God Does His Will Through Holy Marriage - Sermon for the 2nd Sunday after Epiphany

Second Sunday after Epiphany, January 19^th,  Year of Our + Lord 2025
Our Redeemer and Our Savior’s Lutheran Churches, Custer and Hill City, SD
God Does His Will Through Holy Marriage – John 2:1-11

Sermon Audio available HERE 

“Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”     What does this mean? The good and gracious will of God is done even without our prayer, but we pray in this petition that it may be done among us also.

       How is God’s will done?                        God’s will is done when He breaks and hinders every evil plan and purpose, of the devil, the world, and our sinful nature, which do not want us to hallow God’s name or let His kingdom come; and when he strengthens us and keeps us firm in his Word and faith until we death do us part from this veil of tears. This is His good and gracious will.

   God’s will for us is that we have good lives here on earth, in this age, and in the age to come, to enjoy a life of perfection and glory, living with Him in heaven, in everlasting righteousness, innocence and blessedness.  And so, since there was a wedding in Cana, Jesus was there, doing God’s will.  Because Holy Marriage is at the very center of God’s way of giving human beings good lives, both now, and forever and ever. 

   Which of course why God’s Way of Holy Marriage is so violently opposed by Satan, by the world, and, sadly, by our own sinful nature.  Bad ideas and flat out lies about marriage dominate our culture, and also have their malignant influence on Christians…way too much influence on us Christians.  Which is bad for this life.  And bad for the Church militant, the Church still fighting the good fight here in this sinful world.  A healthy Church depends on healthy families, and healthy families depend on a right understanding and a living out of healthy marriages.  Our life together as God’s family and our mission to proclaim Christ to the world are both injured when Holy Marriage is faring badly. 

   So it is good for us to once again journey to Cana, to consider what Jesus does and says, and how that fits with the whole Biblical depiction and use of marriage.  For this will help God’s will to be done, in our own lives, and the lives of our neighbors.   

   Every marriage in this broken world has problems.  Would that we only had the problems of the unnamed couple in Cana.  The wine for their wedding reception has run out.  That’s not great.  But our marriages today have much bigger problems, don’t they?  I know this can be painful to talk about.  We have such a range of experiences.  A couple of truths to establish right away.  First, every marriage has real problems, even the ones that appear excellent.  Whether you are solid in your marriage, or used to be married, have never been married, would like to be married and aren’t, don’t think marriage is for you, or you are married and are struggling, all of us are impacted by the myriad problems facing Holy Marriage today. 

   And, regardless of your current, past or future status in relationship to God’s institution of marriage, Jesus cares about you, and your relationship to Holy Marriage.  Whether you are married, want to be married, or want to be single, Jesus wants to help you.  The Bridegroom of the Church doesn’t abandon you because you are single, or because your marriage has problems, or has been broken, by your spouse, or by you.  He doesn’t abandon you because your parents’ marriage had or has problems.  Indeed, fixing marriages and healing people injured in marriage are exactly the reasons He came.  As we see in Cana today, Jesus came to help marriages, especially one particular marriage. 

   Am I saying too much, going overboard on the importance of marriage?  Well, consider this.  The Creation reached its completion with a marriage.  The Lord created the heavens and the earth, filled them and ordered them, for the benefit of Adam, the man from the dirt.  Everything was good, except that it was not good for the Man to be alone.  And so, after teaching Adam that none of the animals was a suitable partner for him, God performed the first surgery, and took Adam’s rib, in order to make the woman, the perfectly matched, complementary other.  Male and female together, God created them in His image.  Only then, after God brought the Woman to the Man, only after they were placed into their one-flesh relationship, only then was the work of Creation complete.  Only then did God see that it was “very good.” 

   The Bible starts with a marriage, and it ends with a marriage, the wedding of the Bride to the Lamb, the celestial nuptials that usher in Paradise.  As the Wedding Banquet that has no end is described in John’s Revelation, we rejoice to hear that finally, after so many ages of longing, in that great Wedding Day there will be no more tears, no more illness, no more suffering, no more sin, no more strife, no more death.  There will be only joy and celebration, forever and ever, for all who are invited to the Feast.  God’s Son, Jesus Christ, came into this world, came to Cana, went to Golgotha, did all that He did, in order to plan and prepare that eternal Marriage Feast, and to invite you.  Regardless of how wonderful or how troubled your relationship to Holy Marriage is today, Jesus has prepared the Way for you to have a seat at the wedding banquet that has no end.  

   It is the most glorious fact that Jesus by His Cross and Resurrection has qualified us for seats at the heavenly banquet.   Does this mean that Holy Marriage is not such a big deal anymore?  Can we kind of not worry so much about marriage on earth today, since we know that God has accomplished the final solution for us?  Not at all.  It’s just the opposite.  The Good News of eternal salvation means we can and we should fight for Holy Marriage, today, for a whole bunch of reasons.

   First, marriage and family was the original Church Growth method.  If sin had not ruined mankind, adding to the congregation of believers would have been naturally accomplished simply through bearing children and raising them up.  No need for sin to be conquered, no struggle to instill faith in sinners, if sin had never entered the world.  And even still today, marriage and procreation, men and women finding each other, and having babies as God allows, is still critical for the growth of Christ’s Church.  Being in a committed Biblical marriage is good for the faith, of the husband and the wife.  A cord of three strands, like a believing husband, a believing wife, and Christ as their binding cord, such a strand is not easily broken.  And such couples seek to raise believing children.   

    Speaking of having babies, it is true that the Holy Spirit can and does teach the faith and join souls of every age to Christ, through the forgiveness of sins.  But making Christians is so much easier with children, when you can start putting the Word in their ears, before they are born, before they become so corrupted, so jaded, not so misled as we adults are prone to be.  The first calling of Adam and Eve, to be married and to grow a family, is still the highest and best earthly calling.  Both for men, and for women. 

   Careers and accomplishments and doing great things in life are fine.  Marveling at the beauty of the creation and enjoying the fruits of the earth are real blessings.  But they are not as good as family.  I have never sat with a dying person who wished that their retirement fund or their college degree or their career accomplishments would come see them, one more time, before they die. 

   Whether God has granted you to be married and to be a parent, or whether He has not, a good and loving family is God’s greatest earthly gift.  All our families have their problems, but they are still precious.  And good and loving families come from Holy Marriage.    

    Satan attacked and badly damaged marriage when he corrupted Adam and Eve.  The serpent slithered in to put a wedge between the man and the woman, and a wedge between them and God.  Ever since, every marriage has faced struggles.  Humanity is so prone to neglect, betray and pervert marriage, because Adam and Eve’s corruption is our corruption. 

    But, despite the damage, God never abandoned Marriage.  The Father still wants to see His children give themselves to each other in Holy Matrimony, and to continue filling the earth.  Marriage does require work by both the husband and the wife.  It is also true that in this fallen world, not everyone will be married, and not every couple will become parents, and that does not change one’s value to God.  But good marriages and families are still the greatest source of earthly blessing, the biggest key to a good life in this world.  And, good marriages greatly support the creation and sustaining of faith, faith in Christ, which receives the blessings of eternal life, a seat at the Heavenly Wedding feast.  May God’s good and gracious will for marriage be done among us, also.    

   Another reason to teach and support God’s gift of marriage is that saving faith is created by the Word of God, and God in His Word talks about marriage, a lot.  The Bible begins and ends with weddings, and the story of salvation is filled with marriages as well.  Noah and his three sons were saved with their wives, so they could start again to fill the earth.  Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebekah, Jacob and his four wives, the chain of marriages goes on and on, right down to Joseph and Mary, a husband and wife who epitomize selfless commitment to Holy Marriage, so that God’s will be done, not just for themselves, but for the whole world. 

   And while getting us to Christmas morning and the birth of the Savior is the main purpose of all these Biblical marriages, they offer more to us.   From good examples and from bad examples, we find wisdom and hope for our marriages and families.  Abraham and Sarah teach us the folly of not trusting God and coming up with our own plans to fulfill His plan.  Sarah decided God could not give her a child, so she gave Abraham her Egyptian maid, Hagar, in hopes of getting a child through her.  This plan brought jealousy and bitterness to the family.  Joyous laughter would only come when the Lord, in His timing, gave them Isaac, through Sarah’s womb. Nothing will be impossible for God; His good and gracious will is done.   

   The Godly wisdom of maintaining Holy Marriage to be the lifelong union of one man and one woman is taught from the negative example of the patriarch Jacob.  Tricked into marrying Leah, his beloved Rachel’s sister, Jacob ended up with four wives, and an angry family, constantly fighting.  God still blessed the world through the 12 sons of Jacob, growing them into the 12 Tribes of Israel.   But God’s original plan of a lifelong marriage between one man and one woman is clearly best. 

   The marriage of Ruth and Boaz offers us an example of how faithfulness to family and to God leads to marital happiness, and a line of promise that ran through King David down to the Son of David, our Savior.  God’s will was done, through Holy Marriage.    

   Against God’s design and plan for marriage come the lies and false ideas of the devil, the world, and our sinful nature.  Marriage as God intends is all about mutual self-giving, of service to another, different from yourself and complementary, a new whole that is greater than the sum of the parts.  Marriage is rightly all about selflessness and service to the other within the structure of marriage that God has given.   It requires commitment and perseverance, and trust that God can bring a couple through hard times, together.   

   The devil and the world say no, that marriage is about you getting what you want, and if that doesn’t happen, then you are free to abandon the commitment.  Men and women are taught today to come to marriage primarily to fulfill themselves, to find pleasure, to be made happy.  Some men pervert their role as leaders, and use their strength to dominate and abuse their wives, instead of to love, protect and serve them.  Some women reject the leadership God has called their husbands to provide, and seek to manipulate and dominate. 

   The heart of the world’s lie about marriage is the false idea that my marriage is good only as long as it serves my selfish desires.  If not, it can and should be discarded, says the world, repeating Satan’s lies.     

   Wise men and wise women seek to serve the other, and fight against the natural selfishness that we all bring to every relationship.  Holy marriages seek to fulfill God’s will, trusting that this is the place on earth where true joys are found.  Again and again, Biblical examples of Holy Marriage teach us that a shared faithfulness to the LORD and His promises leads to blessing.  Understanding and seeking to fulfill the different roles that God has given to man and woman in marriage creates the best opportunity for success.  Honesty, communication and mutual selfless care are vital to overcoming the problems, the sin, that is present in every marriage and family.  And of course, forgiveness, confessing sins to one another and forgiving one another, for Jesus’ sake, is just as important for the life of a marriage as it is for the life of the Church.  

   The importance of forgiveness in marriage and family points us to the Lord’s greatest use of Holy Marriage, and the final reason to support Biblical marriage that we will consider today.  The Holy Spirit loves to use marriage as a frame for proclaiming the Gospel.  It is a favorite metaphor for His saving love for mankind.  The LORD was a faithful husband to His faithless bride, the people of Israel.  Unfaithfulness toward God, the worship of idols, these are called adultery.  The LORD again and again seeks out His faithless bride, and woos her back to Himself.  Ultimately, this lopsided courtship was fulfilled in the life, ministry, suffering, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.  A rib was taken from the side of Adam, to create his wife, Eve.  A sword was thrust between the ribs of Jesus, and out flowed water and blood, God’s means for creating His Bride, the Church. 

   And so, while Jesus was giving an earthly blessing to the newlyweds at Cana, He was also hinting at His coming plan to use water and wine to cleanse and recreate sinners, through Holy Baptism and Holy Communion.  Christ Jesus used water turned to wine to give joy to the newlyweds, blessing them with the very best cup.  God creates heavenly joy by using water and wine to be fruitful and multiply His new holy people, delivering His glorious forgiveness, and binding His Bride ever closer to Himself.  And so, God’s will is done for us through Holy Marriage, on earth, today, and also in heaven, forever and ever, Amen.