May 14 What Has This Concern of Yours to do with Me? John 2:1-12
Jesus is here to care about our smallest concerns.
Jesus always keeps the priority of eternal over temporary.
Jesus does what He does, when He does it and how He does it, so that the Father will be glorified and so that we are compelled to trust Him.
Parents, make sure that:
1. Keep looking to Jesus to relieve your stress
2. In all things, help your children to see the prominence of Jesus in all things
3. Prepare them for a life spent on mission with Jesus
Story
Turn with me to John 2:1-12
We all know the Christmas story: Jesus born in a stable in Bethlehem. Angels and wise men and shepherds came to see Him. We call it the incarnation: God became one of us; God in the flesh; the incarnate God: Jesus.
Except for a brief mention of Jesus in the temple at the age of 12, He spent 30 years in relative obscurity. Apparently He was biding His time, learning carpentry from His earthly father, Joseph, and most importantly, preparing Himself spiritually for the colossal test that would be coming when He began His earthly ministry.
When the time came for Him to begin His ministry, things began to happen quickly. On day 1 of His public ministry, Jesus is down in area where John the Baptist had been preaching and prophesying that coming of the Messiah was imminent. John sees Jesus and declares: “Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” John 1:29
On day 2 Jesus begins to assemble His team and calls Andrew, Peter, Phillip and Nathaniel to follow Him.
On day 3 Jesus shows up at a wedding with these 4 disciples and gets into it a bit with His mom. In the process Jesus performs the 1st of His miracles, or as John the writer of this gospel—a different John than John the Baptist—John calls the miracles that Jesus performed ‘signs’. As an aside, the gospel of John was also known by the early church as the Book of Signs because John tells his story of Jesus around 7 critical miracles, 7 signs that Jesus performed confirming His Messiahship.
So let’s read the passage: John 2:1-12 (on screen)
**comments
v.1 “on the 3rd day” Day 1 He’s declared the Lamb of God. Day 2 He begins to assemble His team. Day 3 He’s with His mom at a wedding.
v.3 “wine ran out…they don’t have any wine.” Like many good parties and weddings, the host or hostess provided wine to add to the merriment. Apparently His mom was one of the hostesses so she calls on her son, as many moms do, to fix the situation.
v.4 “woman” The Greek word for woman is gunee; it’s not a derogoatory term, nor should we assume that Jesus meant it as such. You might recall it’s the same term that Jesus used when He was on the cross when He was placing His mom in the care of John. He said, “Woman, behold your son”.
“my hour has not come yet” John uses this phrase 5 times in His gospel. We’ll talk more about it in a moment, but suffice to say we have our time-table but God has His own timetable.
v.5 “Do whatever He tells you” Now you can take her response one of 2 ways. It could be she heard His response to her and she kinda ignored it and said to the servants: “Do what He says”; like, I don’t care what you say, you’re going to do it and they’re going to help you. Or—it could be that Mary put the issue before Him and decided to trust Him and leave it there. I suspect that was the case.
v.6 “Now six stone water jars had been set there for Jewish purification” When we get ready to sit down to eat, we go wash our hands to remove germs, right? Or we’ll squirt some of that hand sanitizer. But the Jews had something deeper in mind. They were not just washing dirt off; it was that they were seeking a spiritual cleansing. By ceremonially washing their hands, they would be saying they were separating themselves from the world and dedicating themselves to God.
v.7 “Fill the jars with water” Apparently the purification rite had already been observed and the pots were empty. There was no water hose—didn’t run a green hose to them and say, “Hey Jesus-would turn the water on?” Where did they get the water? We’ll come back to it in a minute.
v.10 “Everyone sets out the fine wine first, then, after people have drunk freely, the inferior. But you have kept the fine wine until now.” You get the picture right? If you had to provide wine for a huge crowd, you’d bring out the good stuff early, the Napa Valley 2008, but after awhile, after folks have sucked down a few glasses, you’d be tempted to bring out the Boones Farm cause they’d probably not notice the difference at that point.
v.11 “Jesus performed this first sign in Cana of Galilee. He displayed His glory, and His disciples believed in Him” This was the first of seven miracles that John utilizes to demonstrate that Jesus was the Messiah and that people believed in Him.
So what do we take away from this great story?
Jesus is here to care about our smallest concerns.
Mary all upset about the party… Mary is worried/stressing because there isn’t enough wine for the wedding. She wants it to go off just right. How many moms can relate to that?
I know many moms live a stressful life. Is my kid reading on level? Is my kid going to make the team? Is my kid going to have friends? Is his birthday party going to be Pinterest level awesome? I’ve seen my 3 daughters fret over these birthday parties and the kid is only 1 year old! 2 yrs old! The kid will never remember it! But the mom’s will give themselves a migraine trying to make sure that it’s just right.
But you know, Jesus didn’t blow her off. He didn’t say that’s not important. He responds to the request, “What has this concern to do with Me?” Another way of saying it is “What do you want with Me?”
It would be incorrect for us to interpret this as if Jesus only concerns Himself with the big problems of the universe; you know, North Korea, Syria, Trumps tweets. I’ve actually talked to people who think that. They don’t pray about the details of their lives because they believe God has more important things to do than respond to their seeming unimportant requests; as if He has only so much time and energy and has to spend it on the big stuff.
Listen, Jesus knows the details of our lives better than we do. When you read the gospels, you see that this is a man who got angry at prejudice, who wept at funerals, who eased fears, and cared about the downhearted.
Don’t think for a moment that Jesus doesn’t care about the most minute details of your life. He’s the All-knowing, All-Wise, God. 1 Peter 5:7 reminds us that we should be “casting all your care on Him, because He cares about you.”
Jesus always keeps the priority of eternal over temporary.
Jesus said to His mom: “My hour has not yet come.” What did He mean by that? Jesus is clearly sending the signal that He does not take orders from any human, even His own mother. And, it was important that this not be a big, grandiose display of His power so that everyone would see it. Those signs, those miracles would come later in His ministry. But this sign was to be done on the QT for the benefit of those 1st 4 disciples. Remember, the last of v.11—after this miracles, “His disciples believed in Him.”
Mary had to learn an important, if not painful lesson: Jesus was committed to God the Father’s will and His timing and He would not be driven or manipulated by human time tables or human plans.
There’s nothing wrong necessarily to wanting to throw a good party, to make sure your kids are good students, to be a good homemaker, to care about the present realities of your life. But don’t let that overshadow the ultimate reality. Remember 1 Corinthians 10:31 “Therefore, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do everything for God’s glory.”
Jesus didn’t rebuke Mary for bringing it to His attention. He even responded to relieve the stress in her life. But He also demonstrated that there was something much bigger and better that He wanted to bring into Mary’s life beside just some wine. Jesus does what He does, when He does it and how He does it, so that the Father will be glorified and so that we are compelled to trust Him.
So parents, moms in particular, while you’re going through these days of raising children, running them to practices, planning parties, cleaning up after sleepovers, helping with homework and all that you do, Parents, make sure that:
1. Keep looking to Jesus to relieve your stress
When the stress does come, don’t turn to alcohol or other drugs, don’t turn to TV or a favorite book, don’t turn to comfort food, don’t turn to shopping—cast all your cares on Him.
2. In all things, help your children to see the prominence of Jesus in all things
Much of our stress is because we’re involved and our kids are involved in stuff that we didn’t seek the Leadership of the Spirit on.Don’t think that you or your kids lives are to revolve around all the activities that our culture. Stop adding things on your plate that aren’t Spirit led.
What should dominate our family is not hyperactivity, but spiritual activity. (FaithPath logo) (hold up a few brochures)
So that when they are mistreated, they see the purpose of God in it. When they struggle in an endeavor, they see the purpose of God in it. When they are rejected by friends, they find the purpose of God in it
3. Prepare them for a life spent on mission with Jesus
Jesus did what He did because He was on mission with God. Are you on mission with God? Are your kids on mission? One of the ways you can help that is to take your kids on mission trips.
Closing Illustration
