Hi. Welcome to Redeem the Commute. I’m Ryan, your host for the Daily Challenges. Yesterday we read the story of Jesus being asked, by his mother, to help at a wedding that had run out of wine, and where the hosts would be seen as extremely and embarrassingly inhospitable.
I asked yesterday what you thought Jesus meant when he said it wasn’t his time yet, and he wouldn’t help. I think he was saying he was at Stage 1 of a very big, very long-range plan, and this wasn’t part of the plan. He, God, had come to earth with a particular purpose. His power, his identity as God in the flesh, wasn’t a party trick, it was a plan to rescue the world.
He would exercise his miraculous powers when it would show the world God’s kingdom, and would illustrate his teaching about the kingdom.
Helping people out of an embarrassing wedding FAIL would be a way to illustrate the kingdom – which Jesus would later describe as a great wedding feast. Problem was, he hadn’t taught anyone anything about the kingdom yet! A miracle with wine would seemingly come out of nowhere.
But, his mother convinces him, through her persistence and confidence in his good nature. Perhaps she’s showing him that he’s been teaching about the kingdom his whole life, at least to her, even if his ministry hadn’t officially launched until now.
So, here’s what Jesus did:
Now there were six stone water jars there for the Jewish rites of purification, each holding twenty or thirty gallons. Jesus said to the servants, “Fill the jars with water.” And they filled them up to the brim. And he said to them, “Now draw some out and take it to the master of the feast.” So they took it. When the master of the feast tasted the water now become wine, and did not know where it came from (though the servants who had drawn the water knew), the master of the feast called the bridegroom and said to him, “Everyone serves the good wine first, and when people have drunk freely, then the poor wine. But you have kept the good wine until now.” This, the first of his signs, Jesus did at Cana in Galilee, and manifested his glory. And his disciples believed in him. (John 2:6-11 ESV)
He tells the servants to go get and fill six stone jars with water. These jars would have been 20-30 gallons each. That’s 120-180 gallons of water.
He tells them to take it to the head waiter, and say, “we found some more wine.”
Would he have roared with laughter, or with rage? It’s hard to imagine him taking them seriously – he had a crisis on his hands, and they were claiming to have solved it so simply?
Even if they had found wine, surely it would be no good, so he tastes it. He looks, smells, tastes. It’s not water. It’s not even cheap wine. It’s good!
He bursts out, “Everyone serves the good wine first, and then the inferior wine after the guests have become drunk. But you have kept the good wine until now.”
This water…it’s become far more than we expected!
And the party goes on.
Question: Why do you think the wine was so good? What does this tell us about Jesus, and life?
Meeting with a Group? Your discussion questions are in this week’s Group Study Guide