I was going to write about Love this week (February, St Valentine’s Day, Leap Year wedding proposals, I got married in February – you can see where I was coming from), but someone (no names mentioned) rolled their eyes when I suggested it, so back to the drawing board…
So, Miracles…
This is a bit of a cop out actually, because we’re looking at the Miracles of Jesus in Faith Explorers. As is often the way, I’ve heard of most of them (I think, maybe) but I wouldn’t be able to tell you when/where/why they occurred. But that’s why I find Faith Explorers so helpful; a chance to delve right into a passage, pull it apart, consider all the people involved, how they may be feeling, what else was going on around the outskirts of the story and what message was being told at the time and how is that relevant to us today.
We started at the beginning, when Jesus turns water into wine at the wedding in Cana (John 2:1-11). I have heard this passage many times, but I’ve obviously never really read it. I didn’t realise that it was Jesus’ mother who told him that the wine had run out..
3 When the wine was gone, Jesus’ mother said to him, “They have no more wine.”
4 “Woman, why do you involve me?” Jesus replied. “My hour has not yet come.”
5 His mother said to the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.”
How many times has this pattern of conversation been repeated between a parent and child? ‘Help please’, ‘not now’, ‘err, yes, now’. The prelude to Jesus’ first miracle is so normal, deep rooted in familiarity, that I completely missed it!
Of course, there is far more involved, and I haven’t got to the miracle, but how reassuring, how familiar, that interaction between family.
So Jesus’ first miracle occurs at a wedding, where Mary becomes aware that not all is well and wanting to protect the family from possible embarrassment, asks Jesus for help, who despite his immediate reaction, does as he is asked….
Wedding…Protect family…Jesus respects his mother
Ok, no hearts, chocolates or slushy movies, but that’s quite a lot of love right there on the surface of the passage, before we even investigate the meaning of the miracle.
This week we’re looking at miracles where Jesus heals the wounded – err is that not more love?
So really, it wouldn’t matter what I chose to write about, there’s just no getting away from it
16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. (John 3:16)
Jenny
Churchwarden |
