Mercy, peace, and love be multiplied to you.
Who speaks to you on this 2nd Sunday after His Epiphany in
His Gospel heard today, saying:
“Now there were
six stone water jars there for the Jewish rites of purification, each holding
twenty or thirty gallons.”
Thus far from God’s Word. And He wants us to hear about this
purification so that we begin to understand His purification, for us. That in
His Promise alone are we purified. Thus, for ourselves and others, we should
seek purity in no other place than the Word and Sacrament of our Lord Jesus
Christ.
In the Church, we understand purification. Not quite on the
Jewish level, yet, but on the Christian level, which is the proper purification
anyway. Our Baptismal rite reveals this to us and puts us through the motions
as well.
For in the rite of God’s gift of Baptism, there is movement.
Of course, we have to get in church, we have to move to the font, and we have
to move back. This doesn’t make it a work condemned, like the protestants
shout, “by grace not works!”
It just means there is more to it and more going on than
just our movements, our work. For baptisms, we begin in the back of Church,
near the Narthex, the entrance. This is because purification is not the same
thing as holiness and in your impurity, you do not belong in God’s house.
Thus, a purification takes place before the candidate
approaches the holy things of God. We even say this in the first prayer of the
Rite: “The Word of God also teaches that we are all conceived and born sinful
and are under the power of the devil until Christ claims us as His own.
Therefore, depart, thou unclean spirit, and make room for
the Holy Spirit in the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy
Spirit.”
So before we even get to the Font, a purification takes
place. We understand this “washing” form of purity, for we practice it. Whether
its washing our hands or creating a new nation on earth. We separate what we
don’t want from what we do want.
If your job is to process spread sheets, you get paid for
your talent in spreadsheets, not your love of Warhammer 40K. If your job is to
remain faithful to one woman, till death y’all do part, then your relationship
is to be monogamous. These and others should be simple concepts for us, humans,
so why can’t we get them straight?
The stone jars at the Wedding of Cana were presumed empty,
because Jesus commanded them to be filled with water. They were empty because
all those who needed to be cleansed for the marriage had been. They were empty
and now there was no more purification left for those who wanted to come late.
The problem that leaves is what about us?
Repent. Yes, there is a ritual purification of the Jews and
it hasn’t died out. Our American culture has adopted many of those same
rituals, but took out the religion, allegedly. We brush our teeth ritually, we
clean our clothes ritually, we do our laundry ritually. And because of germ
theory, we also are fearful of pathogens so we wash our hands religiously and
everything else anytime we get dirty.
That’s just good hygiene, we say. Its how one stays healthy
and God must want it this way so it is our holy duty to remain clean. However,
just like purity, hygiene also has two meanings.
First, purity’s two meanings: In John 13, Jesus washes His
disciples’ feet. Thus, the Protestants have made this a sacrament, because if
Jesus doesn’t wash you you aren’t clean. But one disciple, though his feet were
cleaned, didn’t make the cut. So much for that theory.
Jesus said, “The one who has bathed does not need to
wash, except for his feet, but is completely clean. And you are clean, but not
every one of you”, referring to Judas. Likewise, when Jesus speaks of
hygiene in 1 Timothy 6:3-4, He says, “If anyone teaches a different doctrine
and does not agree with the sound words [the hygiene Logos] of our Lord Jesus
Christ and the teaching that accords with godliness, he is puffed up with
conceit and understands nothing.”
The hygiene and purity Scripture is talking about requires
more than soap and water and more than copying Jesus. Because, the pathogen
that Jewish and American washing cannot remove is sin. Like Lady MacBeth, no
amount of scrubbing would save Judas from his sin. This is why true purity is
only accomplished by sacrament, that is the promise of God to make one pure
through His means.
When Jesus made note of the fact that the Jars for
Purification totaled over 180 gallons, He was making sure we knew just how
great the amount of water was, to the point of absurdity. And that only for one
wedding party. Imagine how much is needed for all people of all time? Much more
then, when He turns the water to wine. That number becomes even more absurd,
because wine is more valuable than water.
Meaning, we are not to seek a purity outside of or without
Jesus. Much more so, we are not to seek a purity that Jesus did not promise.
Indeed, we can’t. Yes the Jews practiced cleanliness and ritual purity, yet
they were still considered unclean and their devotion did not save them. In
John 10, Jesus promises that He has come to bring life abundantly. And in 15,
He says, “Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to
you” (v.3).
Jesus has come to create a purity for you, at His Word. A
purity you could not generate on your own or even “with God’s help”. You must
have a purity granted from God Himself, and He is not handing out contracts and
purity rings. Meaning, you are not able to wash yourself clean enough to enter
the Wedding Feast of God.
The more-abundant purification is found only in Christ and,
as He said, only at His Word. That is, at the Word made flesh. For Jesus has
come to fulfill all purity, to complete it, in His own baptism. Not so that our
washing of hands and feet would be acceptable to Him, but so that we may obtain
the purity that grants eternal life by His side, by His grace.
Thus, Jesus did not instigate us to purify ourselves, but
He, “the radiance of the glory of God and the exact image of His nature”,
upholding “the universe by the word of His power. After making purification
for sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high” (Heb 1:3).
After making purification for sins on the cross, He returned
to His rightful throne and took back His divine powers He had set aside in the
ever-blessed virgin’s womb. And, at the end of St. Matthew’s Gospel, having
been given all authority in heaven and on earth, He invites us to commune in
His own purity saying, “be baptized”.
He invites us today, with Him at the Wedding of Cana, to
look into the jars for purification and find them empty. We find that the
purification of man has emptied them of all godliness and holiness. Maybe those
who washed before were clean, but now we are not.
He invites us to look again and this time we see water,
filled to the brim. His Word commanded His servants to fill them. There is now
an abundance of purification happening with Jesus and maybe a place even for
me. For all He has to do is speak the Words and it is so. It doesn’t end with
water, though.
He invites us to look a third time and this time we see the
wine. At this point, Jesus finally allows His deacons to carry that to the
people and offer it to them. From Word to water to wine; there is life in His
Word, purification in the water, and holiness in the wine.
“Behold, the days are coming”, saith the Lord in our
Old Testament reading, “when the mountains shall drip sweet wine and all the
hills shall flow with it” (Amos 9:13, 15). And in our impurity, we think
its strange and believe maybe it just means celebration time. But in the purity
of Christ, we see fulfillment. That is, the whole earth now drips with the
Lord’s Body and Blood, celebrated and distributed at every Altar on earth,
faithful to the Word of God.
The Gospel, the Promise, is preached through all the earth,
through the Lord’s sacraments. Not only has the Lord given His Word, but He
continues to work His salvation among His Christians, in His true Body and
Blood. Our complete purification is found in the Promise of Jesus, not in any
quest or ritual we imagine for ourselves. For it is not your feet that are
unclean, but your heart.
Jesus purifies our heart that we may approach God. And on
approach, find His feast laid out with baptismal garments provided. These are
now the holy things of God, which when communed with, commute that holiness.
That is, because you have touched them, obeyed the Lord’s invitation, and hear,
are baptized, and eat and drink, you are saved.
Because that is the Promise. We did not make it up. Church
is not like our wedding parties where we play WWF music with pyrotechnics, or
whatever other clever things we imagine. “What does that have to do with Me”,
Jesus asks.
And we can answer: everything. It has everything to do with
Jesus. If He were not here, none of this would exist. If He were not here, we
would be lost in our impurity, drowning in self-help. But with Jesus, His Word
and Sacraments are life-giving, rich in grace, and a divine washing of the Holy
Spirit.
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