Exceeding Abundantly

May 12

Ruth 1-2

Psalm 59:1-5

Proverbs 13:13-14

John 2

Exceeding Abundantly

“When the chief servant tasted the water (after it had become wine), he did not know where it came from---though the servants who had drawn the water knew. He called the groom and told him, ‘Everyone sets out the fine wine first, then, after people have drunk freely, the inferior. But you have kept the fine wine until now.’” John 2:9-10

A few months ago, I watched the new series, “The Chosen.” If you haven’t watched it, I highly recommend it. It is a series about the life of Jesus and it is very well done. Having heard these biblical accounts my whole life, I think I often just skim through them without really thinking about the details of how these events would have played out in real life. One of the episodes gave the account of the wedding we read about in John 2. My daughter, Emily, got married in 2017, so I am very familiar with excitement, planning, and stress involved in making everything perfect for that special day. In biblical times, weddings lasted for several days and a central part of the event was wine. In the episode of “The Chosen,” Mary was good friends with the mother of the bride. She had helped her plan the wedding and everything was going just as planned, until the wine ran out. I can relate to this scene so well. Over the last several years, in addition to being the mother of the bride, I have also helped several of my dear friends with their children’s weddings. I can easily envision myself as Mary in this story running around trying to figure out how to solve this problem without causing embarrassment and stress to the bride and groom.

This wedding took place before Jesus began His public ministry. He was at the wedding as a family friend, not as a minister. He was one of the guests. When Mary heard that there was a problem, she knew just where to turn. She knew that Jesus could help. We can learn a lot from Mary’s actions. She went to Jesus with complete confidence that He would know what to do. She didn’t tell Him how to fix the problem, she just explained the problem to Him and told the servants to do whatever Jesus said to do. Too often, I go to Jesus with my problems, trying to explain to Him how he needs to fix it and giving Him ideas about the best way to handle the issue. Needless to say, He does not need my help figuring out what to do. His solutions are far better than any I could possibly come up with. My job is to present my problem to him, leave it at His feet and trust Him to take care of it in the best way. It is also significant to note that this was a relatively minor problem. While it would have been embarrassing to run out of wine, it did not involve someone who was sick and dying or a major financial difficulty. It is comforting to know that Jesus cares about all of the details of our lives. We can take any problem, big or small, to Him and ask for His help. He wants to be involved in every aspect of our lives, not just the “big” stuff. Jesus not only solved the problem by providing more wine, but He provided wine that was far superior to the wine they had been serving. Jesus’ intervention in our situation will always far exceed any expectations that we have. “Now to Him who is able to do exceeding abundantly beyond all that we ask or imagine, according to His power that works within us, to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever.” Ephesians 3:20-21.