Sermon Tone Analysis

\\ /Scriptures: John 2:1-11/

 

In the book of John we find a picture of Christ communicated to us through the eyes of the “beloved” disciple.

We see the Divinely human side of Christ which connected Him to the heart of John and this same connection takes place with us today.

I am convinced that many folks never look to see the Christ who involves himself with our everyday concerns, activities, heartaches, turmoil.

He remains distanced from us simply because we rarely draw close enough to Him to see Him as He really is.

The account of the wedding in Cana and the first miracle that he performed gives us a chance together today to do just that to see the Divinely human Christ.

 

1.

A Question of Priorities

 

Jesus declared his express purpose of entry in the mainstream of human life.

It was to seek and save those who were lost.

Could there be any loftier goal?

Could there be anything more worthy of spending ones’ life in martyrdom?

If it were possible for the “One and Only” to take our place and to provide redemption for a world:

 

Ø      that pre-dated his fleshly existence,

 

Ø      that neither recognized him nor received Him as He, the Creator walked as a stranger among the created,

 

Ø      that would know him only by His Words of life and the presence of the Comforter and the Convicter and the Companion, the Holy Spirit of God,

 

then it would stand to reason that He would wear the pressure and the stress and perhaps even a sense of personal importance that at times might unravel at the edges as we tend to do under the tremendous load of every day circumstances.

But that didn’t seem to be the pattern.

There has never been a human being that has carried such a load and such a purpose.

Ø      The more proud among us see ourselves born for greatness.

Ø      The more success oriented among us have a tendency to reduce what is divine to what is measurable, and controllable in the belief that we can somehow reproduce it in kind or package and market our accidental successes so that others can experience what has become significant to us merely because God has chosen to bless it.

TO:

Jesus, Son of Joseph

Woodcrafters Carpenter Shop

Nazareth 25922

 

FROM:

Jordan Management Consultants

Jerusalem 26544

 

Dear Sir:

 

Thank you for submitting the resumes of the twelve men you have picked for management positions in your new organization.

All of them have now taken our battery of tests; and we have not only run the results through our computer, but also arranged personal interviews for each of them with our psychologist and vocational aptitude consultant.

The profiles of all tests are included, and you will want to study each  of them.

As part of our service and for your guidance, we make some general comment, much as an auditor will include some general statements.

This is given as a result of staff consultation and comes without any additional fee.

It is the staff opinion that most of your nominees are lacking in background, education and vocational aptitude for the type of enterprise you are undertaking.

They do not have the team concept.

We would recommend that you continue your search for persons of experience in managerial ability and proven capability.

Simon Peter is emotionally unstable and given to fits of temper.

Andrew has absolutely no qualities of leadership.

The two brothers, James and John, the sons of Zebedee, place personal interest above company loyalty.

Thomas demonstrates a questioning attitude that would tend to undermine morale.

We feel that it is our duty to tell you that Matthew has been blacklisted by the Greater Jerusalem Better Business Bureau.

James, son of Alphaeus, and Thaddeus definitely have radical leanings and they both registered a high score on the manic-depressive scale.

One of the candidates, however, shows great potential.

He is a man of ability and resourcefulness, meets people well, has a keen business mind and has contacts in high places.

He is highly motivated, ambitious and responsible.

We recommend Judas Iscariot as your controller and right-hand man.

All of the other profiles are self-explanatory.

We wish you every success in your new venture.

Sincerely yours,

Jordan Management Consultants

 

Ø      The more ambitious among us see ourselves born to establish our superiority over others.

We want to make servants of other men to suit our purposes.

Jesus came as a servant of others to make them sons of God and full heirs of the riches of His kingdom.

Ø      The more greedy among us trade our lives away with the hope that the things that we acquire will somewhere, somehow, sometime quench the insatiable that drives us and bring satisfaction – the notion that our longing will put an end to our longing??? 

 

Ø      The more self-sufficient among us take way to much credit for the work of our hands.

/"When you have eaten and are satisfied, praise the LORD your God for the good land he has given you.

Be careful that you do not forget the LORD your God, failing to observe his commands, his laws and his decrees that I am giving you this day.

Otherwise, when you eat and are satisfied, when you build fine houses and settle down, and when your herds and flocks grow large and your silver and gold increase and all you have is multiplied, then your heart will become proud and you will forget the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.

He led you through the vast and dreadful desert, that thirsty and waterless land, with its venomous snakes and scorpions.

He brought you water out of hard rock.

He gave you manna to eat in the desert, something your fathers had never known, to humble and to test you so that in the end it might go well with you.

You may say to yourself, “My power and the strength of my hands have produced this wealth for me.”

But remember the LORD your God, for it is he who gives you the ability to produce wealth, and so confirms his covenant, which he swore to your forefathers, as it is today.

If you ever forget the LORD your God and follow other gods and worship and bow down to them, I testify against you today that you will surely be destroyed.

Like the nations the LORD destroyed before you, so you will be destroyed for not obeying the LORD your God." (Deuteronomy 8:10-20, NIV)/

[1]

We are so different from the model that Jesus presents to us.

In the midst of all this purpose and pressure, he finds himself at a wedding.

Not quite half of his disciples were with him.

As a matter of fact, the wedding seems to be an interruption in this most important part of his mission – at the outset of his ministry to find 12 very special men, not men of acclaim, but learners who would be charged with the task of taking his gospel to the ends of the earth.

In the middle of this a wedding and Jesus finds himself there, his mission on hold.

There is no person among us today that faces greater pressure or stress or opposition than Jesus faced as he walked

 

2.

A Quandry Of Purpose

 

And so Jesus finds himself at a wedding.

Most men want to attend one wedding.

Women cry at weddings, men cry on the way.

Had he been like us, a thousand other things in his mind, fully present somewhere else, unconsciously resentful at the expectation that brought him here, he would have been of little help and incapable of being sympathetic to his mother’s suggestive remark or the plight of the party.

If he had been like me he would have consumed his punch prior to the bridal toast and bristled at the thought of pretending to “toast” someone, believing that there must be some way distinctly different from the secular notion lifting glasses filled with an alcohol substitute to honor someone very special.

The quandary here for Christ was that things did not fit his time schedule.

"/“Dear woman, why do you involve me?” Jesus replied.

“My time has not yet come.”/"

(John 2:4, NIV)

[2]

He was torn by his devotion to his earthly mother and the direction that he was being given by his heavenly Father.

When a person really believes that he is doing God’s work, it becomes extremely annoying to “fritter” with interferences.

When you fully believe in the worth of your cause, you can overlook people and situations that are the most precious that God has given you.

How many times do we have to hear the stories of the forgotten housewife at home who becomes a stranger, “estranged” from the person that she has married?

How many times do we need to see troubled children and teenagers who bury their anger at absentee fathers who have “important” roles to play in society and exhibit dysfunctional and~/or destructive behaviors before we realize that we are on the same path as partners and parents?

I was reminded of this just recently – wonderful Christian man, involved in a network marketing business – not from Fredericton.

Without asking for a rationale he told me more than once that he was spending his nights working so that he would have more time to spend with his kids later on – he believed this with all of his heart – he was a great man and a good witness to his friends – a stranger to his children.

His oldest child was killed in a car accident a year or so ago and he never reached that spot prior to his death where he was able to find that time.

If your children were to die today, would you have regrets over the time that you had invested in their lives?

There Jesus was, torn between an undeniably worthy cause and a tiny and relatively insignificant need.

So there was no more wine – how long do these people need to draw this celebration out?

Many such gatherings would last days, even a week.

Don’t these people have anything more important to do with their time.

It’s good that the wine is gone – now everyone can sober up and go home.

Isn’t it amazing how we can become judgmental in the face of someone else’s need?

That sort of lets us “off the hook”.

License to lift our noses in the air and walk away feeling fully justified in our lack of compassion.

Is there any need that cannot be dismissed in the same manner?

Many of us can trace of circumstance and our need back to something that we might have done differently if we could have hindsight as foresight.