“ONE FLESH SUSTAINED BY ONE WINE”
aka “Jesus Cares About Weddings”
Saint John 2: 1-11
2nd Sunday after The Epiphany: 19 January Anno Domini 2020
Father Jay Watson SSP
Most honest Lutheran pastors will tell their brother pastors, in private, that they don’t like performing weddings. Most men, who are honest, also don’t like attending weddings—that’s for their wives. But with pastors, the reasoning is along the lines—'most people don’t listen to or care about The Word of The Lord at weddings—when it’s being read or preached; most people at weddings don’t care all that much about Jesus, the REAL JESUS!’ So we say.
Jesus cares about weddings. Pastors need to do their duties, and most assuredly, they need to repent when they sin against opportunities to preach Christ, and Him crucified. Heaven knows, that all brides grooms will need to understand the truths of crucifying the “old Adam” and of sacrificial giving.
Jesus cares about weddings because He created the nuptial bond itself: “And Adam said, this is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man. Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh” [Gen. 2.23-24]. The complimentary natures of the male and female, the Adam and Eve, are existent and created to be that way, in both personality and nature, as well as in physical form. One is outward and giving, and one is inward and receiving. The “one-flesh” is both metaphorical and literal, and it points to the fulfillment and completeness of God’s gift of creation and life. For it indeed brings forth from procreation, new life itself…a sub-creation which is pleasing to The Creator.
Jesus cares about weddings. Jesus loves weddings and had His own blessed Apostle Paul put forth the real meaning, and deeper theological truth of the marriage; of the “one flesh:” “So ought men to love their wives as their own bodies. He that loveth his wife loveth himself. For no man ever yet hated his own flesh; but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as the Lord the Church: for we are members of His Body, of His Flesh, and of His Bones. For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and they two shall be one flesh. This is a great mystery: but I speak concerning Christ and the Church” [Eph. 5.28-32].
Jesus cares about weddings because each wedding, each bond between husband and wife, sacramentally bespeaks the ultimate truth about Himself and His Holy Bride: The One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church—YOU. He is your Head and you are His Body. A most mystical union indeed.
Jesus cares about weddings and gladly went to the festivities in Cana. Wherein we find that only by Him being there: through Him—in, with, and under Jesus, do the proper festivities indeed occur and continue. Without God, emptiness. With God, filled to the brim! But, enough about water into wine. He did it. Saint John records it—he was there as an eye-witness. It shows The Galilean Rabbi to be more than a wise and generous teacher of truths. It shows Mary’s Son to be THE TRUTH—Messias—God in the Flesh.
Ah yes, Mary was there. Here, and, I guess at Christmas Eve, even the most “Protestantized” Lutherans with their Romophobia and Americanized levelling, have to acknowledge: “she done good.” Here Saint Mary, along with The Lord’s Disciples in attendance, shows forth the believing Body of Christ, The Church, to-which Jesus The Head, fills all things with Grace and Goodness. Mary, here, is your exemplar and example. Go to Jesus in your need. Go to The Son of God when your problems are large and even not so large. Listen to Jesus. Ask for His help. Regardless of how you feel or whether you doubt his assistance is coming quickly. Ask Jesus for His intervention and wait patiently. Hear His Word, and don’t let your feelings get hurt when that Word is Law, or, when it is withheld for a season. With eyes, i.e. “ears of faith,” fixed on Christ, you like Mary repeat: “Whatsoever He saith unto you, do it.” He did. He does. He will!
Sin, your sin, will always turn things into divorcements from God, fomented by your rancorous arguments, hateful words, betrayals, and spiritual adultery. Your sinful selfishness will manifest itself every day wherein you will put yourselves first and your helpmates (be they spouse, children, friends, neighbors, and others in need) second, or last.
But Cana is all about Church. Church is community and family—Communion. Cana is all about The Blessed Virgin and The Disciples being drawn to where Jesus is, i.e. The Church gathered around His miracle of love and forgiveness. The Church where Jesus’ atoning sacrifice on Calvary, His suffering and death on the Cross, is meted out, not in your punishment, but in your participation, communion, with wedding joy and festive banqueting Peace! Cana is all about The Sacrament.
Jesus saved that wedding by a miracle. He makes today’s Wedding Feast, for you His most beloved Bride, a saving glorious meal of mercy. He sets forth good wine, the very best on the lees—His precious Blood. Blood shed to wipe you clean, first at Calvary, and now shed to slake your thirst and give you life eternal. The miracle continues from Jesus to you, in Shawnee of Johnson County. And His disciples believe on Him.
In the Name of the Father and + of the Son and of The Holy Ghost
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