Living Stones – Thursday, November 16, 2017
Guest list
John 2:2
Now both Jesus and His disciples were invited to the wedding.
When putting together a wedding, or any other event for that matter, the issue of the guest list is a big deal. Many a wedding nearly ended before getting started because of issues related to the guest lists.
Often, controlling the numbers is a big problem because, the list of possible guests is long, but the budget is short. When this is the case decisions have to be made about who stays on the list and who doesn’t. At my wedding, I had a big fight with my mother over one potential guest because she and I disagreed over the definition of the concept of family.
The wedding in Cana of Galilee, John 2:1-11, was a country wedding. At least one of the families seems to have been connected to the family of Jesus in some way. They also seem to have had some guest list problems, they had more guests than catered wine. That was a big problem at that time and in that culture. To run out of wine was a big embarrassment and was for a long time going to be a source of humiliation and disgrace for the families.
Despite the challenge of limited resources, the wedding planners got one important thing right, they invited Jesus. A few days ago, when reflecting on this wedding, we addressed the tendency we have of starting out on our own and only coming to Jesus if things don’t seem to be working out. In the case of this young couple, and their families, they started out with Jesus, they invited Him to their wedding and into their lives, from the very beginning.
There is a lot of emphasis placed on the big public displays which lie in contrast to this wedding. It was a country wedding, and while at Cana of Galilee this was a big event, in the grand scheme of things, it was small. As the narrative evolves, we would see crowds following Jesus, but here at this wedding in a country village it wasn’t about the crowds, this was relatively private, personal, and intimate.
Jesus did a giant-sized miracle, turned 180 gallons of water into fine wine, in a small country crisis. He demonstrated His Glory, in the circumstances of a young nameless couple in a country wedding where the matter was hardly likely to draw much attention at the time.
No situation is too small for His attention, and this demonstrated that even if you are in an obscure part of the planet Jesus is going to come through for those who invite Him in.
Invite Jesus and He would be there, when the need arises, to respond. He could turn your water into wine, He could take your everyday resources and make them into commodities of high value. This is God’s pattern in every situation when He comes in.
We have the example of the widow of Zarephath. God was responding to Elijah’s need for food in the midst of scarcity caused by the absence of rain for three years. He asked the widow for some basics, a cup of water and a morsel of bread. So she said, “As the Lord your God lives, I do not have bread, only a handful of flour in a bin, and a little oil in a jar; and see, I am gathering a couple of sticks that I may go in and prepare it for myself and my son, that we may eat it, and die.”
Elijah insisted on being fed first and she could have chased him away in her circumstances, but instead she chose to believe the word of the prophet and as a result, “she and he and her household ate for many days. The bin of flour was not used up, nor did the jar of oil run dry, according to the word of the Lord which He spoke by Elijah.” 1 Kings 17:8-16.
We have the same situation when Elisha met the widow who had just one jar of oil but a mountain of debt. She invited God’s prophet into her situation, and that one jar of oil became an oil outlet for as long she could find vessels to pour into. 2 Kings 4:1-7.
In many homes where the inhabitants have some connection with Christianity we often see a plaque on the wall with words like, “Christ is the Head of the house, the Unseen Guest at every meal, the Silent Listener to every conversation.” Unfortunately, plaques don’t control behaviour and many times the behaviour in the home doesn’t reflect any thought to the presence of Christ.
Here is Jesus’ promise to us during scarcity and lack, where the tendency is to be consumed by worry about the prospect of living tomorrow, “seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.” Matthew 6:24-34.
We have to ensure that Jesus is not just wall art, but a real and genuinely invited guest.
Think on these things:
- How do you plan your life events, and at which point do you take them to God?
- If you are experiencing scarcity and lack, or any other kind of crisis or challenge at the moment, how have you been responding to it?
- Again, if you have a present crisis, or can think back to one in the past, do you see where you might have left God out?
Prayer focus:
Let us pray today that, we would always remember to invite Jesus first into everything that we are about to do.
In His Grace
Pastor Alex
