Jesus: More Than a Moral Teacher

Text: John 2:1-11

In the name of Jesus. Amen.

I am not sure about you, but I know for myself that many of the stories about Jesus have become so familiar that they tend to lose their awe and might.  For example, in our reading from the Gospel of John, we read that Jesus turned water into wine.  If you are like me, you have heard this story hundreds of times.  In fact, you may have heard it so many times that you may have become desensitized to it.  In other words, we have listened to this story so many times that we can easily hear it as a nice little narrative of Jesus doing a nice little favor at a nice, lovely wedding long ago.  But dear friends, there is so much more.  

Now, I will be the first to admit that I am not a professional chemist by any means, but let me try and explain water and wine.  Remember that water is composed of two hydrogen atoms and one oxygen atom.  It has no color, taste, or complex structure.  It is just water.  But wine, well… wine is a complex mixture of water, alcohol, sugars, organic acids, something called phenolic compounds, and hundreds of other molecules that contribute to wine’s taste, aroma, and color.  And so, for water to become wine, a series of intricate chemical transformations would need to occur, which would be totally impossible without an external agent or a long process of fermentation.  

Let me explain a bit more.  In ancient Israel, to make wine, a person would have to harvest grapes by hand.  Once the grapes had been gathered, the grapes would then need to be crushed.  Often this would happen with bare feet in stone vats.  The crushing of the grapes was intended to extract the juice from the grapes.  After being crushed, the juice and grape skins were then transferred to a large clay jar for fermentation, where natural yeast converted the sugars in the grapes into alcohol over several weeks.  After that, the wine was then strained, placed in sealed jars, and left to age to enhance its flavor.  Needless to say, the process of making wine was labor-intensive and tedious, required a lot of skill, and required proper storage conditions to produce the finest of wine.  Making wine was not like putting two tablespoons of Kool-Aid into water and stirring for 20 seconds.  

What’s the point, though?  

Whe point is that when Jesus turned water into wine, natural processes, laws of chemistry, and rules of science were utterly and totally defied.  When Jesus turned water into wine, He transcended the laws of what is called the conservation of energy and matter.  These laws govern all natural chemical reactions in the world, and yet Jesus disregarded these Laws at that wedding in Cana.   

Think about this for a moment: Jesus didn’t even bring his chemistry set.  He didn’t bring any magic potions.  He did not have any cooking pots, yeast, or wine presses.  Instead, He just spoke, 

“Fill the jars with water. Now draw some out and take it to the master of the feast.”  

Boom – water to wine.   

Dear friends, the point that is being made is that we must guard ourselves from seeing Jesus as nothing more than a good moral teacher, as many do.  He is not just a nice guy who does some neat magic tricks, like turning water into wine.  No, this is not who Jesus is.  You see when we read the Gospel of John, we hear about seven signs that Jesus performs:  

(1) The first sign is that he turns plain water into fine wine. 

(2) The second is that he heals an official’s son without even visiting the boy.  He just says, “Your son will live,” and the boy is instantly healed.  

(3) Jesus heals a man who was paralyzed for 38 years.  He tells him to pick up his mat and walk, and the man picks up his mat and walks. 

(4) With only five loaves of bread and two fish, Jesus feeds over 5,000 hungry people.  

(5) During a storm, Jesus walks on water to reach the scared disciples in the boat.  

(6) And who can forget the man born blind?  Yes, Jesus healed Him, too; He gave Him sight.

(7) Finally, but certainly not least, Jesus goes to the place of dead Lazarus.  He then speaks to a dead person, and the dead Lazarus listens and comes out fully alive.  

Again, to the point, these are not the actions of an ordinary person.  Furthermore, good moral teachers do not do these kinds of extraordinary things.  Turning water into wine, healing a kid just by speaking, giving strength to a paralyzed man, feeding over 5,000 people, walking on water, giving sight to the blind, and bringing people back from the dead – this is not the work of a good moral teacher who teaches nice little things and tells good little adventurous stories.  No, this is the work of someone much greater than a good moral teacher.  

An old British theologian named C.S. Lewis once stated, 

“A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic — on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg — or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God: or else a madman or something worse. You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about [Jesus] being [just] a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.”

In other words, there is no room in the Bible to see Jesus as just a good moral teacher.  That is not an option.  The miracles and signs of Jesus do not allow us to say, 

“Jesus was a moral philosopher who taught people to love big – nothing more.  He was so inspiring.”

Dear friends, that kind of tame and weak Jesus does not exist in the Bible.  

Listen up; there is a temptation in the world and all of us to reduce Jesus to a good moral teacher and downplay or ignore the signs that He does in the Gospel of John. The reason why is that it is less threatening to us.  

Again, please straighten your backs and open your ears: when we see these signs of Jesus for what they are, we realize the omnipotence of Jesus, and this demands that we not only take him seriously but that we also repent and bow before Him as the mighty Son of God who rules over all things.  Frankly, though, many people would rather avoid this, so they confine Jesus to an idolatrous, safe realm.  

Baptized Saints, the Word of God cannot be muted.  The Word of God cannot be muzzled.  It won’t whither.  It won’t fade.  The Word declares to you that Jesus indeed turned water into wine, healed the sick, gave strength to the paralyzed, fed the multitudes, walked on water, gave sight to the blind, and brought a dead man back from the dead.  

Furthermore, as we hear from the Word of God, your Jesus gives you several other signs – He gives you a bloody cross and an empty tomb so that you may know that the Son of God is so much more than a mere good teacher.  He is the God-Man who went to Calvary’s cross to bleed, die, and rise from the tomb not only for your justification but to put an end to the condemnation of sin, the sting of death, and hissing Devil.  A mere moral teacher cannot forgive sin, overcome death, and defeat the Devil.  But your Jesus can – and does.  Why?  Because He is the Christ, the omnipotent Son of God. 

Baptized Saints, the story of Jesus turning water into wine is just one of many signs that Jesus did.  The story of water to wine has been written in the Gospel of Mark so that you may hear it and believe that Jesus is not just a moral teacher but the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing, you may have life in His name. (See John 20:30-31) 

In the name of Jesus. Amen.