3 John 11: Be from God; Do Good

Presented to Swift Current Corps 10 Feb 2013. Based on a sermon presented on 15 May 2011. By Captain Michael Ramsay

Late one night, a burglar breaks into a house that he thinks is empty. He tiptoes through the living room but suddenly freezes in his tracks when he hears a voice say: “Jesus is watching you!”

When it becomes quiet again, the burglar creeps forward. And again the voice says, “Jesus is watching you.”

The burglar stops dead in his tracks. He is frightened. Frantically, he looks all around. In a dark corner, he spots a… birdcage and in the cage is… a parrot.

Gathering his senses, he asks the parrot: “Was it you all this time who said, ‘Jesus is watching me?’”

“Yes”, said the parrot.

The burglar breathes a sigh of relief, then gaining some confidence he asks the parrot: “What’s your name?”

“Clarence,” says the bird.

“That's a dumb name for a parrot,” sneers the now confident burglar. “What kind of a silly person would name a bird, ‘Clarence?’”

The parrot replies, “The same person who would call his attack dog ‘Jesus’… Jesus is watching you.”

Parrots are good imitators and our verse today is exhorting us to be good imitators, it says, 3 John 11: “Dear friend, do not imitate what is evil but what is good. Anyone who does what is good is from God. Anyone who does what is evil has not seen God.”

Pertaining to this imitation: I think that we have all heard the analogy at one time or another in a sermon about counterfeiting counter-measures and how the authorities spot counterfeit currency. What they don’t do to learn how to identify counterfeit money is study counterfeit money. Instead what they do do is study real money. When they can identify the real thing then they know that all else is not the real thing. It is the same with us as it is only when we spend more time focusing on Christ, in prayer, worship, and Bible study, and less time on ourselves indulging in the selfish values of the world that we recognize what is good and what is evil. And also as we spend more of the currency of our time with God we will obviously become more like Him; however, there are those who will choose instead to use their time spending the counterfeit currencies of the world doing what is selfish and what is evil. 3 John tells us these people have not even seen God. We need to spend time with God to see Him and we need to spend time imitating what is good to build up for ourselves the real treasures that are in heaven (Matthew 6:19-24).

3 John 11: “Dear friend, do not imitate what is evil but what is good. Anyone who does what is good is from God. Anyone who does what is evil has not seen God.” This seems pretty simple. But sometimes we make simple things a little more complicated than they need to be, don’t we? When I was first reflecting on how simple this verse seems to be I was reminded of a few quotations that also point to the obvious. I have been promising for a couple of weeks to give us a test again. I have one for us today. Let’s see how we do. Let’s see if we can finish off these famous quotes. Bonus marks if we can say who said them.

1. Sometimes a cigar is just a ______ (cigar - Sigmund Freud)
2. When I see a bird that walks like a duck and swims like a duck and quacks like a duck, I call that bird a _______ (duck - Cardinal Richard Cushing[1])
3. A rose by any other name is still a ______ (rose – William Shakespeare’s Juliet in Romeo and Juliet)
4. Anyone who does what is good is from God. Anyone who does what is evil has not seen ______ (God – John, the elder)

These famous quotes are all telling us what should be abundantly obvious to us: ‘sometimes a cigar is just a cigar;’ ‘if it swims like a duck and quacks like a duck, it’s a duck;’ ‘a rose by another name is still a rose;’ and ‘anyone who does what is good is from God. Anyone who does what is evil has not seen God.’ Therefore do not imitate what is evil but what is good.

Our Biblical quote today is from this very short letter that John the elder, wrote to his friend Gaius (Verse 1) who probably lived in the city of Ephesus in the Roman province of Asia.[2] The Roman province of Asia: roughly what present day country is in this area? (Turkey). John, in all likelihood probably even founded this church in what is now Turkey.

As we read this letter John writes to this Ephesian church he may have founded, we notice that someone in this church, Diotrephes, is challenging John’s authority (Verse 9); Diotrephes is making false accusations about John and his companions; Diotrephes is not even accepting missionaries that John sends to visit the church (Verse 10); and Diotrephes is even kicking the people out of the church who are good to the missionaries and to John’s friends. This is infuriating! 

Now, if anyone is faithfully doing their readings as laid out in the reading plan in the bulletin, we remember from 2 John this week that what Diotrephes is doing to John and his friends is exactly what John told people to do with the Enemy’s people. Antichrists: we should not even accept them into our homes (2 John 7-11). Now someone in this church here is turning the tables on John in this way and Diotrephes is encouraging people not to accept John-sent missionaries into their homes (1 John 10).[3] John is not pleased. John is very upset. And John, with all of this going on, John is telling his friend, Gaius, in this short letter to a divided church how to know who to trust and how to know who not to trust in this conflict. John says, “Anyone who does what is good is from God. Anyone who does what is evil has not seen God.”

All of this infighting is happening in the church itself, remember. This isn’t people outside the church persecuting Christians. This is people inside the church who are tearing each other down. Sadly this happened even in the first century and sadly this happens even in the 21^st Century. Do we ever learn? Some people always, I think, try to grab power and authority for themselves that is not theirs to grab; reminiscent of Eve and Adam -I think- who, in disobeying God through reaching for the fruit, tried to be as God (Genesis 3:4).

In our text here today, in the midst of a power struggle between John the elder and his adversary the self-serving Diotrephes, John is away as he writes this letter to Gaius at home in Ephesus (Verse 1). John tells Gaius that when John’s friends stayed with Gaius that they only had good things to say about him (Verses 3-8) – unlike Diotrephes – and John tells Gaius too that he has an ally in Demetrius in their fight against Diotrephes and his selfish ways as Diotrephes is challenging God by challenging John’s God-given authority in this, His church.[4] 

John, in 3 John here, is shoring up support and trying to put down the self-serving revolt from within the church. In so doing John gives us this sage advice when he says that if it appears that Diotrephes is selfish, acting badly, and causing troubles; if it appears that he is not a believing God-server but rather a self-server; if it appears to be that way then we have to realize that it probably is that way and we should not be drawn into acting that way ourselves: ‘sometimes a cigar is actually a cigar;’ ‘if something swims like a duck and quacks like a duck, it’s a duck;’ ‘a rose by another name is still a rose;’ and, Verse 11, ‘anyone who does what is good is from God. Anyone who does what is evil has not seen God.’ ‘Do not imitate what is evil but what is good.’ This seems simple and it is and it is actually very important for us to remember in this day and age.

It is basic for us in our world today. I think we have lots of people trying to tell us that a cigar isn’t really a cigar anymore and that a rose isn’t really a rose anymore. The values of our Canadian society seem to be being turned on their heads. Some people, like Diotrephes perhaps, make these long, convoluted arguments that are nothing more than attempts to obscure what should be abundantly obvious to all (Cf. Romans 1-2). These people act and these people talk in self-serving, rather than God-serving ways. There are people even in our country and in our community here who say a whole lot of things that sound really good but that are actually opposed to God.

And so because of this I think it is very important for us to remain faithful; I think it is very important for us to keep reading our Bibles so that we not to be deceived. When we pray and read our Bibles we can tell when someone is making grand speeches to lead us astray. When we pray and read our Bibles, we can tell and we can recognize when someone is trying to deceive us. When we pray and read our Bibles, we can tell and we can avoid being deceived by self-serving ploys. When we pray and read our Bibles can will realize that ‘a cigar is just a cigar;’ ‘if something swims like a duck and quacks like a duck, it’s a duck;’ ‘a rose by another name is still a rose;’ and as we pray and read our Bibles we will realize the simple truth that, Verse 11, ‘anyone who does what is good is from God. Anyone who does what is evil has not seen God.’ Therefore ‘do not imitate what is evil but what is good.’

Now about some of these quotes: Do we know the origin of the “Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar” quote? It is attributed to psychoanalyst Dr. Sigmund Freud but a critic of Freud actually probably uttered the phrase. They have found no actual evidence of this quote anywhere in Freud’s myriad writings. Freud was an antichrist, openly. Freud had no time for religion at all. He thought it was for weak people and, evolutionarily speaking, he considered it to be primitive and outdated.[5] Freud, in all his wisdom, thought that all people went through certain stages in our lives and that at some point in our lives Freud thought that boys will all have crushes on their mothers, Freud thought that girls will all have crushes on their fathers. Freud thought that women each envy a certain part of the male anatomy and Freud thought that as people have oral fixations, that certain items – like cigars – Freud thought, are phallic symbols (for that part of the male). In response to all this, a critic probably said, “Oh come on now, sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.”

Do we know the origin of the rose quote, “a rose by another name is still a rose?” William Shakespeare put these words into the mouth of Juliet in his play, Romeo and Juliet: “What’s in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.” Juliet is talking about her love. Juliet says that you cannot change the beautiful nature of something by just simply renaming it. It doesn’t make it any different. A rose is still as beautiful even if you call it a turnip or a skunk.

These days, there are a number of different ways that some even in our churches in this country are trying to convince us, like Diotrephes was trying to convince the good people in the Ephesus church, that a rose is something other than a rose. Over the last few years we have heard people trying to rename a rose, telling us that the Bible is not the inerrant Word of God (TSA Doc 1). From this deception they then proceed to tell us all kinds of things that should be obviously untrue. The Diotrephes of this world are selfish and they tell us that we have to look out for ourselves before serving God through others. The Diotrephes of our world today tell us that even though the Bible seems to say that certain selfish behaviours can be changed for the better, the Bible doesn’t really mean what it says: the Diotrephes of our world today say that you can’t even change your nature so don’t bother trying. The Diotrephes of our world today are telling us that we are born certain ways and we’ll never be able to change. This is sad. We know that’s not true.

We have all seen people change. We have all heard testimonies of people whose lives and world God has changed from the inside out. Many of us have had our lives changed as we have turned them over to God but the Diotrephes of our world today say that a rose is not a rose and a duck is not a duck and that not only can we not change the selfish and evil behaviours that have enslaved us but that they tell us that we can and we must embrace them and even build our identity around them: ‘why call a sin, a sin?’, they ask. ‘Don’t think you can be free of sin’, they say. ‘Enjoy your selfish actions’, they say. ‘Look out for number one’, they say. ‘Don’t worry about what God and the Bible says about loving God, your neighbour, and being perfect’, they say, ‘we all sin all the time’, they say, ‘just look after yourself’, they say, ‘and everything else will be okay.’ They say... They say... They say.

This is selfishness. This selfishness is sad because by putting oneself first instead of God and others, many people are denying the power of Christ to change even us from the inside out. It is sad because they are ignoring what is plain to see that is: we can all be changed, we can all be sanctified, we can all be made holy. This is the gospel truth. The epistles of John record that we can be free from sin; we should not be deceived. We do not need to be deceived it is as obvious as the fact that ‘a cigar really is just a cigar;’ ‘something that swims like a duck and quacks like a duck, is a duck;’ ‘a rose by another name is still a rose;’ and, Verse 11, ‘anyone who does what is good is from God. Anyone who does what is evil has not seen God.’ And we can see God and we can do what is good. Therefore ‘do not imitate what is evil but what is good.’

Returning to the earlier analogy about the counterfeit money. How do we know what is evil in order to avoid it? Do we do this by studying evil and watching all the bad shows on TV or reading the bad books or surfing the bad Internet sites? No. We know evil and avoid it by spending time examining what is good. “Dear friend,” John the elder writes, “do not imitate what is evil but what is good.” The experts, who want to identify and stop counterfeit money, they don’t spend time around what is bad and fake, they spend time around what is good – the real thing. The more they spend time with the real thing, the more they are prepared to face the counterfeits. The more time we spend with the Lord in prayer and in Bible study, the more we are prepared for the counterfeits, the evils in our world. The more time we spend with the Lord in prayer and in Bible study, the more we are conformed to His likeness – not by our doing but by His.

We are all invited to spend time with our Lord praying and reading our Bibles; we are all invited to spend time serving our Lord and doing good – giving hope today. We are all invited to do this and as we do, we can be assured that we are indeed spending the Lord’s currency and building up for ourselves treasures in heaven. Life’s that simple: if we seek the Lord, we will find Him. And as we find Him, we will be transformed into His likeness no longer doing evil but instead doing good.

So then, in conclusion, life’s not as tricky as some would have us think: ‘a cigar is just cigar;’ ‘if something swims like a duck and quacks like a duck, it’s a duck;’ ‘a rose by another name is still a rose;’ and so, Verse 11, ‘Dear friend[s], do not imitate what is evil but what is good. Anyone who does what is good is from God. Anyone who does what is evil has not seen God. And we can all see God and we can all have our lives transformed by Him so that indeed He can do what is good through even us.

Let us pray.

www.sheepspeak.com

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[1] Cardinal Richard Cushing’s duck quote available on-line at http://quotationsbook.com/quote/2701/#ixzz1LumYAmwv

[2] D. Moody Smith, First, Second, and Third John (Interpretation: John Knox Press: Louisville, Kentucky: 1990), 21.

[3] Cf. D. Moody Smith, 153-154 for a good discussion of this possibility, assuming of course that 2 John and 3 John are written by the same person.

[4] Cf. John R. W. Stott,: The Letters of John: An Introduction and Commentary. Downers Grove, IL : InterVarsity Press, 1988 (Tyndale New Testament Commentaries 19), S. 236

[5] Cf. Sigmund Freud, The Future of an Illusion, 1926. Translated by James Strachey. London: Hogarth Press, 1968.

John 18:28-19:16: Pilates at 6am

Presented to Swift Current Corps of The Salvation Army, 03 Feb 2013

By Captain Michael Ramsay

I have a Calvin and Hobbes comic to share with us today.[1]

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I have another primer/opener for you here. This one is a Harvey story. I don’t think that this one has shown up at Alpha yet but consider this a plug for Alpha: come and hear Harvey’s stories like the following:
 

There is this boy. He starts out writing a letter to Santa but then realises that he will get better results if he writes directly to the Lord. So he writes: ‘Dear Santa (crossed out). ‘Dear Jesus, I have been good for six months; please give me what I want for Christmas.’ He thinks a minute. Crosses it out and writes, ‘Dear Jesus, I have been good for one month; please give me what I want for Christmas.’ He thinks a minute. Crosses it out and writes, ‘Dear Jesus, I have been good for a week; please give me what I want for Christmas.’ He thinks a minute. Crosses it out and writes, ‘Dear Jesus, I have been good for a whole day; please give me what I want for Christmas.’ He thinks a minute and as he is thinking, he spies a nativity scene. He walks over to it. He picks up the statue of Mary and he walks back over to his desk. He places her in front of him; he picks up his pen again and he writes, ‘Dear Jesus… if you ever want to see your mother again…give me what I want for Christmas’

Today’s pericope (John 18:28-19:16) is about an awkward situation not entirely dissimilated to these two. It is certainly no less violent. Here we have the Jewish leaders bringing Jesus before Governor Pontius Pilate to receive his death sentence.  We remember the historical setting and the political situation at this time of Palestine. The Romans are the superpower of the day and the Romans are militarily occupying Judea. They conquered Israel by force and their forces are stationed all over the country. Just like in the nations that the US occupies today, some people are fine with it, conspiring with the occupiers to achieve and maintain position and privilege and some people are not: they are looking for an opportunity to revolt. The Pharisees, the Sadducees, the Priests and officers conspire with the Romans and they receive the power to exercise their authority by submitting to Rome. Others however do not. The Sicarii, the Zealots, they are like today’s suicide bombers. They are terrorists. They walk through the crowded marketplaces looking for Romans to stab with their short concealed Sicarii knives. When our story today is taking place, there are a lot of crowds for people to walk through. It is Passover in Jerusalem and hundreds of thousands or even by some accounts millions of visitors are pouring into Jerusalem.

Governor Pontius Pilate, who is the leader of the Roman forces in Judea, does not normally reside in the city of Jerusalem where he is today. He is usually posted in Caesarea Maritima but it is the Passover so – like in our times when millions of Hindus come to bathe in the Ganges River or when many Moslems from all over the world descend upon Mecca for Ramadan - many Jews are descending on Jerusalem for the Passover.

It would be like when the Olympics came to Vancouver. The city was seemingly completely full. In preparation for the event, they even flew people with criminal warrants back to the cities from which they came and the city needed to import police officers from all over the country to help with policing all of the visitors. Now imagine that the next Olympics are to be held in Kabul, Afghanistan; Baghdad, Iraq or some other US occupied country. Think of all the extra security forces that would be needed. This is the situation in Jerusalem of our text today. Governor Pontius Pilate who usually resides in a fortress in a different city comes to Jerusalem to oversee the crowd control. He and Rome are afraid of the potential for a Jewish revolt as all these people are converging on their ancient capital city for a religious festival.[2]

It is this situation that the Jewish leaders who conspire with the Romans (even if they do not like them that much), the chief priests and officers, decide to capitalize on (cf. John 11:45-57). They want Jesus dead. Jesus has been making problems for them. Jesus has been attracting massive crowds. Jesus apparently challenges them publicly at every possible opportunity. In the book of John here it is no secret that Jesus is the Messiah. The Messiah is the one to deliver his people. He is to deliver the people from their occupiers. The religious leaders are afraid that Jesus will start a rebellion that will not only cost them their privileges under the Romans but will also cost many innocent people their lives (cf. John 11:49-52). Jesus, in their eyes, is their adversary and this is the opportunity to get rid of him for good. They decide to bring Jesus to Governor Pontius Pilate, accuse him of treason and have the Romans kill him.

Now this is interesting. We know from the scriptures that there are times when mobs of Judeans had picked up stones to stone Jesus (John 8:32, 10:59) and we know that one such lynch mob would later kill Stephen (Acts 7:54–60), the first Christian martyr; so, why did the Jewish leaders need the Romans to kill Jesus for them? We know this was needed to fulfill prophecy (Deuteronomy 21:23; John 3:14, 8:28, 12:32–33) but there were other reasons that would have been running through the minds of the chief priests and officers. One is that the Jewish leaders were afraid of the people. It says this more than once in the Scriptures. They were afraid of what would happen if they seized Jesus and executed him publicly so instead they grabbed him at night in the garden, held their trials for him and then first thing in the morning, as soon as the governor began work – which was probably before six o’clock in the morning by the way - still under the cover of darkness, they bring Jesus and their mob to the Romans.[3] This way if the Romans kill Jesus, the Jewish leaders can easily say to the people that it wasn’t them. And we must remember also that because Judea is an occupied territory, the Jewish authorities don’t really have the authority to execute anyone anyway (cf. Josephus, War 1, 97f.; Antiquities XIII, 380-383).[4] Sometimes the Romans would turn a blind eye to their unauthorized executions in order to maintain order. But during the Passover, with so many forces stationed in Jerusalem, it probably wouldn’t be worth the risk and – like we said – with the Jewish leaders bringing Jesus to Pilate to be condemned, this way the Romans could take the blame for killing this popular leader so they can be both rid of Jesus and off the hook for his murder. This is the scene in the pericope before us today.

Now Verses 28-38, which we read earlier show some very interesting parts of Pilate’s interview of Jesus and his relationship with the Jews. At first in this section it reads as if Pontius Pilate is annoyed by the Jews. Here they are arriving at his doorstep, at the beginning of his workday at 6am, at Passover season, which is the busiest time of the year for him. He interviews Jesus but doesn’t seem to have any patience with the Jews at all. After the interview, Verses 38-40: “…With this he went out again to the Jews gathered there and said, “I find no basis for a charge against him. But it is your custom for me to release to you one prisoner at the time of the Passover. Do you want me to release ‘the king of the Jews’? They shouted back, ‘No, not him! Give us Barabbas!’ Now Barabbas had taken part in an uprising.”

Here is an interesting tangent. Does anybody know any Aramaic? Do you know what the murderous revolutionary’s name Barabbas means? Break it into the two parts: part 2 is ‘Abba’; what does ‘Abba’ mean? ‘Abba’ means father. ‘Bar’ means ‘Son of’. Therefore Barabbas means ‘son of the father’. So ironically, Jesus who is ‘the Son of the Father’ dies in place of Barabbas whose name means ‘son of the father’. But that is a side note; let us return to our story.

Pilate and the Jewish leaders are having a bit of a standoff in our text today. The Jews here want Rome to execute Jesus and the leader of the Roman forces in Jerusalem is not really interested in this for two or three reasons. We know from Matthew’s Biblical account that Pilate’s wife has had a vision that would make him not want to kill Jesus (Matthew 27:19) and we also know from non-Biblical historical documents that Pilate didn’t really like the Jews and he ruled with an iron fist (Josephus, War II, 169-177 and Antiquities XVIII 55-62, 89-92; Philo, Legatio ad Gaium, 38; Tactius Annuals, 15, 44).[5] Pilate, I think, knows what the Jewish leaders are up to; he doesn’t like them and he doesn’t want to be dictated to by a conquered and an occupied people. He is Roman. Rome is the Superpower of the first Century. They are the Americans of their day. They are not going to be dictated to by a subjugated people.

Chapter 19 begins with Pilate possibly thinking that he can just brush this whole thing aside still; he has just tried to release a convicted revolutionary in place of an accused revolutionary but to no avail. Now he resorts to having Jesus beaten. This beating can take place for one of two reasons in this context. One, they did often beat people before crucifixion; or two, they would also beat people in place of crucifixion as a form of brutal humiliation. Given that Pilate ordered this beating and then humiliated him by having Jesus dressed in a robe with a crown of thorns and then further appealed to the Jewish leaders to see if this would satisfy them, this whole exercise was probably another attempt to avoid signing Jesus’ death warrant and to get rid of these pesky Jewish leaders before they cause some real problems for Pilate.[6]

Now in the lines that follow, John 19:12ff., Pontius Pilate is still apparently trying to decide what to do and Jesus isn’t really helping him any by refusing to answer certain questions. The Jewish leaders and their mob are now getting anxious and no doubt inpatient as time goes on. They need this done quickly before anyone might form another mob and come to Jesus’ aid. They then go on to push Pilate’s buttons. They know how to get to the governor and they do.  They say to Governor Pilate, Verse 12, “... If you let this man go, you are no friend of Caesar. Anyone who claims to be a king opposes Caesar.” The implication here is not subtle; it is that if he does not order Jesus’ execution they will write to his boss, the Emperor in Rome, saying that Pilate let a revolutionary live who was trying to lead a revolt against Rome and as the Roman Emperor at this time seemed somewhat paranoid in general and was not afraid to act militarily at the first perceived threat, Verse 13, “When Pilate heard this, he brought Jesus out and sat down on the judge’s seat at a place known as the Stone Pavement (which in Aramaic is Gabbatha).”

This next part is the part that I want to focus on. It is where we can ask ourselves what is the author of John telling us in the text here and what is God doing here in this story?

We know that the Romans promoted, among other things, an Emperor cult.[7] The Emperor was worshiped as a god. These Jews have just let Pilate know that if he does not kill Jesus, they will report him as supporting a rebellion against his own god-king. Pilate’s response is as masterful as it is vengeful, as it is tragic for the Jews. Verses 14-18:

It was the day of Preparation of the Passover; it was about noon. “Here is your king,” Pilate said to the Jews.

But they shouted, “Take him away! Take him away! Crucify him!”

“Shall I crucify your king?” Pilate asked.

“We have no king but Caesar,” the chief priests answered. Finally Pilate handed him over to them to be crucified.

“Shall I crucify your king?” Pilate asked. “We have no king but Caesar,” the chief priests answered. Do you know what Pilate has just done here to the Jewish leaders before he would give them what they want? Do you know what the religious leaders have just done? They have just denied their God. In effect the Jewish leaders said to Pilate that if you do not give the orders crucify Jesus we will tell your god-king Caesar that you are disloyal to him; so Pilate responds by saying to these Jews that if you want me to crucify Jesus, you must deny your God-King. When Governor Pilate got the Jewish religious leaders to confess that “We have no king but Caesar”, that is exactly what they were doing – denying YHWH, the LORD, God.

This is Passover. Every Passover the Jewish people concluded the great Hallel (Psalms. 113–118) with this prayer: ‘From everlasting to everlasting thou art God; beside thee we have no king, redeemer, or saviour; no liberator, deliverer, provider; none who takes pity in every time of distress or trouble. We have no king but thee.’[8] The Jewish leaders here are not only indirectly disowning God by rejecting Jesus in this way but they are also opennly, actively rejecting God in their action of disowning Jesus (cf. John 1:11).

The Jewish Chief Priests and Officers want this big problem of Jesus removed from their lives so much that they are willing to disavow God in order to do it. They are like Calvin in our openning comic strip. So much does he want to hit Susie with the snowball that he sacrifices his soul to the devil. This is what the Jewish leaders have done. What profits a man to inherit the whole world and yet forfeit his soul (Matthew 16:26; Mark 8:36)? This is a tragedy of this story. He came to his own but they did not accept him (John 1:11). The Jewish leaders rejected God and we know that for many this rejection continued even to the point of setting up the modern religion of Judaism ca. 70 CE where they formalize both their rejection of the ancient Israelite traditions and their rejection of the perfection of those traditions in Christ. God came to them in their time of need but they thought that they could deliver themselves from their suffering; so, rather than rely on God, they rejected him and suffered without him as even their beloved Temple was destroyed in 70 CE. God left them? No, they - the Jewish Chief Priests, Officers, and their followers - left God and so they do not have Him.

The question for us today then is this: When life starts to get out of hand, when –like the Jewish leaders - there is nothing that we can humanly do; when tragedy strikes our life as I know it has lately for many of us here, do we turn to God and live or do we turn on God and die. Do we turn to God and live or do we turn on God - indulging in our own anger, vengeance, self-pity and arrogance - and suffer the consequences.

Now we are short on time but I want to bring one more thing to our attention here. Immediately preceding the Jewish leaders’ denial of Christ in our story is Peter’s three-fold denial of Jesus (John 18). We are all familiar with that. As surely as the Jewish authorities here openly and publicly disavow God’s lordship, Peter, just prior to this episode denies Christ for a third time (John 18:27) – but Peter, after the resurrection, in a couple of chapters will be reinstated and Peter will not deny Christ again, he will follow him even unto death (John 21:9-19). Peter will confess his sin and his self-focus in his time of trouble and Peter will be saved.

Today we have the same choices before us. We are all holding Calvin’s snowball. As our life comes crashing down around us, as trials and tribulations mount, as enemies and adversaries seem to be raised up from every corner of our world, as our life becomes overwhelming, it is like we are in the courtyard with Jesus in our story today and we can either turn on him by indulging in and holding onto our anger, our rage, our righteous indignation, and our own self-pity or we can turn to him and live. So today when life is difficult, let us take courage and let us turn to him who is able, more than able to accomplish what concerns us today. Let us turn to him who is able, more than able to handle anything that comes our way. When life is difficult, let us turn to him who is able, more than able to do much more than we could ever dream. Let us turn to him who is able, more than able to make us what He wants us to be. He is able. Amen.

Let us pray this song together.

www.sheepspeak.com

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[1]http://michaelyingling.com/random/calvin_and_hobbes/search.php?phrase=snowman

[2] Kruse, Colin G.: John: An Introduction and Commentary. Downers Grove, IL : InterVarsity Press, 2003 (Tyndale New Testament Commentaries 4), S. 351

[3] cf. William Hendricksen, John, New Testament Commentary, (Grand Rapids, Mi: Baker Academic, 2007), 400

[4] Gail R. O’Day, The Gospel of John, The New Interpreter's Bible, Vol. 9, ed Leander E. Keck, et. al. (Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press, 1995),820.

[5] Gerard Sloyan, John, Interpretation: A Bible Commentary for Teaching and Preaching, ed. James L. Mays, et. al. (Atlanta, Georgia: John Knox Press, 1988), 204, Gail R. O’Day, The Gospel of John, The New Interpreter's Bible, Vol. 9, ed Leander E. Keck, et. al. (Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press, 1995), 815

[6] Colin G. Kruse, John: An Introduction and Commentary. Downers Grove, IL : InterVarsity Press, 2003 (Tyndale New Testament Commentaries 4), S. 355

[7]Cf. N.T. Wright, 'Paul and Caesar: A New Reading of Romans', originally published in A Royal Priesthood: The Use of the Bible Ethically and Politically, ed. C. Bartholemew, 2002, Carlisle: Paternoster, 173–193. Reproduced by permission of the author. Available on-line at http://www.ntwrightpage.com/Wright_Paul_Caesar_Romans.htm

[8] Gail R. O’Day, The Gospel of John, The New Interpreter's Bible, Vol. 9, ed Leander E. Keck, et. al. (Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press, 1995), 823; Colin G. Kruse, John: An Introduction and Commentary. Downers Grove, IL : InterVarsity Press, 2003 (Tyndale New Testament Commentaries 4), S. 359, red 422.

John 13:1-17: Helping To Get Their Feet Wet

Presented to Swift Current Corps of The Salvation Army, 20 Jan 2013

by Captain Michael Ramsay

The weather has been strange here lately: Snowy and then –20 and then Sunny and +2 or +3. With all this snowing and melting, there have been some days when it has been pretty icy the last couple of weeks. I admit that more than once I even accidentally did a 180-degree turn, put my car into a spin, and wound up facing the other direction in the other lane. This makes for a bit of a different winter experience than I was accustomed to when and where I grew up.

I remember once when I was teenager; there was ice on the roads. I know that’s not too memorable around these parts but on the Island that was a big deal. Alex, a friend of mine, showed up at my house in the middle of the night once when we were teenagers and the two of us took our cars to the university parking lot where he would show me one way teenage boys could have fun in the icy weather: he would drive quickly on the iced-over parking lot and then slam on the breaks put his car into a spin. I sat and watched in my car. He then came over to my car and showed me how to do the same thing. He had a 1975 Chevy Nova and I had a 1974 Pontiac Ventura at this point. These were basically the same car and we often used the parts from one car to repair the other because it was rare when we could actually both afford to have a car on the road at the same time. So now we were having a great time just racing and spinning our cars around and round in circles in the parking lot – seeing who can get their car to spin around the most times. We then naturally become braver and braver even if we don’t get brighter and brighter as we go along. We begin to drive towards each other at faster and faster speeds and slam on the breaks and spin every which way and we are having a lot of fun and getting pretty good at this when Billy shows up in his little Honda Civic. He is watching us and he tries to join in but for some reason his car won’t spin so I think that I will help Bill the way that Alex helped me. I get out of my car and go over to his car. He tells me to be careful. I tell him not to worry. We have been doing this for about an hour now - driving our cars full speed at each other and spinning in circles - and we are okay. Billy says ‘be careful I just got this car’.

I tell him not to worry. ‘I have a whole hour’s worth of experience driving on the ice. What can go wrong? If you can’t make you car spin, you probably just aren’t driving fast enough’, I say.

‘Be careful’, he says. I then race as fast as I can across the parking lot in his car. At the last possible moment with the concrete barrier before us – Bill exclaims ‘be careful!’

I say, ‘don’t worry about it’ – as we are going straight towards the concrete at a good clip, I slam on the breaks and… guess what happens? Apparently not all cars will turn 180-degrees on command. I turn the steering wheel, I slam on the breaks: that does absolutely nothing. We slide into the barricade. We are fine and his car isn’t hurt enough to worry about it so I immediately jump out of Bill’s car and run towards mine. Because I got his car that he wanted me to be so careful with into this accident, he revs his engine pretending that he is going to try to run me over. So as I am running away I call out, ‘be careful, you don’t want to hurt your car. Be careful.’

That night was the beginning of the end of my winter driving experience before moving to the prairies a couple of decades later. It was certainly the end of automotive horseplay on ice.

In our Biblical story today, it is the beginning of the end of Jesus’ ministry on earth before his crucifixion. This is his final dinner with his twelve chosen disciples with whom he has spent every possible moment of the last one to three years. They are really close. They are his devoted followers. Jesus knows that his hour has come to depart from this world (Verse 1). Jesus knows that one of his twelve closest followers is going to betray him (Verse 2). Jesus knows that the one who is going to betray him is the only one who is from a different region of the country. Jesus knows that the one who is going to betray him is one that he has trusted to look after the money for the group here (Verse 19). Jesus knows all this and he knows that – Verse 3 – God has put all things into Jesus’ hands, that he has come from God and that he is about to return to God. Jesus knows all this and this is his last supper before all of this takes place.[1] Our pericope today records what Jesus does at his last supper on his last night with his friends (John 13:1-27 and all of John 13:1-17:26).[2]

What would you do on your last night with your friends at your last supper? Growing up on the Island, I remember going to at least one party the before friends and acquaintances shipped out on a naval mission. I remember going to more than one dinner party, as a friend was about to move to the mainland or another part of the world. I have been involved in more than one supper and bachelor party as friends were about to move from one lifestyle into the next.

Here, in John Chapter 13, we have not just a friend eating his last meal with his friends but we have a teacher having his last meal with his students that he loves. He is having this last meal before he is handed over to the courts to be tried and convicted and then handed over to the soldiers to be mocked and tormented and then handed over to the executioner to be hanged on a cross and executed. This is the context. Think about it. You are looking at your friends, students, and loved ones one last time before you know that you are going die and that you know you are going to die a violent death and then you know, your friends, your pupils, they are going to be on their own. This dinner is Jesus’ last supper with his disciples and over these next 5 chapters of John (John 13-17), Jesus is preparing them for what is about to come.

It is in this context that our story today unfolds. The twelve are all at this dinner. Now it was common in those days for servants –like a waiter or a busboy or a coat-check girl- to wash people’s feet. Then and there people wore sandals all the time and they walked all the time, everywhere they went, so there would often be a servant to wash people’s feat.[3] Today in our text, today is different. Jesus, Verses 4-5:

 … got up from the meal, took off his outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around his waist. ⁵ After that, he [Jesus] poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples’ feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped around him.

Picture this with me. Jesus knows this is the beginning of the end. Pretend that you are one of his disciples with Jesus now. This is another dinner together with your boss, your teacher, your leader whom you love and for whom you are literally and really prepared to die. You are his servant. You are his student. You are his disciple and all of a sudden he is taking off his clothes and washing your feet like he is your servant.  This would be like if you were invited to a fancy dinner with the Queen of Canada and – you’re all dressed up in your fanciest clothes and everything - then the Queen shows up as the valet to park your car. Or there is a big celebrity dinner for charity – think of your favourite actor or singer - and before they are supposed to go on and make their key note address, you walk past the kitchen and see them washing dishes by hand. This is the idea here. This is over the top.[4] This is one reason why this story is remembered all these generations later. Who of us wouldn’t react with Peter? Verses 6-10:

 He [Jesus] came to Simon Peter, who said to him, “Lord, are you going to wash my feet?”

⁷ Jesus replied, “You do not realize now what I am doing, but later you will understand.”

⁸ “No,” said Peter, “you shall never wash my feet.”

Jesus answered, “Unless I wash you, you have no part with me.”

⁹ “Then, Lord,” Simon Peter replied, “not just my feet but my hands and my head as well!”

¹⁰ Jesus answered, “Those who have had a bath need only to wash their feet; their whole body is clean. And you are clean, though not every one of you.”

So here we have Peter. He has experienced one or two little quizzes and challenges from Christ over the past one to three years. Peter is the volunteer in another object lesson from his teacher now and he is determined to get the answer right this time. If this was a multiple-choice quiz, the question before Peter would look like this: God, the Son of God, the Christ is standing there and he is about to wash your feet, do you…

A)    Say, “No, you are Lord! I should wash your feet. You are the master; I am the servant; I should serve you.”

B)     Say, “Yes, Lord wash my feet and I love you so much Lord that if you say you want to wash my feet, then go ahead wash anything of me you want: not just my feet, wash all of me.”

C)    None of the above.

D)    All of the above.

What would you do? What would you answer? This is Peter’s predicament and Peter, he goes through all the answers before he finally gets to ‘C’ and finally just submits to Christ’s will for his life and then things get really interesting. 

After Jesus washes all his disciples’ feet, after Jesus has this little exchange with Peter, after all this, after Jesus gets dressed again and after Jesus is sitting at his spot at the table, he asks them, Verse 12, “do you know what I have done for you?” So this is interesting. Jesus goes through the process of washing these 12 men’s feet. No doubt they are all thinking the same things as Peter. They are wondering what Jesus is doing. Peter has this little exchange and it is only after Jesus is dressed and it is only after they are all seated back down at the table that Jesus finally rhetorically asks them “do you know what I have done for you?” As he proceeds to explain it to them, Jesus knows that this is his last supper. Jesus knows he is about to be betrayed. This foot washing is an object lesson that he wants his disciples to remember as they eat and drink tonight for tomorrow he dies. “Do you know what I have done for you?” Jesus asks.

Here today, do we know what Jesus is doing for his disciples? Do we know, through this, what he has done for us? Do we know what Jesus is doing for us?  Why is he doing this? These questions arise, of course. So then, what now is the author of the Gospel of John leading to in this story? What is the text doing? And more importantly: what is God doing here in the story and today in our lives?

I have another story for us. This one is from one of the periodicals to which I subscribe: The Expository Times. This is from an article by Reverend Dr. Darren J.N. Middleton where he relates this Ghanaian parable:[5]

Once Kwaku Anansie lived in a town filled with wicked [selfish] people. They were always fighting, backbiting … [gossiping, and just being selfish]. Finally Kwaku decides to teach the people a lesson. He tells his wife to prepare a large banquet. Then he invites everyone in the town on one condition, that they have to eat with the spoons that are provided. As the guests arrive Kwaku hands each guest a spoon with a very [very] long handle. The guests then begin to eat the delicious food set before them. But since they are sitting close together they begin to disturb each other with their long spoons. In a short time all the guests are pushing, shouting, and fighting with one another. Kwaku [then] stands on a chair and calls for order. ‘I have invited you to a banquet and you have turned it into a battleground. Why are you doing this?’ One of the guests then raises his spoon and shouts, ‘Kwaku Anansie, you have [betrayed and] deceived us and made us look foolish! Nobody can eat with these long spoons you have given us! Kwaku responds, ‘no, it is not that I have made you look foolish but rather your own selfishness has betrayed you.’ Then he calls one of the guests to sit across the table from him. ‘This is the way to use these spoons’, he says as he dips his long spoon into the soup and feeds the person across from him.

Kwaku fed his guest personally, everyone at the banquet needed to do the same in order to enjoy the meal. Jesus washed his disciples feet and every one of us who has been cleansed by Jesus needs to do likewise at the eschatological banquet as we inherit everlasting life.[6] Jesus says, Verses 13-17:

“You call me ‘Teacher’ and ‘Lord,’ and rightly so, for that is what I am. 14 Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet. 15 I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you. 16 Very truly I tell you, no servant is greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. 17 Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them.

Now that we know these things, we will be blessed if we do them. This is important. There is no room for selfishness at the everlasting banquet. There is no room for thinking we are above helping others and serving them as a servant would serve a friend of his master. This is the only way we can truly enjoy our place at the eternal feast with Christ.[7]

Nowadays, sadly, Canadians seems to be serving one another less and less and our culture and our country is seemingly becoming less and less helpful as it is seemingly becoming more and more selfish and less and less Christ-like everyday. And as less and less of us seem to be accepting Jesus’ cleansing, likewise less and less of us seem to be washing others’ feet. Some examples: There are people –even people who got to church services – who don’t declare money on their taxes and see no problem with that. There are people leave work early but write the full hours on their timesheet and see no problem with that. People tell what they call ‘white lies’ because that is easier than gently handling the truth in a situation. Some people refuse to tithe because they think of their own needs before God and the needs of others. Some people in this very country and this very community even regularly lie, cheat, steal, gossip, and act as badly as a contestant on a reality TV show or a guest at Kwanu’s banquet, putting themselves first – refusing to serve each other and refusing to wash each others’ feet. But we know that as Christians, as we each grow in Christ, we will begin to put Jesus first, we will begin to put others second, and we will begin to put ourselves last. Then, as we wash each one another’s feet in this way we will indeed enjoy our time at the eschatological banquet for evermore with our Lord and saviour.

I know that there are many people indeed who are doing this kind of Christ-like foot washing in our congregation. I have seen people here symbolically washing others feet by giving then a ride where they need to go and asking nothing in return. I have seen people here who make a meal for people in need. I have seen people slip children or others something who otherwise might not have anything that they could worship the Lord by placing in the offering plate. I have seen people who have gone through the Alpha course 3, 4, or 5 times before still invite their friends who have never experienced it and enjoy it anew all over again. I have seen people offer an encouraging word and a word of prayer to those in need. I have seen people who are here in this place, come alongside one another and encourage them, walk alongside them, and love them. I have seen you folks do all of this! And if even I have seen these things among us here, then how much more has our Father in heaven seen us worshipping Him by washing each other’s feet in these and other ways. For all of you that do this selfless Christian service to God and your neighbour today, I would like to say thank you and praise the Lord for your acts of selflessness. For as we each grow in Christ we will put Jesus first, we will put others second, and we will put ourselves last. And then, as we all continue to wash each other’s feet in this way we will all indeed enjoy our time at the eschatological banquet of eternal life with our Lord and saviour.

Let us pray.

 www.sheepspeak.com

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[1] Cf. Paul Duke, "John 13:1-17, 31b-45. (Last Supper narrative)(Between Text and Sermon)," Interpretation: A Journal of Bible and Theology 49, no. 4 (October 1995).

[2] Cf. William Hendricksen, John, New Testament Commentary, (Grand Rapids, Mi: Baker Academic, 2007), 221-227.

[3] Merrill C. Tenney, The Expositor's Bible Commentary, Pradis CD-ROM:John/Exposition of John/III. The Private Ministry of the Word (13:1-17:26)/A. The Last Supper (13:1-30)/1. The washing of feet (13:1-20), Book Version: 4.0.2 and Colin G. Kruse: John: An Introduction and Commentary. Downers Grove, IL : InterVarsity Press, 2003 (Tyndale New Testament Commentaries 4), S. 275

[4] Gail R. O’Day, The Gospel of John, The New Interpreter's Bible, Vol. 9, ed Leander E. Keck, et. al. (Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press, 1995), 722.

[5] Reverend Dr. Darren J.N. Middleton, “4th October: Sermon for World Communion Sunday (Exodus 12:1-8, 11-14; 1 Corinthians 11:23-26; John 13:1-15)," The Expository Times 120, no. 12 (September 2009): 600

[6] cf. Gerard Sloyan, John, Interpretation: A Bible Commentary for Teaching and Preaching, ed. James L. Mays, et. al. (Atlanta, Georgia: John Knox Press, 1988), 171.

[7] Cf. Colin G. Kruse: John: An Introduction and Commentary. Downers Grove, IL : InterVarsity Press, 2003 (Tyndale New Testament Commentaries 4), S. 275

John 2:1-12: And They Believed in Him

Presented to The Salvation Army Swift Current Corps , 06 Jan. 2012 and Corps 614 Regent Park Toronto, 17 Jan 2016 by Captain Michael Ramsay

We have just finished spending some time home with the kids over the Christmas break. For a few days I spent more time with our youngest as I was trying to potty train her (unsuccessfully) but I was also able to spend some time with my 10 and 11 year-old: sledding, playing cards and taking in a hockey game or two.

I remember when I was their age, 10 or 11. It is an interesting time as changes are happening. I remember once we were watching TV in the living room –my mom, my dad, my sister, and I - and I, as a 10 or 11 year-old boy make some apparently hopelessly inappropriate comment about something on TV so my mom decides that it is time for my dad and I to have a sex education talk and so the two of us are banished to the kitchen.

My dad and I talk about what we are supposed to talk about for a while but the conversation eventually changes to other interesting things such as God and family history. It is an easy transition from sex education to family history especially as my grandfather’s father brought the first rodeo across Canada; he was always travelling from the east coast to west. He had another reason for travelling too. He had one family here in Saskatchewan and another family one back east in the Maritimes – until, of course my great grandmother found out. My dad’s grandfather could have used one of these sex-ed talks. I am eagerly learning all of this family history from my dad and it is starting to get really interesting as we have long accomplished our assigned topic and task and we are actually laughing about some of the more interesting family stories and other things.

It is at this point that my mom hears all the laughter. My mom comes into the kitchen and with a firm voice reminds us why we are supposed to be here. It is not supposed to be fun. It is so ‘I can learn a lesson,’ She says. ‘And how is the sex education talk going?’ She asks. To which, as an 11 year-old boy, I reply, ‘Very well, I’ve taught dad everything I know’. My dad continues, ‘Yes, I’ve learned a lot.’ That doesn’t go over so well. We laugh. Mom doesn’t. I, however, am glad that my dad had added to my comment what he did because it means that I am off the hook and I am able to sneak out of the room and out of trouble as Dad is now the recipient of Mom’s attention.

Our pericope today speaks to –amongst other things- a relationship between a mom and her son. We have an interesting exchange between Jesus and his mother here in verses 3 through 5 of John Chapter 2. Jesus is older than 11 in our story today; he is probably in his early 30’s. He is at wedding, probably a family wedding.[1] He is there, as is his mother, his brothers, and his disciples (a least the first 5 of them anyway).[2] The wedding is taking place in the town of Cana. Cana is really close to where Jesus, his mother, his brothers, and most of his disciples live. It is only 8 or 9 miles north of Nazareth. Eight or nine miles: what is there 8 or 9 miles from here? It is closer than Waldeck is to Swift Current here. It is probably actually about the same distance from the corps out to Lloyd and Elaine’s place. That is about the distance to the wedding from Jesus’ hometown. This wedding in Cana is pretty close to Nazareth.

Whoever is getting married is obviously a family member or a close friend of the family because we notice that when trouble arises – the running out of wine – it is Jesus’ mother, Mary, who either volunteers or is tasked to find the solution to the problem. Mary and Jesus, his brothers and his disciples are not just casual guests. They must know the people getting married fairly well. They (or at least Mary anyway) have some significant role to play in this event.

Now we have just finished the Christmas season here and we looked briefly - as we often do on Christmas Eve - at the 1^st Century Judean engagement/betrothal arrangements that are really quite a bit different from traditional Canadian engagements. Today, in our pericope, we have a wedding. Now Galilean weddings in the first century did have some things in common with Canadian weddings of the 21^st century. There were often lots of people there; friends and family would travel a great distance to attend the festivities. Then, after they did travel all that way, the family would often stay to visit for a while– especially if they walked there, which many of them would have in 1^st Century Galilee.

Marriage celebrations then and there, unlike weddings here and now lasted quite a while. A wedding ceremony nowadays can reasonably be expected to last between 30 minutes and 2 hours and then add another hour or few for the reception afterwards. There and then in Galilee it was expected that the wedding festivities would last for up to a week.[3] The Bridegroom was the host. He and his family would then be expected to host all the relatives, friends, and family from both sides for this week: providing them all with accommodations, food, and beverages. Here and now in our world today it is embarrassing enough if we don’t quite make enough sandwiches for a funeral or some other event. There and then, can you imagine if the marriage celebration began on a Monday and was to last until Friday or Saturday but you ran out of food and drink for your guests on Wednesday? It would be humiliating! You couldn’t just call to have pizzas delivered. You couldn’t just have someone run down to the Co-op and pick up a sandwich tray. You would be out of food; you would be out of wine and the whole town, your whole family and the whole lot of your new in-laws would all be thinking a few things about you if you ran out of wine at your wedding celebrations.

This is the background to the story when we get to the part of this pericope that always interests me, verses 3,4 &5:

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.”

The question many people seem to ask here is why is Jesus’ first miracle to make wine (and it is wine; it is not grape juice![4]) for people who have already had quite a bit to drink. If they had roadside check stops in those days, I probably wouldn’t recommend that any of them drive home.

The questions that strike me though are: Why is Jesus’ mother even asking Jesus to do something about the fact that they have run out of wine? Why doesn’t she ask Jesus AND his other brothers who are there? Why just Jesus? Does she expect him to do some kind of a miracle? Has Jesus done something similar at home before? In the context of the Bible here (John 1-2), it has only been in the last few days before this wedding that Jesus has even just acquired his first disciples – he probably doesn’t even have all of the twelve yet; did his mom expect Jesus to send these disciples to do something or did she know already (before he had ever performed any public miracles; this is the first one remember) that he could and that he would perform miracles such as this – making wine at a wedding.[5]

Another question I have pertains to Jesus’ response to his mother’s inquiry. When asked by his mom to do something, he says: “Woman, why do you involve me? My hour has not yet come,” To this my dad would respond, if I ever uttered such a phrase, “is that anyway to speak to your mother?” Aren’t we supposed to honour our mothers and fathers? How honouring is this response?

And another question that I have relates to Mary’s response then to Jesus comments here. Mary asks him to solve the wine problem in whatever way he will solve it. Jesus replies in such as way as one might infer that he is refusing to help his mother: “Woman, why do you involve me? My hour has not yet come.” But this does not faze his mother at all; she seems to ignore his objections all together and says to the servants, “do whatever he tells you”? Why isn’t Mary fazed by Jesus? Why does she seem to completely ignore his response to her as if he is a toddler or a child protesting for the sake of protesting?

Can you imagine the scene here at the wedding then. The wine has just run out. It is a potentially devastating situation for the bridegroom and his family and Mary and Jesus are having this little discussion as recorded in verses 3-5.

The questions then arise, of course? What is the author of the Gospel of John leading to in this story? What is the text doing? And more importantly: what is God doing here in the story? Now if instead of a sermon, this were a TV show today and if we have just been introduced to these most important questions that we are waiting to see how they are resolved, and if the tension is building up such as this; if on your set, the TV good guy is dangling off the cliff and the bad guy looks like he is going to get away what happens next? What happens when a TV show is at its most interesting part? …We break for a commercial message.

Today that is exactly what we are going to do. So I will have you all think about the questions we have raised about Jesus, his mother, the book of John and what God is doing in this pericope while we take a short break.

In our break from our regular scheduled sermon here today, I want to do a little sports biography for us. Did anyone get up early to watch any of the World Juniors or the Spengler Hockey tournaments over the Christmas break? I admit that I did. I made a point of setting my alarm to see some of the games and I was glad I saw the ones that I did – I was also glad that I decided to sleep in and miss the ones I missed. I admit that I have been missing hockey during the lockout here and this brings me to our short sports biography today. With no hockey season so far, occasionally I saw some overseas soccer matches. I happened to watch the game where Leo Messi broke the world all-time scoring record in a year. He not only broke it, by the end of the year he had completely left the old record behind in the dust. This player, Messi, is just amazing. In a sport where most teams only score one goal, this player put together a series of matches where he would score two goals each game. All this and as a child he had a growth hormone problem. His nickname is the ‘flea’ because of his size. Apparently all the odds were stacked against him and somehow he came out the other side. I would say that now he is far and away the greatest player in the most popular sport in the world. I gained a lot of respect for Messi as this feat of scoring way more goals in a year than anyone ever in history pointed me to researching his biography: Whereas I vaguely knew who he was previously, I now have a lot of faith in Messi’s ability. He really is the Wayne Gretzky of soccer and even more. Now back to our regular programming…

The wedding party has run out of wine. Jesus has just had this encounter with his mother. He then proceeds to save the day by turning some jars of water that they used for ceremonial hand cleaning into about 150 gallons of the best wine possible, to be served when most people have been drinking for a while and so won’t even have noticed how good it is.[6] John 2:11: “What Jesus did here in Cana of Galilee was the first of the signs through which he revealed his glory; and his disciples believed in him.” This miracle is Jesus’ first sign of who he is and what he is doing and his disciples put their faith in him. For the disciples who just started following Jesus this would have been very similar to what is was like me for, who has just started watching oversees soccer, to see Messi transform the world’s most popular sport. Jesus’ transformation of water into wine causes his disciples to put their faith in Him.

This miracle of Jesus’ was no small feat. There was a lot riding on the fact that the wine would show up. If it didn’t the bridegroom would have been humiliated. Jesus, in turning the water into wine, and not just any wine but into copious amounts of the best wine of the wedding, not only saves the day by scoring the final goal, but he also shatters the record and his team mates, his disciples, here and now put their complete faith in him.

It is the same in our world today, when we are faced with difficult situations, when we are faced with family members putting demands upon us, when we are faced with potential embarrassment, when we are faced with humiliation, when we are faced with even not being able to provide for our family in our world today, Jesus is there for us just like Jesus is there for his friends and family in Cana. The only questions for us then: do we believe in Jesus like his disciples do? And are we willing to put our faith in him like his mother does?

Speaking of questions, I am not going to leave us hanging entirely about the questions we mentioned before the commercial break. Let’s see what we can find in the way of possible answers. First about the question that everyone asks regarding Jesus making wine for people who had been drinking and were possibly even drunk - does that mean that he condones drunkenness? No, the Scriptures condemn dunkeness more than once actually (Leviticus 10:9, Proverbs 31:4-5, Ecclesiastes 10:17, Isaiah 28:7, 1 Timothy 3:8). However, making water into wine has been associated eschatology and with divinity (Jeremiah 31:12, Joel 3:8, Amos 8:11-14; cf. also Enoch 10:19).[7] There is a difference then and there between drinking and being drunk. The important part of this miracle pertaining to the wine itself though is that providing this wine is a real part and an important part of showing hospitality to your neighbour in 1^st Century Galilee, especially on an important occasion like a bridegroom’s wedding. Jesus isn’t promoting drunkenness, which is selfishness; on the contrary he is showing his faithfulness to those around him, as well as to God, and he is showing that we can put our faith in him.

Now about the other questions: the questions about the way Jesus was addressing his mother. He wasn’t actually speaking with any disrespect. The word translated ‘woman’ here in our text, when he addresses his mother can bee seen as a neutral or a positive term and he does definitely honour his mother in the text by fulfilling her request and much more (cf. Matthew 15:28, Luke 22:57, John 4:21; cf. also 2 Kings 3:13, 2 Chronicles 35:21).[8] Jesus doesn’t leave her in the lurch; he saves her as he saves the festivities. Mary takes no offence by what Jesus says and she has perfect faith in him as she even instructs the servants in this story to “do whatever he tells you.”[9] I think this is good advice for us today too. Whenever we are faced by life’s crises, like Mary and the servants, we should have the faith to ask Jesus what to do and then we should have faith to do whatever Jesus tells us to do. He is faithful and we can put our faith in Him.

So then pertaining to those of us who are here today, I know that there are people in this congregation and even in this room who are facing challenges every bit as big as Jesus’ friends and family at the wedding. Some here are facing challenges of possibly not being able to provide for your family. Some here are without work. Some have here have even just lost their jobs. Some are faced with the daunting prospect returning to work after a long break. Some here have had serious health challenges. Some here have just lost loved ones and family members. Some of us are faced with family problems every bit as intense as the challenges of today’s text. Some of us are hurt. Some of us feel betrayed. Some of us are anxious, some of us are angry, and some of us here today are just plain sad. Sometimes life can be overwhelming.

John’s record of Jesus’ miracle of turning the water into wine has a special message for each of us who find ourselves in situations like this here today. When things look as bad as they can look; when there seems to be nothing that we can do; when it seems like our life and our world is ‘going to Hell in a hand basket’, as they say; when it seems that everything going askew, we can put our faith in Christ – just like Mary did and just like the disciples did. When everything seems to be going sideways, we can put our faith in Christ and we can turn our will and our lives over to Him. Just as Jesus was faithful in the midst of the chaos and concern at the wedding, saving the day, that his disciples put their faith in him; Jesus is still faithful here and now in the midst of the chaos and confusion of our lives so that we too can put our faith in Him and we too can be saved.

Let us pray.

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[1] Cf. Rosemary King, “17^th January: 2^nd after Ephiphany: The Marriage at Cana (John 2:1-11)," The Expository Times 121, no. 3 (December 2009): 134.

[2] Colin G.Kruse, John: An Introduction and Commentary. Downers Grove, IL : InterVarsity Press, 2003 (Tyndale New Testament Commentaries 4), S. 93.

[3] Stack and Billerbeck, Das Evangelium nach Johannes in Kommentar zum Neuen Testament aus Tulmud und Midrash, (Munchen, 1924), 401. Cited in William Hendricksen, John, in New Testament Commentary, (Grand Rapids, Mi: Baker Academic, 2007), 114.

[4] Cf. William Hendricksen, John, in New Testament Commentary, (Grand Rapids, Mi: Baker Academic, 2007), 115.

[5] Cf. Colin G.Kruse, John: An Introduction and Commentary. Downers Grove, IL : InterVarsity Press, 2003 (Tyndale New Testament Commentaries 4), S. 93: these were after all eschatological signs.

[6] Gail R. O’Day, The Gospel of John, in The New Interpreter's Bible, Vol. 9, ed Leander E. Keck, et. al. (Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press, 1995), 538.

[7] Gerard Sloyan, John, in Interpretation: A Bible Commentary for Teaching and Preaching, ed James L. Mays, et. al. (Atlanta, Georgia: John Knox Press, 1988), 36-37

[8] ‘Gail R. O’Day, The Gospel of John, in The New Interpreter's Bible, Vol. 9, ed Leander E. Keck, et. al. (Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press, 1995), 536-537.

[9] Cf. Merrill C. Tenney, The Expositor's Bible Commentary, Pradis CD-ROM:John/Exposition of John/II. The Public Ministry of the Word (1:19-12:50)/A. The Beginning Ministry (1:19-4:54)/3. The first sign (2:1-11), Book Version: 4.0.2