“JESUS MAKE YOU JOYFULY NEW”
Saint John 2: 1-11
2nd Sunday after The Epiphany: 17 January Anno Domini 2021
Fr Jay Watson, SSP
For in The Name of Jesus, in Whom the fullness of the Godhead (The Trinity) dwells bodily, we are confessing In The Name of The Father and of The Son and of The Holy Ghost. Three in One, One in Three. Our Lord at the age of twelve was found in the Temple on the 3rd day. You are here in His New Testament Temple on this third day—for Good Friday, the Atonement is day one, but Sunday, resurrection celebration is always day three. If every Lord’s Day is the feast of victory for The Lamb; a foretaste of the feast to come; and a cleansing, clothing, forgiving, peace-giving, and feeding reception of Christ’s gifts of Word and Supper; then this is indeed also the third day of the marriage in Shawnee of Johnson County; and the mother of Jesus is here, too!
It’s symbolic, but symbols are real and both show and give truth! Christ is The Truth and The Truth sets you free. Your being freed; liberated; redeemed is what makes you new. You will be changed:
“in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed” (1 Cor. 15.52). But now is not then. Here you are still laboring under the cross; still weighed down by sin and its fruits: doubt, despair, anxiety, sickness, fear, disappointment, and a body that is decaying along with the rest of the broken world.
But still, Jesus’ love for you makes things new and changes, transmutes, transforms, transubstantiates, you to children of The Father, in Him, by His declarative absolution and forgiving testament. As Saint Paul declares: “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new” (2 Cor. 5.17).
If you are forgiven, and you are—Christ has kept the commandments which you broke this past week; this past year; this past and future life; Christ has suffered and died on the cross to forgive you and cleanse you from all unrighteousness. If you are forgiven you are royal priests, brethren of The King, and worthy guests at His banquet. In a mysterious way you are more than filial family, you are collectively His holy bride—this is the wedding feast of faith and fortitude. Christ your Groom of Grace makes you One with Him in His Word and in His Holy Communion—truly a sacramental union! You are changed every time you kneel and receive God on your tongues. You wear the wedding garment—you are + baptized. You have been bidden to sit in the highest seat.
This is Cana. This is the marriage. This is the good wine and the miracle of miracles! “And they two shall be one flesh. This is a great mystery: but I speak concerning Christ and the church” (Eph. 5. 31-32).
They ran out of wine—a staple for sustenance in 1st century Palestine (and modern-day France, Italy, Spain), well sure, but even more so, the drink of joy, family bonding and camaraderie. “And wine that maketh glad the heart of man” as the Psalmist sang (Ps. 104.15). Were King David and St. Paul physicians (well, yes, of the soul) for knowing what even the Mayo Clinic has said-- that antioxidants, a polyphenol called resveratrol, may help protect the lining of blood vessels in your heart. Thus, Paul wrote to Timothy: “drink no longer water, but use a little wine for thy stomach’s sake and thine frequent ailments” (1 Ti. 5.23). Our Lord’s own customs were made clear when His enemies attacked Him for being a “wine-bibber,” yet He affirmed that “The Son of Man came eating and drinking” (Mt. 11.19).
So, this Feast Day, this gladsome Wedding Morning, let us not analyze how Jesus turned the six waterpots (six day of creation—all by His Word in Genesis), containing THREE firkins (Thirty gallons) apiece of water into wine. Let us simply be grateful, thankful, awe-filled that He gives us wine during the week, and His precious Blood on The 3rd Day.
He said “let there be light,” for He IS LIGHT OF LIGHT, and it was so. He said “silence,” and raging Sea of Galilee turned to glass calm. He said “Lazarus come forth,” and His friend was made new, pure, and fresh again—being made alive from death itself. He said “take eat This IS My Body; take drink This IS MY BLOOD,” and it is so!
As another physician, Saint Luke the Evangelist, was given to write, quoting Jesus: “but new wine must be put into new bottles; and both are preserved” (Lk. 5.38). Oh yes, oh yes, my fellow “new creatures” and fellow “new bottles!”
“And He hast kept the good wine until now.”
Come to The Table and Jesus will manifest His glory and His disciples will believe on Him.
In the Name of the Father and + of the Son and of The Holy Ghost
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