Let Go. Let God.

INTRO

Last week we saw the calling of Jesus’ first disciples. His first two were disciples of John the Baptist. They were Andrew and an unnamed disciple. Most commentators believe this unnamed disciple is John, the author of the book of John. Andrew goes and finds Simon, who Jesus calls Peter. Then Jesus goes to Bethsaida where he calls Philip to follow him. Philip goes and finds Nathaniel, and so there were five.

Jesus and his new companions then go to Cana in Galilee.

John 2:1–12 NASB95

On the third day there was a wedding in Cana of Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there; and both Jesus and His disciples were invited to the wedding. When the wine ran out, the mother of Jesus said to Him, “They have no wine.” And Jesus said to her, “Woman, what does that have to do with us? My hour has not yet come.” His mother said to the servants, “Whatever He says to you, do it.” Now there were six stone waterpots set there for the Jewish custom of purification, containing twenty or thirty gallons each. Jesus said to them, “Fill the waterpots with water.” So they filled them up to the brim. And He said to them, “Draw some out now and take it to the headwaiter.” So they took it to him. 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, 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.” This beginning of His signs Jesus did in Cana of Galilee, and manifested His glory, and His disciples believed in Him. After this He went down to Capernaum, He and His mother and His brothers and His disciples; and they stayed there a few days.

There are two places that claim to be the original site of biblical Cana. One is four miles northeast of Nazareth, and one is a bit further, about nine miles north of Nazareth. John 21:2 cites Cana as the hometown of Nathaniel, the man who just got called to follow Jesus. Perhaps this is why Jesus received the invitation to attend the wedding. Maybe the couple were friends or relatives of Nathaniel.

As the story goes, Jesus, his mother, and his disciples were present at the wedding. Often times if we don’t read this story in context we assume all twelve of Jesus’ disciples were present, but this is not the case. Seven of them have not been called yet. The wine had run out, and Mary reports this to Jesus. We need to remember that wedding celebrations in ancient Jewish culture lasted for about a week. They needed wine to last that long. It would be a major embarrassment if the wine ran out. To put this in perspective, it would be like us putting on a church potluck or some fellowship meal and running out of food. Let’s say we are hosting a funeral service for someone or we do a wedding here and there is a meal in the Fellowship Hall afterward. Let’s say we planned for a certain number of people and the day comes and there are more than we expect. How would it feel if we did the best we could to stretch what we had but there were still people who didn’t get to eat? That would be embarrassing! The situation would have been similar here. When you put on an event and you are incapable of meeting the needs of those who attend the event, the ones who go unsatisfied will remember that event forever. That is what is at stake here.

Mary, who knows her son is the Son of God, brings this to his attention. He replies, What does this have to do with us?” Now Jesus is often criticized for calling his mom woman here. The claim is that Jesus disrespected his mother. This is not the case. This is a Hebrew idiom that was common back in his time. A similar phrase is used by demons in Mark 1:24 and Mark 5:7. Mary was asking her son to involve himself and fix the problem, but it would seem she did not know what she was asking Jesus to do. There was no liquor store, Walgreens, Walmart, or any other store they could run to to go buy more wine. There wasn’t any hidden in the basement. I’m not even sure Mary was expecting Jesus to perform a miracle. She just knew that if anybody could help, it was him.

But his hour had not yet come. What does that mean? It was not time for Jesus to make a public display and reveal his identity. The time for him to show the world who he really is was not this moment. We see this happen in other times as well. He will heal someone and tell them not to tell anybody. He would perform miracles and keep on moving. There was a period in his ministry where it was like he was operating in stealth mode. This was the beginning of it. So his mom told the servants, “Whatever he says, do it.”

Mary trusted Jesus to act in his own way.

There are six waterpots used for Jewish purification there. These were often used for washing parts of the body in preparation for a meal. He tells them to fill them to the brim, draw some water out, and take it to the man in charge. They do as Jesus says, and lo and behold, the water had become wine. Not just any wine, it was better than anything they had served before! It was customary then as it still is now to serve more fine wines at the beginning of a party than at the end. These guys are not going to start the party with the Franzia boxed wine. They’ll pull that out later after the alcohol has deadened their senses a little bit. But to run out entirely is devastating.

Jesus could have produced ordinary wine, but then it would have been unremarkable. That could be explained away. By producing a fine wine it is much more remarkable and harder to explain away. If the new wine was just like the wine that ran out, no problem. Keep filling glasses and keep the party going. But now we have the best wine. What an unexpected treat! The bride and groom are able to save face and everybody gets to witness a miracle. Or did they?

The head waiter did not appear to know where the wine came from. All he knew was that what was presented to him was the best so far. Only a handful of people knew what was going on and even they were not fully aware of what was taking place. Only when the water had touched the man’s lips is it revealed that it had become wine. There is a very secret element to this miracle that different from so many others that he does later on. It sort of begs the question, why did he do it?

Most of us assume Jesus did this to help the newly married couple or maybe even to help his mom. What if I told you that wasn’t why he did this? Verse eleven tells us why. He manifested his glory through turning water to wine so his disciples would believe in him. One thing I say all the time is that if anyone claims to be the Son of God, they need to perform miracles to back up that claim. Jesus is proving himself to be the Son of God. Jesus did not do this for his mother or for the wedding party. He did it for the five men who began following him.

Jesus provides supernatural solutions to seemingly impossible problems to show us who he is resulting in our deeper commitment to him.

This is what he did in this text. Jesus provided a supernatural solution, that is turning water into wine, to a seemingly impossible problem. There were no quick easy fixes to running out of wine at a wedding back then. This was not a problem he was required to solve. Under normal circumstances, the wine would have run out, the guests would have grumbled, and the newly married couple would have felt major embarrassment. If Jesus wasn’t there, this would have happened.

But Jesus was there and so were his new disciples. As I already told you, Jesus did not do this for the sake of the wedding party or his mother. He did it for his disciples. They knew what was going on. He needed to solidify in their minds who he really was, so he did. His disciples were the primary audience for this miracle. The wedding party were beneficiaries, but they were not the reason he did this. He did this to show his disciples who he is.

When you and I are facing impossible obstacles in our lives, and we ask God to intervene, what is our motivation for asking? Do we ask God to step in just to ease our suffering? Do we ask him to intervene so we might not have to endure the trial at all? This is often how we treat God. We are content to live life the way we want and then beg God to bail us out of trouble. If he does, we thank him and then we go right back to doing the same sort of things that got us in trouble in the first place. God does not act just because you ask him to. But he does like providing solutions to impossible problems. But to satisfy you is not his primary goal. His primary goal is to demonstrate his own power, reminding you who he is.

When I am reminded who Jesus is by display of his power worked through a difficult situation, it always calls me to further submission to his authority. There are places Jesus wants me to go. There are things Jesus wants me to do. At this stage in my life, Jesus wants me leading a small church in south Texas. That may not always be the case. He gets to decide. He bought it.

Are you looking for more of Jesus in your life? Are you wanting him to show up in some miraculous way? Are you asking him to do so simply to make life easier, or are you really looking for a manifestation of his power and his glory in your life? Are you prepared to submit more of your life to him or are you only looking for that cross you bear to get lighter?