Prayer Tip--The Good Wine
Daily Scripture
John 2:1-11, NRSVue
On the third day there was a wedding in Cana of Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there. Jesus and his disciples had also been invited to the wedding. When the wine gave out, the mother of Jesus said to him, “They have no wine.” And Jesus said to her, “Woman, what concern is that to me and to you? My hour has not yet come.” His mother said to the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.” Now standing there were six stone water jars 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 up to the brim. He said to them, “Now draw some out, and take it to the person in charge of the banquet.” So they took it. When the person in charge tasted the water that had become wine and did not know where it came from (though the servants who had drawn the water knew), the person in charge called the bridegroom and said to him, “Everyone serves the good wine first and then the inferior wine after the guests have become drunk. But you have kept the good wine until now.” Jesus did this, the first of his signs, in Cana of Galilee and revealed his glory, and his disciples believed in him.
Prayer Tip
Max Franks
Max Franks, who serves as a Congregational Care Pastor at Resurrection Leawood, wrote this week’s prayer tip. Max and his wife, Liz, enjoy hiking, exploring local restaurants, and spending time with their dog, Charlie.
One of my favorite details in the story of Jesus turning water into wine is that most of the people at the wedding had no idea anything had happened.
The guests kept eating and drinking. The bride and groom apparently never knew how close their celebration had come to an embarrassing ending. Even the person in charge of the feast was confused. He tasted the wine, called the groom over, and said, “Everyone serves the good wine first… But you have kept the good wine until now.”
Of course, the groom hadn’t done anything.
Jesus had.
John tells us this was the first of Jesus’ “signs.” That is the word he uses throughout his Gospel. These miracles are signs because they are meant to point us toward something. If we pay attention, they tell us who Jesus is.
And John gives us a few clues.
The wine doesn’t appear in wine jugs or empty pitchers. Jesus tells the servants to fill six large stone jars that were used for Jewish purification. Together they held well over a hundred gallons. They fill them “to the brim.”
That’s a lot of wine.
For generations, Israel’s prophets had imagined the day of God’s salvation as a great feast, a day when the hills would overflow with wine and God would set the world right. So when Jesus produces an absurd amount of very good wine at a wedding, John’s readers would have heard an echo of those promises.
God’s long-awaited feast is beginning.
There is another detail I love. The person in charge doesn’t know where the wine came from, but John says, almost in passing, “the servants who had drawn the water knew.”
They knew because they had listened to Jesus.
Before they understood what he was doing, they filled the jars. Then they drew some out and carried it across the room. Somewhere along the way, water became wine. They didn’t make it. They were just close enough to see it happen.
I wonder how often faith works something like that.
We would like to understand exactly what God is doing before we take the next step. Usually we don’t. And the next step is usually asked of us in the middle of something that has run out, not after it has been fixed. Sometimes all we have is the next faithful thing in front of us: forgive someone, make the phone call, show up, pray, apologize, help, wait, try again.
Mary’s words to the servants may be the best spiritual advice in the Gospel of John:
“Do whatever he tells you.”
Which raises the obvious question. What does he tell us?
Jesus was never vague about it. Love God with everything you have, and love your neighbor as yourself. The prophet Micah had said the same thing in three lines centuries earlier: do justice, love kindness, walk humbly with your God. Forgive. Feed the hungry. Welcome the stranger. Visit the sick.
None of it is mysterious. Most of it looks like carrying water.
And here is what the servants found out. When you do what he asks, you get caught up in the blessing. You carry the jar for someone else, and somewhere between the well and the table you find that you are the one who got the good wine. People who have served Jesus for a long time will tell you this again and again: they set out to be a blessing and were surprised by how blessed they were.
The servants did what he told them.
And they saw something almost everyone else in the room missed.
This week, do what he asks. Pick one thing Jesus has plainly told us to do: forgive someone, feed someone, visit someone, welcome someone, show up for someone. Pray a short prayer first: “Lord, I don’t know what you are doing with this. I’ll fill the jar.” Then do it, and pay attention to what you get caught up in. The servants at Cana didn’t know either.
They just filled the jars.
