SIGNS – 2nd Sunday Ordinary Time, Year C
John’s Gospel records only seven of the signs that Jesus did. He only selected seven out of the many signs and miracles that Jesus worked, because he wanted to draw attention to what the signs revealed about Jesus. The signs revealed His divine glory, nature, person and mission. From knowing who Jesus is from the signs He worked, people of all ages, times, races and circumstances can place faith in Him.
The first sign Jesus worked was at the marriage feast of Cana. He changed the water into wine. John tells us: “Jesus performed this first of His signs at Cana at Galilee”. And he tells us further: “Thus did He reveal His glory and His disciples believed in Him”. That is the goal and purpose of Jesus’ signs, to reveal His glory and to move us to place our faith in Jesus. The signs of Jesus revealed to the first disciples His identity and they placed faith in Him.
A sign points to something else. So we can’t just stop at the sign. We need to go beyond the sign. We have to look for the deeper meanings in the signs of Jesus. This is especially important in John’s Gospel, and in the prophets, who used signs, images and symbols to speak about the relationship between God and humans.
The prophets often used the marriage of husband and wife to speak about the bond between God and humans. Isaiah proclaimed that the people Israel would be called by the Lord “My delight” and “Espoused”. For the Lord delights in you… As a young man marries a virgin, your Builder shall marry you; and as a bridegroom rejoices in his bride, so shall your God rejoice in you”. This showed the close bond between Israel and the Lord. Yahwah was said to be married to the nation of Israel in the Covenant.
The messianic days foretold by the prophets were pictured as being like a great wedding banquet and feast. When the Messiah came there would be an abundance, a feast. Wine was a symbol, sign of the presence of the Lord, and was used in all the feasts of Israel.
The New Testament, as a fulfillment of the Old Testament, uses some of the same symbols. The presence of Jesus according to John’s Gospel was a sign of the messianic days, and the presence of the Lord. Jesus was the bridegroom coming to begin the wedding nuptials for the New Testament peoples.
If the only understanding we get from the account was Jesus trying to help the couple, who ran out of wine, or Jesus’ disciples drank up all the wine, we have missed the reason John recorded the sign. The Old Testament had run out of wine, had been fulfilled and needed the coming of the Messiah. Without the Lord in our life, we are out of wine, that is we are out of the presence of the Lord.
The other signs in the Gospel of John have the same purpose of revealing the glory of Jesus, and moving us to faith in Jesus. The healing of the blind man signifies Jesus is the light of the world. The multiplication of the loaves signifies Jesus is the Bread of Eternal life. The raising of Lazarus signifies Jesus is the resurrection and the life. In His prediction of the raising of His body in the talk on the destruction of the temple, Jesus signified He was the temple of God.
The Holy Spirit equips the Church, which is the temple of God, with gifts as Paul outlines in his letter to the Corinthians, to reveal Jesus, and to carry out His saving signs, the sacraments. Mary was present at the beginning of the signs of Jesus, and at the sign of the cross. She gives us good motherly advice. “Do whatever He tells you.”
We look beyond the signs of bread and wine and the words of consecration by the ordained priest and recognize the Risen Lord Jesus in the Eucharist. We look beyond the water and the words at baptism in faith to knowing the Risen Lord Jesus gives His life to the baptized.
It’s very important that we know the glory of Christ, and place our faith in Him for our salvation. Many in our time don’t think it’s too important what we believe, or think, about Jesus. Or perhaps some haven’t considered His importance. The whole of the Christian faith is based on who Jesus is as the Divine Son of God, and what He did for the salvation of the world.
Live as a sign revealing Christ’s glorious life!
From the Diary of St. Faustina - 453
Most dear to Me is the soul that strongly believes in My goodness and has complete trust in Me. I heap My confidence upon it and give it all it asks.
Yorumlar