The Life Of The Party Series

While teaching at the University of Pennsylvania, Dr. Tony Campolo once turned an ordinary lecture into an unforgettable lesson. He asked an unsuspecting student sitting in the front row, “Young man, how long have you lived?” The student answered his age. Tony responded, “No, no, no. That's how long your heart has been pumping blood. That's not how long you have lived.”

Tony Campolo then told the class about one of the most memorable moments of his life. In 1944, his fourth-grade class took a field trip to the top of the Empire State Building. It was the tallest building in the world at the time. When nine-year-old Tony got off the elevator and stepped onto the observation deck overlooking New York City, time stood still. He said, “In one mystical, magical moment I took in the city. If I live a million years, that moment will still be part of my consciousness, because I was fully alive when I lived it.”

Tony turned back to the student. “Now, let me ask you the question again. How long have you lived?”

The student sheepishly said, “When you say it that way, maybe an hour; maybe a minute; maybe two minutes.”

According to psychologists Matthew Killingsworth and Daniel Gilbert, the average person spends 46.9 percent of their time thinking about something other than what they're doing in the present moment. We're half-present half the time, which means we're half-alive (Mark Batterson, Win the Day: 7 Daily Habits to Help You Stress Less & Accomplish More, Multnomah Press, 2020, page xiii-xiv).

Do you want to be fully alive? Then I invite you to turn with me to the Gospel of John 2, John 2, where the Bible shows us how to be fully alive in a relationship with Jesus.

John 2:1-2 On the third day there was a wedding at Cana in Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there. Jesus also was invited to the wedding with his disciples (ESV).

Do you want to be fully alive. Then…

INVITE JESUS INTO YOUR LIFE.

Ask Him into your home. Welcome Him to the party.

In a large church office, whoever drank the last cup of coffee often failed to replenish the pot for the next person. Trying to motivate the staff to be more responsible, the secretary taped a neatly typed plea to the pot: “If Jesus drank the last cup of coffee, what would he have done? Go thou and do likewise.”

The next morning, she found this scrawled response: “Jesus would have turned the water into wine instead of coffee” (Mae H. Fortson, Black Mountain, North Carolina, “Lite Fare,” Christian Reader, 1998).

What do YOU think Jesus would have done? What do you think Jesus would do if you invited him to your office or school? What do you think Jesus would do if you invited him to your home or party?

Some people fear Jesus would try to turn their party into a prayer meeting and ruin all the fun. Is that what He does here at this wedding party? Let’s see!

John 2:3 When the wine ran out, the mother of Jesus said to him, “They have no wine” (ESV).

Disaster strikes! They run out of wine! Now, wedding parties in Jesus’ day usually lasted seven days. And custom dictated that the host provide plenty of food and drink for all the guests that entire week. In fact, to run out of wine would greatly embarrass the host and bring such shame that he could never live it down.

So Mary, Jesus’ mother, brings it to His attention. No doubt, she is assisting the host and wants Jesus to take care of the problem. She is not expecting a miracle, because Jesus had not yet performed any miracles. Perhaps, she just wants Jesus to go out and buy more wine or borrow some from the neighbors. Whatever the case, Mary brings the embarrassing problem to Jesus’ attention, and Jesus gives her a strange answer, at least it’s strange to our ears.

John 2:4 And Jesus said to her, “Woman, what does this have to do with me? My hour has not yet come” (ESV).

Now, if I said something like that to my mother, she’d wash my mouth out with soap. But in Jesus’ day, to address your mother as “Woman” showed great respect. He doesn’t belittle her request. On the contrary, He honors her for making it, but He tells her His hour has not yet come.

Now, what hour is He talking about? Well, in John 7:30, John says the Jewish leaders tried to arrest Him, but they could not, because “His hour had not yet come. Then again in John 8:20, John says, “No one arrested Him, because His hour had not yet come.” However, on the eve of his arrest and crucifixion, John says, “his hour had come to depart out of this world (John 13:1). Jesus was speaking about the hour of his crucifixion and death.