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."
"Dear woman, why do you involve me?" Jesus replied. "My time 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 saved the best until now."
This, the first of his miraculous signs, Jesus performed at Cana in Galilee. He thus revealed his glory, and his disciples put their faith in him.
There are three major points in this passage. The first is Jesus honoring his mother, even when He didn't really want to. The second is the faith of the servants. And the third is that Jesus shared His first miracle with the servants.
When they ran out of wine at the wedding party, Mary became worried for the bridegroom and enlisted the help of her son, Jesus. Jesus told her flat out that His time had not come to reveal Himself to everyone. But Jesus words went through one ear and out the other. Mary ignored Jesus and told the servants to obey Jesus' every word. Mary was not mentioned again in the passage, so one can assume that she ran off without hearing Jesus out any more. Jesus did not want to reveal Himself yet, but He could not sin. The alternative was to honor His mother's wishes. So He did. He called the servants to fill a bunch of water jars used for washing people. Jesus then had the servants take some to the master of the banquet. The master of the banquet declared the wine to be better than any of the wine that had already been served. So Jesus not only obeyed His mother, but He did extra. He made the wine taste better than any of the wine they had already served. You can imagine Jesus' excitement when the first miracle He would get to do was to turn bath water into wine. But He did it nonetheless. Why? Because it was His mom asking. We must all honor our mothers and fathers. Even if it means not getting what we want or losing an important opportunity. They helped bring you into this world. They are important parts of your life and more importantly, God tells us to honor them. There is no reason to not honor our parents in this life. I'll say that again, "There is no reason to not honor our parents in this life."
Now the faith of the servants is greater than it first appears. Imagine, a man you have never heard of tells you to fill your dirty bath tub with water. Then he tells you to take some of it to the master of the entire banquet and let him drink it. Servants back then did not have much choice in whether they could obey or not, but I would be fighting with the other servants to make someone else go. The scripture however, does not mention an argument between the servants. Just that the servants did so. I would just about fall over in fear. But once the master of the banquet tried the wine he rejoiced. Because of their complete faith in Jesus orders, the servants were able to see the very first miracle Jesus ever performed. We must put our faith in Jesus commands too. The Bible is filled with His commands, many of which take us out of our comfort zone. These are the commands we usually try to pretend we didn't see. But they are there and we must obey them. And in truth, they are not bad for us. Jeremiah 29:11 "For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." God's commands are not going to hurt you in the end. They might get you into some situations where you are persecuted, but that is a good thing. Matthew 5:11-12 "Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you." No matter what happens to us, if we obey God, we will be alright in the end.
The last thing to mention is that Jesus did not mind having the servants be the ones to see His miracle with His disciples. Servants were some of the lowest of society. And Jesus did not need them to fix the problem. He could have made all the glasses never empty with wine no matter how much the people drank. But Jesus enlisted the servants anyways to show them that He was the Son of God. Jesus did not discriminate, ever! He told anyone and everyone. We must not try to choose the people we share the Gospel with. It is like saying this person or that person is not worthy of God's Love. Neither are we. But God does Love us.
Do you remember the day you realized that God truly forgave you and Loves you just the way you are? Do you remember the Joy you felt? Do you remember the feeling of a giant burden being taken away? Do you remember the tears that flowed down your face when Jesus broke your heart wide open? I had forgotten. But when I remembered it a few weeks ago, I thought, "Why am I keeping this from other people?" We must not try to choose, but tell everyone that God puts around us. Even if that person is only gonna be there for a few minutes.
Faith and Love are the biggest things to remember in this passage. Faith in Jesus that no matter what happens, if we obey Him, we'll come out of it perfectly fine. And then the motivation to share the Love that changes us with others. In other words, nothing bad will happen to us, and we get to help show other people this same feeling we have. There is no sound Biblical reason to not share the Gospel, only our bad excuses. So ask yourself the same question I keep asking myself, "What is my excuse?"
Thank You For Reading
Long Live Jesus Christ
Amen
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