SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 1/4/2016
12:00 PM
My Worship Time Focus:
PT-2 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.’”
I mentioned that I wanted to explain something that had bothered me for a long time when reading this passage and that has to do with what Jesus called His mother, and why he used the term woman and we looked briefly at this in our previous SD, but I want to give the real reason why He used this term and not calling her mother as I am sure that He had done up until this time. We mentioned that woman is not something that would put her down as perhaps it does in our generation, but was a term used with respect to her, the term was not as intimate of an address as mother is. MacArthur states that the term “woman” is similar to us using the term “Ma’am.” I think it best if I quote once again from MacArthur’s sermon on this subject as it is very important that we understand this completely. “Verse 4, after Mary says to Him, “they have no wine,” Jesus said to her, “Woman.” Woman, not mother? It’s not harsh to say “Woman.” Some say it’s kind of the southern expression, “ma’am.” It’s not harsh, but it’s not intimate. It’s not mother. It’s courteous. By the way, it’s the same word that He used on the cross in John 19 when He said to her, “Woman, behold your son,” and handed her over to John. He called her “woman” there as well. Why? Because He is telling her we don’t any longer have the relationship we’ve had up till now. It’s over. She is no longer in a position to act as an authority in His life. She is no longer in a position to tell Him what to do, to make suggestions to Him. This would be a big change because I’m pretty confident that everything she ever asked of Him, everything she ever desired of Him, He gave out of His love. But she could no longer demand anything from Him. She played no role in His ministry.
“Listen to this carefully. When He was twelve years
old, He gave her a preview of this moment, and He was in the temple talking to
the officials, and He said, “I must be about My Father’s business.” And this
day His Father’s business started and His mother’s business ended. From here on
He was saying, “I don’t do your business; I do My Father’s business. I’m done
with My mother’s business, fully engaged in My Father’s business.”
“Can I even extend that? He never asked for
suggestions from anybody…from anybody. In fact, when people gave Him
suggestions, He normally rebuked them such as “Get behind Me, Satan.” Here His
rebuke is a little milder. He says, “What does that have to do with us?” “What
does that have to do with us?” This is so critically important. The years of
compliance, the years of submission, the years of obedience are over. He is
finished with His mother’s business and He is now doing His Father’s business.
He says from here on, as we’ll see in John, “I only do what the Father tells Me
to do. I only do what the Father wills that I do. I only do what I see the
Father do. It is the Father who gives Me His Word, and it is what the Father
speaks that I do.”
“He
is distancing Himself from that mother/son relation which had existed for
thirty years. To call her mother would have kept that relationship kind of intact.
“Woman” shows that she is now dealing not with her son, but with the Son of
God. What does that
have to do with us? What an amazing statement. By the way, that
statement is made a couple of times in the New Testament. It’s made in Matthew
8 and Mark 1 and Mark 5; it’s a very familiar expression; it’s a Semitic kind
of expression, literally it is as “What to Me and to you?” What is it that concerns you and Me together? Nothing. What do we have
in common? Nothing. It is
a separating statement. I am completely free from you as to your desires, your wishes, your
advice. He sealed this in Matthew 12; you remember the story, no doubt,
in verse 46. He was speaking to the crowds and His mother and brothers were
standing outside and they wanted to talk to Him--Mary and His half-brothers.
“Someone said to Him, ‘Behold, Your mother and Your brothers are outside
standing out there seeking to speak to You.’ Jesus answered the one who was
telling Him and said, ‘Who is My mother? Who are My brothers?’ Stretching out
His hand toward His disciples He said, ‘Behold, My mother and My brothers.
Whoever does the will of My father who is in heaven, he is My brother and My
sister and My mother.’” The
only relationship I have is with people who do My Father’s will. Other human relationships cease.
That’s what He’s saying. What do we have in common? You have no role to play in My life; all family
connections are over. All family relationships are over.” Now I think what MacArthur is saying is that things
are now different between us and I also believe that Mary understood this. When we get to the part of John where Jesus
is about to die on the cross He does make sure that His mother is taken care
of, but listen to how He does this: “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
19:26-27).”
So we now better understand the statement “What
does that have to do with us,” as this was explained from the quote from
MacArthur’s sermon and now all of this makes much more sense to me and I am
thankful to the Lord that He has used this sermon to cause me to better
understand this passage that has given me trouble in the past.
We have one more phrase to look at and that is “My
hour has not yet come,” and this too has brought some misunderstanding to me
for the reason that after He says this He then performs the miracle, so we will
have to dig into this to better understand it too.
This statement lends to what we were contemplating
before in that Mary perhaps desired for Jesus to begin His miracles at this
point, but that still does not help us understand this statement when you see
that He did the miracle. MacArthur
writes “This supports the possibility that Mary was knowingly asking Jesus to
reveal Himself at that time, since He had for years been in the fullness of
mature manhood. Jesus made it clear that
He would act according to God’s timetable, decreed before the foundation of the
world, not hers or any man’s (cf. 7:2-8).
It was not the appointed time for Jesus’ full messianic glory to be
revealed; yet the miracle He would perform would make His divine power unmistakable,
and preview His glory to come. The dark
hour of the cross would precede the full revelation in His glorious messianic
kingdom where wine, emblematic of you and gladness, will abound. ‘Behold, days
are coming,’ declares the Lord, ‘when the plowman will overtake the reaper and
the treader of grapes him who sows seed; when the mountains will drip sweet
wine and all the hills will be dissolved.
Also I will restore the captivity of My people Israel, and they will
rebuild the ruined cities and live in them; they will also plant vineyards and
drink their wine, and make gardens and eat their fruit.’ (Amos 9:13-14; cf.
Isa. 25:31:12; Joel 3:18).’” Now if I
can get this through my head, what MacArthur is saying that when Jesus made
this statement He was talking about something in the future when His hour would
come in full, and not just the miracle that He would perform at this time.
MacArthur concludes “Undeterred by the mild rebuke
(cf. Matt. 15:22-28), and aware that He was not saying not no to the request,
Mary ‘said to the servants,’ ‘Whatever He says to do, do it.’ She immediately turned to the servants,
anticipating that He would respond. The ‘servant’
were diakonois (from which the
English word ‘deacons’ [1 Tim. 3:8, 12] derives). Not doulois (‘slaves’), suggesting that they were not slaves or household
servants. Most likely they, like Mary,
were family and friends helping with the celebration. Her charge to them was necessary, since they
might otherwise have hesitated to follow the strange instructions they would
receive from a guest.”
What I try to do in my Spiritual Diaries is to
better understand the passages that I am studying and therefore when they go
onto my blogs others who read them will likewise better understand the passages
better, and that is why I use many quotes in my Spiritual Diaries, for these
quotes help me to better understand what I am studying, and hopefully to all
who read them too.
Now with all of this said let’s look at how Warren
Wiersbe explains this part of verse four:
“At this point, John introduced on of the key elements of his record,
the idea of ‘the hour.’ Jesus lived on a
‘heavenly timetable,’ (7:30; 8:20; 12:23; 13:1; 17:1; and note also the words
of Jesus as recorded in John 11:9-10.)
As you study John’s Gospel, you will observe how this concept of ‘the
hour’ is developed.”
Spiritual
meaning for my life today: I can say
that I wish that I knew my timetable of what the Lord wants me to do, but I suppose
that this has to do with faith, study and prayer for me to understand it
better.
My Steps of Faith for Today: Trust the Lord to show me what His plans for me are and then do them through the power of His Spirit.
Answer to yesterday’s Bible question: “The veil of the temple” (Luke 23:45).
Today’s Bible question: “Who said, ‘My punishment is greater than I can bear’?”
Answer in our next SD.
1/4/2016 1:10 PM
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