Do you enjoy weddings? I actually love weddings. In the past few years, I've done two weddings in restaurants-quite a popular trend actually. I've done one in a vineyard in Niagara Falls.
I’ve done one at a yacht club. I've done two or three in large backyards in the city or suburbs. Perhaps oddly, I’ve done none at our church.
John Ward, a CATM deacon, asked me recently: “Why is it that we don’t have weddings here at the church”. I answered, “Who’d want to get married in a gym?”
Normally by the time the wedding day arrives, I’ve spent a significant amount of time with a couple in pre-marital counselling. Hopefully, as a result the couple knows each other much better than if no counseling for the marriage were to happen.
For me as a minister, it means that I end up knowing the people that I have the privilege to bring together in holy matrimony. And at some level, their joy is my joy. Pretty cool actually.
Part of my joy is in knowing that they are entering into a covenant relationship that has incredible potential to bring joy to them and to multiply that joy in others.
My love of weddings is also due to the importance of my own wedding to Barbara in 1987. [Photos, comment].
Young men. Appreciate the hair you now have. Chances are, it won’t last.
Here is where I first pledged my love in a holy covenant before God and before the congregation and family. Here is where Barbara did the same.
These photographs, taken by my late brother Craig, remind me of God’s gift to me of Barbara, obviously, but also of God’s promise to me to be faithful and to show Himself true when He first invited me to be His child.
Things were a little complicated at our wedding and reception because we had a bunch of different communities that drew together to support us, and celebrate our marriage.
We had my long-term church community at Faith Temple across the Don Valley. We had the mission community at Evergreen that Barb and I were both deeply invested in.
We had her family, my family, her pastor, my pastor, her friends, my friends; and some random strangers that ended up being a welcome part of the festivities.
The wedding itself was at Faith Temple. The reception, a stand-up banquet (all we could afford), was held at Evergreen, the mission’s Yonge Street Branch.
It was a happy day that a lot of work had gone into. I wrote and recorded the music for the wedding. Barbara did everything else pretty much.
So, yeah, a wedding is a big deal. A joyful celebration. And it’s an ancient tradition going back, I read somewhere, 4400 years. In today’s text we get a bit of a fly-on-the-wall perspective of an important wedding in Jesus’ day in the town of Cana. Let’s be flies-on-the-wall together.
John 2:1 On the third day a wedding took place at Cana in Galilee. Jesus’ mother was there, 2 and Jesus and his disciples had also been invited to the wedding. 3 When the wine was gone, Jesus’ mother said to him, “They have no more wine.” 4 “Woman, why do you involve me?” Jesus replied. “My hour has not yet come.” 5 His mother said to the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.” 6 Nearby stood six stone water jars, the kind used by the Jews for ceremonial washing, each holding from twenty to thirty gallons. 7 Jesus said to the servants, “Fill the jars with water”; so they filled them to the brim.
8 Then he told them, “Now draw some out and take it to the master of the banquet.” They did so, 9 and the master of the banquet tasted the water that had been turned into wine. He did not realize where it had come from, though the servants who had drawn the water knew. Then he called the bridegroom aside 10 and said, “Everyone brings out the choice wine first and then the cheaper wine after the guests have had too much to drink; but you have saved the best till now.”
11 What Jesus did here in Cana of Galilee was the first of the signs through which he revealed his glory; and his disciples believed in him.
You think it is expensive today to have a wedding and it is. A friend of ours is planning for a wedding in December of this year.
The first reception hall they looked at was going to charge over $10k for the reception alone. Plus the church, plus all kinds of other expenses. The price of big weddings is crazy expensive.
Back in Jesus’ time a Jewish wedding Feast lasted for a full week. They would begin with a parade, and the father of the bride would bring his daughter to the groom’s house.
The whole town would join in on this parade … it was a huge celebration for the family. When they arrived at the groom’s home, the marriage ceremony would take place at the front door.
THEN … the feast began … which lasted for 7 days (paid for by the groom’s family). There was no honeymoon … they had an “open house” for a week … lots of food and wine … a week-long celebration.
But this story of the wedding in Cana we do get to read about. And, as always, there’s a lot of layers and points of interest in the story.
What I do to want to draw your attention to is simply the fact that Jesus was present. He was present and he was engaged, and He was looked to by others, namely his Mother, to begin to address some human needs.
Years ago at Evergreen when Rick Tobias would encounter a staff member who had an awkward or unpleasant experience at the mission, he would say: “Welcome to ministry”.
I think of this story as one of Jesus’ own awkward steps into His public ministry. Before He was ready, He was asked by His mother to intervene in a key aspect of the gathering.
It may have seemed like an “unspiritual” thing that Jesus did, compared to some of the other miracles he did a bit later on in his ministry, but it was a huge issue for a host of a wedding to run out of wine.
Think of McDonald's running out of hamburgers. Think of the Maple leafs running out of hockey pucks.
Jesus is asked by His mother to deal with the situation, and eventually does. And, as is the nature of God, Jesus is not eager to take credit for saving the best wine for last. He gives credit where it is not due, to the groom.
It’s significant that Jesus’ public ministry starts at a banquet, a wedding feast. It’s significant that Jesus, by whose blood God was to make a new covenant with humanity and whose blood would be forever represented in the cup of the eucharist; it’s significant that Jesus’s starts here.
It’s important because it all ends here. Let’s lurch forward if we can to the final book of the Bible. The gospels are the beginning of the New Testament, and the Book of Revelation is the final book.
As we look here, we will see what the Apostle John saw - a picture of what will go on in heaven at the great wedding supper of Jesus. What do we find?
Rev 19:5 Then a voice came from the throne, saying:“Praise our God, all you his servants, you who fear him, both great and small!” 6 Then I heard what sounded like a great multitude, like the roar of rushing waters and like loud peals of thunder, shouting:“Hallelujah! For our Lord God Almighty reigns.7 Let us rejoice and be glad and give him glory! For the wedding of the Lamb has come, and his bride has made herself ready.8 Fine linen, bright and clean, was given her to wear.”(Fine linen stands for the righteous acts of God’s holy people.)9 Then the angel said to me, “Write this: Blessed are those who are invited to the wedding supper of the Lamb!” And he added, “These are the true words of God.”
First let's identify some things. This is a prophecy of what will go on in heaven. There is a great multitude. Who is that? It is the great cloud of witnesses that is gone before us, all those who have received Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.
Is also us in this generation, and any future generations, of people who would become followers of Jesus.
The lamb in this prophecy is none other than, who? Jesus! Why is he the lamb? Well, why did Jesus come? To be the ultimate sacrifice for sins. To be the one took upon himself,
As did lambs in the Old Testament rights of sacrifice, All of our sins. As it says in one Corinthians, "he who knew no sin became sin for us".
Who is the bride in this prophecy? The bride represents the church, all those who belong to the body of Christ. All those who have simply said yes to Jesus. All those who believe that he died for their sins.
The linen stands for, as it says plainly, the righteous acts of God's holy people. So of course, there is a vital connection between what we believe and how we act, how we behave, what we do with our lives.
What we believe and how we live are one thing. Don't ever let anybody tell you differently.
And the wedding supper is a symbol of the fellowship, the sense of family, the intimacy and the Belonging to Jesus that everyone present at this great gathering will share.
So, why does God use the wedding feast to express the truth about this most incredible, most momentous, most glorious events yet to come in heaven?
I think there may be a few reasons. When Barb and I were planning our wedding and our reception, We asked a very natural question. Who should we invite?
The answer ended up being-those who were in relationship with us. Those who we knew. Those who we knew supported us.
Those who we loved. That included family, it included our spiritual families. It included our friends.
And it included, as we knew it would having our wedding reception on Yonge Street at the mission, people that we didn’t expect, but who were nevertheless connected to us and who wanted to be with us to celebrate our joy.
So a reason for expressing this event, the church as a whole (made up of its members) coming into God’s home and feasting with God, is to express that being part of this feast, this picture of heaven, is based on being in relationship...with God, through His Son Jesus Christ.
The imagery of Christ as the Lamb of God drives home the fact that all who will be present at this feast are there not by their own merit...not at all.
Each one is present because of the blood of the Lamb, the perfect, spotless sacrifice of Jesus on Calvary’s cross.
And that ultimate question is approached in the Bible as a simple question: Will you participate in the body and blood of Jesus?
The outward symbol of that is the Eucharist. But of course if we’re not careful that can become a pretty rote and, sadly, meaningless ritual, if our hearts are not really there.
But if drinking the cup and eating the bread are a true outward expression of something that is going on inwardly, if receiving Jesus blood and body symbolically in the Eucharist is an expression of your faith in Jesus, and of the reality that you have received Him as your Lord and Saviour, then it is full of profound meaning.
Jesus, anticipating the Eucharist and the deep spiritual union that He would have with all believers in the future, said this:
John 6:47 I tell you the truth, he who believes has everlasting life. 48 I am the bread of life. 49 Your forefathers ate the manna in the desert, yet they died.50 But here is the bread that comes own from heaven, which a man may eat and not die.51 I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world." 52 Then the Jews began to argue sharply among themselves, "How can this man give us his flesh to eat?" 53 Jesus said to them, "I tell you the truth, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. 54 Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. 55 For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink. 56 Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in him. 57 Just as the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so the one who feeds on me will live because of me. 58 This is the bread that came down from heaven. Your forefathers ate manna and died, but he who feeds on this bread will live forever."
So there is an incredible invitation that seems especially fitting as we move now into Holy Communion.
It’s an invitation and it’s a promise. Jesus says if you believe in Him you have eternal life. Do you believe in Him? Do you believe that He died for your sins? Do you believe that He paid the penalty for your sins?
Have you received Him as your Lord and Saviour? If you have, you have LIFE in you, you have the Holy Spirit in you. You already experience the hope of heaven and the assurance that God is with you now, and that you will dwell with God forever.
Just a few days ago, Faith’s mother, Rebecca, who attended here with her family, passed through the veil from this present life into the arms of Jesus. Everything we’re talking about here today, which can seem far off and hard to grasp, is very real to Rebecca.
She received Jesus as her Lord and Saviour many years ago. She lived in fellowship with God. And now she is with Jesus, happier and more fulfilled than she ever imagined possible.
But you and I are here, still. The question is, what will we do with the time that remains? Will we serve the living God? Will we live as faithful Christ-followers?
I want to give an opportunity for perhaps just that one or two people here today who have not yet received Jesus to do so, and then to come up and receive communion in celebration of your new commitment.
Can we take a moment to do that now? Jesus says: "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.”
It’s not complicated actually. First we come to God in thankfulness, and in repentance for our sins. Then we confess that we believe that Jesus died for our sins. Then we receive Him as our Lord and Saviour, giving our gratitude and our worship.
Jesus says: “Come!” Will you come?
