The Glorious Wedding (Jesus' First Miracle)

The Glorious Wedding John 2:1-11 BBC 1-9-22

In March of 2004 a group of Boy Scouts were on their annual excursion into Northern Utah’s Logan Canyon

The scouts had carved snow caves deep into a snow ridge at an elevation of 7,400 ft.

Randy Maurer, a father of one of the scouts was quoted as saying

You’re pretty cozy inside of them

You’re completely oblivious to what’s going on outside

After the 39 scouts and leaders went to sleep Friday night

A huge 500 foot overhang of snow collapsed just before 4 am

It buried the entrances to the caves under 6-8 feet of snow

Insulated by the thick snow around them, the scouts were unaware of the problem

One group awoke and realized the entrance was buried

They managed to escape by digging out through the vent hole for their snow cave

The landscape of the mountain side had completely changed

They started probing the snow with their shovels in order to find their fellow scouts caves

Other scout leaders, sleeping in a nearby trailer heard the collapse and called the sheriff’s department

They only had an approximate location to where the caves were

Emergency crews used shovels and snow probes to locate the scouts

Some of the boys, ages 12-16, awakened when they were jabbed by the avalanche probes the rescuers were pushing into the snow

By 7:05 am, everyone had been pulled from the caves uninjured

Some of these scouts were woke to the news that they had been rescued from a danger they knew nothing about

One of the most famous events in the Bible involves a young couple that needed a rescue

And they probably had no idea that a rescue was called for

While they were enjoying the afterglow of their wedding ceremony

Jesus was organizing a rescue party for their reception

READ JOHN 2:1-11

This wedding has a major problem on its hands

And Jesus is on the scene

When Jesus is on the scene, our problems can become His Glory

This – first of His signs, manifested His glory, and His disciples believed in Him

The Glory of Jesus, the carpenter, had not yet been seen

But it was about to burst onto the scene

Occasion of this Sign

A marriage in Cana

This event takes place early in Jesus’ ministry

It says on the third day

And this probably means 3 days after He called Philip and Nathanael

Cana, a town near Nazareth would have been well known by Jesus

And apparently Jesus was well know, hence His invitation

Wedding feasts often lasted 7 days

And we thought wedding receptions are crazy long nowadays

But, as it so often does, something went wrong at this wedding

Something always goes wrong

For me and my wife, Jayna, we made the mistake of choosing a song for our candle lighting ceremony that was almost 4 minutes long

How long does it take two people to light a candle?

30-40 seconds?

That makes for over 3 minutes of just standing there staring at each other

In front of the whole church

Trying not to laugh at the ridiculousness of the moment

There is a story of a young couple very much in love who were getting married at a church

Sue, the bride was very nervous about the big occasion

So, the Pastor chose one verse that he felt would be a great encouragement to them. 1 John 4:18 which says

“There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear”

Rather unwisely the pastor asked the best man to read it

And to say that the pastor had felt that this was a very apt verse for Sue and that he would be preaching on it later in the service

However, the best man was not a regular churchgoer and so he did not know the difference between John’s Gospel and the first letter of John

So he introduced his reading by saying that the pastor felt this was a very apt verse for Sue

But he read John 4:18, which says

“You have five husbands and the one you now have is not your husband.”

There is a lesson in there for all us preachers

Something always seems to go wrong at weddings

This wedding was no exception

This wedding ran out of wine

Mary, the mother of Jesus brings this to the attention of Jesus

Lesson here, when you have a problem, take it to Jesus

Did Mary expect a miracle? Seems unlikely

Who knows, Mary had not yet seen any miracles done by her Son

As we read in vs. 11, this was the first of His signs

She knew her child was special

If angels announced the birth of your son you would think he was something special