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The Wedding at Cana · Stornoway Free Church of Scotland - Sermons

• 0:00
  In John chapter 2, that passage we've read about the wedding in Cana.
• 0:12
  Shame is a powerful tool.
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  We know it in the toolkit of the playground bully.
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  Heaping embarrassment on young men or women in front of their peers is a great way to get what they want.
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  Even the threat of it is powerful.
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  I think we see it as well in the toolkit of some politicians.
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  Can an opponent be shamed into a humiliating resignation or a U-turn in full sight of the media who are just as mean and merciless an audience as the kids chanting and egging on a bully in the playground?
• 1:04
  Shame has been abused in the toolkit of some pastors of God's flock.
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  The woman caught in adultery, treated so gently by Jesus, might have not so long ago found herself on a sinner's stool in front of the whole congregation, publicly shamed and rebuked from the pulpit.
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  Shame is a powerful tool of abuse.
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  Sometimes has its uses internally.
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  We might feel ashamed of our sin and be moved to do something about it.
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  But more often than not, shame leads us away from God.
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  It doesn't lead us to do much about our problem.
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  It leaves us like Adam and Eve, ashamed of their nakedness in the garden, running and fleeing.
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  Or it can be destructive, like it was for Judas, who cast his 30 pieces of silver before the Sanhedrin and then went out and took his own life.
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  Shame is a powerful thing.
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  Shame is a powerful thing.
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  And there's a symmetry in John's gospel where the themes at the beginning of the gospel are really important when you come to the end of John's gospel.
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  Angus Macrae, when he was with us at our recent communion weekend, highlighted some of this.
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  He was saying there are things to see.
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  You know, woman, see your son, and so on.
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  There are things to see at the beginning of the gospel that we have to see at the end.
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  So there is the glory of the only son from the Father, full of grace and truth.
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  There's John's exclamation to his disciples,
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  Behold, see the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.
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  And here in John chapter 2, Jesus is the one who is doing the showing.
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  John tells us this was the first miracle that Jesus had done,
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  and he did it to manifest his glory.
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  And so right at the beginning of John's gospel, there is something there for us.
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  This miracle tells us about Jesus showing us what's important,
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  the glory that we need to see.
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  I want to suggest this evening that we see the glory of Jesus in the way he removes shame.
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  Angus preached on that at the communion season,
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  how at the cross our shame is dealt with.
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  And that's there at the beginning of John's gospel as a pointer for us,
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  to see how Jesus is going to deal with shame in the experience of men and women.
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  The context matters.
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  It's a wedding feast.
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  And in first century Jewish custom and culture,
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  the job of the groom at a wedding feast was to prove his worth.
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  He had to prove to the bride's family that he could be counted on to provide for this woman
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  who was leaving her family and becoming part of his.
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  And so this feast has a master.
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  And the master could well have been, in fact, the groom's new father-in-law.
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  And those of us who are married can know how intimidating that relationship might be at times,
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  but how it can grow into something wonderful and a great friendship as well.
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  But at the beginning, it's intimidating.
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  And this groom has now committed an enormous blunder.
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  The wedding feast isn't over yet,
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  but the groom's provision of wine for the feast has run out.
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  And he is about to experience the greatest shame imaginable,
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  the greatest humiliation,
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  a reputation earned in this moment that is going to linger with him probably his whole life.
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  Mary finds out about the problem.
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  She's probably a close relative of the groom's family,
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  and that's why she's highlighted as being invited.
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  And then Jesus with his disciples are invited along as well.
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  And so in this context, we see Jesus appealed to by his mother to deal with this shameful situation.
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  And there are three things that we need to spot that are just glorious.
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  Because John tells us,
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  Jesus is revealing his glory.
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  He's manifesting his glory in this,
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  what is in fact in many ways an invisible miracle.
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  It's not something done in front of great crowds.
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  It's not something where people even know that Jesus is the one who did it.
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  The only people who know are the servants.
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  So it's private.
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  It's a small thing done in a corner,
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  but it reveals the great glory of the Lord.
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  Firstly, Jesus deals with shame in God's gracious timing.
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  Our shame is dealt with in God's gracious timing.
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  Mary brings the problem to his attention.
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  She says there's no wine.
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  And his response is really a bit odd.
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  The word that's used actually in Greek is gume.
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  It's not mum.
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  It's not even mother.
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  It's very formal.
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  The closest I think in English would probably be something like mom.
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  The way folk in the southern states would,
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  younger men would talk to older women.
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  They'd say mom.
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  There's that formality to the way Jesus speaks to his mother.
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  It's the same language in fact that he uses at the cross.
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  When he says woman behold your son.
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  There's that same formality to the language that's used.
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  And the way it's recorded by John for us.
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  It's full of respect.
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  But it's very formal.
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  But then there's that strange comment.
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  What has this to do with me?
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  What has this got to do with me?
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  It's a phrase that you find in fact quite often in the Gospels.
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  But only here on the lips of Jesus.
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  Normally in the Gospels where this phrase is used.
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  It's on the lips of demons.
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  Demons who are aware of the authority of Jesus.
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  But issue a futile denial or challenge to his authority.
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  And say what have you to do with me?
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  I know who you are.
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  The son of the most high.
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  Get away from me.
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  Don't cast me out into outer darkness.
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  Don't destroy my presence and power and influence and grip on this world.
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  The demons would want to deny the power of Jesus.
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  Which just serves to show his great authority.
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  And Jesus when he firmly says to his mother and respectfully tells her.
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  Basically that she doesn't have the authority to tell him what to do here.
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  It's of that order.
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  It's saying if I'm going to act here it's not because you've asked me to.
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  The timing of my miracle here is not yours to command.
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  It's entirely of God's grace.
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  I will act according to my father's will.
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  Not according to what you want me to do.
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  And so having told Mary that he's not going to act for her sake.
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  He then, Mary very intuitively and wisely.
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  Recognizes what's about to happen and she says to the servants do whatever he tells you.
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  Then he acts.
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  He comes and acts not on the strength of his family connection into the situation.
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  He comes and he acts because God is a gracious God who overflows with grace into situations mired in human shame.
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  And this is an evidence I think of right at the beginning of John's gospel of the covenant love of God.
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  The covenant love of God is that word in the Old Testament in Hebrew.
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  It's the word chesed.
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  It's maybe best described as God's love for the unlovable.
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  It's his sovereign choosing love.
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  That God in his love comes into the garden knowing full well that Adam and Eve have sinned against him.
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  But he comes into the garden to find them and to talk to them.
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  He comes to Abraham and makes his covenant with Abraham and promises him a land and an inheritance and descendants.
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  And ultimately one final descendant who will come and be there.
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  And when Abraham asks for a proof of this, God establishes his covenant with him.
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  And it is when Abraham falls asleep and the covenant is formed.
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  It's not Abraham who's a party to the covenant, but God himself.
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  As the father and the son, I think, who pass between the torn animals of the covenant.
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  Taking full responsibility for Abraham's future promise and salvation.
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  It's covenant love.
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  It's love without any obligation.
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  It's love without any purpose or foundation outside of God's own mere good pleasure.
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  And that is tonight where our salvation ultimately comes from.
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  He saves us.
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  He takes away our shame and our guilt simply because he has chosen to.
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  We are the product tonight as an assembly of saints.
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  The product of God's good pleasure.
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  Electing some to everlasting life.
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  And all the benefits of salvation.
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  And so for us, that should move us to worship.
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  It should inspire us to bow before him and give him our praise.
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  But there's also a lesson.
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  Because for us, we have to ask the question, how do we deal with the urge to use shame in our day-to-day lives?
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  There's sometimes a great desire to jump in with a gotcha moment when somebody that we're in competition with has blundered, has been left vulnerable.
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  And we want to rush in and shame them because it might get us some advance, some promotion, some success, some victory.
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  The way of Christ's disciples is to be like the master.
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  And therefore, when we see someone's shame, we should act graciously as Jesus does.
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  To cover it and do what we can to bring help.
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  You see, secondly, when Jesus kind of deals with his shame in this situation, he deals with it by offering a new kind of purity.
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  And again, it's a glorious way forward.
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  There's two features of this miracle that tell us that.
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  The first is, Jesus says to Mary, my hour is not yet.
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  The hour in John's gospel, it's like a thread, a golden thread really, that runs through the gospel.
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  The hour is the moment of the cross, the moment of the crucifixion.
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  That's where John's gospel is heading, right from the beginning.
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  And the hour is still to come.
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  And when Jesus here says, my hour has not yet come, he's drawing attention to this idea that what he's about to do here is somehow a pointer towards that moment.
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  He's taking us on the first step in the gospel towards the hour.
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  We're now aware there's an hour still to come.
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  So when you're reading this for the first time, that's what you think.
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  Oh, what's the hour?
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  The hour is still to come.
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  Let's look for the hour coming.
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  And you see like a trail of breadcrumbs that take us towards it.
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  And so there's something about this miracle that shows us something about the hour.
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  And that's this revelation of the grace with which he acts.
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  The climatic three hours of darkness on the cross where Jesus has resolved to act graciously, not under compulsion,
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  but because of the mere pleasure of God in bringing salvation, the hour of shame for him when all of his shame covering work is going to be done.
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  There's also the mode of the miracle that points us towards that idea of him bringing purity and a covering for our shame.
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  And it's what he uses to perform the miracle.
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  There's these vats and they are vats.
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  I don't know if you've ever seen them, these blue drums that are filled with water or chemicals or something.
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  This is a 120-liter drum.
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  So from the table, it's probably something about that high.
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  If it's full with water, 120 kilos, you're not going to easily carry it yourself, maybe if you're very strong.
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  But this is a big stone jar full of water.
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  So it's a heavy thing.
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  And they're used for ritual purification because for the Jews, everything in life revolves around purity.
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  How am I pure in order to go to the temple?
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  How do I purify myself after I've touched a dead body?
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  How do I purify myself after some event in my life that is beyond my control?
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  But how do I get myself pure in order to go about my religious duties and life?
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  And so they had these vats for purification.
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  And Jesus comes into this situation and he takes these vats, which would have been holy, set apart, specially for this purpose.
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  And he says, fill them with water.
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  And everyone's thinking, well, the servants probably are thinking, okay, they're ritual purification.
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  Vats, water is what you put in them.
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  And in the course of the miracle, the contents are transformed.
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  They're now wine.
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  Wine.
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  And that means, incidentally, that these vats can never be used again for ritual purification.
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  They are now unholy.
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  They're now common.
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  They're secular.
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  They're just ordinary vats.
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  And no Jew would dream of going back to that empty vat to fill it with water for a religious purpose now because its special holiness is compromised.
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  And Jesus is saying the old paths for sin and shame's removal are over.
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  The hour that's to come is going to replace these.
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  It's going to fulfill them.
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  The ritual cleansing that we need, the baptism that we need, is not a baptism of mere washing with water.
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  It's a baptism into Jesus himself.
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  It's into his shed blood at the cross.
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  It's a baptism of union with Christ through which we now will have our purity.
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  That's where our purification will come from.
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  And there is this incredible, glorious symmetry to John's gospel that at the end of the gospel, that's where purity comes from.
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  What makes the disciples pure is the work of Jesus to cleanse them.
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  He is the bread of life.
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  He is the lamb of God who takes away their sin and their shame and their guilt.
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  Simply put, Jesus is our purification tonight.
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  When we're feeling ashamed, when we know our sin is awful and overwhelming, we're invited tonight to come to Jesus anew,
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  to recognize his sufficiency for us and to find cleansing and hope in him.
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  Just finally, there's one last thought.
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  And it's this that Jesus deals with shame by putting something much better in its place.
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  Imagine the bridegroom in this story.
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  What happens to him is really amazing.
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  He has blundered.
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  He's messed up.
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  The shame is going to haunt him for the rest of his days.
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  But the servants take the water that is now wine to the master of the feast, like I was saying, possibly his father-in-law.
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  And they take it to him and they say, try this.
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  And the master of the feast tries the wine.
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  And his reaction is astonishing.
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  It's a wow moment.
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  The wine that was normally served by this point in the feast would be the cheap stuff.
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  You get the good stuff in at the beginning when people are likely to remember.
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  At the end of the story, at the end of the festival, at the end of the feast, you bring out the bad stuff.
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  But here, the master of the feast says, you're unusual.
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  Because normally, this isn't what people do.
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  Normally, people save the best for the beginning and the rubbish stuff at the end.
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  But you've saved the best until last.
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  And can you just imagine that bridegroom's reputation?
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  He's expecting to be utterly ashamed and humiliated in his community, worthless.
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  But instead, he is the guy who uniquely has taken the best wine at the end of the festival.
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  How great is he?
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  How marvelous is he?
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  How thoughtful is he?
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  How wise is he?
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  How generous is he?
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  How magnanimous is he?
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  How wealthy must he be?
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  How capable must he be to support the bride that is now his?
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  Isn't he great?
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  And that is now the reputation that remains with this man, probably for the rest of his life.
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  Jesus has given him a new name.
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  Jesus has given him a new stature.
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  And this is showing his glory.
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  Remember, as John has told us already, we've seen this glory of the only son from the father.
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  It's a glory that is full of grace and truth, full of faithfulness.
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  And that's what Jesus comes into our lives to do.
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  He comes into our lives with his grace to set us where?
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  Now, what are we tonight?
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  Are we worthless sinners?
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  Are we ashamed of what we are?
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  Perhaps secretly we might think that.
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  We might believe we know it.
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  But you read the New Testament.
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  Tonight we are seated with Christ in the heavenly places.
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  We are raised up to be called the sons and daughters of God.
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  We are joint heirs with Christ.
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  And one day we will judge the world with him.
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  That we are inheritors of glory.
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  That we are in fact God's inheritance.
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  We are in fact the righteousness of God.
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  And the titles that belong to the saints, the titles that belong to the church, are not ours.
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  We haven't earned them.
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  They're given to us graciously by Jesus because of what he does in dealing with our shame.
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  We are lifted out of the mire and seated at the right hand of God with our brother Christ.
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  And tonight that status, that new change is ours.
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  It took Christ great humility to do this.
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  I mean this, you know, you look at this story and you think, well who deserves to have the great fame at the end of this?
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  Does the bridegroom deserve the fame?
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  No, Jesus does.
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  He's the one who's done it.
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  But it's a private miracle.
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  It happens in a corner.
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  Only the servants know.
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  This is part of the humiliation of the divine son of God.
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  That even the great miracles he performs, the first of his miracles, nobody sees it.
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  There's no great audience that says, wow, look at him.
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  It's just done in a corner.
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  But it shows his glory.
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  And so tonight we're invited as his disciples to follow in these footsteps.
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  Showing grace and faithfulness.
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  Perhaps in invisible ways.
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  Perhaps in the closet in our prayer life.
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  Perhaps in a corner where we're invisible to the world.
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  And yet still glorious.
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  And bringing forth the work of God.
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  As we cover up shame.
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  And bring forth glory.
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  Let's pray.
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  Heavenly Father, we ask that you would help us to grasp what Jesus has done all the more clearly.
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  Help us to see that he has taken away our shame and guilt.
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  And he has clothed us tonight in righteousness.
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  Given us a name that is wonderful.
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  Because we are his brothers.
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  Because he is our Lord.
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  Because we are your children tonight.
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  And so Father, help us tonight to rejoice in all that Jesus has done.
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  And to delight all the more fully.
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  In the covering for shame that you have provided.
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  We ask this in Jesus' name.
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  Amen.