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Our speaker at Grace dove into John 2 yesterday. It’s not fair to only have 30-40 minutes with that passage. There is a lot there. God takes the ordinary and makes it extraordinary was the big push…and that’s true…but I think there is something much more stunning going on in John 2.
The Hebrew symbol for joy is wine. When you run out of wine, you’ve run out of joy. At a wedding…that’s not a bad thing, that’s a disastrous thing. It means that their marriage was destined to run out of joy. It was not just humilating to the family but it would have been crushing to the bride and groom. Enter Mary. And the panic attack. “Do something Jesus.”
Great retort by Jesus but what is greater than that is Mary’s directions to the servants. “Do whatever he tells you to do.”
When Jesus told the servants to fill up the washing pots to the brim, they had to be both laughing and nervous as all get out. They were unclean. They were unpresentable to the feast - they stood outside the festival and at this point in the festival probably unused. I can hear Jesus going - “Watch this. Get a ladel full of that hand and foot washing water and take inside the party and present it to the master of ceremonies. Trust me.”
He takes a situation that has run out of joy and used an unclean, unpresentable, unused vessel (cleaning water) to not just ‘redeem’ the situation but made it better. The MC says it was the best wine. And what was the advice? How did it happen?
It happens when the servants do exactly what Jesus tells them to do. That’s it. Just obey. Don’t worry about the hows or what ifs…just do what He says.
Funny…I think I needed that reminder more than anyone else.
6 responses so far ↓
1 Catbird // May 1, 2006 at 9:15 pm
Obedience…So easy. So hard.
Thanks for being faithful to share this insight. I needed it, too.
2 The Catbird Seat » From the Catbird Seat News Desk… // May 1, 2006 at 10:40 pm
[...] “the G sides” has some great insights on John 2 this week. Prepare to be reminded (again) of the miraculous results that come when we obey God. Besides that, you just gotta love a guy that blogs about Dell customer service, bass-fishing, Harry Potter, the NFL draft, and Jesus all on the same blog. A must-read. Even if you could care LESS about sports. (sorry, Grant.) [...]
3 kris // May 2, 2006 at 8:28 am
but i don’t WANNA be obedient.
oh, wait … i guess that’s the point isn’t it.
free will is such a mixed bag. but, like anything else, when we choose well and do the hard thing, great stuff happens.
4 Jerry // May 3, 2006 at 2:40 am
On a different note, this passage always makes me wonder why some sub-cultures within the Evangelical church in America have such a problem with beverage alcohol.
Look at verse 10. Doesn’t this imply the guests had already had enough? Yet Jesus then brought out huge quantities of the good stuff.
So why do we condemn that which Jesus blessed?
5 rob // May 3, 2006 at 3:28 am
This miracle is one of the key examples in my mind (raising Lazarus is the other) where Jesus shows that He will involve us in His activities. Jesus could create wine out of nothing, but instead, He chose to involve people up and until the only way to go forward was the miraculous.
6 Chris // May 6, 2006 at 9:27 am
Grant,
I love this passage as well. I think John 2 also says a lot in general about finsihing well. I have also related that to our teens - good points!
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