As we have seen by now, John’s gospel really is an authoritative history of the works, the will and the way of Jesus. And just as ch. 1 gives His story from the perspective of eternity, so ch. 2 begins to give us the account of His life’s work while treading the countryside of Judea. In ch. 2 we have two strange snapshots, if you would call them that, which provide us a picture of Jesus at the very beginning of His ministry. In the first, He is presented as a guest at a wedding celebration, while at the second we see Him as the Son of God, cleaning His Father’s house… the temple at Jerusalem… of the filth and the fraudulence of organized religion. And by the way, God hasn’t changed; He still wants the church to be holy, set apart and unaffected by the ways of the world!
In Jesus’ day, the temple had become a place of power, politics and pride, rather than of prayer. And Jesus still insists that we remember our priorities, both when we are gathered as His church, as well as while we are living our day-to-day lives. And this is where we find Jesus, getting involved in the problems and the priorities of ordinary, everyday life. We see Jesus here as a Christ Who cares about our cares; Who can do what we cannot, and Who comes through for His people, right to the very last drop! So let’s “drop” in on this little scene as it’s pictured in John, ch. 2.1-11.
First of all, we see that…
1. Jesus wants to participate in the events of our lives, 2.1-2
Now this passage records for us the very first, of many miracles that Jesus would perform throughout the three years of His ministry…His turning water into wine. And I guess that before we get into it, you need to decide whether or not you believe in miracles, because if you believe that Jesus was the Author of miraculous events during His ministry career, then you need to believe that He still is today. However, although He is still the same concerned and caring Saviour that He was on that day, I’m going to give you permission to believe as you wish about the matter. But you need to hear that I have experienced miracles, and I believe that Jesus is just that interested in me and mine! After all, a miracle of healing is nothing, when you stand it alongside the spiritual rebirth of a sinner lost in his sin!
On the other hand, there are many so-called “charismatics” today who insist on one or more miracles in each of their meetings; and apparently, so I have heard, some are even guilty of making-up miracles, in order to protect their image; I don’t know of those things personally you understand. However, when Jesus performs a miracle, it’s neither made-up, or temporary, or for His own selfish purposes, either one; in fact, in His own words (ch. 4.48), it was because His people, the Jews, needed a sign. That was their stock-in-trade…a lack of faith concerning the things of the Spirit. Many of those miracles however, simply served to rile up their antagonism against Him, even as He was meeting the very real needs of very real people in doing-so, whether that miracle happened to be the turning of water into wine, or the raising of a little girl from the dead! Jesus is more than just our Sunday companion; His greatest desire is to receive us to Himself in faith and then to get His hands dirty in the stuff of our lives!
In v. 1 we read that on the third day there was a wedding in Cana of Gallilee…the third day after what, we’re not told, but if numbers mean anything at all, this one is significant, because it was the third day that Jesus rose from the dead, and it was by that means that Jesus not only opened the door to participation in our lives, but He opened wide the door to eternal life!
There must have been something about Jesus and His relationship with the people in His life to cause them to invite Him to one of our most important life events…a good neighbour, a good friend, a good son and a great High Priest and the King of Kings! He enters our lives by invitation only, and by the very nature of His sacrifice for us at Calvary, He deserves to be present in any and every area of our lives! We need to anticipate His presence in every corner of our life experience, and the reason is, because He knows we need what He has. And when we call, He’s there. And that’s a hard lesson for the Christian to learn , but it’s vital to our spiritual growth, as we will see from the next few verses of this second chapter in this record of our Lord’s life calling!
Join me there…Lesson 4, Parts 2 & 3!
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