Epiphany 2

Epiphany 2 Jesus did this and revealed his glory and his disciples believed in him.

Jesus performed miracles.

Jesus performed miracles by uniting his will to the will of his heavenly Father.

Because Jesus united his will to the will of his heavenly father, the miracles he performed revealed God ‘s purpose and plan and person to people. The result of the miracle was faith.
Jesus came into the world to find the lost, to heal the broken and to give humanity the gift of eternal love. The miracles were instrumental in this purpose. Not all who witnessed the miracles responded with faith. Some chose to react with fear, self will or pride. For some, the miracles appeared as a challenge and a threat.

This is one reason why Jesus was reluctant to perform this first miracle. The miracle would result in faith for some and rebellion for others. The first miracle sets the precedent and the expectation for futrure miracles.

The first miracle Jesus performs reveals something very important about God.
Many people believed God was a stern judge. They believed that God held a balance scale. If your sins outweighed your good deeds then God punished you. The corollary to that belief is that if bad things happened to you then it was the sign that God is punishing you for your bad deeds.
Jesus came into the world to show us that God is love. God is not condemnation. Bad things do happen to people. Jesus knew this well. He lived in a world of great turmoil and suffering. Many times the bad things are a result of human greed or indifference. So it is that in order for some people to acquire great wealth many people have to live in poverty.

Some times the bad things in life just have no easy explanation.
Jesus reminds us that the trials and tribulations we encounter in life are not the manifestation of divine wrath or indifference. Jesus reveals that God is love. It is not always easy for us to hold these two truths.

The miracles Jesus performed can help understand the reality of Divine Love in the midst of human suffering.

This first miracle seems very odd. It appears Jesus is reluctant. He even avoids taking the credit. And the miracle itself seems strangely extravagant and frivolous. Jesus turned water into wine so a party could continue.

There is, of course, a deeper meaning and purpose to the miracle. There is also the less obvious answer that Jesus came to give us abundant life. He met the need of the moment because he wanted to help the bridegroom celebrate one of the most important events in his life: his wedding.
　
Jesus cares about every aspect of our lives. He is with us in our joys and in our sorrows. Here, in the wedding feast, Jesus responds to Holy Mother Mary’s intercession by solving a very ordinary human problem. There wasn’t enough.

Jesus sets the pattern for future miracles by bringing forth abundance. In the Kingdom of heaven there is only abundance. There is no scarcity. There is no deprivation.

The more profound meaning of the miracle is two fold. One is material and the other is spiritual.
The material meaning of the miracle is that the world our heavenly Father created is a world of abundance. The resources to meet human need are there. It is not a scarcity in the creation that results in deprivation, hunger and poverty. It is a scarcity in the human heart, the human mind, the human will.

The miracle Jesus performed in the material world reminded his disciples and all who read the story that there is abundant goodness in the creation. The problem is how we choose to manage the resources God has provided.

The spiritual significance of the miracle lies in the understanding of the images of the wedding feast, the bridegroom and the stone water jars.

The wedding feast was a great celebration that took place over several days and involved the entire village. It was a sign of faith in the present and hope for the future. It even took precedent over normal religious duties. It is the pre eminent image God uses to describe the Kingdom of Heaven. The Kingdom of heaven is joy and celebration. The Kingdom of Heaven is limitless abundance.

The Bridegroom’s father had the responsibility to provide for the feast. It was his honor and his duty. In the Kingdom of heaven, Jesus is the Bridegroom. The Church is the Bride. God the Father is the father who has responsibility to provide for the celebration.

The large stone water jars represent the Old Covenant. They are there for ritual purification. They indicate the family are Pharisees. They further suggest that the family is well to do. It was expensive to maintain such large quantities of water for ritual purposes.

The premise of ritual purification is that people are spiritually unclean. This is more than the bad things we sometimes do or the good things we fail to do. It is a fundamental flaw in human nature. It is also a fundamental aspect of human life.

The Pharisees believed this spiritual uncleanness was an affront to God. In order to avoid God’s wrath, people needed to perform certain religious rituals. The rituals work for that moment only. They have to be repeated over and over.

When Jesus turned the water into wine he was demonstrating something very important about the kingdom of God. The kingdom is not about law and punishment. It is not about debits or credits. It is not about who is clean or unclean. The kingdom is about grace. The kingdom is about grace because the kingdom is a personal relationship with God in Jesus Christ.

Turning water into wine is a manifestation of divine power. It is also a revelation of divine grace. It is grace that infuses new life into the soul. It is grace that changes the waters of ritual purification into the wine of joy and gladness. It is grace that doesn’t just abolish the Law but fulfills the Law. It is the grace that invites faith in a person: Jesus Christ.

The servants saw the miracle and believed. The steward of the feast tasted the wine and in astonishment said to the bridegroom: you have saved the best for last. The disciples observed all of this and they believed. They believed in a person, Jesus Christ.

It is the person who makes all things new. It is the person who celebrates with us in the happy times and comforts us in our sorrows. Law cannot do this. Religion cannot do this. Only a person can do this. Only Jesus can transform scarcity into abundance, law into grace, fear into faith, water into wine.

In this unlikely miracle, Jesus’ first miracle, God manifests himself to us and reveals not condemnation or demand but glory. The glory of God is Jesus reaching out in love to all people everywhere with God's abundant grace.

Jesus did this and revealed his glory and his disciples believed in him.