John chp 6: 1 – 15. (- 70 ) 4th Sign Feeding of 5,000

Talk by Pam Lilly

Today we are looking at John chp 6: 1 – 15. (- 70 ) John's 4^th Sign Feeding of 5,000

Don't you just love the Gospels. Try reading them as books from start to finish. Lets get to know Jesus better.

Apart from death and resurrection of Jesus, Feeding of 5,000 is only miraculous sign that appears in all 4 Gospels. Here's where they are in:

Matt 14: 13 -21

Mark 6: 30 - 44

Luke 9: 10 – 17

Matt Mark Luke called Synoptics: “view together” Scholars who studied the texts believe Mark first to be written , then Matthew wrote with Jewish readers in mind, including most of Mark in a shortened version, and his own data. Luke wrote keeping Gentile readers in mind, again most of Mark abbreviating Marks text, and adding his own data.

John stands apart with much original material. John's account of feeding of 5,000 includes much more detail.

Challenge: Compare 4 accounts, see similarities and differences.

All agree Jesus and his disciples had gone to a solitary place most likely in the hills east of sea of Galilee known today as the Golan Heights. MAP , John says,they were followed by a vast crowd of people excited by the miraculous signs of healings. Jesus went up the mountainside and sat down with his disciples. The crowds streamed up after them.

The synoptics comment Jesus had compassion on the crowd and taught them until late in the day.

All have Jesus then presenting the disciples with a challenge, a seemingly impossible challenge.

In John's Gospel Jesus is in command of the situation and takes the initiative. He addresses Philip who came from the local town of Bethsaida, and so most likely to know where provisions could be bought.

Where shall we buy bread for these people to eat? An interesting question. By asking this question. And by using “we “ Jesus not only accepts responsibility himself to satisfy the needs of the crowd, but also draws the disciples into the problem as well.

Philip is dumfounded. He takes Jesus literally, blurting out 8 months wages wouldn't be enough to buy them even a bite of bread. Andrew looks for what resources they actually had and discovers a boy with his meager lunch. Maybe the child had come forward on his own initiative and offered to share what he had. 5 small barley rolls and two small fish.. minnows! The food of the poor. Andrew also voices the impossibility of the situation “what is that among so many?”

In the synoptics it is the disciples who point out the problem to Jesus, its late, this is a remote place the people are hungry. Their solution to the problem was not to take responsibility, but put the responsibility on the crowd to satisfy their own need “ send the people away so they can go into the surrounding countryside and villages and buy themselves something to eat”

But , Jesus again puts the responsibility in their court, and gives a blunt, again seemingly impossible challenge

“ you give them something to eat”..

Continually throughout all 4 Gospels Jesus challenges people to work out the meaning of his teaching and his miraculous acts. He stretches the imagination of his disciples, pushing them out of their comfort zones. The same for us. He wants us to to examine what we hear and see, to allow the Holy Spirit to instruct and inspire us. Another example: Remember when he asked in the synoptics “ who do people say that I am? The disciples replied. (John Baptist, Elijah, Jeremiah or one of prophets)Matt 16: 14 . But who do you say I am... have you worked it out yet? Peter was straight in with “You are the Christ, Son of the living God.” Jesus acknowledged God himself had directed Peter's thinking “ this was not revealed to you by man, but by my Father in heaven.”

Nothing is handed to us on a plate!!. He gives us seemly impossible challenges and situations to deal with. Hands up who thinks Christian Life is easy?

There was a time in Gloucester when life was very hard for me. I can remember sitting in our back garden feeling how hard the Christian life was. I looked up to see thick black clouds. (SCOTLAND!!!) Just like my problems black and oppressive. I then noticed the clouds were moving. Then reality dawned. behind the clouds would be blue sky and the sun was shinning. ON A PLANE This was the reality. The sun always shines and the sky is always blue. The clouds come and go, the sun continually shines, we just can't see it when the clouds are there.

We may feel alone, abandoned, in a dark place, but the reality is that God is always there with us. The hardness of our circumstances may block out what we can see or feel for a time, but this doesn't take away the reality of the eternal presence. In these times we have to go on faith.

Heb 11v1 “ Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see” We need to believe God's promises like “ I will never leave you nor forsake you...

We may not feel Jesus is with, don't trust feelings, they can lie. We go on the truths of scripture. Jesus actually did mean it...and for us !!!

Remember Paul's prayer in Ephesians....now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine... In another difficult time I felt Jesus was far away, I can remember saying to myself... yes I know Jesus is able to do this....but does he want to for me? He is able to do it for......you all, but me?
Suddenly I believe I heard the Lord saying to me “I am able and I am willing!!!” Whenever I read that prayer I now say to myself Jesus is able and willing to do immeasurably more for me...

We read in John's Gospel, Jesus set the disciples the challenge to feed the crowd, but he already knew what he was going to do. Jesus already knows the way out of our difficult situations. We have to continually trust him, quote scriptures to ourselves … and allow him to carry us through. He is able, and willing to do it for us!!!

The disciples seemed to have forgotten their master changed 120 gallons or more of water into wine and were unable to imagine what Jesus could do with a small amount of food. Still they obeyed his instructions and had the people sit down, about 5,000 men. With women and children the number must have been at least twice this. They watched whilst Jesus took the 5 rolls and 2 small fish and thanked his heavenly father for them and broke them up..

Then came their turn.

Although John doesn't say explicitly, Jesus must have used the disciples to distribute the food or the process would have taken too long. Matt says clearly he broke the loaves and gave them to his disciples and the disciples gave them to the people.

John Wimber imagines this humourously. Fishermen, huge hard working hands small piece of bread looking even smaller.. hiding it in their cloaks, looking embarrassed as they pulled they hand out of their cloak to offer the crumb and finding it a loaf.. They put their hand in again and there was another loaf..... until all had eaten all they could.

When we obey Jesus and step out of our comfort zones he provides the means.

We offer Jesus what we have, not bemoan what we don't have. Jesus didn't despise the boy's offering, he took the little basic lunch . He didn't turn it into steak and chips, he takes what we have and makes it more than enough to accomplish his purposes.

This miracle is very relevant for us today in the light of many desperate situations in our world,. He challenges us to face the crowds of the starving, the refugees, the homeless. Not to dismiss the problem as too big for us to deal with, or our resources are too small to make any difference.

We put into his hands who we are, what we have. And trust him to meet the need. We are starting to do this as a church aren't we? we are rising to refugee challenge through Andrew and Maria... Is God prompting us to do more???

What about our situation?

Don't we wish we had more people coming to RBC, more families, more young people, more resources, more time, more money, more energy...more power of the Holy spirit.

All these would be good to have. But if crying out for these things leads us to immobility, there is something wrong.

There is something wrong if we say:

if only we had....we could.... implying... but as we haven't ..we can't...

I keep crying out to God for more of the HS in RBC...It is right to do so.

At same time I need to see what HS is already doing in our midst, and thank LORD for this.

As each one receives giftings from God we need to offer them back to Him and he will multiply them to meet our needs as a fellowship.

Next instruction was to pick up all the broken pieces that were left so “nothing would be wasted”

The disciples collected 12 basketfuls. Jesus showed he could meet the needs of his whole people, the 12 tribes of Israel. After all had been satisfied there was more left over than there was at the beginning. Jesus resources are without limit; he can meet all our needs and more.

Nothing must be wasted. We have the priviledge, don't we, of knowing love of Jesus “We must not squander that love” as Matt Redman says. We are called to share that love with others. We are called to use the gifts he has given us...Remember the parable of the talents..use them and not not bury them .. not keep them to our own private lives out of sight.

Jesus is pushing us out of our comfort zones. Challenging us to go out of the comfort of our 4 walls of our church...not to darkest Africa.. possibly simply just to next door!!!

(This has begun...a few of us going to meet in public bar at Goth to open word and pray together.)

Let's look more closely at John's choice of The Feeding of 5,000 as his 4^th miraculous sign.

The sign can be interpreted at many levels.

Bread has particular significance. It is called the staff of life, the basic food of all. Jesus is for everyone. John points out that the Passover was near (v4) The passover meal was lamb, bitter herbs and unleavened bread. You remember that the Passover was a nationalistic festival recalling Israel's deliverance from slavery in Egypt.. Jesus has already been equated with the passover lamb...John the Baptist called Jesus the lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world. Jesus also said in the teaching that follows this sign, “I am the bread of life. This bread is my flesh, which I give for the life of the world.” The next passover Jesus celebrated was the night before he was betrayed, when he took bread and broke it. John was aware of the Lord's Supper. We read. V 53...56, 57

Eating flesh and drinking blood of Son of Man..we understand Jesus is talking about an intimate relationship, …...Just as we live because of bread we eat, so we live because of Jesus As we take in bread, the bread becomes part of us.

Jesus transforms us from the inside.

In the sign, Jesus provided bread in the desert place, as through Moses God gave Manna to the children of Israel during their desert wanderings. This had not escaped the notice of even the Galilean country folk. They declared that Jesus must be the Prophet, like Moses,who was foretold should come in Deuteronomy, or he was even the Messianic King. There was a ground swell to seize Jesus and make him King by force. John tells that Jesus withdrew from the situation and climbed a mountain by himself.

The crowd had missed the point. Jesus was more than the Prophet, He was the Messiah, but more than the political leader they were expecting. The sign revealed that Jesus is God incarnate. Only God can cause such an abundance of food to come into being.

John shows in the verses that follow that the crowd continued in their rigid shut minded attitude despite the miraculous signs and all Jesus revealed about himself, they were not able to accept Jesus as anything but a human being. We can see how wrong rigid, shut minds can be. They are determined they are right. They have it all sewn up. God will send his Messiah who will get rid of their oppressors and set up a Kingdom in Israel. They knew Jesus parents so how can he have come down from heaven? His teaching about his flesh and blood was the last straw for them, they left following him in disgust.

Is this a warning even to us? How much of the things that we hold dear are are just preferences, or unimportant rules and regulations that we get annoyed about if someone suggests something different.

We must hold on to the truths of the Gospel, truths of who Jesus is, and allow the holy Spirit to enlarge our understanding. What is he revealing to us today ?

(we haven't time to read all the rest of the chapter, do so at home and enjoy the wonderful truths.)

So This sign reveals Jesus is

God incarnate who challenges us, stretches us, allows us to go through “trials of many kinds” (Peter)

He is the one who already knows the way out of these trials, he is there with us. All we have to do is to believe in him, trust him, accept his Lordship of our lives, take him into ourselves and allow him to transform us to be more like him, and he will raise us up at the last day.

©Pam Lilly January 2016

John 5. 1-15 The Third Sign: The lame man at the pool

John 5. 1-15  The Third Sign: The lame man at the pool

This sign points to the fact that Jesus is trouble.  Or to put it more reverently and theologically – that Jesus as Lord and God, challenges our individual and cultural attitudes and ways of being.

This story is simple enough.  Back in Jerusalem, Jesus sees a disabled guy at the pool of Bethesda, apparently waiting for the waters to be stirred so he could get healed.  He asks the guy if he wants to be made better, and the guy begins to explain that he can never get into the water on time when it is stirred up.  Jesus orders him to pick up his mattress and go home. On the way he is stopped by some of the Jewish leaders because he is carrying something (his bed-roll) on the Sabbath.  He excuses this (the man is good at excuses!) by saying “the fellow who healed me told me to pick it up!” but he didn’t know who that person was. Later Jesus met up with him, and warned him to change his life, stop sinning – or something worse might happen to him (Jesus probably means on judgement day).   And he went and told the Jewish leaders that it was Jesus who had healed him.  As a result, they began to oppose Jesus: following him around, picking arguments with him....

The point is clear:  Jesus pays no attention to the Sabbath, because of who he is.  He says “My Father is always at his work to this very day, and I too am working.” (v. 17)  The Jewish leaders interpreted that, as we should, to mean he was equal with God (v. 18)   As God's Son, he is King and Lord. (Psalm 2 associates sonship with kingship.)  Indeed, he is God the Son.  Yes he functions in submission to the Father (verse 19) but he does so with the full authority of the Father.   He is clothed in an authority that reveals who He is.  He is king.  He is Lord.  He is The Word.  He was in the beginning with the Father.  He is the Only begotten Son.  He is God.   

And that is trouble.  It is always trouble.  The problem with authority is that you can either submit to it, or you can oppose it.  You cannot co-exist with it.  And the Problem with Jesus' authority is that it cuts right across all other authorities. 

Individually   This man who got his healing – and he got healed on the outside only – is one of the least likeable characters in the New Testament. He's pretty well right up there with Herod, and Judas Iscariot. He's petty, wants to shake off any responsibility for his own actions, and is a tell-tale to boot.  He had no friends (nobody to help him into the water!) and frankly, I'm not surprised!  At the end of the story – and that is as much as we know about him – he had not really become a “believer”.  He eventually knew who it was that had healed him, but wasn't ready for the “sin no more” challenge.  And maybe he wasn't really ready for the challenge of the healing itself. 

What's not to like about healing?  Illness or disability can
1. be part of our identity.  After 38 years of being a paraplegic, the man possibly didn't know who he was apart from his disability. 
2. Manipulate those around us.  Some of us may have lived in a  family where it was said “Don't upset your mother – you don't want her to have one of her turns!”  Or where someone could get their own way just my threatening an asthma attack or a stomach upset.
3. Bring material advantages – allowing someone to claim benefits, for example. 
Now there are times when people who are disabled or unwell need extra TLC, or need financial support.  But if someone would rather remain unwell and enjoy the pampering, there is a problem.

So, maybe he was resentful because Jesus had force the issue of living without his disability; and maybe because Jesus had raised the issue of “sinning no more”.  Did he have a score to settle with Jesus?  Maybe he was just a dependent, whining sort of individual who was used to blaming his misfortunes on others.   He certainly seemed more concerned about currying favour with the Jewish authorities than showing gratitude to the One who had healed him.  And the reality is that Jesus challenged him.  As Lord, Jesus came with authority to ask the awkward questions.  To point out flaws in his thinking and behaviour. 

Now as individuals, each of us – disabled or able-bodied – can find our identity in something we hold on to; we can all be manipulators and opportunists. We can all whine, point the finger at others, blame them for our circumstances and fail to take responsibility for our own actions.   And for each and every one of us – disabled or able-bodied –   Jesus comes as  Lord. He comes to challenge our dependency; he comes to challenge our manipulation. He comes to challenge our reluctance to take responsibility for our own actions and behaviour.  If we don't like that, and are not prepared to yield to it, we will make the decision, to keep Jesus at a distance. 

And culturally – for the Jewish authorities, Jesus' authority had deliberately challenged their rules about the Sabbath.   John is highly selective in his choice of material. His “Seven signs” include three healings, three nature miracles and one raising from the dead. And only once does John record a healing on the Sabbath – although we know from verse 16, and  the other Gospels, that Jesus did so repeatedly.  By healing on the Sabbath, Jesus is effectively saying, “I'm not keeping your rules, because I am above them”.

So in this sign Jesus asserts his Lordship over our religious institutions and our secular cultures and the way we think about God, each other, and the values of society.   Societies have to accommodate the Lordship of Jesus Christ.  “Make way, Make way, for Christ the King in splendour arrives... We call you now to worship Him...”

What are the “cultural norms” in the 2016 post-modern secular, selfish West, in Scotland, that Jesus would want to overturn?  The godlessness of the various party political ideologies that have taken root?  The “wanton selfish gladness” of shop-till-you-drop materialism?  The tough-guy culture that dominates a lot of work-places?  The “anything goes” culture of alcohol and drug fuelled nights out. The secular relativism where the only thing that could possibly be wrong is believing something to be wrong.   

What makes the difference?  When the Jewish leaders started their campaign against him for breaking the Sabbath, you remember Jesus answered “My Father is always at his work to this very day, and I too am working.” (v. 17).  Then he added to the offence of breaking the Sabbath, the worse one of making himself equal with God.  But immediately, he goes on to say, “the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does.”  (v 19)    Jesus claims equality with the Father, but also expresses dependence on the Father.  He claims equality with God, and defers to the authority of the Father. In other words, Jesus expresses big truths about himself.  He points to his two natures: fully God and fully man.  Having made himself equal with God he then reaffirms that that there is only one God.  He is hinting at the idea of the Trinity. 

And these big truths make the difference.  Knowing who god is and who Jesus is, makes the difference.  He counters the wrong ideas “There's only one God.  If you are for Him you will keep our rules...”  with big statements about himself that imply big statements about who God is.

Jesus challenges our culture – and the individual sin of each person. In our response to our culture, we need not to make Jesus more trendy; we need to know the big truths.  Our world doesn't need to hear about Jesus the carpenter – “I wonder how much he charged for chairs?” one sixties poet asked). And it doesn't need to hear about Jesus the long-haired radical who preached about turning the other cheek.  It needs to hear about Jesus the Lord, the King. It needs to be introduced to a God who is there and is transcendent.  About the God who rules, and who has grace to transform.

And it needs to see the signs – the evidence of the Lordship of Jesus, the signs that point to the reality and transcendence and mystery of who God is and what he is like.  Some of these signs will be in the power of he Spirit, in answered prayers, on the prophetic, in miracles of healing and provision.   And some of them will be the work of the Holy Spirit bringing holiness and transformation in our lives.  If we would want to be able to make that challenge to our world with integrity, we must be prepared to let Jesus the Lord overturn our religious icons and rule over our personal sins and hang-ups.

©Gilmour Lilly January 2016

John 4. 43-54: the Second Sign.

John 4. 43-54: the Second Sign. Healing the Official's Son

Chapters 2-4 of John seem like a section with a “Sign” at the beginning and end.  It begins and ends at Cana in Galilee, but in between, Jesus has been to Jerusalem – where he has driven the traders out of the Temple, performed many miraculous signs, had an important conversation with a Bible scholar called Nicodemus – and then he has stopped off in Samaria where he has had a great talk with a woman who though full of religious ideas had quite a messed up life.  So now he's back in Galilee, where he was brought up; some of the locals have proudly told what they saw him do in Jerusalem so they are pleased to welcome the local boy who has made it in the city.  John quotes the line about prophet having no honour in his own country.  And for John, although Jesus was raised in Galilee, the place where he belongs by right, is Jerusalem.  He is drawing the contrast between sophisticated Jerusalem where Jesus had a hard time and homespun Galilee where Jesus was accepted.  And along comes this troubled “Royal Official.”  He was either an army officer or a member of Herod’s civil service: if he was a soldier he would almost certainly be a gentile; if he was a member of Herod's retinue, he could have been a Jew, but probably not a very good law-keeping Jew.  Either way, he was on the margins of religious respectability.

And this guy comes to Jesus.  His son is desperately ill, at the point of death.  He's heard about what Jesus did in Cana; he has heard what Jesus did in Jerusalem.  He hopes that Jesus will do something for him in Capernaum.  You can feel his pain.  Previously, it was the matter of embarrassment and financial loss; this time it was a matter of life and death.  Jesus, you saved the day at the wedding; you can save my boy.

And again, Jesus seems reluctant to get involved.  Unless you people see signs, you wont' believe. And yes, sometimes we are mystified by Jesus' apparent reluctance to step in and do something.   Why does he do that?   We want to see a miracle.  “God if you do a miracle, I'll believe in you!”  And maybe we will. But Jesus is looking for a faith that will go beyond what we see.  And even seeing a miracle doesn't always lead to faith!)  Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the evidence of things unseen.

The NIV is right to say “Unless you people...”  C K Barrett helpfully points out that both see and believe are plural: so Jesus isn't simply talking to the official but the crowd.  I believe he does it because he wants us to grow real faith, and that means stepping out from the crowd.  

And  that is what happens with this official.  The man presses home the urgency of the situation. Like Mary in chapter two, he isn't put off. He is different from the curious and and sensation-seeking  crowd. He is motivated more than anything else, by compassion for his son.  “Jesus, never mind the theology right now.  Do something before it is too late!”  

And Jesus says in effect “Okay, it's sorted.  Go home. Your son is going to be fine.”  No journey to Capernaum. No laying on of hands.  No prayer.  Just a promise.  And with Jesus, a promise is as good as a miracle.  That is the way the man sees things.  He believes the word Jesus has spoken.  (v. 50)  So he goes home.  That's a new expression of faith for the official.  He believes , puts his trust in the word Jesus has spoken.   So off he goes. I wonder how he was feeling as  he rested on his way home?  Maybe a bit apprehensive. “Will it be true?  Will my son be better?”  Maybe excitement.  “It will be so good to see the lad strong and healthy!”  I can only imagine!

And what wonderful news meets him the next day on the way home.  Servants running along the road to meet him.. As he recognises them, there may have been that flutter of anxiety, just for a second – but he knows by their body language it's good news.  “Master, your son is fine!”  The man has one question: When did he start to get better?  Was this some sot of a co-incidence?”   And he was told  “Yesterday, at one in the afternoon, the fever left him.”  He can remember it so well.  The very moment when he was talking to Jesus.  Every detail of that conversation burned into his memory including the heat of the sun.  What can he do?  He and all his household believed. Whole households turning to Jesus was something that happened in the Church (Acts 16. 31; Acts 18. 8); the phrase “he and all his household” was probably one John had already heard – and it was just right to describe what happened in Capernaum.    That's different from v. 50, where the official believed the word that Jesus had spoken.  Here he simply believed. He accepted that Jesus was the Christ. It's about Jesus' glory, who he is.  He put his trust in Jesus from that moment on.  CK Barrett boldly says “he became a Christian!”  I like that.  From that moment, this outsider was committed to following Jesus. Like the disciples of a few weeks earlier, this outsider trusted in Jesus and committed his life to Jesus.

So this sign says what, exactly?
This story is a pointer to the nature of true faith and the ways faith grows.  
Now these are not discrete boxes that are separate from one another.  One kind of faith doesn't preclude the others.  But the first two are markers along the way.

Firstly, there is faith that is associated with miracles.  It's the “Wow!” faith that sees a miracle and says “Yes, Jesus is powerful!”   It's the desperate faith that comes with a sense of urgency and need, looking for a miracle.  There is nothing wrong with that sort of faith – you may start there; you may come back there – but you can't stop there.  It's a faith that needs to grow.

Secondly, there is the faith that responds to the Word.  It is the faith that believes the promises of God.  We believe that what the Bible says is true.  We believe God's word for us today.  There is nothing wrong with that sort of faith.  Indeed, we need the faith the hears and believes the Word.  The Bible tells us that faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God.    (Romans 10. 17)  So that kind of faith is necessary, and we do need to keep coming back to believe what God says to us in his word (instead of what our society tells us, or our inner broken emotions tell us).  

Thirdly, there is a  faith that is about allegiance not just agreement.  It is about commitment not just creed.  It is about belonging and behaviour not just believing. It involves a complete reorientation of a person's life; we no longer simply come asking Jesus for things.  We no longer simply agree with Jesus' word.  We hand our lives over to him.  That is why – although John doesn't make a big thing of it – the marker of faith in Jesus is baptism: enacting burial of our old self and rising to new life with Jesus.  Maybe at the beginning of this year we need to come back to the river – to re-state our baptismal commitment or if we've never done so to make that public commitment. 

And the sign says something about Jesus.  
It is about who Jesus is and what he does.  Jesus the Word, the Messiah, the Lord, is worth trusting in. 

He is Messiah.
He is the Christ.   Not only Son of God but god the Son.  All that God is, Jesus is.  Eh deserves our adoration and worship

He is mighty.  

• He has the power to heal, now.  And he's not limited by time or space
• His word is reliable.  His promise is as good as a miracle. 
• He can make the miracle of transformation, rebirth, happen in our lives. 

And he is on a mission.  
He's for Jerusalem and Galilee.  He's here for the sophisticated and educated; and he's here for the rough and ready farmers and fishermen.  He's here for the people who live decent, respectable lives and he's here for the ones who cause all the bother.  He's for Jews and non-Jews, insiders and outsiders.  Jesus can bring salvation, healing and hope to any – even outsiders – who are able to take Him at his word, trust in him and commit themselves to living for him. 

© Gilmour Lilly January 2016

John 2. 1-11, The first sign

John 2. 1-11- The Seven signs, (1) Water into Wine

A Middle eastern wedding would bring the entire village to a halt for a party that would last several days! Food would be prepared and wine provided for many guests. And at this wedding – the wine ran out! This as embarrassing; at best the bridegroom would be a laughing stock. At worst eh could be sued under a sort of first century trade descriptions act.

Jesus' Mum is in the thick of things and comes and tells Jesus about the terrible, embarrassing situation. But Jesus says “Why involve me? It's not my time yet!” That seems harsh – at first glance. (Even worse if your bible translates the literal Greek “Woman...” – though the translation doesn't give us the affection in Jesus' voice and Jesus calls Mary “woman” when in Jn 19. 27 he places her in John's care as a a surrogate son.) But “Why involve me? Is literally “What to you and to me?” which is exactly what the demons said when they disputed Jesus right to throw them out in Mark 1. 24. So Jesus is asking Mary what right she has to ask for his help. Clearly she can't tell him what to do just because she is his mother. And the key to this conversation is in the phrase “My hour has not yet come.” Jesus' “hour” in John always refers to his death and resurrection. It is the death and resurrection of Jesus that defeats the enemy, releases God's power, and gives those who trust in him the authority to expect God to be at work. So he is saying to Mary, “Mother, you can't claim some right to my help because you are my mother, and my hour – the time for the cross – has not come. So what makes you think I am going to step into this situation?”

It is important that we understand this idea of authority, of what right we have to expect God to be at work in our situation. or in the situations of other people. We need to address this. What right do we have to ask Jesus to help? Certainly not because we are his Mum! Not because we are related; not because we have been going to church all our lives or are nice, respectable people.

We are used – especially in Scotland – to the idea that we are miserable sinners, and “what's for you will no' go bye ye” so when the wine runs out, or we face embarrassment, or financial loss; or we are struggling with health or job or study or whatever, we think we have to just soldier on. What right do we have to ask Jesus to help? Only this – because his hour has come. He has died on the cross. He has defeated Satan. He has made us his friends and brothers. He has released his Spirit into our lives as we have put our trust in him.

Mary models faith

I love the impudent, indomitable faith that Mary brought to this situation.

Mary isn't put off by what Jesus says. I guess she knew Jesus' hour would come, and that even before that hour, there could be signs to say that hour was coming. So she tells the servants “It'll be all right: just do what he tells you to!” She wasn't going to be put off. And the amazing thing is, that for thirty years, she hadn't (I believe) seen Jesus perform one miracle.

(None of the canonical gospels record Jesus doing miracles as a child, and there is a reason for that – because they never happened. That's the difference between the restrained and intelligent way the Biblical Gospels are written, and the truly mythological stories of the other “gospels,” for example the “Infancy Gospel of Thomas” which describes Jesus as a spoilt brat with supernatural powers who made clay sparrows that came to life, yet could curse people to death.)

She knew who he is. She knew where he had come from. She had seen the other stuff like his ministry in the temple when he was twelve. Isn't that amazing faith?

We need to develop that quiet confidence in what Jesus can do, the ability to bring a situation. to Jesus – even to if you haven't seen a miracle for thirty years, and to bring situations to Jesus in the missionary context. The servants didn't have a clue who Jesus was... but Mary primes them to do whatever Jesus tells them to do. And Jesus does what she expects. "Mary approaches Jesus as his mother, and is reproached; she responds as a believer, and her faith is honoured," says Don Carson. Jesus responds when she takes her stand on the basis that although his hour had not yet come, it was coming.

Mary models Mission

It looks like Mary was in there in the middle of things – close enough to those who were serving to know what was happening. She is concerned for the poor bridegroom; she instinctively knows that Jesus can do something with this situation.; she wants to get the servants – maybe not slaves but simply those who were taking their turn to serve at table – involved. Mission, then, is about telling people who haven’t a clue who Jesus is, to do what Jesus tells them to do, in the expectation of Jesus performing a miracle.

So Jesus orders the servants to fill the six washing jars with water. 180 gallons, or about 600 litres. Fine, so far so good, the servants do what they are asked. The jars were made of stone not porcelain and as such would keep the water pure. Hard work, but a bit of a diversion. They probably don't imagine what Jesus is going to do next. Once the job is done, Jesus tells them to draw some water out of the jars and take it to the master of ceremonies. Aden it had turned in to wine: not just any wine but good quality wine, the best that had been served all day. That is about 800 bottles of wine – more that could have been “set aside”, or smuggled in. The master of ceremonies didn’t' know where the wine came form – but the servants knew and before long the word got out. This is what Jesus had done. Some of these servants must have told the story. And John and some of the other disciples hearing the conversation and seeing the results, must have realised that this was a miracle.

Aden by doing this – John calls it the first sign – Jesus showed his glory. That is first of all, who he is. Archbishop William temple says “The modest water saw its God and blushed.” In one simple act, for those who were in the know – in particular for his disciples – Jesus revealed his glory, and as John says “We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.” (John 1. 14)

And secondly, it is something of The nature of what he does: it is what we receive from him. “Out of his fullness we have all received grace in place of grace already given” (Jn 1. 16) The six jars were used for ceremonial cleansing, the washing of hands, clothes, cups, that was part of Jewish religious life. He turns the water that was used over and over in ritual washing, into new wine that cleans and disinfects us from sin, fully and permanently. He changes the water of law that tells us how we should live, into the wine that makes us strong enough to live that new life. Jesus turns the “water” of Jewish religion, of into the “wine” of a living relationship with God, the water of religious duty into the wine of celebration and not just the “old wine” of a second-rate celebration but the new wine of the Kingdom, a living experience of God's power and presence.

John calls this story “the first sign Jesus did. ” There are seven of these signs in John's gospel. We are going to look at each of them. It's good to remember that there was something between Christmas and Easter: Jesus' life and ministry is as important as his birth and his death. And his disciples believed in him. That is what these signs are for. So can I finish by saying a word or two to disciples. At the beginning of 2016, I wonder how many of us are muddling through with just water; I wonder how many of us are feeling embarrassed because we have run out of wine. Life's not much of a party. We feel under-resourced; maybe even threatened; we don't know how we are going to get through it.

We need to renew our trust in Jesus. In who he is, and in what he wants to do in and through us. We need like Mary to step up and engage with who Jesus is – and encourage others to engage with who Jesus is.

© Gilmour lilly January 2016