Just Add Water

          “¹In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. ²Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.” Genesis 1: 1&2 (NIV)

Just add water.

“¹On the third day a wedding took place at Cana in Galilee. Jesus’ mother was there, ²and Jesus and his disciples had also been invited to the wedding. ³When the wine was gone, Jesus’ mother said to him, “They have no more wine.”

⁴”Dear woman, why do you involve me?” Jesus replied. “My time has not yet come.”

⁵His mother said to the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.”

⁶Nearby stood six stone water jars, the kind used by the Jews for ceremonial washing, each holding from twenty to thirty gallons.

⁷Jesus said to the servants, “Fill the jars with water”; so they filled them to the brim.

⁸Then he told them, “Now draw some out and take it to the master of the banquet.”

^9aThey did so, and the master of the banquet tasted the waster that had been turned into wine.” John 2: 1-9a (NIV)

Lord, there is a bushel full in those readings. My friends and pastors Andy and Lee could probably preach half a dozen sermons from them and not repeat each other. Early this morning the LCPC Men’s Ministry group read chapters 2 through 5 out of the Gospel of John and a couple of things struck me about Jesus’ first miracle. Hopefully, I won’t be steeling the pastors’ thunder.

Water plays a huge part in Biblical writings starting with the first couple of versus when God created the orb we live on and covered it with water. Water continues to play big through to the end of the New Testament with Jesus’ baptism, his first miracle, the man by the healing pool that Jesus healed on the Sabbath, the Samaritan woman at the well where Jesus started a revival in the town, just to name a few NT stories.

Jesus’ miracle was very simple, just add water and take it to the banquet master. This basic miracle would never have happened without Jesus’ mother taking the bold step of faith and first commanding the servants to obedience to Jesus. First the servants obeyed Mary, then they twice obeyed Jesus and the miracle became evident to kick Jesus’ ministry into high gear and giving us a story rich in allegory, abundant material for generations of sermons.

What step of faith do we need to take? What act of obedience to we need to make to precipitate a miracle in our lives and the lives of those we’ve been called to love?

         

In His Grip,

jerry