SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 1/3/2016
6:48 AM
My Worship Time Focus: The
Situation
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: John 2:3-5
Message of
the verses: “3 When the wine ran out, the mother of Jesus
said to Him, "They have no wine." 4 And Jesus said to her,
"Woman, what does that have to do with us? My hour has not yet come."
5 His mother said to the servants, "Whatever He says to you, do it.’”
Perhaps when one reads these verses they are a bit
confused about a couple of things, like why does Jesus call His mother “woman”
or why does He say “what does that have to do with us?” I hope when we get done with this section
that we will better understand the answers to these questions better. Let me first look at the word “woman” in the
Greek/English dictionary to see if that helps us a bit. “1) a woman of any age, whether a virgin, or
married, or a widow 2) a wife 2a) of a
betrothed woman.” Not sure that this
gives us much help other than the fact that Jesus calls her by this term rather
than “mother.” Let us go all the way
forward to when Jesus was dying on the cross and see what he has to say about
his mother: “25 Therefore the soldiers
did these things. But standing by the cross of Jesus were His mother, and His
mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. 26 When Jesus
then saw His mother,
and the disciple whom He loved standing nearby, He said to His mother,
"Woman, behold, your son!" 27 Then He said to the disciple, "Behold, your mother!"
From that hour the disciple took her into his own household (John 19:25-27).” Ok keep all of this in your mind and we will
talk more about it a bit later on.
Let us begin by talking about wine and when we read
about that subject in the Bible we may get different opinions. John MacArthur writes “Wine was the staple drink
in the ancient Near East. Due to the
warm climate and the lack of any means of refrigeration or purification, fruit
juice tended to ferment. The result was
an alcoholic beverage with the capability of inducing drunkenness. To help avoid the risk of inebriation, wine was
commonly diluted with water to one-third to one-tenth of its strength. Though the Bible does not forbid drinking
wine, and in some cases commends it (eg., Ps. 104:14-15; Prov. 31:12; 1 Tim.
5:23), it strongly condemns drunkenness (Gen. 9:20-27; Deut. 21:20-21; Prov.
20:1; 23:29-35; Rom. 12:12; 1 Cor. 5:11; 6:10; Gal. 5:21; Eph. 5:18; 1 Tim. 2:3,
8; Titus 1:7; 2:3; 1 Peter 4:3).”
Running out of wine at a wedding would have been a
great embarrassment to the groom, for it was his responsibility to make sure
that there was enough for the entire celebration and from this knowledge about whose
responsibility it was we can assume that Mary had something to do with being a
host or at least a great friend of the bridegroom, for she comes to Jesus with
this problem and says to Him “They have no wine.” Now this brings up something else that we
really don’t know the answer to, but something else we may figure out due to
circumstances, and that is that Mary was by this time probably a widow for if
Joseph was still alive then she would have gone to him, but since it is assumed
that he was dead she goes to her oldest Son.
Yes Mary had other children for this is made very clear in the Word of
God in different places in the gospels.
So anyway she comes to Jesus with this problem. We don’t know if she expected Jesus to
perform a miracle or not, for up to this time this had not happened by
Him. MacArthur writes “Yet Mary knew
better than anyone who Jesus really was.
She was well aware of His miraculous virgin birth and the amazing things
said of Him by the angel Gabriel (Luke 1:31-33, 35), the shepherds (Luke
2:8-18), Simeon (Luke 2:25-35), and Anna (Luke 2:36-38), having pondered them
in her heart over the years (2:19). She
had experienced His sinless life and its perfection as He had ‘kept increasing
in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men (Luke 2:52). She may also have heard of John the Baptist’s
recent public testimony about Him 1:26-27, 29-34, 36), confirming what she
knew. It may be that she was promoting
Jesus to reveal Himself publicly as the Messiah she knew Him to be.”
Once again I want to go back to the recent sermon that MacArthur spoke on from this section to get a quote from it about this section: “Some have suggested she wanted Him to do a miracle. He had never done a miracle. Why would she all of a sudden want Him to do a miracle? He had never done a miracle. Well, but He had been baptized by John. She knew He was about to embark on His public ministry. He was gathering followers. This was all new--He had left home; He had gone south; He had gone through His temptation. You know, John had identified Him as the Lamb of God and certainly that had been circulating in the little meeting at the wedding if it hadn’t before. And maybe she was thinking, “Wow, now, maybe this is it. Maybe the miracles begin here.” That’s a possibility, that’s a possibility.
“But I think there’s something more obvious than that. Think of it this way: whenever Mary had a problem, who do you think she went to for a solution at home? He never had a bad idea in His life. He never had a wrong solution in His entire life. He never led her one step in the wrong direction. He had the perfect solution to every dilemma. He had the perfect answer for every predicament. Everything that ever went wrong in a house, He knew why it went wrong and how to make it right. He was the most wise, intelligent, resourceful person that had ever lived or ever will live on this earth. And He was in the house with her.
“You know, some of us are severely challenged domestically. Things I can’t do; I can’t solve all problems, not by a long shot. But He would know the way to solve every problem. And not only that, He cared about people. He was compassionate, He was kind, He was loving, He could see the issues. Who else would she go to? Who else? Who else had one that they would go to the equal of Him? None. He had the perfect solution to every dilemma, the perfect answer to every question, perfect solution to every problem. And she also knew He cared and He cared deeply about people because He loved as only God can love. I don’t think she’s necessarily asking for a miracle. She just goes to the One she would always go to when there was a very difficult predicament. So she simply says to Him, “They have no wine,” “they have no wine.” She’s learned as a widow to trust in His leadership and His wisdom.”
I guess that you have figured out that this sermon that I only listened to has had a great impact on me for I have learned things that I certainly did not know before, and want to share them in my Spiritual Diaries. With this said there is one more quote that I want to put here and with that we will stop and pick up some more on this part of the story in our next SD.
“I just want to stop here to say this. There’s something really beautiful about this because He’s had thirty years in Nazareth in this little town, a few hundred people, and He’s about to step out into the world, if you will. Thirty years of absolute obscurity in private life, and now He’s going to begin public ministry, and the bridge from His private life to His public ministry is a miracle for His family and friends. Do you see that? This didn’t happen in Judea. This happened for His family and His friends, they were the first ones who were to recognize what He had never demonstrated before, that He is the Creator God. It’s a family and friends miracle.”
Spiritual meaning for my life today: I can see from this story something that I knew all along, but even more oblivious and is Jesus loves me.
My Steps of Faith for Today: Live like I realize that Jesus loves me.
Answer to yesterday’s Bible question: “Gentiles” (Romans 11:12-17).
Today’s Bible question: “What torn while Jesus was on the cross?”
Answer in our next SD.
1/3/2016 7:35 AM
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