The Second Sunday after Michaelmas (Trinity 20) – Pr. Faugstad sermon
Text: 2 Kings 18:1-12
In Christ Jesus, who joined Himself to us by taking on our flesh, and who joins us to Him through Holy Baptism, so that all that is ours became His, and all that is His became ours, dear fellow redeemed:
The best way to teach people the value of marriage is to value your marriage. Valuing your marriage means treating your spouse with love and respect, being willing to forgive when you are wronged, and doing the hard work of communication when you’d rather just play the blame game. This has a powerful influence on children and others who witness what a healthy marriage looks like.
When the opposite happens, when spouses run each other down, refuse to forgive, stop communicating, and possibly even get divorced, this also has a powerful influence. You have probably heard the statistics that children of divorced parents are significantly more likely to get divorced themselves later in life. These patterns certainly can be broken, but it is more difficult to see the way forward to a healthy relationship for those who have witnessed the opposite.
The same goes for transmitting our faith. The degree that we value what we have received by the grace of God will be shown by the priority it has in our life. Do our children, our classmates, our co-workers, our neighbors hear us speak about the comfort and hope we have in Christ? Do we keep the Word in our homes through prayer and family devotions? Do we plan everything else in our schedule around the Divine Service, giving first place to God’s Word and Sacraments?
I think each of us would acknowledge that what Jesus has done has not always been first place in our lives. We have spoken and acted in ways that are not at all consistent with the Christian faith. We have made money, or popularity, or fun and games the most important thing. We have relegated our Christian faith to an hour or two each week, easily picked up and easily set aside again.
The way we approach the faith as adults has a huge influence on the way our children will approach it when they are adults. The more important it is to us, the more important it will be to them. We can carry a lot of guilt over this because we never do as much to encourage the faith in our families as we know we should. St. Paul expressed this struggle in Romans 7: “For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing” (v. 19).
Our comfort is knowing that Jesus forgives all our failures in the past and all our weaknesses in the present. Despite our faults, He still calls us each day to try again, try harder, and pray unceasingly for His help and strength. We also have the comfort of knowing that God loves our family members even more than we do, and He does not forget them. We might feel as though we have made a mess of everything in our homes, but God still works all things for good (Rom. 8:28).
Today’s reading gives us an example of the powerful grace of God. We are introduced to Hezekiah the son of Ahaz, king of Judah. King Ahaz was anything but a good father. He was a spiritual man, but it was the wrong spirit. He did not worship the LORD, the true God. He worshipped the gods of the heathen nations around Judah. He set up images of the Baals, made sacrifices in the high places, and closed up the doors of the temple. He even followed the pagan practice of offering some of his sons as burnt offerings to try to appease the gods (1Chr. 28).
Because of the grievous sins of Ahaz, “the LORD humbled Judah…, for he had made Judah act sinfully and had been very unfaithful to the LORD” (28:19). When he died, he was not given an honorable burial with the previous kings of Judah since he had brought such trouble on the land and its people.
So then at age twenty-five, Hezekiah the son of Ahaz began to reign. He took a very different course than his father, possibly because of the influence of his mother who is named in today’s reading—Abi the daughter of Zechariah. Wherever the good influence came from, Hezekiah “did what was right in the eyes of the LORD” by undoing all that his father had done wrong. “He removed the high places and broke the pillars and cut down the Asherah.” Then he did something even more extreme: “he broke in pieces the bronze serpent that Moses had made, for until those days the people of Israel had made offerings to it.”
That bronze serpent was some 700 years old at this time, and it was made by Moses himself! When initially the people looked up to it on a pole, trusting in the LORD’s promise, they were spared from the poisonous serpents that afflicted them (Num. 21:9). This was a significant piece of Israel’s history, but it had become an object of their worship, so Hezekiah destroyed it. Can you imagine destroying a significant artifact from the 1300s because it was leading people astray? How about a precious family heirloom, or another item of great value? If you think about the most important object you possess, would you destroy it out of devotion to the LORD?
Hezekiah made it clear that nothing would get in the way of the worship of the true God. Our reading says, “He trusted in the LORD, the God of Israel, so that there was none like him among all the kings of Judah after him, nor among those who were before him. For he held fast to the LORD.” The word translated, “held fast,” is the same word we find with the institution of marriage in Genesis 2:24, “Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.”
This is how Hezekiah “held fast” to the LORD: like a man and his wife “hold fast” to each other. Hezekiah did what was right by the LORD; he avoided temptations to sin; he trusted the LORD and did not depart from following Him; he did the opposite of the Israelites to the north who were conquered by the Assyrians—he listened to and obeyed the LORD.
This is how each one of us should be toward God. We hold fast to Him by respecting, honoring, and trusting Him in all things. We avoid everything that could tempt us away from Him. We look for help, healing, and salvation nowhere else than from Him. We acknowledge that there is no lasting love, no happiness, no life apart from Him.
The picture of a marriage is exactly how St. Paul describes our connection to Christ. “Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish” (Eph. 5:25-27). This tells us that all that we were in our wickedness and weakness, Jesus has covered in His perfect righteousness.
Imagine a highly-regarded, virtuous, successful man choosing for his bride a lady with a bad reputation, no possessions, and no prospects for a productive future. That is what Jesus did by taking on our human flesh and offering up His perfect life in payment for all our sin. The righteous One gave Himself for us unrighteous ones, the holy One for the unholy. He took all our sins on Himself and gave us His perfect record of keeping God’s Law. He did this, so we might be as He is and live forever with Him in His heavenly kingdom.
Today’s Holy Gospel speaks about our invitation to the wedding feast of the King’s Son (Mat. 22:1-14). This is the invitation to believe in Jesus by the power of the Holy Spirit and to receive His heavenly and eternal riches. But some respond to the invitation with disinterest—they think they have better things to do. Others react with violence and attack the servants who bring the invitation to them. Still others want to attend the feast on their own terms, wearing their own righteousness, which is a great insult to the merciful and gracious King.
But despite our sins, the invitation to join the wedding feast still comes to us. We sit down at this feast each time we hear the Word of our Lord and receive the rich food of His body and blood for the remission of our sins. His Word and Sacraments are how, like a good husband, our Savior Jesus serves us. He does not treat us as our sins against Him deserve.
Though we have often been unfaithful to Him and His Word and pursued other priorities to the detriment of our faith, our relationships, and our homes, He forgives every one of these sins. He has mercy on us in our weakness; He treats us with patience and love; He communicates clearly and regularly His commitment to us. He perfectly does His part to keep His marriage with the Church healthy and strong.
His willingness to serve and sacrifice is what makes us want to Hold Fast to the Lord. Like a faithful bride, we love Him, we submit to His authority, and we want to please Him by all that we think, say, and do. We seek no other Bridegroom, no other Savior. No one could ever love us so well and care for us as perfectly as He does.
This was Hezekiah’s confidence. “He trusted in the LORD” and “held fast” to Him, and the people of Judah were blessed by his faithfulness. When we do the same by the grace of God, our marriages, our homes, and our communities are likewise blessed. Then it is said of us as it was said of Hezekiah: “And the LORD was with him; wherever he went out, he prospered.”
Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost; as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, forevermore. Amen.
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(picture from “Healing the Blind Near Jericho” by a Netherlands artist in the 1470s)
The Second Sunday after the Epiphany – Pr. Faugstad sermon
Text: Genesis 29:13-30
In Christ Jesus, who walked a lonely road and suffered for our griefs, sorrows, and sins, so we would be assured of His help in our trials, dear fellow redeemed:
Jacob didn’t know—he couldn’t have known—that when he traveled to Haran, he was walking right into a great web, a terrible sticky web. He would soon find himself wrapped up in such cares and troubles that he wondered if he would ever be free again. When he first made contact with his mother’s relatives, he was filled with joy. He was blissfully unaware that a spider watched his every move, a spider watching, waiting, scheming. That spider was Laban, his mother’s brother, his own uncle.
Jacob went there because his mother wanted to save him from the wrath of his brother Esau after Jacob received the family blessing instead of Esau. Jacob’s parents sent him to find a wife among his relatives. As he set off on his journey toward Haran, he stopped for the night at a place called Luz. This was in the same area where the LORD appeared to Abram when he first arrived in the land of Canaan. As Jacob slept, he dreamed about a ladder reaching to heaven, with angels ascending and descending on it.
And the LORD spoke to him, promising that his offspring would be “like the dust of the earth,” and that “all the families of the earth [would] be blessed” through him (Gen. 28:14). “Behold, I am with you,” said the LORD, “and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land” (v. 15). They were wonderful promises, but at the present Jacob had nothing. He had no wife, no home, and no great possessions. When he got to Haran, he was just poor Jacob trying to find a wife.
As we heard in today’s lesson, his uncle Laban received him warmly. He “embraced him and kissed him and brought him to his house.” Jacob couldn’t have been happier, and he gladly helped his uncle however he could. Laban recognized his good work ethic and thought it would be useful to keep Jacob around for a while. “Tell me, what shall your wages be?” asked Laban. Jacob had come to his uncle’s place for a very specific purpose, and of Laban’s two daughters, one of them caught his eye. He said, “I will serve you seven years for your younger daughter Rachel.”
Now do you suppose Rachel was flattered and excited about this, or somewhat offended? In our culture, marriages are not arranged by the parents. We expect marriages to be by the free and mutual consent of a man and a woman—with no business strings attached. The culture in Haran was different. There it seems that the father had the authority to give a daughter in marriage to whomever he wanted, and his daughter did not question that decision.
This did not automatically mean the marriage would be unhappy. Many cultures around the world still have arranged marriages. Studies have shown that these marriages may even last longer than marriages for love. While we would hardly adopt this approach in our families, it is very important for Christian parents to approve of the spouses their children decide to marry. When this does not happen, there are bumpy roads ahead!
As far as we can tell, Rachel was okay with the arrangement to marry Jacob. He certainly loved her. In a line too mushy for middle school boys, we are told that the seven years Jacob served for Rachel “seemed to him but a few days because of the love he had for her.” The time couldn’t go fast enough for Jacob, but it went too fast for Laban.
You see, Laban saw what kind of worker he had in Jacob. And that old spider thought to himself, “If I spin a little deception, what can Jacob do about it? He came here with nothing. He has no one to stand up for him. I know how I can keep him under my thumb for a while longer….” So he put his older daughter Leah in the marriage bed instead of Rachel and arranged things so that Jacob would not know until after they had come together. “You can have Rachel, too,” said Laban, “IF you serve me for seven more years.”
That’s how we arrive at a godly man with two wives, sisters, with the younger one favored over the older one and making sure big sister knew it. And a deceitful father-in-law who treated his son-in-law like a slave. And Jacob not knowing who he could trust and wondering how and when he would ever get back home.
There is much unhappiness in this saga. This isn’t the way Jacob imagined it when he saw the angels of God going up and down the ladder from heaven and heard the LORD’s promises. This isn’t the way he imagined it when his uncle first welcomed him to Haran. This isn’t the way he imagined it when he prepared to marry the woman he loved. Nothing had gone the way he planned.
For these reasons, Jacob is a helpful example for us—because each of us here has also had to go through troubles and trials that we did not anticipate, had to adjust our plans because life did not go like we imagined. Maybe like Jacob, you fell deeply in love with someone and could only see happiness ahead, but then something happened to change the relationship, and the future you saw so clearly faded. Maybe you thought marriage would be easy, but it tested you to your very limits. Maybe you found yourself under your boss’s thumb and didn’t know how to get away or didn’t think you could afford to.
When we have been hurt, sometimes we draw inside ourselves and put up a hard shell to try to protect ourselves from the pain. Sometimes we lash out at the person who hurt us or at innocent bystanders who caught us at just the wrong time. Sometimes we let our anger build up inside and maybe even plot our revenge, hoping that the person who hurt us, someday, somehow, will learn how it feels.
This bitterness can happen in a marriage. It can happen between siblings. It can happen between a parent and a child. It can happen with friends and co-workers and neighbors. The devil wants this to happen. He wants to break up marriages and families and friendships. He wants us to think selfishly, to dwell on our hurts, to never forget a wrong, and to quickly give up on something that God intended for our good.
God gives marriage, family, and friendship for our good. The reason these things go haywire is not because He fails us but because we are sinners. Each one of us brings sin into our marriages, our families, and our friendships. The neighbors who should concern us the most, the ones who are closest to us—even in our own home—these are the ones who have often gotten the worst of our sinning. They have been on the receiving end of our prideful behavior, our hurtful words, our selfish actions. They have seen us behave less like faithful Jacob and more like deceitful Laban.
Where do we take the pain that others have caused us, the deep hurts from broken promises, failed expectations, shattered dreams? Where do we take the guilt for our own mistakes and failures, the recognition that we have not been for others what we should have been? We take all this guilt and shame and pain to the One who came to bear our griefs and carry our sorrows (Isa. 53:4).
Jacob looked to this One also, which is how he was sustained in his troubles. Jacob believed that a Savior was coming, even from his own line. And in a strange twist that only God could see, this Savior did not come as Jacob expected from his union with Rachel. The Savior came from his union with Leah! God knows how to work blessings even out of times of trial. We have another example of this in the Holy Gospel for today, where for His first public sign Jesus turned water into wine to bring joy to a marriage celebration (Joh. 2:1-11).
He still does that now. No matter what you have gone through in your marriage, your family, and your friendships—or what you are still going through—Jesus brings you His blessings. He is present here today to forgive you the sins you have committed against those He called you to care for. He is here to take the burdens of your guilt about the past, your struggles in the present, and your worries about the future. He picks you up and covers you in His mercy and grace as you listen to His promises and prepare to receive His body and blood given and shed for you. “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden,” He says, “and I will give you rest” (Mat. 11:28).
Your Savior Sees Your Troubles. Even before you were born, He saw you and what you would go through in your life. It was for you that He endured every sort of trouble on earth and for you that He went to the cross. No trial that you have to face is stronger than His love for you. There are more blessings ahead for you because He is with you.
Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost; as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, forevermore. Amen.
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(picture from a work by a 10th century monk)
The Second Sunday after the Epiphany – Pr. Faugstad sermon
Text: Romans 12:6-16
In Christ Jesus, from whom all blessings flow to His holy bride, the Church of all believers, dear fellow redeemed:
I was surprised to learn that there are twelve couples in our parish who will celebrate fifty or more years of marriage this year. Thanks be to God for this! It is an example and an encouragement to the rest of us, as we live in a culture that places less and less value on marriage. I wish I had compiled these anniversary lists sooner, since there would have been more couples to recognize in years past.
When married couples reach their seventieth or seventy-fifth anniversary, that seems to be high enough for an article in the local newspaper. And the question is always asked, “How did you make it work for this long?” Or, “What advice do you have for other married couples?” The advice is often something like: “Never go to bed angry.” “Communicate with one another.” “Compliment each other every day.” And that is all good advice.
The couples among us who have been married a long time would agree that marriage takes work—and sometimes very hard work. But I think they would also acknowledge that it wasn’t so much their “being good at marriage” that got them through. It was the grace of God covering over their faults and forgiving their sins that brought them to this point.
This is what we emphasize at our marriage ceremonies, an emphasis that you won’t hear in many other places. We keep the focus on Jesus, and the love He has for us. For many others, the focus is only on the love the married couple has for one another. In some cases this mutual love is treated as the foundation of the marriage, and the vows are accordingly changed from “until death parts us,” to “as long as we both love each other.” That’s a problem, because the love one might have for another is not a constant. It is changeable, and it often does change in a marriage.
The Epistle lesson before us today is not specifically a marriage reading. It is instruction and encouragement to be who we already are in Christ. The reason we need the instruction is because sin clings to us, and we continue to think, say, and do things that are not right. We need to be taught what is right before God. We need to learn how He wants us to be as His people.
Marriage and family are wonderful ways to put these teachings into practice. What marriage wouldn’t benefit from outdoing “one another in showing honor,” or being “patient in tribulation,” or never being “wise in your own sight”? And think of how peaceful a home would be where siblings “love one another with brotherly affection,” where they “live in harmony with one another,” where none are “haughty, but associate with the lowly.”
The home is the testing place to see whether we will succeed outside the home. If a child does not respect his parents, what other authority will he respect? If siblings do not learn to get along, who else will they get along with? If Mom and Dad don’t model love and sacrifice in their marriage, how likely will their children learn these things for future relationships outside the home? So much depends on the home!
But the home is not perfect—no home is. I expect there is much you are thankful for about the home you grew up in, especially if it was a Christian home. But you also remember hard times, arguments, fights, impatience, anger. And you probably weren’t an innocent bystander in all of that. You remember the part you played in that discord. You remember your sins.
The home Jesus grew up in was no different. Probably Joseph and Mary worried about money like most couples do. I’m sure their tempers got short. You can imagine how Mary fretted when they lost track of their twelve-year-old Son in Jerusalem. When they finally found Him in the temple, Mary blurted out, “Son, why have you treated us so? Behold, your father and I have been searching for you in great distress” (Luk. 2:48). We see more worrying from Mary in today’s Holy Gospel when she brought the problem of a wine shortage to Jesus at a wedding they attended.
But one thing was different about the home of Mary and Joseph that made it like no other home. Jesus was different. He actually was an innocent bystander. He did not contribute in any way to the sin of the household. He was perfect. He submitted to the authority of Mary and Joseph (Luk. 2:51). He showed perfect love toward them and the neighbors around Him, and they noticed. The evangelist Luke writes that “Jesus increased in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and man” (2:52).
That perfect life was for you, to cover over all your transgressions and unkindnesses toward the people God placed in your life to love. Everything in today’s reading that you fall short of time and again, Jesus fulfilled. He was genuine in His love. He held fast to what was good. He loved and honored all the people around Him. He was not slothful in zeal; He was fervent in spirit; He perfectly served the Lord God. He rejoiced in hope; He was patient in tribulation; He was constant in prayer. He was humble, kind, gracious, and helpful in the best possible ways.
This perfect life that Jesus lived, He freely hands over to you. Like a husband and wife who agree to share everything with each other, Jesus says, “Everything that is Mine is yours.” In fact, marriage is exactly the picture God uses to explain what His Son did for you. But it is not like our marriages, which we enter into by mutual consent as equals. The union between Jesus and His bride the Church was totally by His prerogative, and it was nowhere near balanced like we expect the marriage relationship to be.
Jesus, the perfect Bridegroom, chose for His bride the world of sinners. The only-begotten Son of God, God from all eternity, chose to join Himself to our human flesh and become a Man, so that He could make everything that is ours His, and everything that is His ours. He accepted our pride, our anger, our bitterness, and our self-centeredness. He accepted our unkind words, our manipulative actions, our unfaithfulness, and our lies. He let all of our sins be placed on Himself as though He were the straying spouse, as though all the stains of our wrong-doing belonged on Him.
And in return, He gave us what is His. He gave us His perfect obedience to His Father, His kind actions, His gracious words, His righteous thoughts. He gave us His eternal life, His everlasting peace, His heavenly kingdom. All that He accomplished by His holy life and His sacrificial death on the cross, He poured over us in Baptism (Eph. 5:26).
He joined His life to yours at your Baptism. There He promised to remain faithful to you at all times and in all situations—“for better, for worse; for richer, for poorer; in sickness and in health; to love and to cherish.” But not until death parts you, because death cannot part you from your Bridegroom who rose in victory over your death and lives forevermore. By faith, you cling to Him. You trust that He will not break His baptismal vow to you no matter what you have to face in your marriage, in your home, or in your life.
Jesus our Bridegroom is perfectly true. Our side of things is the side that is less certain. Like a discontent spouse, sometimes we try to blame Jesus for not doing more for us, for not addressing our wants and needs, for not making us happier. But Jesus hasn’t changed toward us. It is we who change toward Him. It is our love for Him that falters. It is our confidence and trust in Him that are lacking.
When things get bad for us it is because we get this verse backward. Instead of “Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good,” we often abhor what is good and hold fast to what is evil. That’s when we have problems with Jesus. We ignore His powerful Word, while giving way to our own bitter thoughts and sinful actions. We forget His love, while wallowing in self-pity.
But if we are going to “Hold Fast to What Is Good,” there is no other way to do this than to hold fast to Jesus, because it is Jesus who is good, whose mercy endures forever. The word for “holding fast” is the same word that Jesus used when quoting from Genesis 2: “Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh” (Mat. 19:5). Or if you prefer the old translation, “a man shall leave his father and his mother and shall cleave to his wife.”
We “hold fast” to Jesus, we “cleave” to Him, by gladly hearing and learning His Word, and trusting that He is here to bless us through the means of grace He instituted for His Church. We should have no doubts about what His Word can do. If it could turn water into wine and bring gladness to a wedding at Cana long ago, it can change bitterness to love, curses into blessings, and sorrows into joys in our hearts and in our homes.
So whether you are married or single, whether you are looking forward with excitement to unknown joys and challenges, or looking back with sober reflection and contentment, remember that Jesus’ vow toward you has not changed. He joined Himself to you and will never leave you. He is your salvation, your comfort, your strength.
Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost; as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, forevermore. Amen.
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(picture from Redeemer Lutheran Church stained glass)
The Second Sunday after Epiphany – Vicar Anderson sermon
Text: St. John 2:1-11
In Christ Jesus, who with His power turns water into wine, who speaks to you and comes directly to you in the means of grace, providing you with comfort, dear fellow redeemed:
Over the last few years, my wife and I have had our share of weddings that we have attended. Not long ago, we had our wedding to plan. As we get ready for a summer that has more wedding invites, we have found weddings much more enjoyable since we are done with the planning part. Our wedding was awesome don’t get me wrong, but the planning was stressful and it was only one day. In the text for today, a wedding is taking place, and they have run out of something important. Could you imagine the horror of a great celebration and then you ran out of wine? In the stress of the moment, we see how cooler heads prevail. There is only one person who can help out this situation. While there might be times where we think that no more could go wrong, Jesus is the one who is our help. The hour has come and Jesus performs His first miracle to reveal who He really is!
Jesus has been invited to a wedding. Just seeing this in our text, Scripture teaches that Jesus was like us. We don’t know who was getting married. We do know where it is happening, in a small town not far from Jesus’ home. His mother was there which means she may have known or was related to the couple. With His mother’s invitation, Jesus would have also been a guest. He also brought His disciples as well. Now this wedding has a serious problem, that they are running out of wine. This is not good! A wedding during this time period could take as much time as a week. This type of blunder would be very noticeable. The family would be a laughingstock and disgraced because of this. Thankfully, they have a special guest in attendance. When the wine ran out, the mother of Jesus said to him, “They have no wine.”
How could this have happened? Did the management have the wrong numbers? If this is how weddings took place, then they should have known how much wine they were going to need. Even today when you make an invite list for a wedding, you take it to the catering company and you estimate how much you will need. The servants had to have trust in a man who they did not know. Jesus’ mother tells them that they should listen to Him. She trusts that Jesus can help. The servants do not know who He is. Since this is His first public miracle, no one knows how great Jesus is. Then when Jesus says, “Now draw some out and take it to the master of the feast,” how do you decide who is the one to do this job? Who wants to bring the master a cup of water?
The first wedding that took place also had to worry about management. Adam and Eve were given a job to manage the Garden of Eden. God gave them an instruction to not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. When Adam and Eve sinned, their sin affected everything. We see that today, weddings are not perfect, marriages are not perfect, and families are not perfect.
When Mary went to Jesus telling Him the problem, Jesus said to her, “Woman, what does this have to do with me? My hour has not yet come.” This seems like such a devastating thing to hear. It seems like Jesus isn’t going to help, and so many times we take what He says here and we apply it to ourselves. We think that Jesus isn’t going to help us. We face many trials in this life. Children do not want to listen to our instructions. Children burning with anger that their parents are so strict because they won’t let us do what we want. Husbands not listening to wives to lend a helping hand, lacking leadership, and being lazy. Wives taking husbands to task and taking over his duties. It also may happen where we believe and dwell on that we are all alone in the world.
If our salvation was on us, we would run out of time. Our wedding would run out of wine. People will look and make fun of us. We can feel disgraced when we see the problems that happen in our homes. On our own we can find ourselves helpless. How can we fix the situations that we are in? How can we get more wine? Jesus’ mother knew who could help the situation. She tells the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.
Jesus’ hour has come, not because Mary said so, but because He chose this time. Jesus did not attack His mother when He responded that His time had not yet come. She had faith that He could help the situation. He did not tell her no. He told her not yet. Only God knows when the hour is. Jesus is also speaking about when His hour would come to die. His mother, not giving up, told the servants to listen to Him. Jesus brings blessings to this marriage with His miracle. He shows not just little Cana, but He shows you and me that He is the Son of God. He has the power to do all things. He turns water into wine. He fixes our situation, here on earth and forever in heaven.
The hour at hand is also that He would come into the world and die for your sins. There is joy in the world because the Son of God has come. The world sees this with his first public miracle. You see the comfort that Jesus brings to you. Your sins are forgiven. He is with you in your lowest points bringing you peace and joy. He takes your troubles, puts them on His back, and goes to the cross willingly for you. He rose from the dead, showing you that His Word is true and real. He came for your salvation. Jesus shows his mercy. He was not ignoring the problem at hand. He helped the wedding by turning the water into wine.
Our text teaches us how amazing this miracle is. “Now there were six stone water jars there for the Jewish rites of purification, each holding twenty or thirty gallons. Jesus said to the servants, ‘Fill the jars with water.’ And they filled them up to the brim.” The Jewish people had many laws and rituals. For the Jews, stone is an element that is pure. Jesus shows that He has the power to purify and that He is the great provider. This wedding now had an abundance of very good wine. At the command of Jesus, the servants take the water that was turned into wine to the master of the feast. This man can’t refute this account because He did not know that Jesus was performing a miracle. When he tastes the wine, he then exclaims how the bridegroom had saved the best wine for last. Jesus gives a wonderful gift to the wedding.
This first miracle highlights where the wedding had happened. This was not the governor’s or the emperor’s wedding. It was a couple who we don’t know their names in a little town of Cana. Why is this highlighted? Jesus doesn’t find anything that you do as insignificant. He is not embarrassed to grace you with his presence. The reputation of the wedding is kept safe with the miracle. Your reputation has also been kept safe through Jesus’ cleansing blood. Your reputation was condemning you to hell. It is now safe as Jesus takes away your sins. Moses was right that another prophet would be raised up like him. This prophet would not only speak the commands of God, but He would live them out perfectly for you. Jesus’ presence is a joy for you right here and now. In the means of grace, we see and hear Him all the time! He speaks to you through His Word. He comes directly to you forgiving your sins at the altar in Holy Communion. Through the means of grace, the Hour has come for each one of us.
As the bridegroom is given credit, Jesus reveals himself as the ultimate bridegroom who lays down His life for His bride. His bride is you and me and all believers. Jesus is an example of what a Christian marriage should look like. How He laid down his life for the church. He also shows children how to obey their loving father. He followed His willingly. Jesus shows us how He provided for a wedding on earth. He provided for it with great abundance. He provides for us a wedding banquet that is even greater. It is a banquet that will be celebrated for all eternity.
Since this was His first public miracle, the servants witness the miracle and the disciples believe in Him. How great it would have been to witness this miracle. To see the joy on everyone’s faces. We do have that joy. Jesus has provided us with many blessings. He has provided us with blessings here on earth, and He has provided us with the blessing of heaven that we couldn’t earn on our own.
As stressful as planning weddings can be, they are very special moments. When the hour is here and the wedding takes place, everyone is happy. Jesus reminds us how He is there with us in the stressful times and in the happy moments. We are not alone and He saves us. Our text teaches us who we want to put all of our hope in. He knew the plan that was needed for winning our salvation and He completed it willingly. We can rejoice and give thanks to God because the bridegroom has come, given His life, risen from the dead, and we will be present at the heavenly banquet forever. Amen.
Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost; as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, forevermore. Amen.
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(picture from a work by a 10th century monk)
The Second Sunday after the Epiphany – Pr. Faugstad sermon
Text: St. John 2:1-11
In Christ Jesus, who cares about your problems no matter how large or small they may be, dear fellow redeemed:
We don’t know much about Joseph, the stepfather of Jesus. We get the impression that he was a man of few words. The Gospels that speak about him never record him speaking. He seemed to be mostly in the background, quietly going about his work as a husband, father, and carpenter. Mary, on the other hand, was more outspoken. When she and Joseph finally located twelve-year-old Jesus in the temple, she blurted out, “Son, why have you treated us so? Behold, your father and I have been searching for you in great distress” (Luk. 2:48).
After this, we are told that Jesus returned with His parents to Nazareth “and was submissive to them” (v. 51). That’s the last we hear about Jesus’ life until His public revealing at His Baptism. So what happened from age twelve to thirty? We assume that Jesus worked with Joseph and helped Mary around the house. He lived in a home like ours with all of its anxieties, challenges, and joys.
Jesus was without sin, but the same could not be said for His parents. He probably witnessed Joseph and Mary get irritated with each other, maybe even raise their voices and argue. He heard about Joseph’s problems at work and listened to His mother worry and wonder how she would get everything done that needed doing. I expect He was a calm voice in situations like these, someone whom His parents felt they could lean on.
Perhaps this is why Mary went to Jesus when she learned that the wine had run out at the wedding banquet. We don’t know what she expected Him to do, but she was obviously troubled by the situation. Wedding celebrations at this time could last as long as a week, and it would have reflected poorly on the bride and groom and their parents if food and drink ran out before the time was up.
Our wedding celebrations don’t last a week, but even today it wouldn’t look good if the hosts were unable to provide for their invited guests. So we work through the guest list, we add up the numbers, we calculate the costs. Planning a wedding and reception is a big deal! If the bride and groom don’t need everything to be perfect, their mothers probably do. Some take it to the extreme. That’s where we get “bridezillas” and maybe “momzillas” too.
But all the details that seem so important leading up to the day—the flowers, the decorations, the dresses and suits, the food and drink—those are not the most important thing. The wedding day is about God’s gift of marriage, the joining together of husband and wife—a one-flesh union intended to last until death parts them.
And yet we often find ourselves losing sight of the big picture. We get stuck in the details of daily life, the challenges and problems that cause worry and stress. It’s probably the case that few of our problems would seem like big problems to others. For every problem we might bring up about work or school or our home life, lots of others could tell us how they have it worse.
Even if our troubles are relatively small, they are still troubling to us. History would never remember the wine running out at a little wedding in a little town. But it mattered to Mary in the moment. In the moment, a shortage of wine seemed like a significant problem, a serious blemish on what was supposed to be a joyful occasion.
This is the reality of life in a fallen world. We are going to have trouble and difficulty. Nothing goes as perfectly as we want. We aren’t always treated well. Our friends and family don’t always understand us or give us the support we need. We get bullied at school. We get disrespected at work. We run out—out of money, out of energy, out of patience.
And the more we dwell on these problems, the larger they get in our eyes. The hurtful words cut deeper. The relationship issues intensify. The tension increases. The stress rises. It may have started out as something small—someone making an offhanded comment, laughing at our mistake, not giving credit where it is due, not remembering what should have been remembered. And we let these things make us bitter. We hold grudges. We give the silent treatment. It can happen in any relationship. It happens most often with the people most closely connected to us—husband, wife, parents, children, brothers, and sisters.
We know how to turn little problems into big problems through our worry and through our anger. We know how to ignore the big picture—that God loves us and promises to take care of us, and that He commands us to love our neighbor as ourselves and to be kind and compassionate and forgiving toward each other. We know how to insist on fairness and justice, while ignoring grace and mercy. In short, we know how to make mountains out of molehills.
In the grand scheme of things, a shortage of wine at the wedding in Cana was a molehill problem. But what do we find? Jesus was on that molehill! He was at that little wedding in a little town, which no one would ever care about if He wasn’t there. But He was there. When Mary first conveyed the problem to Him, He didn’t seem to care about it. “Woman, what does this have to do with Me?” He asked, “My hour has not yet come.”
But Mary had faith in her Son. She told the servants, “Do whatever He tells you.” And Jesus decided to act. He had the servants fill six large jars with water and take some to the master of the feast. When he tasted it, it wasn’t water anymore—it was fine wine! The evangelist John tells us this was “the first of [Jesus’] signs,” and He “manifested His glory. And His disciples believed in Him.”
It is stunning that Jesus chose this setting and occasion for His first sign. Why not choose a more prominent place and a more public way to reveal His power? What we have in this account is a true comfort for us. It shows us that Jesus cares about the little things. He is aware of the everyday problems. By turning water into wine, He showed that He was concerned about the joy of the wedding couple, their parents, and their guests.
And in the bigger picture, we see Jesus demonstrating both respect for His mother and respect for marriage. He wanted to honor Mary, and He wanted to honor the occasion. He also wanted to begin to show His disciples who He was and to prepare them for when His “hour” would come three years later. At that time, He would die on the cross and rise again and ascend in glory to His place at the Father’s right hand.
For now, it was enough for them to know that Jesus had come from God and that He had come with mercy. He came with mercy for you. He came to relieve you of your burdens and bring calmness in your distresses. Sometimes you will hear people say, “God doesn’t have time to bother about my little problems.” On the contrary, that’s exactly what He loves to do. Jesus didn’t just come to save you from the big problems you face; He came to save you from the little ones too.
The big problems are our sinfulness, and death staring us right in the face. Jesus accepted our sins as though they were His own and carried them to the cross. We often talk about this in a big picture way—all our sins, all paid for on the cross. But let’s look at the details. Jesus paid for your sins of worrying that you will have enough money and enough time to do what you need to. He paid for your sins of mistreating those closest to you and not caring about their needs like you care about your own. He paid for your sins of failing to put the best construction on what someone has said or done and instead letting bitterness and anger grow in your heart toward them. Not only has He paid for your sins against others, He has also paid for their sins against you, each and every one.
If He did all that for you—even suffering your own hell and death, is He going to forget about your daily needs and ignore your momentary struggles? Jesus comes to you no matter what you are experiencing, no matter what troubles trouble you. He comes through His Word and His Sacraments to bring you forgiveness for the wiping away of your guilt, peace for your contentment, and strength for your endurance.
No problem of yours is too big for Jesus, and no problem is too small. He wants you to have joy in Him and His Word even though everything else seems to be going poorly. He invites you to bring your worries and concerns to Him just like Mary did. And He promises to give you what you need for today. Maybe for your good, the wine will need to run out as a way to teach you to trust in Him. And then He will make the wine overflow in your life as you see His many wonderful gifts toward you.
Jesus loves you with a magnificent, mountainous love. He knows your needs and well provides you. He Meets You wherever you are, whatever condition you are in—Even on the Molehills.
Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost; as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, forevermore. Amen.
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(picture from a work by a 10th century monk)