Sermon 1-19-25

Pastor Ray Lorthioir

Trinity Lutheran Church

W. Hempstead, NY

Based on the Gospel Lesson for The Second Sunday After Epiphany, John 2:1-11

No Magician’s Trick

Before 1979, there used to be a one year cycle of lessons used for Sunday service that had existed for centuries. It’s in these 1958 red hymnals. So every year, you went over the same lessons. Then with the 1979 hymnal, a three year cycle of lessons was introduced. I’ve been using it ever since. The three years are each based on a gospel. Appropriately enough Matthew is the first year, Mark the second year and Luke the third year.

But, we’ve got four gospels. What about John? Portions of John’s gospel get squeezed into the three years at various places. And one of them consistently is the Second Sunday after the Epiphany. Before 1979, John’s account of Jesus at the wedding in the village of Cana was always the gospel for the Second Sunday after Epiphany. Now, that reading appears only once every three years.

Matthew, Mark and Luke read like the writers stole from each other. You can put the three gospels in parallel columns and they basically read in the same order. However, the exact wording is unique to each gospel. Also, any two of them can contain information that the third lacks. And each of them contains some information that the other two lack.

These three gospels have a similar structure. They give many accounts of Jesus’ miracles. They record a number of Jesus’ parables along with short sections of His teaching. The longest sections of Jesus’ teaching are the Sermon on the Mount found in Matthew, and the very similar Sermon on the Plain in Luke.

In complete contrast, John’s gospel has a very different structure. There is a very short list of miracles. In between the miracles, Jesus has extensive dialogues with various people and groups. Much of what Jesus had to say about Himself and about the Church is contained in these dialogues. John doesn’t record any of Jesus’ parables. But, John records extensive teaching by Jesus, especially everything Jesus taught on the night before He was crucified.

Here is what John had to say about the list of miracles he included. John 20:30-31, “30 Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; 31 but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.”

The word translated “sign” here means a mark or a token by which anything is known or distinguished. Are you able to distinguish between Coke and Pepsi by their signs? How about automobiles by their brand signs? That’s the purpose of a brand having a logo. It’s the sign by which to distinguish the brand from all the others.

Well, how about God’s brand? John is telling us here that the particular miracles of Jesus that he included in his gospel absolutely distinguish God’s brand. Jesus performed these particular signs to distinguish Himself from all who came before Him as well as all who have come after Him. John wants us to know that anyone reading his gospel will be able to recognize two huge things by the included list of miraculous signs: first that Jesus of Nazareth has exclusive claim on being the Christ, the Messiah of God. Second, that Jesus of Nazareth is God, the Son, come incarnate — even in mortal human flesh. This recognition will come by faith welling up in the reader that what they have read is true eye-witness testimony. And, most importantly, faith in this testimony of what Jesus did will bring the most glorious gift possible to the reader given the faith to believe — namely, sinless, eternal, resurrected, righteous life with Yahweh, our Creator.

So, what kind of a sign was changing water into wine that it should enable us to believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God? For centuries, alchemists tried to change lead into gold. But we’ve discovered that without an atomic crucible like the sun that’s quite impossible. Now, is turning plain H2O —  water — into wine — which is water with a myriad of other chemicals mixed in — any more possible? Where did all those chemicals that define wine come from without the grapes, the grape juice, the yeast and the time needed to make wine?

The only way a magician can change water into wine is by switching identical bottles in front of your face while tricking you into thinking he hasn’t. So, how do we know Jesus didn’t do a magic trick? It’s reported in John 2:6-7, “6 Now there were six stone water jars there for the Jewish rites of purification, each holding twenty or thirty gallons. 7 Jesus said to the servants, ‘Fill the jars with water.’ And they filled them up to the brim.”

You’ve all carried a gallon of milk, water or gasoline in your life. How far did you want to carry it? A gallon of any liquid gets heavy after a while. What about a container holding twenty or thirty gallons? Do you think such a container can be easily manipulated by a magician? Not only that, but Jesus didn’t fill any of the big jars Himself — you know, with wine secretly brought in from the outside. Servants filled all the jars with water. So, Jesus had plenty of witnesses that it was water, and nothing but water, that went into the jars.

Jesus also had plenty of witnesses who saw what came out of the jars. It was not just wine. It was the finest wine, the best anyone had ever tasted. The steward of the feast let us know this with his enthusiastic proclamation. So, no magic trick was possible with jars holding twenty or thirty gallons.

Therefore, what happened to the water in those jars? We could call this a creative miracle. Something very fundamental changed in those jars. One substance instantly became another. That’s creation.

Now, making wine is no secret. The know how to do it has existed for millennia. You have to know how to grow grapes. That takes a season. You have to know when to harvest grapes and when to squash them into grape juice. You have to filter the juice to keep out the pulp. You need a suitable container that can either withstand pressure or can alleviate it. The reason is that yeast is going to be introduced to the grape juice. The fermentation process that will change sugar into alcohol produces various gases that have to be vented at some point and in a way that doesn’t contaminate the wine. And then there’s the time necessary to age the wine. So, in wine making, substances change. But, they change over a long period of time and through a particular process. However, when Jesus changed water into wine, He did it instantaneously, through a process completely unknown to man. That’s creation.

We read at the very beginning of John in  John 1:1-3, “1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.” The ability to create wine out of nothing but water proves that the one who performed the sign is the one who also created everything that exists.

But, let’s digress for a moment. Who is this “Word” who was with God and made all things together with God? The Greek word translated “Word” is Logos. Guess what it means? Word! Now the term “Logos” has a history of being used with God. That history reached its peak with a Jewish philosopher named Philo of Alexandria, who was born in 20B.C. and died in 50A.D. He was a contemporary of Jesus.

Going back further than Philo, did you know that Jewish scholars who predate Jesus spoke of there being two powers in the heavens? There are numerous passages in the Torah and the Prophets that caused these scholars to think this way.

For instance, there is Exodus 3:1-4, “1 Now Moses was keeping the flock of his father-in-law, Jethro, the priest of Midian, and he led his flock to the west side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. 2 And the angel of the LORD appeared to him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush. He looked, and behold, the bush was burning, yet it was not consumed. 3 And Moses said, ‘I will turn aside to see this great sight, why the bush is not burned.’ 4 When the LORD [Yahweh] saw that he turned aside to see, God [Elohim] called to him out of the bush, ‘Moses, Moses!’ And he said, ‘Here I am.’”

The text says that the Angel of Yahweh was in the bush causing the fire, but that it was Yahweh who spoke out of the bush. So, is the Angel of Yahweh somehow identical to or related to Yahweh? Well, the scholars who preceded Jesus wrestled with such passages and concluded that while Yahweh is One, He is also at least two — Yahweh and the one who is called the Angel of Yahweh. 

Philo appeared at the very end of the line of such scholars. Philo used the term “Logos” to name the second person of the Godhead. And since Philo’s work was well known, John apparently picked up the name, “Logos” — “Word” — and applied it to Jesus.

Unlike John, Philo would have never associated the Logos with a human being. For Philo, the Logos was God in the heavens. Period. And that’s what separates John from Philo.

For, John wrote in John 1:14 “And the Word [the Logos] became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.” John explicitly proclaimed that the person of God whom Christians call, the Son, had done something unthinkable. He had taken on a human body. He had lived among us in a human body. He had died in a mortal human body. He was raised from the dead in the first of what will become many immortal human bodies. Presently, He is at the right hand of the Father in that very same immortal human body. At the end of time He will reappear in that immortal human body. And He will live with us forever in that same immortal human body as one of us, as our King of kings and Lord of lords. 

John wants us to know through his gospel, his three letters and the Book of Revelation, that he had had intimate human to human contact with Jesus — the “Logos” — while Jesus walked this earth. John claims that he is a trustworthy eye-witness of just about everything Jesus did and said. John also wants us to know, through Revelation, that while while John was still in this mortal flesh, the ascended Jesus brought John up into heaven in a great vision and showed him many marvels of what will be. Therefore, Jesus is the one and only “Logos.” He is the Son of God.

Now something significant happened in history. It’s the Roman-Jewish war that began in 66A.D. and ended with the destruction of Jerusalem and Yahweh’s temple in Jerusalem in 70A.D. At the end of the war, there were only two Jewish groups left standing. One was the Jewish Christians. The other was the Pharisees. 

The Pharisees made it their business to keep non-Christian Judaism alive, even without the temple. Out of their efforts, the rabbinic Judaism we know today was born about 100A.D. One of the first tasks of rabbinic Judaism was to suppress the teaching that there are two powers in the heavens, both of which are one Yahweh. Therefore, all the passages in the Torah and the Prophets that speak of Yahweh’s plurality were re-interpreted so that only a Unitarian Yahweh remained. The rabbis who did this declared it heretical to continue to think of Yahweh as two powers. Of course, this completely opposed the blossoming Trinitarian interpretation of the Jewish Christians. And so it remains to this day. There is the Unitarian Yahweh of rabbinic Judaism. And there is the Trinitarian Yahweh of Christianity. Of course, I think the better case can be made from Scripture for the Trinitarian Yahweh.

Coming back, then to the water into wine, John chose this miracle because it plainly announced Jesus to the world as one who could create by simply speaking a word. It revealed Jesus to be the Logos of God — the Word. For, Jesus simply spoke these words to the servants: “Fill the jars with water.” Then He said, “Now draw some out and take it to the master of the feast.” It was wine, then, and not water that they brought to the master of the feast. That’s God, the “Logos,” the “Word,” in creative action.

John spent three years with Jesus of Nazareth. During that time, he saw Jesus perform many creative miracles that only God can perform. And John knew for an absolute fact that Jesus was human. Therefore, John wanted everyone to hear his testimony. God, the Logos, became human for our sake. And most importantly, He became a mortal human. Thus, John wrote in John 1:16-18, “16 For from his [Jesus’] fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. 17 For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. 18 No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father’s side, he has made him known.” This complicated sentence means that no one has ever seen Yahweh. But Yahweh, the divine Son, took on created human flesh and came to us. Therefore, it’s only through Jesus that anyone can see Yahweh, the Father. Jesus and the Father are one, just as Jesus said.

One last thing. The master of the feast prophesied without knowing it. Of course, the master was thinking solely about the wine when he spoke. He was truly amazed that the family throwing the wedding had saved the best wine for last. However, without knowing where the wine had come from, he was also saying something about Yahweh, the Yahweh who had changed water into wine. Here are the words of the master from John 2:10, “‘you have kept the good wine until now.’”

Yes. Throughout all of human history to that point, Yahweh had not brought out His best. He had not sent Yahweh, the Son, in the flesh to redeem human kind. But, with the appearance of Jesus on the scene all that changed. Yahweh had saved the best for last. Indeed, that’s what the Epiphany season is all about — the appearance of Jesus — Yahweh’s best — come on the scene to save, rescue and redeem. 

Remember. We’re all born with an incurable problem. Original Sin makes us our own gods, having to define good and evil for ourselves. This in itself is sin — a sin we can’t avoid. And then in our defining, we go on to call good what Yahweh calls evil; and call evil what Yahweh calls good. By nature we are rebellious, sinful, unclean and separated from our Creator. Therefore, we would all be condemned into the place of complete and eternal rebellion — hell — if it were not for the fact that as it’s written in John 3:16-17, “‘For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.’” The forgiveness of our sins is the grace upon grace that Messiah Jesus — Yahweh, the Son — bought for us on the cross. And so we are rescued from eternal rebellion and brought in the eternal Kingdom of righteousness, the Kingdom of God. Amen.

All Bible quotes are from the ESV.