Today’s passage is John 2:1-12, the famous wedding at Cana where Jesus turned six jars of water into wine, about 500 litres worth! When Jesus gives, he gives the best and gives plentifully.The master of ceremonies at the wedding commented that the bridegroom had, contrary to custom, saved the best wine to the last, which made me ask,
How often do I work under my own power, asking no help from God until I reach a crisis?
How often do people, like Jesus’ mother, point out problems to me, which I dismiss as none of my business?
How often do I picture Jesus participating in a joyful celebration and adding to it, helping to prolong it, and giving so much that there are leftovers for all?
I like things being organized and I like to organize. This doesn’t mean I’m really good at it or that my house is always neat and tidy. Anyone who’s seen my desk at work must wonder how I’m able to organize a school!
But I know what I want and where I want it so that the ideal is always in my mind, and when things move off of that ideal I don’t usually worry too much because I know that with a little effort things get cleared up and the ideal is there again, like my clean desk at the beginning and end of each semester.
But faith is not like that. It doesn’t have a clear path. I
think that’s why the disciples were always surprised by Jesus’ miracles. They couldn’t see them coming. In today’s passage, because of Jesus turning the water into wine, “his disciples put their faith in him” (11). Maybe God has an ideal that we keep messing up and can’t see our way out of until God performs a miracle.
I just received a letter from a student I had expelled from my school a couple of years ago. His expulsion was a huge mistake on my part, an angry act at someone I had taken no time to understand. His action of punching another student in the face in public and sending him to the hospital was the action of someone who, from my point of view, was messing up my beautifully organized school.
What I didn’t see was that I was the one out of control and I was the one who was breaking the good organization of the school.
Intense prayer, heavy criticism from others, and the begging for mercy from the boy’s parents all led me to repentance and the reinstatement of the boy in school despite some opposition.
The miracle is that this boy, who was not a good student, and his nagging professor parents, changed. I changed too. I took an interest in him. I prayed about how to save him instead of throwing him away. I gave him QTin, I encouraged his teachers and his parents. We found the way for this poor academic student to succeed: hotel and restaurant management. He discovered he loved all the details of organizing a restaurant, how to set a table, how to clean wine glasses, how to serve a customer. He’s in Switzerland learning this trade.
His letter to me was full of excitement because after one semester of classes, he’s now doing an internship at a restaurant for a semester.
Here’s what he says: “I meet so many happy customers and they encourage me so much! I think it might be the best feeling I can ever get while studying here. It is just unbelievable that I can feel myself growing in what I have to do and in learning a different language!! I can’t wait to learn more!!!” (He’s learning German.)
This is from a young man who didn’t believe in himself and neither did anyone else, particularly his principal who expelled him. I couldn’t see the path of faith because I had none about the boy who failed his subjects and punched other students.
Now he’s a success because he’s working hard, learning a lot and excited about learning more. He’s full of hope. That’s the miracle.
His problem was really mine, which led to a crisis, which needed God to intervene and show us the way.
The difference between his present hope and my past hopelessness is exactly what happened at the wedding in Cana. No wine, empty jars. Then a bit of effort to fill the jars with water and--poof!--the best wine is suddenly overflowing. Someone points out a problem, someone says it’s not mine but then acts, and a miracle occurs, bringing a community into harmony.
My daughter Tess’s mother is in a financial crisis of her own gross mismanagement. She suddenly wants it to be my problem. I sent her my testimony, suggested this was God calling her as it had been for me fifteen years ago, and asked her to send Tess to us while she puts her house in order. My emotional attachment to Tess is thin, which is my sin.
I need this crisis, as I needed the crisis of my student, to look at myself and repent. There is hope because we have Jesus. The way of faith is not clear but it is there. As a miracle occurred with my student, a miracle for Tess and me can also occur.
Application: write a joyful response to my student commenting on today’s passage. Write a letter to Tess inviting her to live with us.
Lord, let me not stare into empty jars without hope but look to you in prayer for the miracle you can make.
