Wednesday, February 26, 2014
John 2:11 This beginning of signs Jesus did in Cana of Galilee, and manifested His glory ...
JESUS REPLACES GRIEF WITH JOY
See how John dwells on another beauty of Christ in saying that by doing this miracle of making water into wine He showed forth His glory. This glory consists in that Christ carries out His heavenly Father's will of redeeming the world and making sinners happy and content again. In this miracle as well He glorifies His Father and shows forth His glory very beautifully.
It is obvious that this bridal couple who had invited Jesus to their wedding already had found true spiritual happiness through faith in Christ. Spiritually, they were content and happy and wanted Christ at their wedding because they had found their eternal happiness in Him. Why would people who rejected Christ and would not have anything to do with Him and His Gospel at other times invite Him to their wedding?
Because they were His brothers and sisters in faith and heirs of eternal salvation, Christ aimed to make them still happier by the making of wine, since they were now through some oversight and neglect without wine. If the groom would find out about this neglect he would be disturbed in his happiness. So Christ removes this seemingly trivial obstacle, thus removing the unpleasant thing which would have caused the groom great grief and the bride great embarrassment and the guests great discomfort. Even as He has taken away our sin and replaced it with His righteousness, so He covers up the neglect and removes everything which was liable to disturb the happiness and tranquility of the people He loved. There is no problem in your life that is trivial to the Lord Jesus. And, in solving not only your sin problem, but attending to your earthly problems as well, Christ gives us more opportunity to glorify His heavenly Father!
Fair is the sunshine,
Fair is the moonlight,
Bright the sparkling stars on high;
Jesus shines brighter,
Jesus shines purer,
Than all the angels in the sky.
(The Lutheran Hymnal, 657:3)
