American Loon

All Glory to God the Father and to our Savior Jesus Christ

From Westminster Shorter Catechism, questions 51 to 54:

Q51: What is forbidden in the Second Commandment?
A51: The Second Commandment forbiddeth the worshipping of God by images, or any other way not appointed in His Word. 

Q52: What are the reasons annexed to the Second Commandment?
A52: The reasons annexed to the Second Commandment are, God’s sovereignty over us, and the zeal He hath to His own worship. 

Q53: Which is the Third Commandment?
A53: The Third Commandment is, “thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain: for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh His name in vain.” 

Q54: What is required in the Third Commandment?
A54: The Third Commandment requireth the holy and reverent use of God’s names, titles, attributes, ordinances, Word, and works.

Today we will look at starting a new chapter in John’s epistle and John 2 is where we will begin. An interesting chapter in that it is one we all know so well and therein lies the problem. The old saying “familiarity breeds contempt” describes the issue, but with our knowing this scripture as well as we do, we become blase about it. Incurious, even lazy in our understanding of it. Which I believe is as bad in God’s eyes as contempt. 

I grew up in the Lutheran church and found early on that Lutherans are very good at bringing things to every service in which the average pew sitter just repeats whatever is asked of them, without attaching any understanding or meaning to it. I am talking about the Liturgy, Creeds, The Divine Service, which I found in my Mother’s well used Lutheran Hymn book, and the Lord’s Prayer. All of these things are good but when repeated without thought, you’ve got a problem. And problems are a specialty of people. You cut them some slack, serve them some milk, meaning your Pastor only preaches of Love, Joy and Inclusiveness, basically Arminianism with a healthy dollop of Universalism, and they begin to like and expect that kind of thing. In fact, the congregation will get surly and unaccepting when presented with the full weight of God’s word in their Sunday sermon. The Apostle Paul knew of this so well. Here he is talking to the Corinthians: “But a natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned.” (1 Corinthians 2:14)

A lot of “natural people” go to church I am thinking. 

So let’s look at the second chapter in John: 

“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.” (John 2:1-2)

In researching this, the first thing that stood out in my mind was nobody is quite sure where Cana of Galilee is. They know it was approximately 8-9 miles north of Nazareth, but in 2000 years, things change. The important thing to remember is that God does not change. “The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever.” (Isaiah 40:8) 

That passage of scripture is in answer to a statement made to me by various people throughout my life. That being “The world has changed, so it is understandable that the church would change too.” If you believe that, you’ve been served milk too often at church. Read your bible! (2 Timothy 3:16-17)

Moving on…

Jesus’s Mother was there. Weddings in those days were big deals. Long  drawn out affairs. A Jewish wedding; sometimes they lasted seven to fourteen days. It was a very festive occasion. The simple statement that Jesus’s Mother was there may indicate that she was helping out, possibly friends of the family. No corroboration in the scripture and it doesn’t really matter to the story, but a possibility. Then it states that Jesus and His disciples were also there. More thought that this might be friends of the family. And friends bring friends. 

Verse 1 speaks of the third day in Jesus’ gathering of His disciples. Those disciples were Andrew, Simon Peter, Philip, Nathanael and John who is the author of this scripture. (John 1) It was a prominent wedding, the guests as well would be people who were upper-middle class to upper class as far as financial standing in the community went. Carpenters would fall into that category in those days and so would fishermen who owned their own boats. Both occupations were honorable. 

We continue…

When the wine ran out, the mother of Jesus said to Him, “They have no wine.” (John 2:3) This is where your casual understanding of the story will cause you to miss the importance of this statement. Mary comes to Jesus, her first born son and says “They have no more wine.” Now in a Jewish wedding, something like that would have caused the guests to have an unfavorable view of the couple, which could change their whole life together. It could even lead to a divorce, it was that serious. Also in the normal course of life back in that day, what good would it do to tell your son that the wine ran out? Wine takes time to make and it would also take time and money to get more of by buying it. 1st century carpenters were not known to have lots of walking around money or influence in finagling deals for liquor. 

And here we come to a division. Between a Mother and a Son. You remember that Jesus had been recently baptised, “As soon as Jesus was baptized, he went up out of the water. At that moment heaven was opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him. And a voice from heaven said, ‘This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.’” (Matthew 3:13-17) So whose son is He now? And I do believe that Mary was aware of this. She was His Mother after all. And in the back of her mind, it is most likely that she was recalling the time an Angel came to her with incredible news, “The angel answered and said to her, ‘The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; and for that reason the holy Child shall be called the Son of God.’” (Luke 1:35) 

But what else did she know? The scripture has no mention of other miracles by Jesus before this. But where did her idea come from that her son could be of help in this particular time? This, my friends, is the very definition of faith, “things hoped for, a proof of things not seen.” (Hebrews 11:1) Since the scripture does not tell us, we will have to go with faith.

Next up, Jesus informs her of something I again think she already knew, a change in relationship and a change in status. “What business do you have with Me, woman? My hour has not yet come.” (John 2:4)

In Christ’s reply to his mother there was no disrespect. He used the same word when speaking to her with affection from the cross; “So when Jesus saw His mother, and the disciple whom He loved standing nearby, He said to His mother ‘Woman, behold, your son!’ Then He said to the disciple, ‘Behold, your mother!’ And from that hour the disciple took her into his own household.” (John 19:26-27) And also to Mary Magdalene after his resurrection. (John 20:15)

It was an act of distancing Himself from His Mother. Whether she knew from previous experience or simply through Faith, she had made this request to Him. We can learn from this. When the world beats us down, when we have no hope, Christ said to us, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.” (Matthew 11:28) We trust in Him when Christ tells us, “Everyone whom the Father gives me will come to me, and the one who comes to me I will never send away.” (John 6:37) Faith moves mountains. (Mark 11:23) Faith in the Lord will give you a place in Heaven (John 14:2-3), where there are no tears or pain.(Revelation 21:4) I recommend that you read 1 Peter 1 for more information on Hope, Faith and Salvation. It will do your heart good.

Onward…

Christ tells her that My time is not now, and yet He did not deny her. Perhaps the wine was not yet entirely exhausted. The wine had begun to fail, but he would not work a miracle until it was entirely gone, that the miracle might be free from all possibility of suspicion. It does not mean that the proper time for his working a miracle, or entering on his public work had not come, but that the proper time for his interposing there had not arrived. Why else had Jesus come to this wedding? The Holy Spirit had drawn Him to the desert, to be tempted by satan. Did the same thing happen here?

Her faith in this man who had been her son was such that she told the servants “Whatever He tells you, do it.”(John 2:5) And so they did.

The Messiah makes water into wine…

“Now there were six stone waterpots standing there for the Jewish custom of purification, containing two or three measures 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 head waiter.’ And they took it to him. Now 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 head waiter called the groom, and said to him, ‘Every man serves the good wine first, and when the guests are drunk, then he serves the poorer wine; but you have kept the good wine until now.’” (John 2:6-10)

A firkin is nine gallons. These water pots held from eighteen to twenty-seven gallons each. There were somewhere between 108 gallons and 162 gallons of water here. This had to be for a large group of people. The pots were made of stone because stone was more impervious than earthenware and did not contract uncleanness. The washings or ablutions had extended to such an incredulous extent that they were continuously washing for one reason or the other, and these six firkins of water were standing by for them to carry on these ceremonial washings. This was from the Pharisees adding many more of their ideas of righteousness to God’s law which ultimately just burdened everybody but themselves. (Matt 23:1-12)

The head waiter had no idea God was in the house and complimented the groom on being smarter than the average Jew. The servants knew and that is how Christ works. The privileged ones quite often had a hard time believing, think of a camel passing through the eye of a needle in Matthew 19:24, but the serving class were very willing to trust and believe in the Lord. They were down trodden and looking for a High Priest (Hebrews 4:14-16) and Mediator (1 Timothy 2:5) to get themselves out from under the thumb of the Pharisees.

And we finish out verses 11 and 12.
“This beginning of His signs Jesus did in Cana of Galilee, and revealed 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.” (John 2:11-12)

This is a story of Faith and the Glory of Christ which should be in our lives every day.
Those things hoped for, but not seen. How our Daily Bread shows up, money for food and rent, that car payment, and everything else we need in this life. You are the beneficiaries of these gifts from our Loving God. Give Glory unto Him in all that you do.