I recently watched the movie, “Superman Returns.”  The setting is that Superman, after his first three films, goes away for a while, back to search for his home planet, Krypton.  Unsuccessful, he returns some years later to planet earth.  No one except his earth-mother knows he’s back.  They know that Clark Kent has returned to work at the Daily Planet, but that’s it.

Until one day.  A jet liner observing a new space shuttle test gets into serious trouble.  The airplane is filled with reporters.  Including Lois Lane.  It begins breaking apart, eventually loses both wings, and goes hurtling to earth like a fiery missile.  Now it’s time for Superman to act.  Time for him to return.  Time for him to “come out of hiding.”  So, Superman does his “superman thing” and goes speeding after the plane, which is heading right into a stadium full of people watching a baseball game.  And of course, he stops it two feet before it hits the ground.  And since this happens in a stadium, with Jumbo-trons, it is instantly seen by thousands, and since there are TV cameras covering the game, it is instantly seen live on news stations all over the world.  Superman has returned.  He is here.  Here to help and save.  It’s public now.

Our Bible text tells us of Jesus’ “coming out” event.  There might not have been TV cameras and Jumbo-trons in his day, but a very public event like a wedding couldn’t have been a better place for Him to show the world for the first time that He was someone different.  That He was powerful.  That He was here to save.  That He was someone who could be trusted!

Here’s what happened:  At the beginning of Jesus’ ministry, He and his disciples were invited to a wedding in Cana of Galilee.  At this week-long celebration, there was a major social faux-pas.  They had run out of wine.  The social drink of a wedding.  The symbol of joy and good luck in a marriage.  Uh-oh!  Mary, Jesus’ earth-mother, was there.  And up to this point, she was the only one who knew that He could do something about this.  She suggests that he does.  He tells her He will when the time is right.  And when it was, Jesus tells servants to fill six huge jars with water and take some to the head-waiter to do some wine tasting.  By the time he rolls it around his tongue, he declares that this “water” was actually the best wine at the feast yet!  “Why did you save the best for last?” he asks.  And everyone was blown away by Jesus’ glory!

There it is.  Jesus’ first miracle.  Now, miracles always have a purpose.  A message.  And maybe it’s easier to figure out what that is when you are talking about the sick healed and the dead raised.  But what message are we to get from Jesus becoming a supernatural wine-maker?  Today we are going to talk about the Message of Christ’s First Miracle.  Besides announcing “I’m here!” what does it tell us about Him?

I think that the first impression it gives us is similar to the impression all those fans at the stadium had as they stared, mouths hanging wide open, at Superman holding up that airplane fuselage which had just about torpedoed their favorite ball players.  In other words, “This guy is different!  He is powerful!”  Well, as the headwaiter is tasting top vintage wine that should have been special reserve, and the people realized it had just come from the jars Jesus just had filled with water, and the people began looking at Jesus and realizing what He had done, I think the first thing this miracle said was “He is All-Powerful!  This man standing before us isn’t just a man.  He just did something only God could do.  Therefore…can that mean that He is God??”

Yes.  It can and it does.  And Jesus is the God that you and I still pray to.  He can change the laws of gravity, the laws of nature, the laws of the universe, even the laws of life and death.  He can speed them up, slow them down, and reverse them altogether.  He is all-powerful.  Can He make your sick father well?  Yes.  Can He bring life into this world?  Yes.  Can He help you overcome that fear you have?  Yes.  Can He keep you from harm?  Yes.  Can He raise you to life and give you heaven?  Yes.  Can he change the weather and keep it from raining on your parade?  He can do anything.  So what does that teach us?  Even if it seems petty or ridiculous, go to Him like Mary did and ask Him to use his power for you.  And if it is his will, He will.

I think it’s a good thing that we have a scripture lesson so early in the year which encourages us to ponder a miracle. You and I need to become more sensitive to the possibility of miracles. To the fact that Christ is all-powerful.  And that He has done so much and can do anything for us.  He did miracles then.  He still does them now.  And we can go to Him for help.

Think Jesus doesn’t do miracles anymore?  There was a young girl who lived on New York, and one day, as she was playing in her third-floor room, she lost her balance, and fell out of the window all the way to the ground. Some of the people who saw her fall ran and called the ambulance, when they got there they rushed the little girl to the emergency room. The doctors put her on the table and began to examine her, but she had no broken bones. The doctor looked puzzled, and the people who saw her fall said “examine her again.” But the little girl kept saying "I didn’t fall, a man caught me." So they released her and she went home, as time moved on she and her mother went to aunt’s house to visit, and there was picture on the wall of Jesus and the little girl said "Mama, that’s the man that caught me." God is still in the miracle working business.... We can be reassured by the fact that God has worked wonderfully in days past, and that He is still at work.  And that is the message of Christ’s first miracle – He is all-powerful!

But there’s another message here too…  Now, weddings can be “adventures.”  Such was the wedding of my roommate from the Seminary.  This good friend of mine, on the night before his wedding, was down in the city with some of his friends.  In the back seat of his car he had left a briefcase.  He had locked the car, but when he and his friends returned, it wasn’t locked anymore.  The window was broken and the brief case was gone.  What was in the briefcase?  All his ID – his and his fiancée’s driver’s licenses and passports.  Their plane tickets to the Caribbean for the honeymoon.  $500 in cash for their spending money there.  It gets worse.  Their marriage license was in there too.  And so were the rings.  The question was even raised if it was right to go through with the wedding, but they did.  The next day, right before the wedding reception, the DJ lost all of his music CDs and the set-list of music the bride had given him to play.  And two weeks later, they found out the photographer had lost all the pictures of the event.  This is a wedding that their family and friends have never forgotten.  And from what I hear, 11 years later, the bride still finds none of this very funny.

In a way, that is what we are confronted with in our gospel lesson. This wedding ALMOST became one of those weddings to remember for a reason which would have mortified the bride and groom.  They had almost run out wine.  And that would have been as bad as anything in those days.  You just couldn’t have a wedding without wine.  Wine symbolized joy.  It would have been a bad omen.  Bad luck.  Bad memories of the wedding day, to be sure.  Oh, their marriage would have gone forward.  But it would have been nice to have a joyful wedding.

Now Jesus didn’t have to help.  It wasn’t a life-or-death situation.  And so, when Jesus, the Son of God, who was in attendance, changed water into vintage wine that was plenty to finish the celebration, what message did that deliver?  He revealed his glory by this merciful act of giving, of helping a young couple out of an embarrassing situation.  Jesus showed his compassion to this young couple.  He showed mercy.  That’s the second message of Christ’s first miracle – He Is Merciful.

“What a friend we have in Jesus,” we sing.  Jesus was at that wedding to be a friend.  He always put a great emphasis on friendship.  He ministered to his friends and was ministered to by them.  We all need friends who share with us in life’s sorrows and joys.  And when we see Jesus perform this merciful, kind act for his friends, it helps us see his mercy in our lives too.  Those little gifts He gives us – that beautiful sunset, that smile from your child, that kind deed someone did for you because of Him – all those things come from a merciful Lord.  A Lord who will befriend you.  A Lord who wouldn’t let his friends run out of wine at their wedding.

There’s one more thing this miracle tells us.  Dr. Charles Stanley, a minister of a large church in Atlanta, tells of a time when their church needed two million dollars to relocate to a larger facility. The only problem was they didn’t have the money. One day, the board members told Dr. Stanley to get a loan from the bank because the deal sounded good. However, Dr. Stanley told the group that they needed divine direction, so they all packed their gear and took off for a state park for the weekend for a time of prayer. All weekend they prayed earnestly that God would give them direction and help them resolve the problem that they were facing.

When they finally left the park, they still didn’t have any clear direction about how to purchase the building.  But they were committed to waiting on God. A few days later, Dr. Stanley had a message to call a man He had never met. He lived in another state. The man said that he wanted to help Dr. Stanley’s ministry.  Dr. Stanley called him back, and the stranger said, “I have had you and your ministry on my mind the past several days. I notice that you never ask for money on the broadcast, and I was wondering if you have any needs.”

Dr. Stanley explained the situation about the building and how they needed two million dollars to purchase it. The stranger said, “I think I can handle that.” And he gave that church two million dollars!  That church had a problem; they gave their problem to Jesus; and their problem was solved.  You see, anything is possible with Jesus.  And that’s why the final thing this miracle teaches us about Jesus is that  He is Deserving of Our Trust!

In the middle ages, Thomas À Kempis wrote: "When you have Christ, you are rich. He is enough. He will provide everything you need so you won't have to count on others without Him. People change and fail. You can't depend on them. Those that are for you today may be against you tomorrow. They are as variable as the wind. But Christ is eternally faithful."

Mary Trusted.  Mary knew that she could count on Jesus and so can we.  “He thus revealed his glory, and his disciples put their faith in him.” Jesus is all-powerful.  There is nothing He can’t do.  And Jesus is all-merciful.  He showed us mercy to the tune of giving his very life for us.  Because of his mercy, we have an eternal wedding celebration to look forward to – a feast in heaven with God!  That’s why this miracle, Jesus’ first, is so great!  It shows us that no matter what happens in life, no matter what difficult situation arises, that we can put our trust in Him!  It shows us that the best is yet to come!  In wine!  In joy!  In eternal life!  Friends, that’s the message of Christ’s first miracle – the best is yet to come!   Amen.