John 2.1-11

Epiphany 2

Hymns: 79 - 82 - 94 

There is a prayer that I have used as a benediction at the end of a wedding service that has this sentence: "May the Lord watch over your life and be the unseen guest at every meal." That’s a pleasant thought, isn’t it? May Jesus be the guest in every Christian marriage, every Christian home, really, whether married or not.

But it needs to go farther, doesn’t it? If Jesus is only a guest in our home, that implies that he is a visitor, someone who comes and goes but doesn’t stay. But JESUS IS MORE THAN A GUEST IN THE CHRISTIAN HOME, he is a part of the family...a family member.

If Jesus is a member of your family that will make a difference in how you act. For example, when you invite guests for dinner you aren’t 100% yourself...relaxed? You’re on your best behavior, you’re not sloppy, you don’t lounge around or take a nap on the couch and let your guest sit there all alone. If it’s just family, you would do that. If the house is a little messy, that’s alright.. But you would be embarrassed if your dinner guests came to a house with clothes lying around…a mess.

Is Jesus a guest in your home or a family member, MORE THAN A GUEST? Let’s set up a hypothetical situation. Let’s say that you’re sitting at home one evening. Suddenly you see Jesus sitting at one end of the couch. You would be startled, as you are when the doorbell or telephone rings. That would make a difference in what went on in your home after that. You would act differently if you could actually see Jesus there. You would be more careful in how you spoke with each other? You would be selective in the TV programs or movie you were watching, or turn off the TV is the program you were watching is something you know would offend Jesus. If Jesus looked around, would he see religious paintings hanging on the wall, a Bible sitting on a table next to your bed or easy chair…with a bookmark in it where you left off reading? torn pages scotchtaped together because of all the use it gets? If he appeared just as you sat down at the table to eat would you automatically fold your hands because you always pray before meals? And if, after you finished eating, Jesus offered to read the devotion book that you use for family devotions, would you know where it is and what you had read last for your family devotion?

Would Jesus’ sudden presence in your home make you feel uncomfortable, embarrassed, guilty because you would have to pretend to be the kind of family you know he wants you to be? Or would you wish he would hurry up and leave so that you could go back to being the family you really are...more comfortable when Jesus isn’t there?

Make Jesus a member of your family. He’s more than a guest and, actually, he is always there with your family even though you don’t see him or aren’t aware of it.

You have an advantage over the young couple in the Gospel lesson for today. They invited Jesus to their wedding without knowing who he really is; you know he is the Son of God, your Savior. He was just a friend of the family to them; he is Savior to you. Where were you married or where do you plan to be married? It is natural for Christians to be married in a church, in God’s house. You are making a statement when you do that. A marriage service is a worship service, not just a ceremony. It provides the opportunity for bride and groom, family and friends, to thank God for bringing the husband and wife together, to hear what God says in his Word about marriage, about loving and forgiving each other just as Jesus loves and forgives everyone who believes in him, and it provides the opportunity to ask God to bless a new marriage and to be MORE THAN A GUEST IN THAT NEW CHRISTIAN HOME, to be a member of that new Christian home, and in every Christian home whether someone is married or not.

One of the saddest things to me is when a young couple has a church wedding and then leaves Jesus at the altar because they don’t take him into their family. He is a guest at the wedding but is not a member of the family.

At the wedding at Cana Jesus caused a miracle to happen and replenished the supply of wine that had run out. Did you see anything else that he provided or did you only see the wine? Look again. Yes, he had the servants fill the water jars with water that turned into wine. And, yes, it was better wine that what had been served first.

But take a closer look. Jesus is not just someone to provide us with material things when we run out of them…you run out of gas so Jesus fills your tank; you run out of health, Jesus makes you better; you run out of happiness...Jesus isn’t supposed to let that happen! He’s supposed to keep us supplied with whatever we run out of and he’s not supposed to let us go through bad and difficult times of struggling and doctors and hospitals and bank loans. People who have the opinion that Jesus is just here to make sure that we have whatever we need and want for this life are going to be deeply troubled and distressed and disillusioned when things go sour in life.

Take a look again at what happened after Jesus made wine out of water (read v 11). The disciples got it right; the miracle proved to them that Jesus was the Son of God. And the reason why he came into our world as a human being was to save us from our sin and from hell. What could be more vital than that? At this wedding Jesus wanted the guests to ask, "Where did this good wine come from?" so that the steward could point to Jesus and say, "He provided it with a miracle; he made it out of water." Next question: "How could he do that? Who is he?" And you know the answer: Jesus the Son of God, the Savior who came to give his life to pay for the sins of all people so that we can have eternal life with him in heaven. Jesus is the Savior from sin, not the Savior from embarrassment or poor health or debt or hard work or the surgeon’s table. Because we are sinful, we will experience the effects of sin in our life.

Make no mistake, Jesus did provide wine; he did want the wedding celebration to be a success; he did provide for the physical, material needs of those at the wedding just as Jesus still provides us with food and clothes, our house and our job, our health and our family…everything comes from God. Take away all these things and what do we have left? Nothing? Not true. We still have eternal life in heaven because Jesus took away the guilt of our sin by paying for sin with his own life.

JESUS IS MORE THAN A GUEST IN THE CHRISTIAN HOME

; he is a family member who made us members of his family, he adopted us into his family so that we can call him our Brother. When we have a clear understanding of who Jesus is and why he came and what he did for us, well, that makes all the difference in the world as we live our life and make our choices and put our trust into Jesus’ care. Jesus is your family member. Live in the assurance of his love and your salvation.