It is new year it will be another year of struggles, challenges, victories and even failures. Whatever we do this year, there will be times we need to ask for his will in our lives, for the right path that we are going to take especially during a major decision making that we will do. But we have to admit, there are times that God doesn’t make sense sometimes. We ask for signs of his will and the signs he’s giving seems to be the opposite of what we are expecting or praying. He doesn’t make sense.
Today’s story is when Jesus performed his first miracle. Jesus was in Cana a guest in a wedding when suddenly wine ran out. Wine running out in a major event during those times is a kind of embarrassing on the part of the host. So Mary, the mother of Jesus approached him and asked for his help. Today, we will be discussing what we can learn from the story which we can relate as we face this coming year.
Passage: John 2:1-10
We have to trust v.3-5. Mary trusted Jesus on this matter. Mary doesn’t seem to know what Jesus would instruct the servants. But Mary is confident that Jesus will make a way for this problem. With all these things that she and Joseph had in the past before Jesus was born, and even after he was born, Mary knows that Jesus can do help on this matter.
“Do whatever he tells you” Mary despite of what seems to be an opposition of Jesus to the matter of his involvement instructed the servants to do whatever Jesus tells them to do. Notice that when Jesus objected, Mary did not answered back instead instructed the servants to obey his instructions? Some people may see this as insisting, but Mary was actually trusting Jesus that he can do something.
This is what Mary has that many of us doesn’t have. From the time she was visited by the angel to announce to her about what God will do, she just trusted God of everything. And now this one, a not so big problem yet trusting Jesus about it.
We have to obey v.7 Sometimes obeying God doesn’t make sense at all. In fact, the Bible is full of teachings and stories that doesn’t make sense to a plain human mind. And all we need to do is to obey. This story is not so different.
“Fill the jars with water”. This alone doesn’t make sense. Why would the servants fill the empty jars with water? What’s he going to do with it? It doesn’t make sense at all. Is he going to serve water to the guests instead of wine?
Here’s what makes it more senseless, Jesus asked his servants to take some out and bring it to the master of the banquet. You know, probably everyone is expecting a wine in this scenario and running out could be so embarrassing. And they are serving water now? This could not be so embarrassing in our culture in our time, but in our time if you invited so many people and then you run out of food and some people are still coming in, that could be very embarrassing. And then instead of food, you are going to serve water? What could be more embarrassing than that in such a big occasion?
His servants obeyed him anyway. If we are the servants though, all we have to do is to obey even if it doesn’t make sense and only then we will be able to understand what God’s will is. In verse 9, the servants knew that it was water. They were the ones who filled the jars and they were the ones who served it. And now the master of ceremony was telling everyone that it was the best wine.
We have to partake v.8 The servants here know that what was put in the containers is water. It’s hard to obey when the task doesn’t make sense. They obeyed anyway and witnessed a miracle, water turned into wine. The master of ceremony recognizes that it was the best wine. Normally, the best wine is served at the beginning of the event. Yet, here we can see that the guests are to drink the best wine.
To fully experience God, we need to obey and then we need to be partakers of such miracle. We ourselves should be tasting God’s goodness and miracles. We couldn’t appreciate God when we don’t experience him. It’s like a relationship. We could not appreciate our spouse if we ourselves is not experiencing his or her presence.
It’s hard to enjoy God when we ourselves have not tasted God’s work. How can we say God is good when we have not experienced his goodness? How can we say God is great when we ourselves have not experienced his greatness? We can only truthfully testify about our Lord when we have experienced him.
Here’s the thing, we have to be partakers. To be a partaker means that we have to be someone who consume or actively participating as a recipient of God’s grace and blessings. That is the time that we are able to tell how good is our Lord.
Challenge:
Another year, another set of challenges. There will be times that we are quite sure of where we are getting. But there are also times that it seems like the Lord is wanting us to do something that doesn’t sense to us. However, to fully enjoy and appreciate God’s presence, we have to trust and obey first.