The hour is here for Jesus to come to earth.
For the last two Sundays, I have asked, "Why did Jesus come to
earth?" The fact that I’ve talked about it, now for three Sundays and will
finish next week to make four means the answer has many forms. What we are
searching for is the answer that best captures the magnitude and force of his
coming.
Today, we heard Isaiah's prophecy that the Messiah will come to earth as an overabundant blessing of
excess grace because the Lord delights in humanity, his creation
Even though our spiritual
poverty has made him an unrequited lover, God rejoices with steadfast love of
us as a groom over his bride. His walk to the cross is an act of requited love.
It is the only thing that can heal our
spiritual poverty.
Today, we heard Isaiah’ prophecy that the Messiah will come to earth as
an overabundant blessing of excess grace because the Lord delights in humanity,
his creation. Even though our spiritual
poverty has made him an unrequited lover, God rejoices with steadfast love of
us as a groom over his bride. His walk to the cross is an act of requited love.
It is the only thing that can heal our spiritual poverty.
In the Gospel of John we hear of the adult Jesus who stands at the hour
that his journey to the cross begins in earnest.
As we talk about John’s words, I want to ask you to participate with me and
play with your imagination. Imagine that you are in Jesus’ human mind; and if
you can, look at the world the way he may have. It seems to me we cannot fully
understand the magnitude of Jesus coming to earth unless we also understand his
human nature.
We can’t do this with great fidelity because at the same time he is
living in the world as a fellow human, Jesus knows he is not just a man but
also the Son of God. He knows his
future; he sees that cross standing out there...waiting.
What was he thinking at this wedding? Are you ready to acknowledge that his
time had come to start your journey? He must have perceived and feared all the
day-to-day threats and events as we would. Being human in your early thirties,
you know it is time to get on with your life. You feel the necessity to embark
on your vocation but you have this extra bit of divine knowledge that to do so
requires you to embrace an impeding death that will cut your days short. He
must have struggled in emotional turmoil knowing this misery of his upcoming
human sacrifice is necessary for his life with us to make any sense at all.
He must have dreaded it, he told his mother his time had not come. Maybe
your hands are sweaty, maybe you are racked with great anguish over that cross
standing in your future. You know you are at the threshold of your ministry and
you know that first step is going to be like one of those Indian fish traps,
your time has come and once you are there, there is no turning back.
Your mother is standing there beside you here at this wedding
celebration, just as you know she shall stand on a hill alone with the other
women while the men have already run for cover or denied you on that day when
your time arrives. You know even now
before you begin your first step that you will fully and painfully understand
the nature of unrequited love as you hang there abandoned on the cross at that
hour.
I have imagined a story about unrequited
love of a father to a son. Here it is. This fellow borrowed his Dad’s pickup
truck, went to the quarry and loaded up the truck with so much crushed rock
that he broke a spring. He drove the gravel home and backing in to his driveway
where he wanted to dump it, he scraped the passenger side of the door on the
chain link fence post at the driveway leaving a bad gouge in the door and a
broken off side mirror.
He went ahead and shoveled out the gravel
from the truck and then asked then his wife to follow him over to his Dad’s to
drop off the truck because he was in a hurry to get back home and spread the
gravel before it rained.
On the way over, he drove through the
Krystal for a cup of coke and put it in the beverage holder on the dash out of
the way in order to pull out into traffic. Unfortunately, he pulled out in
front of someone and had to step on the gas to avoid an accident. The coke
overturned leaving a wet sticky mess on the carpet and seat. Since he was in a
hurry to get back home he didn’t stop and clean it up, he just zipped over to
Dad’s and backed the truck onto the driveway but when he backed in he couldn’t
see the side of the driveway because of the broken mirror and crushed a hundred
year old, heirloom camellia his Dad had moved from his mother’s house about forty
years ago right after she died. and got in the wife’s car and headed for home.
He was in a hurry so he just got in his wife’s care and headed home to finish
that driveway of his own.
About a month later he realized he needed
more gravel and called his Dad to see if he could borrow the truck again. The son did not think to apologize for the spring,
the door, mirror and the camellia, maybe because he was in a hurry or took his
Dad for granted, or just didn’t care, I don’t know.
This time he explained to his Dad his
need to borrow the truck to get some more gravel. Dad said he needed to go to
the store first but on the way back would stop by the house and drop the truck
off for him and would walk the rest of the way home. He never said a word about the damage to the
truck.
This is the unrequited love of a father
for a son.
With this idea in mind, let’s get back in the mind of human Jesus and
imagine the wedding at Cana in a little more detail.
You have showed up at this wedding with no customary gifts or food
because you are poor. Like the rest of your people, you live a forsaken life,
suffering under the yoke of oppression and despair. Why?
Because) Your people have ignored you;
those who have plenty ignore those of your creation who have with less. Even
the poor among you abuse your love and forget your commandments. So you in your
divine nature you imagine them wicked people and in your divine anger and
impatience send alien nations to capture and enslave them. But you still love
them. You recall Psalm 36:
1Transgression
speaks to the wicked deep in their hearts; there is no fear of God before their
eyes.
2For they flatter themselves in their own eyes that their
iniquity cannot be found out and hated.
3The words of their mouths are mischief and deceit; they
have ceased to act wisely and (to) do good.
4They plot mischief while on their beds; they are set on
a way that is not good; they do not reject evil.
5Your steadfast love, O Lord, extends to the heavens,
your faithfulness to the clouds.
6Your righteousness is like the mighty mountains, your
judgments are like the great deep; you save humans and animals alike, O Lord.
7How precious is your steadfast love, O God! All people
may take refuge in the shadow of your wings.
8They feast on the abundance of your house, and you give
them drink from the river of your delights.
9For with you is the fountain of life; in your light we
see light.
10O continue your steadfast love to those who know you,
and your salvation to the upright of heart!
11Do not let the foot of the arrogant tread on me, or the
hand of the wicked drive me away.
12There the
evildoers lie prostrate; they are thrust down, unable to rise.
[The words “steadfast love” come as close as it can to “unrequited love”]
Here you are at a celebration of a wedding party. (Now as a grown man) You have called your
faithful disciples to you, you know your time is near and maybe a human fear
nags you, “Are you really ready for this?”
Maybe you need that glass of wine to calm your nerves, you are human you
know.
You have brought at least 13 people and
yourself to this wedding celebration but nothing else. Wedding celebrations can
continue for a week. Friends and relatives come from everywhere and expect to
rejoice and entertain and be fed. It takes a lot of food and beverages.
You think, boy weddings are special! They
recall your promise in Isaiah 62 to Zion – Zion is the Hebrew word for a woman
who laments her plight, now that woman has come to be Israel in her captivity.
Listen again to the powerful words of God
from Isaiah:
"For Zion’s
sake I will not keep silent, and for Jerusalem’s sake I will not rest until her
vindication shines out like the dawn, and her salvation like a burning torch. 2The nations
shall see your vindication, and all the kings your glory; and you shall be
called by a new name that the mouth of the Lord will give. 3You shall
be a crown of beauty in the hand of the Lord, and a royal diadem in the hand of
your God. 4You shall no more be named Forsaken, and your land shall
no more be named Desolate; but you shall be called Hephzibah (My Delight Is in
Her), and your land (shall be called) Married; for the Lord delights in you,
and your land shall be married. 5As a young
man marries a young woman, so shall your builder marry you, and as the bridegroom
rejoices over the bride, so shall your God rejoice over you."
You remember these magnificent and
powerful words, you called your land “married” because you as Lord delight in
them as a groom with his bride. And so with your mother’s prod to “do something,”
she unwittingly and ironically begins your trek to the cross where a sword will
pierce her heart as she watches her son die.
And so, you make wine out of 6-30 gallon
jars of water. Not just any wine, but the best wine. Not just a little wine but
about 600 bottles of the best wine. It is a superabundant wedding gift, and it
is not a miracle. It is the first true sign of the superabundant blessing you
are bringing to your wedding with humanity. With this creation you signal the
beginning of the journey to the greatest human and divine celebration of
marriage ever. The best wine shall be served last.
And perhaps being human you remind yourself and take solace in the fact
that this is why you came to earth, this is the hour to begin the walk to the
cross that shall set us free. Amen.
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