On the third day a wedding took place at Cana in Galilee . Jesus’ mother was there, and Jesus and his disciples had also been invited to the wedding.
Scripture gives us very little detail of Jesus’ life outside of His ministry. Although we have many details of His teaching and preaching, we have very little information about the other things He did. Except for this wedding…
Yes, it’s true, that at this wedding Jesus performed His first miracle - turning the water into wine. But it’s also true that Jesus, even at the beginning of His ministry when He was beginning to focus on the job at hand, took time out to attend a wedding - a social function - at the town of Cana in Galilee .
Sometimes we get the mistaken idea that if we’re not doing something "important", we’re wasting time. If we’re not working at something, we’re being lazy. If we’re not focused on our "jobs" - whether they’re secular or Christian - we’re missing the boat. Wrong! Rest and relaxation are vital to our ability to do those "important" things. Attending a social function, going on a picnic, grabbing a bucket of minnows and heading for your favorite fishing hole - all of these are good, healthy things to do to keep you balanced and able to do those "important" things.
But it’s not just the benefit to you that’s important. Look at what happened at the wedding at Cana . Jesus performed a miracle - and everyone who knew about it was witness to the power of God in Jesus. If you carry the joy of Jesus with you into your times of relaxation, you’re a witness to those around you of the joy of your salvation.
It’s okay for a Christian to laugh and have fun. In fact, if we who are born again can’t laugh and have fun, no one can! Who else has so much to be happy about?
Don’t be afraid to take time out…. it will bless you, and especially, will bless those around you.
On the third day a wedding took place at Cana in Galilee . Jesus’ mother was there, and Jesus and his disciples had also been invited to the wedding. When the wine was gone, Jesus’ mother said to him, "They have no more wine."
"Dear woman, why do you involve me?" Jesus replied, "My time has not yet come."
His mother said to the servants, "Do whatever he tells you."
Tradition says that Joseph was dead by the time this wedding took place. If that’s true, then it follows that Mary would look to her oldest son to handle any problems that might arise. We’re not told one way or another, but I tend to believe that Mary was not asking Jesus to perform a miracle. Rather, she was asking Him to help with a problem that had arisen in whatever way He could. When Jesus turned the water into wine, I imagine she was as amazed as everyone around her.
So what does this have to do with you and me? Everything. If you’re normal, you probably want to give God a list of instructions on how to handle the problems in your life, absolutely convinced that you’ve come up with the very best of solutions. So you pray, and give God your detailed game plan, fully expecting Him to pay close attention and take notes. Then you keep repeating the instructions daily, just in case He didn’t take notes the first time. After a time, God answers your prayer - in a totally different way than you expected. And, always, His way is a lot better than your pre-conceived notion of how it should have been done.
Now, here’s the kicker…. do you accept God’s solution to your problem? Or do you even recognize God’s solution for what it is? Do you ignore the fact that the problem has been solved and keep hounding Him with your list of instructions? Or do you accept the miracle He has performed in your favor with joy and deepest gratitude, glorifying His name for His wisdom and mercy?
Think about it.
Jesus said, "You believe because I told you I saw you under the fig tree. You shall see greater things than that."
Nathanael knew that Jesus could not have physically seen him earlier, and he recognized Jesus’ divine ability to know what he was doing and where he was. Jesus knew this and said, "You believe because I told you I saw you under the fig tree. You shall see greater things than that." Nathanael was amazed that Jesus knew about him. But Jesus said, "That’s not really a big deal. You’re going to see even more amazing and wonderful things if you follow me."
Jesus says the same thing to us. The moment we accept Him into our lives, we are filled with the wonder of His love and forgiveness. But that is just the beginning. As we get to know Him better, He continues to reveal more and more about Himself to us, and we do see "greater things than that". We begin to learn how to receive unconditional love, and then how to give it. We begin to understand what faith really is, how depending upon Him and Him alone is such a comfortable and peaceful and secure way to live. We begin to realize how futile life would be without Him, and we wonder why it took us so long to accept His free gifts of love and salvation. We learn that following His way always works, while following our own logic will fail again and again and again.
To know Him is to love Him. There is no more simple way to put it. As we grow in our knowledge of the Lord, through study of the Bible and through association with His children, our love for Him will grow and grow. And we will see miraculous things happen in our lives and in the lives of those around us.
Pray today for a new insight about Jesus that you’ve never had before.
"I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing." John 15:5 NIV
Then Nathanael declared, "Rabbi, you are the Son of God; you are the King of Israel ."
The moment Jesus spoke to him, Nathanael knew who He was. He said, "Rabbi, you are the Son of God; you are the King of Israel ." He immediately recognized Jesus for who He was.
How many of us can say that? How many of us responded the first time the Lord spoke to us? I didn’t. I was 30 years old before the Lord got my attention! As I look back, I can only recall one time He tried to speak to me before the time that finally got my attention. If He did speak to me, I didn’t listen. I certainly didn’t recognize Him. As I said yesterday, there were only two people in all that time that actually showed me Jesus by letting Him shine through them. The problem was, I was looking for another “Jesus” – one that was more my “size”, one that I could put in a “Jesus box” and keep him there where I could “control” him. The real Jesus finally got my attention, though, and I recognized Him for who He is on August 12, 1977 – sitting in the middle of my bed surrounded by information and materials that helped me to see exactly who He is, and to instantly love Him for that reason. I finally saw myself for the lost sinner that I was and realized that the only way to heaven was not through all those “good works” I’d been doing all those years, trying vainly to make myself “worthy” of heaven, but instead, the only way to heaven was through faith in Jesus and His gift of eternal life bought with a terrible price on the cross.
How long did it take you to recognize Jesus? Or have you recognized Him yet? Has He spoken to you time after time, only to be met with a closed door? Is He standing there waiting, knowing how much He could do for you in your life if you’d only open the door and invite Him in? Do you realize just how much you’re missing by delaying opening that door?
If you claim to know Him, do you really know who He is? Is He real to you? How well do you know Him? Is your relationship with him as real, personal and intimate as it is with your spouse, your children, your family, your friends? Do you spend as much time with Him as you do with your television set? When things go wrong, when you need to make a decision, when you just need someone to talk to… where do you turn? Do you go first to your friends or your family, or do you turn first to Him? Whose advice is more dependable? Whose help is more constant? Whose love is more unconditional?
"He who has ears to hear, let him hear." Matthew 11:15 NIV
"How do you know me?" Nathanael asked.
Jesus answered, "I saw you while you were still under the fig tree before Philip called you."
When Nathanael asked Jesus, "How do you know me?" Jesus answered, "I saw you while you were still under the fig tree before Philip called you." By Jesus’ response to Nathanael later on in verse 50, it is evident that Jesus did not physically see Nathanael under the fig tree. Instead, Jesus saw him through His divine insight. Nathanael was observed. And what was he doing there? Most likely he was reading the scriptures and praying, since beneath a fig tree was a common place for the Jews to sit and seek God.
Every moment of your life, you are observed. When you are alone, you are observed by God alone. But when you are out in the world, you are observed by other people, whether you realize it or not. And this could make you the first Bible some people read.
So, what are you doing about it? When you’re on the freeway and some jerk cuts in front of you, what do you do? When a pay phone turns into a slot machine, dumping money out onto the ground, what do you do? When you’re in a hurry, and it seems everyone else in the store is moving in slow motion, blocking your way, what do you do? When you’re lonely and need companionship, do you call one of your Christian friends, or do you go to a bar? When someone at the office wants to tell you the latest gossip about one of your co-workers – especially if it’s someone you don’t like - what do you do? In other words, does your witness stop on Monday morning and only show up when you’re inside the walls of your church?
Many years before I was saved, I wrote a poem that I ran across recently while cleaning out some files. I want to share this poem with you. Remember, these are the thoughts of an unsaved young woman (I was 20 years old) and her reflections of what she had observed Christians doing up until that time…
God’s Day
Today is God’s day, supposedly.
All the pretty little people put on their pretty little clothes and go to the pretty little church on the corner.
They hope that everyone notices their pretty little clothes and that they came to the pretty little church on the corner that Sunday, just as they have every Sunday for oh-so-many years.
They sit on soft, cushioned seats and whisper meaningful meaningless words out of absent-minded mouths.
They listen to every word the preacher says – for a moment.
Then they wave a nice little goodbye to all the other pretty little people and the nice little preacher and the pretty little church on the corner – and God – until next God’s day.
Quite an indictment, isn’t it? I was searching then, and finding nothing of what I thought I should find in different churches. So I ended up in a pseudo-Christian cult which, up front, appeared to be what I’d been searching for. Five years after I wrote that poem, I met a woman who lived her faith, and although I did not respond at that time, she witnessed to me in every word and action, and then prayed for me daily for the next five years. Ten years after writing that poem, I once again met someone who showed me Jesus – in his eyes, his walk, his attitude and his words – for the second time in the nearly thirty-one years I’d lived at that time. Then, I was ready to meet Jesus. The Holy Spirit had prepared my heart to see what I saw in that young man that day… and just a few days later, I was saved.
Two people in thirty-one years. No wonder I wrote that poem!
Remember, everything you say and do is seen by someone, somewhere. Take a look at your actions and reactions. Do they reflect the kind of faith you profess on Sunday morning to your Sunday school class? Do the things you do and say every day bring glory and honor to Jesus’ name? Will you be the one person who shows Jesus to a lost soul on the day the Holy Spirit has prepared that person to believe?
"You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden." Matthew 5:14 NIV
When Jesus saw Nathanael approaching, he said of him, "Here is a true Israelite, in whom there is nothing false."
"How do you know me?" Nathanael asked.
Jesus answered, "I saw you while you were still under the fig tree before Philip called you."
When Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward Him, He said, "Here is a true Israelite, in whom there is nothing false." Some people might say that Jesus already knew who Nathanael was… and this is possible. Some others might say that Jesus, being an observant and perceptive person, could tell by the way Nathanael carried himself that he was an upright and honest person… and this, too, is possible. But the truth is that Jesus knew all about Nathanael by divine knowledge, just like He knows all about you and me.
Think about this… Jesus is the only one with whom we can not get away with lying! Because He knows… He knows where our hearts are… what’s really inside us. We can lie to ourselves. We can lie to our friends. We can lie to everyone around us. In fact, we can create such a facade of who we really are, that no one, not even we, will know the truth. But Jesus knows. And the wonderful, miraculous thing about that is that He loves us anyway!
There is nothing too great, too awful, too sinful, to keep you away from Jesus’ love …. IF you can bring yourself to confess it to Him, to repent of it, and to ask for His forgiveness. Is there anyone else you know who will forgive and forget anything and everything, no matter what?
Today, look at yourself honestly… and don’t be afraid of what you will find. Know that whatever is there that is ugly, or evil, or hurtful, can be washed away by the precious blood of our Lord. Also, know that whatever is there that is good, kind, compassionate, patient, loving or of good report, He will build up in you so that you will become a better witness for Him.
"Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!" John 1:29 NIV
" Nazareth ! Can anything good come from there?" Nathanael asked.
"Come and see," said Philip.
Nathanael was apparently a righteous man, one who followed his religion faithfully. And yet, he had his prejudices. When Philip told him about Jesus, he said, "Can any good thing come out of Nazareth ?" Nazareth was not the best place to be from, sort of the Israelite version of the bad side of town. It’s doubtful if Nathanael had ever even been there. As an upstanding citizen, he would not want to frequent a place that had a bad reputation.
How many times do we have the same attitude? When you hear about the former motorcycle gang members who are witnessing for Jesus, what do you think? Okay, you think that’s great, right? So would you invite them to your home? Pigtail, tattoos, body piercings, chopper and all? What about people of other races? Do you believe they can be strong witnesses for our Lord? Do you make an effort to get to know them, on a one-to-one basis? How many people of different races can you actually count as friends? What about street people? Or the ones who show up at your church that don’t conform to your accepted "dress code"? What if your church says women must wear skirts, but several women show up one Sunday with slacks on? How about the physically and mentally disabled? Have you ever spent any time with someone whose only means of transportation is a wheel chair? Have you looked around your church and tried to fix those things that make attending your church impossible for people in wheelchairs? Sometime, try spending few hours exploring your church facility in a wheel chair, so you can see how accessible your church really is to those who are confined to one. Start in the parking lot and try going to every area of your church building. You’ll have a real eye-opening experience, most likely. And how much time do you spend witnessing and ministering to people who are "not your kind"? How much are your prejudices clouding your judgment – just as Nathanael’s judgment was clouded?
When scripture says that "God so loved the world", it did not limit that love to the "right" neighborhood. Perhaps that’s why Jesus came out of one of the worst neighborhoods around, and then spent all his time with tax collectors and prostitutes… to illustrate to us that we are to love and minister to EVERYONE, no matter their background, race, education, income, physical and mental capabilities, or address. He wanted each of us - that’s you and me - to see those around us with His eyes, and then treat them accordingly.
For God does not show favoritism. Romans 2:11 NIV