This past Sunday was one of those occasions when the one-year and three-year lectionaries both featured the same Holy Gospel, in this case the Wedding at Cana (St. John 2:1-11). Not only is it one of the more distinctive and definitive “Epiphanies” of our Lord Jesus Christ, a manifestation of His divine Glory for the strengthening of the faith of His disciples, but it is also one of those “go-to” Gospel texts for Christian weddings. Indeed, I’ve preached on this Holy Gospel for most of the weddings I’ve been privileged to officiate over the past 29 years, so it has become like an old friend in that connection and context. The presence and first miraculous sign of Christ Jesus at the Wedding in Cana is also cited in the wedding rite itself, adding further to the correlation.
Now, the Wedding at Cana Holy Gospel is not about holy matrimony, no more so than the Hour of Christ Jesus consisted in the provision of wine for this or any other wedding reception per se. This sign of His Glory pointed forward to the Hour of His Cross and Passion, and beyond that to the Glory manifested in His Resurrection from the dead. It anticipated the blood and water from His riven side (St. John 19:32-37; 1 John 5:5-8) and the overflowing Cup of the New Testament in His Blood (St. Luke 22:20; St. Matthew 26:27-29; 1 Corinthians 11:23-26; 10:16).
Nevertheless, the Lord did provide wine in abundance for the Wedding at Cana, and that was no abstraction or metaphor but a tangible blessing for the bride and groom, their family and friends. And the Church has recognized and confessed the significance of His presence as an affirmation and sanctification of His good gift of holy marriage. We dare not compartmentalize the Gospel, as though it did not in fact have bearing upon every facet of human life. Nor should we trivialize marriage itself, which was the crowning glory of God’s “very good” creation from the beginning (Genesis 1:26-31; 2:20-25; St. Matthew 19:4-6). In this wicked and perverse generation, it is all the more vital and necessary that we clearly and consistently confess – and so also practice – the sanctity of holy marriage as the lifelong union of one man and one woman in heart, mind, body, soul, and spirit, in mutual commitment, fidelity, forgiveness, love, and patient persistence.
The truth is that holy marriage itself is a sign manifesting the Glory of our heavenly Bridegroom, Christ Jesus Himself, and pointing to the neverending union of Christ and His Bride, the Church, of which we are privileged to be members (Ephesians 5:22-33). It is interesting to note that “the Bridegroom” is mentioned but not identified in the Wedding at Cana Holy Gospel (St. John 2:9), whereas Jesus is referenced as “the Bridegroom” in the very next chapter (St. John 3:26-30), just as Jesus also identifies Himself as “the Bridegroom” (St. Luke 5:33-35; St. Matthew 25:1-13).
As the Holy Scriptures begin with the creation and holy matrimony of the man and the woman in the Image and Likeness of God (Genesis 1:26-31), a “great Mystery” which St. Paul refers to the Marriage of Christ and His Church (Ephesians 5:31-32), so do the Holy Scriptures culminate in the great Marriage Feast of the Lamb in His Kingdom (Revelation 19:7-9; 21:1-2; 22:17). It is clear that the “very goodness” of holy marriage anticipates this even better and greater goodness. Consequently, the fidelity of husband and wife confesses the constancy and faithfulness of Christ and the faithful confession and love of His Church, over against the world’s fickle infidelity.
St. Paul also suggests a correspondence between the fidelity and steady permanence of Christian marriage and the qualifications of a man who aspires to be a bishop or pastor of the Lord’s Holy Church (1 Timothy 3:1-13; Titus 1:5-9). While a pastor is not “one flesh” with his congregation, nor bound to the congregation “till death do us part,” his self-sacrificing love and service for the people of God over whom the Holy Spirit has placed him is to be an echo and confession of the grace, mercy, peace, and love of Christ for His Church, like that of a husband for his own wife.