A Wedding and a Sign

A Wedding and a Sign

This Sunday at CDC, we were privileged to have Brother Terry Tan speak on the message “A wedding and a sign”, based on the passage of the famous wedding at Cana in John Chapter 2.

Amazingly, the message was given on a day after 7^th July 2007, a very auspicious day for weddings, and similarly, the passage was about a wedding and a sign.

Jesus, his mother and his disciples had been invited to a wedding in Cana, Galilee, and a serious problem arose for the hosts, when they ran out of wine. In those days, weddings were not just for a day or two, but for a whole week, and it was not an easy thing to keep the guests supplied with food and drink for the whole time. Mary recognized the problem, knew that Jesus could help, and asked Him. By saying “they have no more wine”, Mary was in fact asking Jesus to help. Amazingly, she believed that He could. The first lesson for us is this “We need to learn to ask Jesus for help, and believe that He can help us”. Ask and you shall receive.

Interestingly, Jesus replied “Dear woman, why do you involve me? My time has not yet come.” In modern day understanding, it is hard to comprehend how Jesus could call His own mother, “woman”, which seems rude and disrespectful. However, in those days, as the speaker explained, it was neither good nor bad, but a polite term of reference to a lady. It was further explained that perhaps Jesus was indirectly telling Mary that his time as a earthly son had passed, and it was now time for Him to fulfill the purpose that God had prepared for Him, as Spiritual Savior and Lord of all. In another passage, a woman cried out to Jesus “Blessed is the mother who bore you”, but Jesus replied, “Blessed rather are those who follow the will of God”. The emphasis is on obeying God always. In any case, we know that Jesus continued to care deeply for his mother, even commissioning John to take care of her as he hung dying on the cross.

Jesus then proceeded to perform the first miracle of His ministry, turning water into wine. Interestingly, John records only 7 miracles in His book, but he doesn’t call them miracles, he calls them signs. This first sign revealed the glory of Jesus and caused his disciples to place their faith in Him. Another insight we may draw from this is that Jesus turned something common into something valuable. He proceeded to do the same with His disciples, and continues to do the same with us today. By trusting Him and letting Him work His miracles through our lives, we certainly change from something common into something truly valuable in God’s sight.

God bless,

Jason