Third Sunday in Epiphany

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Henry Wadsworth Longfellow had a very interesting religious worldview, which may be the view of many more people than himself. He said, “There is no death, for what seems so, is transition.” — If we understand Webster’s definition of transition, ‘death’, from Longfellow’s statement, is “a changing from, one clearly defined stage, type, or style, to another; viz., a changing from an earlier to a later form with the blending of old and new features.”¹ Some, today, might call this evolution.

We are not here to commend or criticize Mr. Longfellow’s worldview, for I have read the statement of “The Rev. George Zabriskie Gray, D.D., dean of the Episcopal Theological School in Cambridge [in the late 19th century, who said, ‘Mr. Longfellow was a Christian poet. Though not of our particular fold, yet his influence was cast, through all his long career, on the side of our precious faith. . .”²

If one does not have a biblical worldview, I could see how Longfellow’s perspective of death, moving from one state of existence to another state of existence, naturally, with the same essence and native nature, evolving, if you will, makes sense. If we move through life, transitioning from one stage of life into the next, (i.e., embryo to infant; infant to toddler; toddler to child; child to adolescent, and so on…), changing from one clearly defined stage to another, with the same native nature – like cold water transitioning to hot when boiled – then the idea of transitioning is more than acceptable. — Yet, the life of GOD in JESUS Christ – which comes about when a fallen person has been saved by grace – from the Bible’s perspective, is not transitional, but transformational. For St. Paul did not say, “Be ye transitioned, by the renewing of your mind…’, but rather, “Be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, (viz., “completely changed in nature and character”³, being reborn from above), that ye may prove what is that good, acceptable, and perfect will of GOD” (Romans 12,2). — Transition verses transformation, that is what is at stake in today’s Gospel Lesson from St. John, when the LORD JESUS goes to Cana in Galilee for a wedding.

As it is in any culture, weddings were a very big deal in Israel. And the wedding feast, which followed the formal wedding ceremony, could last for a week or more in JESUS’ day. Pivotal to the success of the Jewish marriage, socially speaking, was the wedding feast. For, if any of the standard traditions of the wedding festivities was mismanaged, that mismanagement would be a harbinger of ill omen for the couple’s nuptial vows. For in his wedding vows, the bridegroom promises, “according to the Law of Moses, to please, honor, nourish, and care for [his bride] in the manner of the most honorable men of Israel.”⁴ That pledge is first judged in its truthfulness by the success of the wedding feast, for which the Bridegroom and his family were responsible. So, if, say during the wedding feast, the wine supply suddenly runs out, then the possibilities of success for that marriage became suspect.

Thus, when JESUS, His blessed mother Mary, and the disciples arrived at the wedding in Cana, they must have been shocked to learn that there was a deficiency in the supply of wine. This was clearly seen by Mary’s initial reaction. — Mary, having some connection with the bridegroom’s family it is believed, scrambled to bring a solution to the problem, turned to JESUS and said, “They have no wine.” (v.3) – At that time in JESUS’ life, having been commissioned to the work of the Christ by GOD at His Baptism by John, JESUS did not have time to run to the store to buy more wine. He had to be about His Father’s business. So, JESUS replies to Mary: “My hour has not yet come.” (v. 4), to which she then tells the domestic servants: “Whatever JESUS says to you, do it.” (v.3).

Now before we discuss what JESUS did do at this wedding banquet in Cana of Galilee and why, it is important to note that at the end of this narrative, St. John records in v. 11: “This beginning of signs Jesus did … and manifested/revealed His glory (viz. His divine nature, attributes, and the honor due to Him), such that His disciples believed in Him.” – Let us note first, JESUS did not do miracles for miracles’ sake. JESUS did miracles, which John rightly calls signs, to point out a divine reality. Like our signs, JESUS’ miracles had embedded information in them to reveal His Father’s glory, as well as His glory; (viz. His divine nature and attributes). JESUS makes this point about His signs in another narrative of the Gospels, when He tells the Jews: “If I do not do the works of My Father, do not believe Me; but if I do, though you do not believe [the words I tell you], believe the works/signs that I do, that you may know and believe that the Father is in Me, and I in Him” (St. John 10,37-38).

So, what sign does JESUS do at the wedding banquet, that we might believe that He and the Father are one? Well, He turned water to wine. – Amazing! – Yes, amazing! — JESUS saves the wedding in Cana by transforming water that was on hand, into wine. Much better than running to the store, JESUS performs a divine sign by taking water through a process, instantly, that usually takes three and half years, at a minimum, to accomplish. And, unlike an earthbound vintner, JESUS does it without soil, vines, grapes, rain, and many other processes necessary to make wine. – Now, remember, this was not a trick, but a sign, pointing to something divine, but what?

The Bible is full of many types of literature. There are historical narratives – poetry – wisdom literature – apocalyptic literature, and prophetic literature. In every form of literature in the Bible, the literary device most often and most beautifully expressed is imagery or symbolism. GOD, in many cases, uses imagery or symbolism to express the nature of His relationship to His creation, generally, but to His chosen people Israel, specifically. — Two of the most beautiful images that GOD uses to express the character and nature of His relationship with Israel, is as a marriage between a man and a woman, and, as a vinedresser and a vine. In the narrative of the wedding in Cana of Galilee, through JESUS’ miracle of changing water into wine, the image of GOD’s relationship to Israel as a vinedresser to a vine is brought forth. After all, in the miracle of turning water to wine, JESUS is doing something that only a vine can do.

This image of GOD and His vine is expressed meaningfully in many places in Holy Scripture. In one place, in Psalm 80,8-11, the Psalmist being directed by the Holy Ghost, writes: “You have brought a vine out of Egypt; You have cast out the nations, and planted it. You prepared room for it and caused it to take deep root; and it filled the land. The hills were covered with its shadow, and the mighty cedars with its boughs. She sent out her boughs to the Sea, And her branches to the River.” – Israel was planted by GOD, symbolically as a vine, according to the Psalmist, when she moved into the promised land of Canaan, circa 1400 B.C. This occurred after her deliverance from bondage in Egypt at the hand of YAHWEH GOD, who allowed Israel an inheritance that spread from the River Jordan to the Mediterranean Sea. There she was to grow as a nation, by the grace and nurturing of GOD the Vinedresser, bringing forth virtuous and luscious fruit that could be made into the ‘wine’ of justice, mercy, truth, beauty, and holiness. Further, this beautiful fruit, which Israel the vine was to produce, was to be liberally shared, not only within the nation of Israel, but also amongst all the nations, without stinginess, so that even the Gentiles could taste the goodness and truth of GOD ALMIGHTY.

Yet, we learn in Holy Scripture, that Israel, the vine of GOD’s choosing, did not respond to the tending, pruning, and fertilizing of the Vinedresser. GOD’s vine did not bring forth the fruit expected. In Isaiah 5 we read: “And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah, judge, please, between Me and My vineyard. What more could have been done to My vineyard that I have not done in it? Why then, when I expected it to bring forth good grapes, did it bring forth wild grapes? … For the vineyard of the LORD of hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah are His pleasant plant. He looked for justice, but behold, oppression; for righteousness, but behold, a cry for help” (Isaiah 5, 3-4 & 7). – And because of her sour grapes, what did GOD promise to do to His vineyard – to His vine Israel? – Isaiah continues, speaking for GOD, by answering this question: “And now, please let Me tell you what I will do to My vineyard: I will take away its hedge, and it shall be burned; and break down its wall, and it shall be trampled down. I will lay it waste; It shall not be pruned or dunged; instead, there shall come up briers and thorns. I will also command the clouds that they rain no rain on it” (Isaiah 5, 5-6).

The irony transpiring before us in the wedding at Cana of Galilee, is that like the vine of Israel, there is no wine – they have run out – they were unprepared and did not answer the call as expected by GOD to provide, justly, for the wedding guests. — Yet, what John is careful to point out in this story, is that there are plenty of pots filled with water, six to be exact, each holding 120-180 gallons of water. These pots, which were used for ceremonial purification according to the Law of Moses, were justly prepared, so that no guest might ceremonially pollute the wedding ceremony. This reality at the wedding in

Cana, underscores the fact that, Israel, was no longer capable of producing the spiritual fruits of justice and righteousness which GOD required by transformation. Symbolically, Israel was ever mindful of how to clean herself according to the law of Moses, transitioning outwardly from unclean to clean, was here symbolized like an unhealthy vine without any inward transformation of the heart that would enable her to produce the godly fruit of righteousness.

Thus, when JESUS turns water to wine, he shows forth GOD’s solution to Israel’s problem. By changing water to wine, JESUS takes the elements of transition and miraculously changes them to elements of transformation. – Water was used in Israel to wash off the dirt and dust of the feet and the hands to prevent ceremonial impurity; it was merely transitional, not transformational. The worshipper was cleaned of dirt, but their hearts remained unchanged and unable to produce righteousness and justice – mercy and compassion. Only a heart transformation can achieve that. — Day to day, Isreal was only transitioning from one state of ceremonial uncleanness to another state of ceremonial cleanness, and then back again. — To use JESUS’ own analogy, with the water in the ceremonial washpots of the wedding feast, the people of Israel were only holding to the traditions of men, as the washing of pots and cups, while they laid aside the commandment of GOD, making the word of God of none effect through their traditions.

To resolve this tension, or at least to offer the redemption of this tension, JESUS says in another place, “I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser” (St. John 15,1). – And to prove the point, JESUS changes water into wine, performing a sign that points, first to His divine attributes, and secondly, (and perhaps most importantly), to His nature as the promised Christ of GOD, to redeem Israel and the whole world.

JESUS changed water to wine, because wine was the drink of choice in Isreal for two transformational reasons. First, it purified or sanctified the water in which it was mixed. On a ratio of 2 parts water and 1 part wine, the wine would disinfect the impurities that were swirling around in the cup. And two, wine is alive! It is ever expanding as it moves through the process of fermentation, and because of it fermented properties, it can change the inward attitudes of the heart and mind from solemness and sadness to inward joy and contentment. — Wine, enjoyed in moderation in every age, as King David said in the 104th Psalm: “Makes glad the heart of man” (v.15).

In this narrative about the sign JESUS performs at the wedding in Cana of Galilee, the water in the ceremonial washpots is emblematic of the Law of Moses and the Old Covenant, wherein people transition from unclean to clean, and back to unclean again. On the other hand, the wine that JESUS makes is emblematic of the New Covenant in Christ’s Blood that sanctifies the soul and transforms the hearts of men, women, and children by grace through faith in JESUS. — JESUS, the true Vine of GOD, and the true Israel of GOD, through His earthly ministry, brings forth the good grapes of righteousness, justice, and mercy. And, if anyone accepts Christ JESUS’ invitation to drink the New Wine the Covenant He has instituted in His Blood, that person will be able to taste, ‘the good wine’ of the grace of GOD ‘that cheers the hearts of men’ that is only found in Christ, who is the True Vine of GOD.

GOD mobilizes this vision of the work of transformation in Christ, like wine in the belly, when He says in Jeremiah 31:31-33: “Behold, the days are coming, says the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah— not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, though I was a husband to them, says the LORD. But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the LORD: I will put My law in their minds, and write it on their hearts; and I will be their GOD, and they shall be My people. No more shall every man teach his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’ for they all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them, says the LORD. For I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more.”

In the story of the wedding of Cana of Galilee, where JESUS performed His first sign, He revealed to His disciples that He is the True Vine by turning water into wine. – He showed that He is the Christ, who brings good tidings of great joy to all people – through His New Covenant, He can do more than transition us from ceremonially unclean to clean; only bringing aspects of the old into the new, which remain unchanged. – Instead, JESUS can transform us with the New Wine of the Covenant He has purchased in His Blood, ensuring that GOD will write His law on our hearts and in our minds, completely transforming our nature, so that our joy will be complete, having our devotion to GOD and our neighbors motivated by love, and not fear.

Brothers and sisters, in Christ, there is a death, but it is not a transition, it is a complete transformation – a complete change in nature and essence, like water being changed to wine – the old being replaced by the new. It is for us to willfully accept or reject. – ‘This beginning of signs JESUS did in Cana of Galilee, wherein He manifested His glory’ … in the Name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. Amen.

1 Webster, Noah, Webster’s new international dictionary, 2 ed. (Springfield : G&C Merriam and company publishers, 1946) 2691.

2 Kennedy, William Sloane, Henry W. Longfellow. Biography, anecdote, letters, criticism, (Cambridge : Mose King Publishers, 1882), 304.

3 Webster, 2690.

4 Edersheim, Rev. Dr. Alfred, Sketches of Jewish Social Life, (New York : Hodder & Stoughton, 1876), 1879 (digital book).