John 2:1-12
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Do whatever he tells you
Do whatever he tells you
So if you are new here at REC, Welcome.
We are in the third week of a series teaching though the book of John.
I am such a big fan of John’s writing because I think it is fruitful if you just read it on its face but if you dig a little…OHHHH wow…It just gets so amazing
So I have been using this analogy though the book that we need chopsticks to eat from John…on one hand you need to view this as simple…Look at the plane reading of the text and then on the other hand you need to dig a bit into the text to uncover the depth of meaning in your life
So I want to read these verse and invite you to just get the plane reading of it in your head and then for the next 25 minutes I want to dig through the depths of this story
On the third day a wedding took place at Cana in Galilee. Jesus’ mother was there, and Jesus and his disciples had also been invited to the wedding. When the wine was gone, Jesus’ mother said to him, “They have no more wine.”
“Woman, why do you involve me?” Jesus replied. “My hour has not yet come.”
His mother said to the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.”
Nearby stood six stone water jars, the kind used by the Jews for ceremonial washing, each holding from twenty to thirty gallons.
Jesus said to the servants, “Fill the jars with water”; so they filled them to the brim.
Then he told them, “Now draw some out and take it to the master of the banquet.”
They did so, and the master of the banquet tasted the water that had been turned into wine. He did not realize where it had come from, though the servants who had drawn the water knew. Then he called the bridegroom aside and said, “Everyone brings out the choice wine first and then the cheaper wine after the guests have had too much to drink; but you have saved the best till now.”
What Jesus did here in Cana of Galilee was the first of the signs through which he revealed his glory; and his disciples believed in him.
After this he went down to Capernaum with his mother and brothers and his disciples. There they stayed for a few days.
Father thank you for Your Son. Thank you for your Word in our lives…Thank you for your son who is your word made flesh. As we read it today may we see the sign that this text wants to show us…Help us to hear your voice
As we get into this verse I want to actually start with one of the last verses that we are reading today.
What Jesus did here in Cana of Galilee was the first of the signs through which he revealed his glory; and his disciples believed in him.
Remember I have told you I will intro the book as we read it.
John organizes Jesus’ ministry around seven “signs” and it says that this is the first of the seven
The word for “first” in the Greek also means primary.
So this is not just the first sign in the list of seven but it’s also primary!
Why? because this is pointing to a new disposition of grace that is coming in the world though Jesus
It is pointing to a new creation. Already what we learned John 1 is all about.
The other thing is this
John organizes his book into two major parts
1. The light in the darkness: These are a series of “signs” and “I am” statements that show that Jesus is the messiah and what kind of messiah he is…
All of these things together reveal that a great light has come in the midst of a great darkness
2. The second section of John’s gospel is that the darkness has not overcome the light…and we are going to look at that in the second half of the book…
This is where the religious leaders keep trying to kill Jesus…and even when they finally do, Jesus doesn’t stay dead…the darkness hasn’t overcome it…
So the signs are showing about How Jesus is the light in the darkness
But there is another thing deeper that John is doing…He has a word available to him…that Matthew, Mark and Luke used that he chose not to use.
The word is Miracle…In greek, it is Mighty Deed or might act:
So in Matthew mark and Luke… Faith generates Miracles…
But in the book of John, all seven of these signs generate faith
He calls them signs because you are not supposed to focus on the power of the Miracle but you are supposed to set your focus on the one who did it in the first place.
Signs point to something. this is their job
Signs are meant to point us to the source, not the spectacle.
Signs are meant to point us to the source, not the spectacle.
John explicitly says this, when he talks about
Jesus performed many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book. But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.
John literally just says: I wrote about the signs so that you can have faith in Jesus…Also these signs correlate with the seven I am statements in the book of John…
There has been a movement for years for people to chase signs and miracles. They want to see the power of God. I understand this, who doesn’t want to see the power of God? But Folks I have seen miracles that involve no spectacle at all…
People who have left their past behind in order to follow Jesus
God mending marriages for people who have no business being married…
What I want to tell you is don’t fall into the trap of chasing signs and Miracles…
But seek after the one who gives these in the first place.
I think so many times we come to God for a Miracle, we come because we want to see a display of power
But the greatest sign that we can receive is a life that is totally changed by Jesus… Seek that!
Ok lets get into the actual sign:
Lets look back at John 2:1
On the third day a wedding took place at Cana in Galilee. Jesus’ mother was there, and Jesus and his disciples had also been invited to the wedding.
Remember to eat this verse with chopsticks
You can read this on a Tuesday Jesus and his mom & Disciples were at a wedding
Or you can read this and think about
The wedding feast of the lamb…That what we are looking on here is both a real wedding that happened in Cana but also an example of what happens when the church will be gathered to Jesus at the final resurrection
That proverbial third day. That we get to partake in the wedding feast of the Lamb!
When the wine was gone, Jesus’ mother said to him, “They have no more wine.”
Now again, there are two levels of meaning here
First, the wine is gone and that is a major embarrassment
But it is much deeper than that
Wine in scripture is the emblem of Joy
wine that gladdens human hearts,
“But the vine answered, ‘Should I give up my wine, which cheers both gods and humans, to hold sway over the trees?’
Many see this as a commentary that Judiasm had become cold and stale, joyless…
Israel was practicing a set of rules rather than finding joy in the Lord.
Guys this is such a key point…
When faith becomes rules instead of relationship, we lose our Joy.
When faith becomes rules instead of relationship, we lose our Joy.
How many times have you come to church and thought, where was the joy I had at first?
See this happens because we tend to turn following Jesus into following a stale set of rules rather than interacting with the living breathing savior in our lives…
And this is hi lighted by verse six…
Nearby stood six stone water jars, the kind used by the Jews for ceremonial washing, each holding from twenty to thirty gallons.
Six stone jars stood empty
You have to remember that John is a numbers guy, numbers are very significant to him
Six is the number of incompletion…It is the imperfect number
The sixth day is also the day that Man was made in creation…It is a reminder of human flesh
All that was left of Judaism was of the flesh; God was not in it
SO this is not an ordinary wedding
There are two levels of meaning happening here
There is a wedding…the wine has run out…
But Judaism has become an empty fleshy religion that is incomplete
Let’s look at the verses we skipped
Remember, it is Jesus’ mother that came to him and said…hey the wine has run out…
The fact that Jesus and his mother was there suggests that this was a relatives wedding and it would not be crazy to think that Mary might be embarrassed because maybe she had a role in organizing the catering
I like what the TV series the Chosen sort of Suggests…
Jesus has these new disciples…he brings them to the wedding
Maybe there are more people than they had planned…and its all Jesus’ fault…so he has to fix it
So when Mary comes to Jesus here is the first response:
“Woman, why do you involve me?” Jesus replied. “My hour has not yet come.”
His mother said to the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.”
I know that this comes across as callous to our english ears but Jesus is actually using the same language as he uses on the cross
Where he hands off care for his mother to John…The guy who is writing this gospel….By the way…
So Jesus’ mother tells Jesus about it and he responds “Woman, why do you involve me? My hour has not yet come.”
Now many people have read this as rude, but it is simply formal, it would not have been a rude statement…
The question is almost
What is this request in light of who I am as the messiah?
Like…what does this have to do with me?
Jesus’ mother knew that this would have been a horrible embarrassment,
When Jesus says “My hour has not yet come” The “Hour” looms heavy in the book of John…The hour is when Jesus is almost saying…Once I start with the road of the signs…I start down the road to Calvary…My hour has not yet come!
look at John 12….
“Now my soul is troubled, and what shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour’? No, it was for this very reason I came to this hour.
The Hour is Jesus’ death on behalf of a sinful world
And Jesus knows that once he starts down the road of the miraculous it is going to lead to his hour coming
But look at what Mary the mother of Jesus
She has these 6 empty ceremonial washing Jars and she says:
Do whatever he tells you!
Mary has learned to trust the word of Jesus…
Mary’s faith in Jesus is amazing: See this is what she does: She asks Jesus for help and then leaves the matter in his hands…
How many times to do we pray for help only to take the matter into our own hands and solve it by our own wisdom?
So here is what happens:
Nearby stood six stone water jars, the kind used by the Jews for ceremonial washing, each holding from twenty to thirty gallons.
Jesus said to the servants, “Fill the jars with water”; so they filled them to the brim.
Then he told them, “Now draw some out and take it to the master of the banquet.”
They did so, and the master of the banquet tasted the water that had been turned into wine. He did not realize where it had come from, though the servants who had drawn the water knew. Then he called the bridegroom aside and said, “Everyone brings out the choice wine first and then the cheaper wine after the guests have had too much to drink; but you have saved the best till now.”
You guys there is so much here: Every week I am thinking…I am just giving a fraction…Just a summary but stick with me here
So we can’t ignore that this all happens at a wedding…
A wedding is a covenant time…
But I think this whole wine in a large stone jar would have invoked a memory for the Jewish person reading all of this…
The Lord said to Moses, “Tell Aaron, ‘Take your staff and stretch out your hand over the waters of Egypt—over the streams and canals, over the ponds and all the reservoirs—and they will turn to blood.’ Blood will be everywhere in Egypt, even in vessels of wood and stone.”
What was happening here? God was leading his people out of Egypt…It was a divorce, right?
He was divorcing his people from the Egyptian gods from their land and from their law…
And now Jesus is at a wedding where two people are becoming united…
And really part of the sign here is what I think John wants us to see is that all of these characters are part of this sign…
For goodness sakes, they are at a wedding…Jesus calls the church his bride, Jews were looking forward to the wedding fest of God…
And I want to talk about wine for a second…I mean I already spoke about it once but there are way more verses here:
Genesis 49 is when Jacob blesses his sons…For Judah this is one of his blessings…BY THE WAY…Jesus just happens to be a descendent of Judah
He will tether his donkey to a vine,
his colt to the choicest branch;
he will wash his garments in wine,
his robes in the blood of grapes.
Genesis 49:11 envisions a future royal figure who will tie his donkey to the vine…
His garments will be washed in wine…what? if you have ever spilled wine somewhere you know it is impossible to get out…
But the common way to understand this is that what Jesus does is he grabs a donkey and he rides into his own death…he teather’s himself to the cross
and he washed the world in his blood
The last part of this verse helps us understand
His robes in the blood of grapes….
A crushed grape spills blood…
Why do you think that Jesus held up a cup of wine and said this is my blood!???
He is the crushed grape!
“I have trodden the winepress alone;
from the nations no one was with me.
I trampled them in my anger
and trod them down in my wrath;
their blood spattered my garments,
and I stained all my clothing.
All the way through time and history, the wine that a grape gives was known as “the blood of the vine”…It was even used as a substitute for blood at some ceremonies…
And what is happening in this story is that the jars that are for washing can never really clean you…Sure they can wash away the dirt but in order to be really clean…On the inside…the only thing that will do that is the blood of Jesus
Only the blood of Jesus can actually wash us!
I think the deeper level of what is happening here is that this sign is a sign to the world that …
Jesus is God and he wants to unite with his people, in a marriage covenant…
And I think that the water that turns to wine is symbolic of his blood, because it’s in these jars that are for ritual purity!
It is almost this very early foreshadowing sign…Showing us that there is enough blood, there is an over abundance of blood to purify us of all of our sins!
See, we are intended to be vessels of purity and when we are, then we are in a position to be used by God
Here is what I love about this sign…
Jesus didn't walk over and wave his hands over the jars…
He didn't spit in the water
He didn't do anything…
He just spoke his word! And by his word it was transformed….John is reminding us…In the beginning was the word! and the word was with God and the word was God!
Jesus transforms though his word
Jesus didn't replace it, he transformed it!
Jesus doesn’t just clean us—He transforms us.
Jesus doesn’t just clean us—He transforms us.
It’s fine bring Jesus your water.
Bring Jesus what you have…He will make something new out of it
Your life surrendered to Jesus will be transformed by him
Your finances surrendered to Jesus will be transformed…Doesn’t mean you’ll be rich just transformed
Your relationship, your marriage surrendered to Jesus will be transformed
Even your doubt, your anger, your resentment…Bring it to Jesus, he can handle it
I love this:
The water that was intended to clean the outside of a person turned to wine which was really meant for the nourishment of the inside of a person.
Who is capable of this kind of thing?
In nature there is only one thing that I know of that can turn water into wine
later in the book of John we will here Jesus say
“I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener.
Literally: I transform water to wine!
I am the one you come to for transformation!
I am the one you come to for nourishment!
I am the one you come to for purity!
So this story is a sign…One that we have to understand on multiple layers…
But there is another way to look at this story too..
Its also a true parable…It that it has parabolic significance but it really happened
I think one of the best ways to look at this is that we are the jars...Intended for purity…
We are these jars that are filled to the brim with water…
But transformation of what is on the inside only comes in this small simple phrase from Jesus’ mother….
“Do Whatever He Tells You”
“Do Whatever He Tells You”
Those words of Mary are so practical
Do whatever he says to do, do it…
Have you gotten to a point in your faith and in your life that you can confidently do whatever he says to do?
Instead of going to Jesus with our requests why don’t we go to him and do whatever he tells us?
Somehow that is not satisfying because so many times in prayer its almost like we want to leave things in God’s hands…and they are capable hands…
But if were are going to go to God in prayer, then we have to be willing to do whatever he tells us!
And lastly…I want to finish with this
In chapter 1 we saw this text that says
“Out of his fullness we have all received grace in place of grace already given”
Jesus turning water to wine is the first taste of what “grace upon grace” tastes like
This is a text I preach at weddings a lot…because the point isn’t necessary the wine…it is the crazy abundance of it…
The wine represents his grace…And this is the first time that God’s grace is so lavishly poured out upon humanity
I always tell young couples…That there is always more wine in the jar….
In other words, so many times we get to a spot in our marriages where we feel like empty jars…
Our grace is used up…
Our patience is used up…
Our forgiveness is all used up…
Our understanding is used up…
We are simply burned out!
I always tell young couples that so many times we look for fulfillment in each other but that will never quite do…
I always tell them, when your jar is empty, always run to Jesus…
He will fill you up…
When your jar is empty…Do whatever he tells you!
As we wrap up and the Band comes forward
As we wrap up and the Band comes forward
What does this mean for you this week?
Its not about “trying harder” to be a better Christian
Its about carving out time to listen to Jesus
It’s about bringing him that empty Jar
It’s about obedience to what he tells you!
It’s about giving Jesus the final authority over your whole life
He will gladly take what you bring him and make something new out of it!
Bring Him your empty jar.
Do what He says.
Watch what He does.
let’s pray
