Christ And His Bride, the Church

St. John 2:1-11

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

John 2:1-2 On the third day there was a wedding in Cana of Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there. Now both Jesus and His disciples were invited to the wedding.

Dear fellow redeemed in Christ our Lord…  By the time John chapter two happens, our Lord Jesus has been born, He has grown up, He has had the sins of the world laid upon Him in His Baptism, and He has fasted and been tempted forty days in the wilderness.   And now, in the little town of Cana, Jesus, the Son of God, shows His divine power by His first miracle.  And what is it?  It is literally an open bar at a wedding where Jesus provides excellent wine.

Jesus, of course, performed many miracles: He fed the 5,000, He walked on water, He calmed storms, He healed the sick, and He even raising the dead.  But why is the first sign that He does that of making wine at a wedding?

Well, Jesus does two things by keeping the party going at this wedding.  First, He shows that, just as at the beginning of creation, He is blessing the union of a man and woman in holy marriage.  He puts His blessing upon marriage and blesses the happy couple with this most wonderful gift of freely flowing wine.

The second thing this miracle teaches us is that Jesus Himself has come to take a Bride.  But He does not come to take an earthly Bride; He is teaching us that His work in this world is to take to Himself a Bride, which is the church.  The water turned into wine foreshadows the blood and the water that would flow from His side on the cross, pointing us to the very Sacraments of Baptism and Holy Communion which create and sustain His church.  Jesus has come to gather up us sinners and to wash us clean and to call us His Bride, His beautiful and holy people, the Christian Church.

In this way we see, as St. Paul writes in Ephesians 5, that marriage is more than just a man and a woman getting hitched.  Marriage is a picture of Christ and His love for His people, His bride – a love which He showed on the cross when He died for the sins of the world, a love which He gives to His church in His Word and Sacraments.

And because marriage is to be a holy and beautiful picture of Christ and His church, it is no wonder that marriage is so universally and viciously despised and mocked and ruined by the world.

Marriage is trashed and disrespected all around us.  Hollywood starlets smile to tote around the babies they’ve had with their boyfriends to whom they are not married.  Television and movies are filled with such smut and filth that you can’t even watch the news without being uneasy that children are in the room.

Not only that, but the Internet has given the world total and free access to such filth and smut and unspeakable dirtiness that sex has become one of the biggest money makers anywhere.  All around us politicians and leaders are caught cheating on their spouses.  Promiscuous and perverted behaviors are being touted as “normal,” or “alternative lifestyles.”  It’s disgusting and sickening.

And it is just about as easy to end a marriage as it is to get a Driver’s License; perhaps even easier.  Men and women run around with kids from multiple partners, with no commitment and no responsibility.  Society’s despising of marriage has brought us to a point where stable families are becoming the exception rather than the rule.  Remaining married for 50 or more years seems only like the quaint practice of a generation about to die off.

By despising God’s gift of marriage and turning it into a joke, the world confesses that there is no Savior and no holy people whom Jesus loves.  Marriage is the picture of Christ and His church, but the world teaches us that it’s all a bad joke and an antiquated idea.

But if we stop the criticism there, we are no better than Pharisees.  The harsh truth is that we don’t want to hear is that we need to acknowledge that even Christ’s own Bride, His church, His holy people – we Christians – are not immune from the sins against the Sixth Commandment.  As we all know, being a Christian doesn’t mean that there is no divorce.  Marriages among Christians end, in spite of best intentions.  And being a Christian doesn’t stop married couples from fighting and hurting each other and bearing grudges and holding on to each other’s sins.  Bearing the name of Christ certainly does not stop old or young single people from having children outside of marriage.  Being a Christian does not stop people from shacking up and living together and acting like they’re married when they’re not.  Even Christians can secretly fall into absorbing the smut and the filth of this evil world.

In short – and we need to hear this – our sinful flesh loves to despise marriage; it loves to overturn and destroy what God Himself has blessed.  We should expect that sort of behavior from the world that hates God.  But as Christians we ought to know better.
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But here’s the thing: our sins against marriage aren’t bad just because they are breaking some rule and go against the Sixth Commandment.  Sins against marriage as the Lord intends it are bad because they deny the Gospel.  Sins against the Sixth Commandment are bad because deny what Christ has done.

For example: When a man leaves his wife for someone else, that’s like saying the Lord would leave us.  When a couple is living together without marriage, that’s like saying we or God can get out of the deal at any time; there is no commitment on anyone’s part.

But even a long and happy marriage is an occasion for sin.  If we think that we have done a good job by staying married, we can easily be tempted to think that we have done a good job of being a Christian, rather than recognizing that it is God’s grace in Christ that keeps us in the faith.

Here, brothers and sisters in Christ, is our repentance; here is the hard and cold truth – we despise our heavenly Father’s gift of marriage.

All of this is why Jesus starts off His miracles at a wedding.  At the wedding, Christ took jars of purification, jars that represented the Law and its demands, and He turned them into a gift by filling them with water and turning that water to wine.  In the same way, Jesus came to fulfill the Law; and by doing so, He shed His blood for us and took the punishment for all our sins.  We are so anxious to throw off our Lord and get rid of Him that He allowed us to do just that by having Him nailed Him to the cross and killed.

But in Christ’s death and by His resurrection, Jesus brings forth life for sinners.  He dies for our sins and gives birth to a Bride.  Just as Eve was made from Adam’s side, so the church comes into being from the side of Jesus in the water and blood that flows from it.

On the cross Jesus did as St. Paul writes in today’s Epistle: He gave Himself for His bride, the Church, “that He might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word, that He might present her to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish.”  Think about that.  When Christ sees us, He sees NO sins.  He sees ZERO faults.  He beholds nothing false or sinful in us.  He only beholds the beauty and holiness He Himself has given us.

So, dear baptized sinner, whatever you have thought, whatever you have said, whatever you have done—not just with respect to marriage but every sin—none of that is seen by Christ.  It has been washed away by His blood.  When your Lord looks at you, He sees only the beauty and holiness that He Himself has given to you.

Now, by His water and blood – by Baptism and the Supper, by His Word and Absolution – Jesus cleanses you from every stain of sin.  He turns the empty jars of your wretchedness into the blessed state of being filled with His gifts of forgiveness.

If you are a couple that argue and are unhappy, Christ’s baptismal water and His shed blood have paid for your sins, forgiven you, and made you new; and that is the Lord’s promise to give you a happy marriage.  To those who have suffered through divorce or separation, Christ’s baptismal water and His shed blood have forgiven you and made you new.  To those who are not yet married but have lived as if you are married, doing things that only married people should do: Christ’s baptismal water and His shed blood have forgiven you and made you new.

For all of God’s holy people, however many times and in however many ways you have sinned in thought, word, and deed, Christ’s baptismal water and His shed blood have paid for your sins, forgiven you, and made you new.  When you struggle with these sins, come and confess them, and hear again in Holy Absolution what you are in Christ: holy, spotless, blameless, made beautiful by the blood of Jesus.

Some people have been married several decades.  Others may have been married more than once.  Some are single and have no immediate plans for marriage; others may be married soon.  You might be a young girl who still thinks boys have cooties; or a woman who has been widowed for many years.  You may be in a happy marriage or one which is struggling and suffering.

But every one of you has this same gift and promise of Christ: Where you have sinned, it has been covered by His blood.  Where you are weak and struggling, He will lift you up and bless you.  And He will continue to do that through His divine gifts of Baptism, Absolution, Gospel, and Supper.

For all of us together – whether married or single, young or old – all of us together are Christ’s church, we are His Bride.  He has given Himself for you.  He has made you His own.  As a man on his wedding day delights in the bride God has given him, so Jesus delights in you because He Himself has cleansed you and made you His own.  By His death and resurrection, delivered though water and blood, He has filled up the jars of your emptiness and made them overflow with the sweet riches of His grace.

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