By Pastor Greg
A
small town had three churches -- and all three were virtually overrun with
pesky squirrels. The first church called
a meeting to decide what to do about them.
After much prayer and consideration, they determined that God must have
wanted the squirrels there, and the church shouldn't interfere with God's
divine will. The second church decided
that they were not in a position to harm any of God's creations, so they
humanely trapped the squirrels and set them free a few miles outside of town. Three days later, the squirrels were back. The third church came up with the best and
most effective solution: they baptized
the squirrels and registered them as members of the church. Now they only see them on Christmas and
Easter.
I
wish we couldn’t joke about this. I wish
it were not true. Yet some
people simply stay away from Church until it is convenient, or necessary. They do the same thing with Jesus. The only time they want Him is when things
are wrong or when they are facing a problem.
When there is a problem, THEN they want Jesus. They want Him to wave His hand and make them
feel right as rain. Once the problem is
solved, Jesus goes back into the bottle until He is needed the next time.
Let’s
be honest here. Don’t we wish Jesus
would solve all our problems in life?
Don’t we pray to Jesus hoping He would turn our water into wine? He did it at a wedding for some unknown couple.
Why not you or me? (Read John 2:1-12)
1On the third day there was a
wedding in Cana of Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there; 2 and
both Jesus and His disciples were invited to the wedding. 3 When the wine ran out, the
mother of Jesus said to Him, “They have no wine.” 4 And Jesus said to her,
“Woman, what does that have to do with us? My hour has not yet come.” 5 His mother said to the
servants, “Whatever He says to you, do it.”
6 Now there were six stone waterpots set there for the
Jewish custom of purification, containing twenty or thirty gallons each. 7 Jesus said to them, “Fill
the waterpots with water”. So they filled them up to the brim. 8 And He said to them, “Draw
some out now and take it to the headwaiter”. So they took
it to him. 9 When the
headwaiter tasted the water which had become wine, and did not know where it
came from (but the servants who had drawn the water knew), the headwaiter
called the bridegroom, 10 and said to him, “Every man serves
the good wine first, and when the people have drunk freely, then he serves the
poorer wine; but you have kept the good wine until now”. 11 This beginning of His
signs Jesus did in Cana of Galilee, and
manifested His glory, and His disciples believed in Him. 12 After
this He went down to Capernaum, He and His mother and His brothers and His
disciples; and they stayed there a few days [1]
(John 2:1-12).
Running out of wine isn’t a real
big deal in today’s culture. However,
Jewish weddings typically lasted a whole week.
It’s not known when the wine ran out, but it was probably early enough
to cause a problem. To run out of food
or wine at a wedding was not only socially embarrassing, but the host would
have been fined as well.[2] So it appears that Mary was either helping with
the meal or knew the family. Worried
that this problem would affect them, she turns to her elder Son and tells Him
about the problem (some scholars suggest that Joseph had passed away by this
time, and Jesus would then be head of His earthly family – making this problem
His concern). Mary doesn’t tell Jesus
what to do. She just tells Him about a problem. In other words, she didn’t ask Jesus to do something that brought Him glory. She asked Him to consider the needs of
others. To me, that’s a relational
request. Mary knew her Son. She knew His heart. She knew that by bringing a need to Him,
Jesus would respond with compassion.
It’s who He is.
We cannot assume that Mary knew Jesus
would perform some sort of miracle since turning the water into wine was His
“first” sign (compare verse 11). John
actually describes this miracle as a “sign”, not a display of power. It is a demonstration of who Jesus is, not of
what He can do. I mean, look at it this
way: rather than make a big deal about displaying His power, Jesus simply demonstrates
His compassion and concern for this bride and groom. I doubt they even knew what had
happened. They were too busy gazing into
each other’s eyes, dreaming about the life they would spend together. I wonder if anyone told them what the Lord
had done for them that day.
And so, a little water is turned
into wine. Good wine. The party is saved, so to speak, and the
celebration continues without a hiccup (well, at least, we hope). Isn’t this
what most of us want from Jesus? We want
Him to turn our “Water into Wine”. We
want Him to take away all our problems in life.
Most of us would prefer that Jesus display His power. If He is “Master” over death and hunger and
disease – which He is – we want Him to solve all our problems as well. But we forget that beyond displays of power
are “signs” of His compassion and love for ordinary people like you and me. We must learn that the Lord loves us
regardless of what problems He might solve, and we must learn to love the Lord
for who He is, not because He solves all our problems in this life.
We must be careful that we do not
build a relationship with Jesus based on
what He does or does not do. Even a
marriage based upon this standard is doomed to fail. John tells us this story so that we might look
past the power and see the heart of the Lord.
The “Son of God” walked among us, and was involved in the lives of
common, ordinary people. Jesus
demonstrated His compassion, and by this “sign”, we can know that the Lord
cares for us. It’s who He is.
Sadly, I meet far too many people
who don’t want a relationship with Jesus.
They want a problem solver – a little genie they can keep tucked away in
their pocket that takes away all the bumps and bruises in life. However, if Jesus is nothing more than a
“good luck charm” to keep around in case of emergencies, then these people are
in for a big disappointment someday. One
day, Jesus is not going to turn the water into wine. One day, Jesus isn’t going to solve all their
problems. If this is what they expect
Jesus to do, then there is a good chance they will become disillusioned and
disenchanted with the power of Jesus.
And so I ask, for what reason are
you following Jesus? This story about
the wedding is not a lesson about Jesus’ power over our problems but about His
compassion for us. Whether the Lord
solves all our problems in life is not the issue. What is important is that we learn from this “sign”
that Jesus didn’t come to make my life or your life comfortable. He came to build a relationship with you and
me. He
came so that we might be made holy. He
came so we might have eternal life.
No comments:
Post a Comment