John 2

Something major happens at the beginning of John 2 - Jesus’ first recorded miracle, turning water into wine.

What I love about this particular event is his mom. There was a problem, and good ole mom turns to her son, the Messiah, to fix it. No second guessing, just obvious and complete faith and trust. And though Jesus seems slightly annoyed, Mary continues to trust that He will come through. We can see this trust when she tells the servants “Whatsoever he saith unto you, do it.” Bada bing, bada boom… Wine! I know that I need to take a page out of Mary’s book and learn to fully, totally, and unwaveringly trust in Jesus from the big things like finances, relationships, and children to the smaller things like “where are my car keys,” “give me strength to deal with this stress,” and a personal favorite and well used one of mine, “please help me get some rest tonight.” It always sounds so simple, but trust me, friend, I know how hard it can truly be.

It is so easy to get wrapped up in trying to take control of every little thing in our lives. We want to be in control and on the throne. There truly can’t be two ruling at once. So we must decide: keep the stress and chaos and control OR trust that God is God of the universe and is more than capable of being the Lord of our lives. The awesome thing is that it isn’t about us or what we can or can’t do… we need to be like Mary and look to our Savior for all things.  And while there is no promise of an easy life, let’s sit back, take a load off, and trust in the Faithful One.

As far as the second half of the chapter, there are many gems to be uncovered, but I’ll keep it down to three.

1 - Jesus went to the temple at passover and saw that people had turned the temple into a place for profit. Take note at how Jesus responded. He made a scourge (a whip) to drive the animals out, dumped all the money and flipped some tables. So when you ask yourself WWJD? Don’t forget that flipping tables is within the realm of possibilities!! Joking… mostly. Jesus was righteously angry that the House of God had been turned into something worldly and defiling. I think that often times, this can happen in our churches today, where the focus is off Christ and on the newest trend or oldest tradition. We need to be careful to keep Christ at the root of Christianity.
2 - The Jews then ask for a sign and Jesus replies, “Destroy this temple, and in three days, I will raise it up.” Of course they scoffed at him because they didn’t realize He was speaking about His death and resurrection. Even His disciples on their best days didn’t understand some of what Jesus was telling them. We are so blessed to have the Bible, the chance to read and study it, and the hindsight to see what God was saying at that time. Let’s remember that there is a future ahead of us that we may not understand in whole, but we still need to be prepared for it, just like Jesus’ disciples.
3 - Verses 23-25 says that many saw the miracles and believed in Him, yet Christ did not commit himself to them because He knew their hearts. The important thing about this particular section is that God knows us inside and out. We cannot play games with Him. We are either His or we are not. There cannot be an in between.

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