Well I thought "Seven" would be soon. I have a few pictures I want to post at some point, but for today I will write, and hopefully a picture of the kingdom will be seen rather than my personal photos.
This morning I was reading the beginning of the Gospel of John. I just love how multi-faced Scripture can be. I am seeing this picture of a folded up piece of paper and someone unfolding it. Instead of unfolding it a couple times this person just keeps unfolding until eventually the floor and the paper meet. The person keeps unfolding and eventually the whole floor is covered, until eventually the whole room is filled. That's what God's word is like. We can take it for what it looks like, a small piece of folded paper. Or we can engage it by unfolding until, well until one gets too tired. God's word is an ocean, until someone swims, dives, or explores, all you can see is the surface.
I was distracted today by the wedding at Cana. The Holy Spirit showed me a couple things.
1) Here is Jesus, Yahweh somehow contained by the human frame, the Creator of the universe. Before their eyes was the same presence of the One who was scarcely contained in their temples and tabernacles. Here He is… attending a wedding. The fact that the all powerful God, full of blinding glory, would be found at a wedding is mind blowing. There is nothing particular about the wedding or anything. But that is my point. As religious leaders were teaching Isaiah 6 in the synagogues, the God they were studying was sitting among a crowd celebrating and eating matzah ball soup. Jesus was eating dinner with family and friends, something He had done for the last 30 years of His life. For thirty years we have little to no record of what His life was like. God, knowing He had a span of about 33 years deemed it completely worth His time to choose 30 of them to be doing common, mundane, common life things, completely unnoticed as anything special. What does that say about our God that He would live in complete obscurity, unknown for the vast majority of His life?
2) The normal age for a man to get married was about a decade past by the time Jesus found Himself single at this wedding. I wonder if He endured ridicule for remaining celibate. I remember the couple weddings Sarah and I went to before our wedding. Sarah will be able to tell you how I had such a hard time at those weddings. It was hard for me because I could barely contain waiting to marry Sarah. I was feeling inpatient for our big day to come that when seeing others get married I became even more ready. Obviously Jesus blessed them on the special couple's day by providing wine for them, so I doubt He was grouchy like I was, but I can't help but to imagine what was on Jesus' mind that day. Knowing full well that one day He will come back to marry His bride, what were His thoughts or emotions? In fact, it was His purpose to win over, to woo the ones He came for. Throughout His teachings He compared Himself to a bridegroom, and the day to come when He returns as a wedding day.
3) From the clues in the story it seems as though Jesus had family beyond His mother at the wedding. Verse 12 notes, "After this He went down to Capernaum with His mother and brothers and His disciples. There they stayed for a few days." We also know Mary knew Jesus was special. Not only did she know full well that Jesus was born supernaturally, but she "pondered these things in her heart," thanked God that He would choose her to do a work among the nations (see Mary's Song) through Jesus, she also was perhaps hinting at Jesus to do a miracle at the wedding. She obviously made known that she saw Him as special. What was that like for her other sons? It is left to our imagination to picture what it was like in that family. However, we do see in John 7:1-5 that Jesus' brothers envied Him greatly, so much so that they were trying to get Him killed!
To say the least, family dynamics might not have been peaceful, especially at events like weddings where they are away from home for a few days. To add to the family drama, two of Jesus' disciples were probably His cousins! See this article for more information. It would make sense that Jesus' disciples were invited if they were familiar with the social group and we must consider this wedding was before Jesus became a public figure. I always assumed when reading this passage that Jesus' disciples were invited because they were, disciples of the ever-so-popular Jesus. I don't want to read into the text too much, but it is very reasonable to infer this was not the case but rather that they were invited because of their own personal connections. In saying that, and knowing there was envy within the family among the brothers, having Jesus' disciples be cousins instead of His actual brothers might have brought some more tension within the already heated family dynamics.
4) To add to the family dynamic is another little excerpt we find from the mouth of Jesus, "Woman, why do you involve me?" Jesus replied. "My hour has not yet come." I often thought Jesus seemed a little harsh here. If you look at the Greek, the word translated as "woman" is not disrespectful in tone; it is in fact it is a generic word to address a woman in a kind way. Oh, that's nice of Jesus, right? Well it is, but it's more significant than that. When is the last time you called your mom, "Mrs.?" You usually call her mom. This is right before Jesus ministry goes public. Perhaps this was heavy on Jesus' heart. He knew full well who He was, yet for thirty years He had no public ministry, and now the time was near, within a few days. Was Jesus calling her "woman" because He was going through intense change? Perhaps it was part of the transition for Him and for her? It is not that she was no longer His mother (recall their last moment together before Jesus died on the cross – John 19:26-27), it was that their roles were changing. This was probably a hard time for Mary, and if she heard Him address her like that for the first time, it was probably a shock. I am not too religious to believe it wasn't a hard time for Jesus either. His life was changing, He was letting go, and so was she.
5) One last thing was revealed to me (wisdom comes from God alone). John notes how the next thing Jesus did was go to the temple in Jerusalem to turn over the tables and the money changers. Zeal for His Father's house consumed Him as the scriptures point out. After celebrating a wedding, and perhaps thinking intently on His global wedding day, where does He go? To His Father's house! In Jewish weddings the groom would have to prepare a place in the groom's father's house. He would have to make ready a place until the day of the wedding when he would finally bring his bride home. I recon there was more going on beyond the surface in the heart of our Lord when He went into the temple that day.
