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INJ
St John 2:1-11
'I'll Take Care of It'
Divine Service
The 2nd Sunday in Epiphany | January 18th, 2009
Dear B, Dear J, Dear Saints of God,
Jesus turns water into wine for His disciples, for His mother, for the servants who drew the water, and for us, so that we would have the thing that is most needful in this life: faith in Him, so that we would know who He is. Jesus does this so that we would know and treasure above all other things this Jesus who can do anything, even save us from the wrath of God and the rage of the devil.
When Jesus is there in Cana at the wedding and the wine runs out Mary comes to Him and tells Him, and Jesus takes over. We read in the text that Jesus said, “What does this have to do with Me?”, but we might better translate these words of our Lord, “This is My affair, not yours.” Jesus is saying to Mary, “I'll take care of it.”
And He does, He always does. He turns the water to wine. No one else could do that but our Jesus, God in the flesh. This is what Jesus came to do, to take care of us, to give us all that we need, and it to Him and Him alone that we turn. That we trust, to whom we cling.
This is so very important for us. Especially for you today, B, on the day of your baptism, and for you, J, on the day of your confirmation.
B, when you were baptized a few moments ago an alarm went off in hell, and the demons gathered together to figure out how to get you back, and make no mistake, they are in earnest. Your whole life the hordes of hell will be chasing you down to reclaim you as their own. This is why it is so important for you to continue to hear the Lord's Word which is poison to the devil. This is just the beginning of a long fight.
And for you too, J. When you stand here before God and His people, you set yourself against the armies of darkness, you forsake the devil and all his works and all his ways, and he does not take that lightly. The devil hates Jesus and everything that Jesus gives, joy and light and life and forgiveness and salvation, and so the devil hates you, and he is always right around the corner to snatch the gifts of Jesus from you.
And this, dear saints, it true for all of us. The devil is constantly after us, tempting us to pride or despair or boredom, to a security that thinks it doesn't need to hear the Word, to a business that says, “Church can wait, it's not that important. The Scriptures and my prayers and devotions will have to sit on the shelf until later, I have more pressing things now.”
No, this is a matter of life and death. The devil is constantly drawing you away from the Lord's Word of life. He is trying to kill you, to snuff out your faith and bring you with him to eternal death.
If the Lord doesn't return soon, all of us will face death, and then a reckoning: eternal life or eternal death. That's it. This is serious stuff, life or death. If we have Jesus we go to eternal life, if we don't we go to hell.
There is nothing more important than this. Not how much you lost in your retirement account, not what the score of the basketball game is, not that you burned dinner, not who is elected president, the most important thing in all the world is Jesus, His death on the cross for us.
That is why the Lord Jesus turns water to wine, to put before you the most important reality of your life, that He is God in the flesh, and that He has come to rescue and deliver you.
Listen to how John writes at the end of his gospel:
John 20:30-31 Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.
These things are written for you, for you B, for you J, for all of you, dear saints, that believing them you might have life, even eternal life, in His name.
For this first of signs is followed by many others, the raising of the widow's son, the feeding the 5000, calming the sea, healing the lepers, and then the signs that matter most of all, the lifting up of the Son of Man on the cross, the spilling of the blood of God, and then the resurrection after three days, the sign of Jonah.
By these signs Jesus would draw you to Himself, to His kingdom, to His church, to His Word and His blood which protects us from the devil and all his plots, to His smile, and at last to His eternal wedding feast, where the wine knows no end and the hills drip with abundance and your are adorned in the perfection of His love and mercy.
Just as the alarms are sounding in hell, they are also echoing through heaven. Everything that belongs to God has been set to our side, and by the gift of Jesus we may be sure that we, too, will finally attain eternal life.
May we with earnest hearts look to our Lord Jesus Christ, and find in Him our hope and our life and our salvation. Amen.
And the peace of God which passes all understanding, guard your hearts and minds through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
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Pastor Bryan Wolfmueller
Hope Lutheran Church | Aurora, CO
