Month: September 2019

I’ve written about the wedding in Cana before, when Jesus turned water into wine, and not just a little cheap wine, but gallons and gallons of the finest wine.  I love this picture of His generosity and concern for even the little things that trouble us. He most certainly cares for us.

 

I want to revisit this moment in Jesus’ life because of the interaction between Mary and Jesus at the beginning of the story.

 

The next day Jesus’ mother was a guest at a wedding celebration in the village of Cana in Galilee.  Jesus and his disciples were also invited to the celebration. The wine supply ran out during the festivities, so Jesus’ mother spoke to him about the problem. “They have no more wine,” she told him.

“How does that concern you and me?” Jesus asked. “My time has not yet come.”

But his mother told the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.”

John 2:1-5

 

Mary doesn’t ask Jesus, Would you like some more wine?  Is it your will for the people to have some more wine?  She states the facts. There is a need.  And she knows Jesus can meet it. I can picture her turning around and walking away, calling back over her shoulder to the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.”  That’s “confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see” (Hebrews 11:1). It’s a picture of faith.

 

A lot of times we don’t approach God with faith, with any expectation that He will respond to us. Instead we ask with a kind of resignation. Please, Lord, meet this need.  You probably won’t, and that’s ok, but I just thought I’d ask. In contrast, Mary isn’t afraid of Jesus’ answer.  She’s confident that He will respond to every need in His own faultless way.

 

I don’t know if Mary expected Jesus to make more wine, or if she was simply certain that whatever Jesus did next would be kind.  When we have a need, do we believe in, count on, rely on the mercy and love of the Father? Do we trust that even if our request is premature, He will respond to us?  Are we certain that whatever He does, God is kind?

 

Let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God. There we will receive his mercy, and we will find grace to help us when we need it. Hebrews 4:16

 

There’s not really much point in prayer if we don’t think our requests make any difference. When Jesus taught the disciples to pray, He said, “Your heavenly Father knows exactly what you need even before you ask him!” (Matthew 6:8). He also told them to keep on asking (Matthew 7:7) and He used the parable of the persistent widow to illustrate the “need for constant prayer and to show them that they must never give up” (Luke 18:1).  Our needs cause us to turn to God, to look for a source of help outside ourselves. When we can meet our own needs, we don’t really need God.  But when we can’t, that’s when we need faith that allows us to leave the concern in His capable hands and wait for Him to respond.

 

It is impossible to please God without faith. Anyone who wants to come to him must believe that there is a God and that he rewards those who sincerely seek him. Hebrews 11:6

Belief is a funny thing.  A powerful thing. What we believe often determines the choices we make, the actions we take.  But somehow in our modern language we’ve watered it down to mean little more than to think.  I believe I’ll get to your house around 4:00.  I believe I’ll have the steak tonight.  Surely this kind of belief is little more than wishful thinking.

 

One of the most well-known verses in the Bible talks about the importance of belief – “For this is how God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16).  According to this passage, belief is essential.

 

Can your belief in God be similar to your belief that it will rain today, or that you will have another cookie, or that the Patriots will win the Superbowl?

 

I don’t think so.  That kind of belief is based on head knowledge, something you’ve analyzed and evaluated and decided to accept based on a preponderance of evidence.  It’s likely to be true. But that kind of belief is a flimsy thing on which to stake your life.

 

Instead, when the Bible talks about belief, it’s talking about a sure and certain thing.  To be utterly convinced that something is true. And if something is true, it’s reliable. And if something is reliable, we can rely on it, depend on it, put all our weight onto it, because we’re certain that it will hold up under the burden.  It’s entrusting yourself to the thing being true, counting on it, betting your last penny, putting all your eggs in the basket so if you’re wrong and this thing isn’t true, then you’re sunk. Toast. Finished.

 

Dead.

 

That’s what the passage in John is driving at – belief in Jesus is relying on the fact that He is the Peacemaker, the perfect offering, the Son of God.  There aren’t any other avenues, there’s no other hope, there’s no other way to be saved from judgment. It’s not enough to just think that Jesus is God’s Son.  He is the only way to the Father (John 14:6) – He’s our only hope.

 

What you really believe is always most clearly revealed by what you do.  Why else would Noah build an ark in the desert? Why would Abraham pack up and move?  Why would Moses head back to Egypt, where he was a wanted man? Why would Joshua show up to a battle with a marching band?  Why would David take on Goliath with a slingshot? Why would Esther approach the king uninvited? Why would anyone choose death over denial?

 

Often we’re asked to believe in something we can’t see. To come to a precipice and step onto an invisible bridge.  Taking that step is where faith comes in. It’s “the confident assurance that what we hope for is going to happen. It is the evidence of things we cannot yet see” (Hebrews 11:1).  I’m never going to take my foot off the ledge if I just wish there’s something there to hold me up.  But I can step out in confidence if I believe there’s a solid footing for my feet.

 

God isn’t asking us to do things that are senseless.  He’s asking us to do things that are based on belief. When we entrust ourselves to Him, we’re saying that He is who He says He is and He will do what He says He will do.  Even when that seems unlikely, far-fetched, or impossible. We are completely and fully convinced that “nothing is too hard for the Lord” (Jeremiah 32:27).