Epiphany 2

John 2:1-11 - Epiphany II - January 18, 2015         
Jesus Honors Marriage

+

This morning I’d like to talk about marriage since our Gospel lesson certainly lends itself to such a discussion.  In fact, the entire Epiphany season lends itself to the discussion of marriage.  Consider what we’ve been celebrating during Epiphany and how it speaks to marriage:

God became man and wed himself, so to speak, to our flesh forever – not just to Jewish flesh, but to all human flesh.  The divine Christ will never divorce himself from his humanity.  He remains God and Man forever.  He did not borrow his human nature the way a man borrows the company of a woman to meet some fleeting desire.  No, he assumed a human nature the way a man is permanently joined to his wife and becomes one flesh with her in marriage.  In this way he fulfills his enduring desire to save us.  Through this union of God and Man, this divine marriage of two Natures, Jesus creates new life.  As a faithful Head and honorable father, he cares for the life that his Church gives birth to through Baptism even as he remains with his Bride until the end of the ages.  Since he lives forever, the two shall never be parted, and he will never cease to care for his spiritual children. 

Jesus honored marriage. 

In Holy Baptism, Jesus unites himself to us both individually and corporally.  As individuals, we become God’s children.  But all together we become Christ’s Bride, the holy Christian Church.  He calls us as his own and clothes us with rich garments of righteousness.  He fills our lamps with oil and bids us to wait for his glorious return as our Bridegroom.  In the Jordan River, Jesus manifested himself as the Lamb of God.  He therefore made himself known as the Bridegroom of the Church who gives his life for his Bride in order that he might cleanse her with the washing of water and his word, and present her as glorious, having neither spot nor wrinkle. 

Jesus honored marriage. 

And this brings us to today’s Gospel lesson on the second Sunday after Epiphany: Jesus’ first miracle.  He again honors marriage.  He doesn’t heal the sick or raise the dead or give sight to the blind.  Rather, he manifests his glory for the first time in the most seemingly trivial way.  What kind of problem was it anyway?  No wine?  Really?  Everyone was healthy and safe.  Their trouble was by far the most insignificant of all the troubles that Jesus ever later encountered.  But what may seem in the grand scheme of things to be a passing concern became for Jesus the greatest need.  He chose to reveal his power as the divine Savior of humanity for the first time by helping a married couple celebrate their wedding.  By making water from wine, he saw to their happiness.  And why?  Because he loves marriage.  He says that marriage is good. 

Jesus honors marriage. 

In fact, he who sat with his disciples at this wedding feast in Cana had called it good from the beginning when he made them male and female.  By creating man and woman in his image, he invented marriage.  He didn’t create man and then see who he would fall for.  No, he knows better than we what makes us truly happy.  He created woman to be man’s helper, his wife.  By making a woman from the side of man, he saw to their happiness. 

Jesus has always honored marriage. 

Marriage between two men or two women isn’t just a sin; it’s an impossibility.  Such a relationship brings no true joy because it can only bring death and no life.  It doesn’t have God’s blessing.  It departs from his design.  From the beginning of creation the marriage of one man and one woman reflected the very image of God.  Man cannot reinvent marriage based on what kind of love he prefers.  God invented marriage so that his creation would reflect his love – the love between Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  God alone defines marriage. 

And God alone blesses marriage.  “Unless the Lord build the house, they labor in vain who build it” (Psalm 127:1).  It is God who gives joy and success and children – not us.  Even when man lost the image of God by falling into sin, God still took special care to preserve the institution of marriage among us.  This can be seen in the fact that God promised the Savior of the world in the Seed of the woman and then told Adam and Eve to be fruitful and multiply. 

It is no great wonder, then, that when the Seed of the woman finally appeared, he decided to make himself known with his first miracle at a wedding.  With this in mind, let’s consider three marriages:

1)    The marriage of Christ and his Church

2)    The marriage of Joseph and Mary

3)    The marriage that Jesus is invited to attend

1) The Marriage of Christ and His Church

This is a beautiful image.  Ephesians 5 should be read by every married couple on their anniversary, because it teaches us what our marriages are intended to represent.  Christ unites himself to his Church and clothes her in his own blood.  Her beauty is from him, and not in her own works.  A church that tries to adorn herself by pointing to her own obedience is like an elderly woman trying to look like she’s 21 again.  It’s embarrassing.  But she is honored when she finds her beauty in the eye of her Lord.  He cleanses her.  He justifies her.  He presents her to himself as holy. 

But for now, as we grow old, and as our lives bear the marks and wrinkles of sinful lives, we wait.  Old wives know perfectly well that they lack the beauty that they had when they were still virgins.  But a happy wife is one who finds affirmation not in the world’s judgment, but in her husband’s love.  This is what makes modesty so beautiful.  So too, we as the Church adorn ourselves with humbleness, and so our true beauty and dignity shine forth like an old woman who owns her age.  We commend ourselves to the love of Christ our Head.  And we wait.  But we do not wait as haggard old women.  We wait in faith and hope.  We wait, knowing how God sees us.  He doesn’t regard our sin.  He sees us as pure and holy for Jesus’ sake.  And so we wait as young virgins aglow with the hope of eternal life, with our wicks trimmed and our lamps full. 

On the last Sunday of the Church year, we hear Jesus’ parable of the 10 Virgins – 5 foolish and 5 wise – who waited for the Bridegroom to come.  The custom in those days was that the man and wife would be legally betrothed – married – and then each would see to his or her own preparation.  The man would prepare their home.  And the bride would prepare herself. 

That was her only concern.  Be pretty and patient.  This is the Church’s concern.  We look pretty, so to speak.  We don the glorious righteousness of Christ that is ours by faith, even as we apply ourselves to good works and love.  And until the Bridegroom comes, we patiently wait with burning lamps by faithfully listening to the gospel. 

The customary role of the groom was much greater.  He had to prepare the new home and plan the great banquet, which would last for days.   As our Bridegroom, Christ has gone to prepare a place for us.  The wedding feast of his saints will have no end.  He prepares.  We wait. 

2) The Marriage of Joseph and Mary

This same custom would have been familiar to Mary and Joseph.  They were legally betrothed – as good as married.  Mary waited.  Joseph prepared.  But while preparations were being made, the true Bridegroom of the Church came to Mary and was conceived in her womb. 

Mary’s job was to wait.  But from Joseph’s point of view, she had become impatient.  That’s why he wanted to call off his own preparations as the bridegroom and divorce her.  I suppose God could have chosen any virgin to bear his Son – one who had no husband in the picture and so no need for Joseph to be scandalized.  But he didn’t.  He chose a virgin who was already married.  He did this because he loves marriage.  He did not want his Son to be raised by a single mother.  He wanted his Son to be brought up in a home of husband and wife.  God loves marriage. 

So he told Joseph to go ahead with his preparations.  Make a home.  Provide for my Son.  It wasn’t Mary who couldn’t wait.  She was pure.  It was God who could wait no longer.  The fullness of time had come for the Savior to be born. 

So Joseph took Mary as his wife.  But then, of course, the wedding banquet was dampened by unforeseen events.  A census was called.  And instead of friends and family gathered, they had to leave for Bethlehem.  Instead of feasting and fine wines, they had to lodge where animals fed so Mary could give birth.  Wedding ruined, right?  Ah, but with what joy God blessed their marriage!  Greater than any feast!  Greater than fine wine!  Mary gave birth to the Savior of the world.  Jesus had joined their marriage.  The true Joy of man’s desiring honored husband and wife in a way that a wedding banquet cannot do. 

I remember being told when I got married by well-meaning friends that we should wait to have children in order to get to know each other and to enjoy life a bit before it all changes.  Well, if God’s kind providence for Joseph and Mary is any example, being blessed with children doesn’t put a damper on marital bliss, it upholds it, it defines it.  God blessed this couple with the fruit of marital love even before they knew any marital love.  He blessed them with the fruit of his own marital love for humanity – his own Son in human flesh who came to unite our fallen race to himself forever.  With this God shows that children don’t make marriage worse.   They make it better.  “Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord, The fruit of the womb is a reward” (Psalm 127:3).   

But how?  A reward?  They are so much work!  They ruin everything!  They get sick and force us to cancel our plans.  They cut romance short and spend all our money.  Yeah, I suppose they do.  That is why, just as we humbly welcome every burdensome blessing of God into our marriages, we also invite him who takes all burdens upon himself.  We invite Jesus.  He joins us and our children in our weakness. 

3) The Marriage That Jesus Is Invited to Attend

We fall short.  We take what God gives us and make a mess of it.  God gives daily bread, and then we worry about how we will provide.  God gives us beauty and health, and then we make these the hallmark of a happy marriage even once they’re gone.  God gives us children, and then we regard them as our own little creations, that prove to be more work that they’re worth.  They begin to exhibit the sin that they inherit from their fathers.  They make us poor and old.  They cause us pain and heartache.  And if running out of wine at a wedding sounds bad, the things that our kids make us lack is even more distressing. 

But what success do we expect?  What joy do we want from marriage?  What will even last?  Nothing.  That is why we bring into our marriages what does.  We invite into our marriages what not only makes up for lost money and youth, but what brings eternal blessing to our children as well.  We invite Jesus.  He who honors marriage, who called marriage good from the beginning, has mercy on our own marriages as well. 

Wives, your husbands are sinners.  Husbands lose their temper.  They slink into lazy habits.  They lust for what they could have had.  They think of themselves more than they think of you.  They fail in their duty to prepare a happy and Christian home for their wives and children.  Now, think of how humiliating it was about to get for the young groom who didn’t provide enough wine for his guests.  But Jesus provided.  And so this is where we husbands must flee when our own sin brings stress, grief, and real harm to those whom we are to care for.  We find what we lack in what Jesus gives. 

Husbands, your wives are sinners.  Their desire is to rule over you, as Scripture says.  They don’t submit like they should.  They show bitterness when they should be sweet.  They have just as much pride as you do.  They fail to be patient, when all you need is for them to respect you.  Now, think of how humiliating it was about to be for this young bride when her husband’s preparations were about to reflect poorly on her.  But Jesus provided.  And so this is where you wives must flee when your sin causes angst and strife in your marriage.  You find what you lack in what Jesus gives.

His hour is come.  His hour is come when his help is needed.  From beginning to end, he manifests his glory in order to honor your marriage – in order to bring the peace and joy that husband and wife fail to bring.  He who turned water into wine proves that he is the King of his creation.  The elements obey him.  If God can do what is great, how much more can he do what seems trivial?  If he can turn water into a life-giving bath that washes your sins away, how much more can he provide for you the good wine that gives eternal joy?  It is his very blood, poured out for you and yours.  He gives himself to you in the most intimate way: “Take, eat; take, drink.”  This is what he prepares for his Bride. 

He who suffered as the deadbeat husband, the contentious wife, the homosexual, the fornicator, the abortionist, the rebellious child who disappoints you – he joins you in your sin.  He reconciles you to God.  He remains with you in your deepest grief and in the moment of death.  He who bore your curse earns God’s blessing for you.  He gives you his Father’s eternal favor.  He who weds you will never leave you.  Jesus honors marriage.  With him your joy is full, and your cup runs over.  Amen.