A Mothers Secret

John 2:1-11

How long can you keep a secret, not some little something like we are going to have a baby or my wife/husband is going to be the next CEO of a Fortune 500 company, I mean a big secret, one like Mary had been keeping for thirty years.  Most of us are not that good at keeping secret the good things that have happened to us, an a good thing had happened some thirty years earlier; the Holy Spirit had placed the Son of God into a virgin and that virgin was Mary, the mother of Jesus, the Christ.  We have no record of how many weddings Mary and the family had attended, but we do know that Jesus is thirty and this friend of the family the bridegroom has a problem, too little wine, or too many big drinkers’ at the wedding.  The Scriptures do not tell us the motivation of Mary, we are not given any insight as to why she did what she did, but for some reason she says it’s time to come out of the closet, it’s time for my oldest son to show the neighbors that He is more than a carpenter. 

Now imagine, you were also invited to that wedding, if you are Baptist it will help if you imagine the wine was grape juice, and that’s ok, unless you read on and it tells us that the good stuff was served first so that when the guests got a little wasted, they would not know the cheap $3.00 per bottle wine was being served.  You may be like me, if food is being served I want to get there early, so were eating and watching, Mary the mother of Jesus shows up, and guess what, Jesus also shows up with some guys who seem to be part of a group of some kind.  We are all eating and drinking, when I over heard Mary say to Jesus, “They have no wine.” And Jesus said to her, “Woman, what does this have to do with me?  My hour has not yet come.”  His mother said to the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.” (Taken from John’s gospel 2: 3b-5) 

Now, I’m not sure what you were thinking, but I was wondering why Jesus called her women and not mother, and what did he mean by my hour has not come?  By now, I had forgot all about food, in fact I got closer, so I could see what Jesus was going to tell the servants, and this is what happen, just like John reported in verses 6-10, “Now there were six stone water jars there for the Jewish rites of purification, each holding twenty or thirty gallons.  Jesus said to them, “Fill the jars with water.”  And they filled them to the brim.  And he said to them, “Now draw some out and take it to the master of the feast.”  So they took it.  When the master of the feast tasted the water that had now become wine, and did not know where it came from, (though the servants who had drawn the water knew) the master of the feast called the bridegroom and said to him, “Everyone serves the good wine first and when people have drunk freely, then the poor wine.  But you have kept the good wine until now.”

I’m not sure about you, but I got back into the line and after tasting this water that was now wine, I ask the servant to fill my cup to the rim, it was the best wine I had ever drank.  But you may have been in the food line when this happened, you may not have seen Jesus do this amazing thing, and as I reflect, he did not say any magic words, all He did was pray to the Father, and it was a done deal.  I’m a little ashamed to tell you but later that night I tried to do the same thing, but I must have heard the wrong formula, because mine tasted like water. 

As I was leaving I saw that group of guys that came with Jesus and I knew they were there when the water was turned to wine so I listened to what they were saying and the biggest of the group, man did he need a bath, he smelled like a fish, but he said to the group, He is Messiah, and another, his name was Nathanael, said Jesus is the King of Israel, He is the Son of God. 

We do not use our imaginations that often in the world of I-phones, I-pads, computers, and Television, but if you had been there, and if you had seen the water become wine, would you have believed like Nathanael?  Would you agree with what was written, that Jesus is the only Son of God?

From the Back Porch,

Bob Rice