The Gospel [Epiphany 2; St. John 2:1-11]

LISTEN TO THE AUDIO HERE.

For Jesus speaks to you today from His Gospel saying,

“When the master of the feast tasted the water now become wine, and did not know where it came from…”

The Treasure of treasures. The Gift of gifts. The Piece de resistance. The one thing that the Church guards and keeps as close as our heart and mind and soul and strength is the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. Not gospel music, not gospel books, but the Gospel; the good news that Jesus justifies sinners by grace through faith, for His sake alone. 

In fact, in our Divine Service, the Gospel, the Creed, and the Sermon occupy the final step which pushes us towards God’s ultimate sign, revelation, and epiphany to us: that of His holy Supper. Such a deep connection exists between the Gospel and the Supper that the pastor is encouraged to read the Gospel slowly and chant the words of institution at the same speed to emphasize that point to the congregation.

So it is that today in the gospel book of St. John, Jesus turns water into wine; He turns Law into Gospel. He shows us that His top priority is our justification through the Gospel wherein we do not experience dull turmoil in life, neither are we going to eat bread by the sweat of our brow or produce thorns in the ground anymore. In creating wine, He creates gladness in the hearts of men and in giving wine to a wedding, He multiplies that gladness by a hundredfold.

Ps. 104:14-15 says: “You cause the grass to grow for the livestock and plants for man to cultivate, that he may bring forth food from the earth and wine to gladden the heart of man, oil to make his face shine and bread to strengthen man’s heart.” 

Ecclesiastes 10:19 “Men prepare a meal for enjoyment, and wine makes life merry, and money is the answer to everything.”

And Proverbs 31:6–7 says, “Give strong drink to the one who is perishing, and wine to those in bitter distress; let them drink and forget their poverty and remember their misery no more.”

So the first of the Gospel gifts that Jesus wishes to give to you in His Word and Sacrament is that of joy in the wine. And we find that wine set for us to drink and waiting on this very Altar. 

However, turning water into wine is not the final step nor is it the final sign that Jesus gives us to teach us His Gospel. It is only the first. The first step taken toward the Altar of God’s Gospel where now, in wine, unlimited joy is poured out of the chalice and it never runs dry. There are then 6 more steps, or signs, that Jesus gives to show us His true Gospel.

The next step up and the next revelation of the Gospel is 2 chapters further into St. John, chapter 4, with the healing of a nobleman’s son. The son did not just have a cold. He was terminal and eventually dies. Without even going to see the son, Jesus’ word saves the boy from afar, placing another gift on the Altar of the Supper; that of healing.

Gift number 3 is shown in chapter 5 of John, in which we see a man who is not whole, waiting for someone else to throw him in the pool at Bethesda, hoping that an angel will heal him, if he makes it in. But the man has no one to toss him in and he is severely crippled and un-whole, and so has suffered with this for 38 years. Jesus asks if he wishes to be made whole. 

Of course the man says yes and of course Jesus says he is whole and he becomes so, telling him to pick up his bed and walk. In this sign, Jesus makes whole what has been marred by sin and death. A man who can’t walk or save himself is now given the legs of the new creation. The third gift on the Lord’s Table is that of wholeness.

The fourth step up towards the Gospel, we hear in the Feeding of the 5000 men. I hope I don’t have to explain this one to you, but John 6 does all the explaining necessary. Not only is there now bread on the Lord’s Table, but it is the Bread of Heaven; the Body, the flesh of the divine: Jesus Christ. The fourth gift is that of the Body of Christ, given for you.

The fifth sign of the Gospel is in the same chapter 6 of St. John where Jesus walks on water. The disciples are crossing the sea without Jesus. Late into the journey, they see Jesus walking on the water, coming towards the boat. They are afraid, because now not only can Jesus multiply bread, but He can also command the wind and the waves to carry Him. Thus the fifth gift of the Gospel, set at the Supper for you, is that Jesus is both God and man. All God, all man, all the time, even in the Divine Service; even in the bread.

In the 6th sign, heard in John 9, Jesus heals the blind man. Now we have already had “healing” placed up on the Table, so that is not the gift this time. The gift comes as a two-for-one in this round, for Jesus does not simply heal this man’s blindness, He washes it away while giving the man a title to refer to Him: the Light of the World. 

Not only does Jesus wash the man, but He comes back later to give a Creed to the man. “Do you believe in the Son of God”, Jesus asks. The man replies, “I believe”. So the sixth gift is a washing of rebirth and renewal and a Creed to confess. You could almost call this the gift of catechism, that is a revelation of Faith and what belief is. So we lay this 6th gift on the table.

Our final gift of the Gospel needs no explanation, but I’m going to give one. It is revealed in John chapter 11 in the raising of Lazarus. So while we say yes, the Resurrection is in the Lord’s Supper, it is not simply the Resurrection as an idea, but a Resurrection for you. Jesus demands that death produce life. He calls out, not in a general sense, but to specific people. He calls you by name. “Come out”, “The Supper is ready” (Lk. 14:17). Let all those who have been invited, i.e. those who have been raised to new life by the gifts of God, come and eat a meal with no price (Isa. 55:1).

So the 7th gift is not just a resurrection, but a Resurrection given in the Supper and given to you as often as you eat and drink.

Now the Table is set for you to finally digest what the Gospel really is. In these 7 signs in which Jesus manifests His glory, we are not hearing magic tricks or acts of shock and awe, but intimate signs of revelation. That God’s glory is not to be accomplished through slight of hand or military feats, but will come in humility, the humility of God, and will come at a great price, not a price you will pay, but the price of the Body and Blood of Christ.

Do not be fooled into thinking that the Gospel is some musical genre that only certain, boisterous people can sing properly. Neither be tricked into believing that the Gospel is another set of Aesop’s Fables to guide us. The Gospel is sent to save you. The Gospel is sent to rescue you. The Gospel is sent to make that which has been lost and killed, found and alive again.

And where does this Gospel lead us? Where do these gifts urge us to step up to in order to find them and claim them as our own? The place we are led is obvious from St. John’s proclamation today: we are led to the Wedding. This makes perfect logical sense for, what have we accomplished so far? We have been placing gifts on a table. We have been witnessing its prep and its set-up. We see plates, cups, napkins. We hear music. We hear prayers. Yes the feast is already ready, indeed it has been going on since the beginning, continues in your presence today, and will never end for all eternity.

Unlimited joy, healing, wholeness, the Bread of Heaven, the Two Natures of Christ, the washing of rebirth and renewal, and the resurrection. These 7 gifts comprise a completeness that is unsurpassed on earth and in heaven, because this perfection comes from Christ Himself, is instituted by Christ, and is given by the Spirit of Christ to you.

Yes it is the Holy Spirit that moves in the Gospel, granting us justification and sanctification, not in taking us back to the cross, but in bringing the cross, and the gifts purchased and won there, forward to us. There are seven pillars that Wisdom has hewn (Prov. 9) in His Church and so there are 7 gifts of the Spirit. 

They are not the virtues of Wisdom, Understanding, Counsel, Fortitude, Knowledge, Piety, and Fear of the Lord that the worldly catechism wishes us to believe they are. The gifts of the Spirit are the Gospel; the 7-in-1 in the 2-in-1 from the 3-in-1. The Spirit gives the Gospel in Jesus, Whom the Father has sent.

It is the Gospel that tells us that all these gifts are gathered. It is the Gospel that tells us that we are loved. It is the Gospel that lifts us into God’s presence, holy and justified in His Name. It is the Gospel that covers the multitude of our sins. It is the Gospel that converts the sinner and sustains him. It is the Gospel that brings heaven down to us. It is the Gospel that brings us hope’s light.

When we hear this Gospel in gospel music or gospel books, it is the Gospel. When we hear this in the Old Testament, it is the Gospel. It is not confined to what is labeled as “gospel”. Its only confinement is God’s Word and its only speaker and administrator is Christ. It is there, and only there, that there is any hope for us and this world.