For September 14, 2007, the three readings for the 2nd Sunday after the Epiphany are Isaiah 62:1-5 (No longer Forsaken or Desolate); I Corinthians 12:1-11 (diversities of gifts) and John 2:1-11 (Wedding in Cana). John 2:11 is the verse chosen to preach on this week in Los Angeles, CA which reads, “This beginning of signs Jesus did in Cana of Galilee, and manifested His glory, and His disciples believed in Him.”

All Jesus did was to change water into wine and the “disciples believed in Him”??? If it’s that easy to get people to believe in Jesus, why not show to them the constant miracles that He is doing in their lives day in and day out. However, such an approach would indeed be that of the theologian of glory who assumes that his experience reveals the kind of god we have.

This may sound somewhat radical, but I have yet to find a miracle in the Bible that converted anyone to Jesus Christ. How can I say that in light of John 2:11? Was it not the changing of water into wine that led to the disciples coming to faith? The answer is “no.” How so? A casual inquiry into the previous chapter 1 of John will find that these disciples of Jesus had previously been disciples of John. These were not unbelievers but believers in the coming Messiah.

What happened to these men is not that they became believers for they already were believers trusting the promises of God that He would send the promised Messiah. What happened to them is that their true faith became one in which they no longer looked to the future for the Messiah but now looked to the present in the person of Jesus Christ as the Messiah.

And that is the purpose of miracles. They are for the faithful. For the Old Testament makes clear that the signs of the presence of the true Messiah is that the blind would see, the deaf hear, the mute speak, the lame walk and so on. The disciples had heard from John and then Jesus Himself the words of Life. Thus, the miracle at the wedding of Cana did not create faith; rather, it moved the faith already present to look to Jesus as the fulfillment of the promised Messiah (Christ).

The believer in the pew needs to have eyes of faith to see the hand of God everywhere in contrast to the unbeliever who never sees the true hand of God. The believer’s assurance is never his or her experience but rather the promises of God that are a result of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. For us in 2007, all that happens can be used by God to manifest (Epiphany) His glory so that we, His disciples, believe in Him!