Knee Jerk Devotional: January 7, 2021
John 2:1-12
Passage:
Three days later there was a wedding in the village of Cana in Galilee. Jesus' mother was there. Jesus and his disciples were guests also. When they started running low on wine at the wedding banquet, Jesus' mother told him, "They're just about out of wine."
Jesus said, "Is that any of our business, Mother—yours or mine? This isn't my time. Don't push me."
She went ahead anyway, telling the servants, "Whatever he tells you, do it."
Six stoneware water pots were there, used by the Jews for ritual washings. Each held twenty to thirty gallons. Jesus ordered the servants, "Fill the pots with water." And they filled them to the brim.
"Now fill your pitchers and take them to the host," Jesus said, and they did.
When the host tasted the water that had become wine (he didn't know what had just happened but the servants, of course, knew), he called out to the bridegroom, "Everybody I know begins with their finest wines and after the guests have had their fill brings in the cheap stuff. But you've saved the best till now!"
This act in Cana of Galilee was the first sign Jesus gave, the first glimpse of his glory. And his disciples believed in him.
After this he went down to Capernaum along with his mother, brothers, and disciples, and stayed several days.
This is one of those stories that just makes me smile. I get so much joy from thinking about Jesus at a wedding, celebrating and partying with his disciples, family, and neighbors. I also get a chuckle out of his mother doing what moms do.
It’s all, just, so normal.
Sometimes we think of Jesus as some magic man who is out there doing the miracles. Certainly miracles and things are part of Jesus’ story. But, I think we need to appreciate the normalcy of most of his life.
We have four gospels that tell us very little about Jesus, when you think about it. They give us very important glimpses into who he is and what he did. But, the mundane stuff, the day to day stuff, is largely absent. It just wasn’t worth putting into the gospel accounts.
But, we get these glimpses. Glimpses like the one here in this opening story from John’s gospel.
We’ve all experienced this haven’t we?
Mom “asks” us to do something and we tell her that we can’t or won’t. Yet, she continues on as though we said, “yes.” Then we know that it wasn’t a request but a charge.
I mean come on! This is gold.
The god-man, the Messiah, just got told what to do by his mom and she didn’t really care about his thoughts and feelings on the matter.
So, what does he do? He does what his mom told to do.
This is a picture of the normalcy of Jesus’ existence but it also teaches us an important lesson in what it means to honor your father and mother.
Jesus had good reason not to do the miracle. It wasn’t time yet and beyond that he felt like it was a bit rude to get involved. Theologically and culturally Jesus was in a good position. But, Mary didn’t care. She saw that this groom needed help and that Jesus could help him. So, she made sure he did. Jesus, being the god-man could have put his foot down. Instead, he submitted to his mom and did what she asked.
Our relationships with our parents are the first ones where we learn to mutually submit to one another. There are times when we need to submit to them because we love them. There will be times when we learn to not submit because we love them. Remember, later on in Jesus’ ministry his mom comes to collect him and he basically tells her to shuffle off.
We tend to rush things or think that at some point we will just always get our way. But, that’s not how this works. In our relationship with our parents we learn to practice subversive-gracious-love and we learn boundaries and we learn to grow into adulthood.
It’s all normal stuff.
It’s all stuff that we need to learn over time. It can be tough. Parents and kids are intimate relationships that allow for great harm and also great joy. There will necessarily be baggage and we need to work through it.
I guess what struck me this morning is that in the midst of the mundane you experience the miraculous.
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