Sermon: Epiphany 2 – 2023

15 January 2023

Text: Luke 2:41-52 (Eph 5:22-23)

In the name of + Jesus.  Amen.

St. John records the first “sign” done by Jesus: the turning of water into wine at a wedding feast. 

Weddings are important, and they are wonderful!  Jesus makes this clear by His appearance and miracle at this wedding at Cana in Galilee.  But there is something even more important and wonderful than the wedding: the marriage.  For the wedding is a ceremony that is over in an hour.  The wedding feast will be over in a few hours.  But the marriage should go on for many years, until death separates them.

Sometimes we emphasize weddings more than we nurture marriages.  And, sadly, the divorce rate last year was 44%. 

Just as Jesus blessed a wedding by being present, Jesus blesses marriages by instituting Holy Matrimony in the first place.  For , marriage is a picture of how Jesus is the Bridegroom, and the church is the bride.

St. Paul’s instruction to wives and husbands has become controversial.  Some progressive churches refuse to use it at weddings.  Many years ago, I read Ephesians 5 at a wedding, and the husband – who was old enough to know better – began mugging at his friends, who in turn laughed at the text.

They laughed at the Word of God, dear friends.  I should have stopped the wedding right then and there.  I didn’t.  But I will, if something like that happens again. 

The reason we have so many divorces is because people think this sound advice from the Word of God is a joke.  “Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord.  For the husband is the head of the wife.”  Any husband who thinks this is funny, or is license to lord over his wife, doesn’t deserve to be married, and he probably won’t be for long.  Having your wife submit to you is not about your dominance.  It is about your love for her.  For St. Paul also says: “Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her.”  That means, men, you are willing to die for your wife.  You will give up anything else that you love, for the sake of your bride.

And wives, if you want to stay married, respect your husband.  Don’t fall for the shtick of the TV wife that sasses her husband, orders him around, and treats him like her subordinate.  That is a sure way to drive a wedge between you and your husband, if not become a statistic. 

St. Paul has the secret to a successful marriage: “Let each one of you [husbands] love his wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband.”

Wives need love.  Husbands need respect.  Give your spouse what he or she needs, or choose to have a miserable life, along with your children.

Christians are far too influenced by TV, movies, and social media.  They are brainwashed into a view of equality within marriage that is not biblical, nor does it match the reality of men and women.  They are different.  And a man cannot become a woman, and a woman cannot become a man.  Nor can men marry men, and nor can women marry women.  The biggest reason our society is in chaos, is because we have turned our backs on the Word of God, if not laugh at it.  The couple that had the wedding that featured laughter at the Bible has never been back to church.  That was years ago.  I hope they repent.  But keep in mind, those who hold God’s Word in contempt will be punished by their own contempt. 

But the beautiful thing about this passage from Ephesians, dear friends, is that it is truly about love and about being our authentic selves: men and women, both created in God’s image, both redeemed by our Lord Jesus Christ, loving one another.

And the fact that a marriage between a man and a woman is so natural, it teaches us about “Christ and the church.”  For Jesus is the husband, and the church is the wife.  She submits to her bridegroom, and He in turn gives up everything for her, including His very life. 

So gentlemen, if you want to see the perfect husband, look to Jesus.  He takes the blows for His bride.  He fights off the dragon on her behalf.  He loves her more than His own life, and certainly more than His own comfort.  And ladies, if you want to see the perfect wife, look to the way Christians treat Christ, our God and our Savior.  For we submit to Him.  We do not order Him about.  We do not fight Him for equal status.  We trust Him, because He loves us.  And we follow Him, even when we disagree or don’t understand.

When Jesus came to the wedding at Cana, and when He found out that “the wine ran out,” our Lord had compassion and took action, as a man, acting out of love.  That is what men naturally do, especially strong, loving, healthy, Christian men.  They fix things.  And they love it when their wives respect them for it.  And wives love it when their husbands rise up and act to make their lives better, to protect them, to love them.

The Blessed Virgin Mary told the servants to submit to Jesus: “Do whatever He tells you.”  And this kind of submission is not popular today.  But when we submit to Jesus, when we do what His Word tells us to do, like a submissive wife, we experience the kind of joy the people of Cana did at this wedding feast.

For Jesus took their lack, and gave them abundance.  Jesus took their water and made it wine.  And it wasn’t ordinary wine, either.  It was the “good wine.”  Jesus takes our sin – including the sins we commit against our spouses – and makes them righteousness. 

Jesus gives us His blood as the “good wine,” and it never runs out.  His Word transforms wine into His blood, the very blood shed by our Bridegroom, who heroically saves us by defeating sin, death, and the devil.  Along with being God, Jesus is a man.  He fixes things.  He suffers for the sake of His beloved.  And we respect Him, submit to Him, follow Him, and we enjoy the blessings that He bestows upon us eternally.  For because of His cross, death will never separate us.  He has defeated death.

And after the resurrection, we will celebrate an eternal wedding feast, with the best wine being served at the last.  And so we are waiting for it to begin when our Bridegroom returns.

“This, the first of His signs, Jesus did at Cana in Galilee, and manifested His glory.  And His disciples believed in Him.

Amen.

In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.