign that God is doing a new thing from within the old Jewish system bringing purification to Israel and the whole world in a new way.
But most significantly he points us to the mystery of a greater truth, to the resurrection and to the fact that he is the saviour of the world.
Amen