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Dad is dying. It’s cancer. The doctors have done everything they can, but it looks like he only has a few months to live. The family believes in God. They pray confidently every day because they know who God is and what he has the power to do. “God…we need a miracle. Please heal our Dad. Please, save his life.” Miraculously, after a few months, Dad is cancer free. The doctors can’t explain how it happened, but it did. The family rejoices over this amazing miracle from God!
Dad is dying. It’s cancer. The doctors have done everything they can, but it looks like he only has a few months to live. The family believes in God. They pray confidently every day because they know who God is and what he has the power to do. “God…we need a miracle. Please heal our Dad. Please, save his life.” The months march on, as the cancer does its terrible work. As predicted, after a courageous battle, Dad passes away without a miraculous healing. Although the family takes comfort that their father is now enjoying Heaven, deep down they’re frustrated…angry…hurt. Why didn’t God grant us the miracle we were looking for?
Maybe you’ve been in, or are in, a similar situation. If not a health problem, it’s a money problem or a relationship problem, or one of the other myriad problems people face. Were you, or are you, looking for a miracle? Maybe the important question to ponder is this: If God doesn’t send the miracle you’re looking for, how do you react? Angry with him? Doubtful of his power or love? Or trusting in his plans? This morning, we’ll see how Jesus’ first miracle at the wedding at Cana shapes the way we think and feel about God’s miracles in our lives.
In his Gospel, John shows us Jesus, just a few days after calling his first disciples to follow him. He and his new disciples arrive as invited guests to a wedding celebration in a small town called Cana. But this wedding had a big problem. They had completely run out of wine. At that time in Jewish society, this would have been a disaster! Consider it the ancient wedding equivalent of only having seats for 300 of your 500 guests, or coming up a few hundred plates of food short. Can you imagine how mortified you would be as that newlywed couple?
Jesus’ mother Mary was also present at the wedding, and she saw the trouble. Wanting to save the couple from the shame, she went directly to the one she knew could help. Mary, who had pondered in her heart everything the angel proclaimed about who her son would be, knew to go to Jesus in a time of trouble. When the wine was gone, Jesus’ mother said to him, “They have no more wine.” She states the facts, but attaches an understood request. “They have no more wine. I know what power you have. Please do something about it.”
Isn’t that what our prayers to Jesus often sound like? “Jesus, I have a problem. I know the power you have. Please do something about it.” And there’s certainly nothing wrong with that! God himself instructs us, “Call upon me in the day of trouble.” When we’re dealing with a problem, God wants us to call on him; to trust in his love, mercy, and power.
So the way Jesus responds to his mother’s request might catch us off guard. He says to her, “Dear woman, why do you involve me? My time has not yet come.” Why do you involve me? Isn’t Jesus the one we should ALWAYS involve when we have a problem?
But Jesus’ response to Mary literally means, “What common interest do we have in my activity?” Mary, speaking as his mother, wants Jesus to take care of this earthly problem. But Jesus, speaking as her Savior, knows it’s more important for him to deal with people’s eternal problem of sin. His mission was not to prevent people from temporary embarrassment, but to prevent people from dying an eternal death! So Jesus and his mother had two different focuses. Mary was looking for a miracle to take care of an earthly problem. Jesus was intent on a miracle that would take care of spiritual problems.
We have to admit that most of the time when we ask God for help in trouble, maybe even looking for a miracle, we’re looking for a miracle to solve an earthly problem. “Take away my arthritis so I don’t have to suffer the pain.” “Take away my heart disease, so I can live longer.” “Find me the perfect spouse so I don’t have to be lonely anymore.” “Let me win the Powerball, so I never have to work again.” There’s nothing wrong with asking God for help in times of earthly trouble.
However, the ugliness of our sin can surface in the ways we react if God doesn’t send the miracle we’re looking for in the way we want it, or when we want it. Since we know that God has the power to do anything, we might expect or demand that he will do anything for us. We want Jesus to be a magic genie who bows to our commands and grants us all of our wishes. And if he doesn’t, we get impatient. We get angry. We might even doubt that he cares, or even exists. Because a loving God would eliminate all of our troubles, right?
But if we react in anger, frustration, or doubt, we’ve convinced ourselves that we know what we need better than God knows. We’ve made ourselves God! It’s easy to think that way if we’ve forgotten why Jesus came; if we think God sent Jesus to eliminate all of our earthly problems. The truth is, God didn’t send Jesus to make our earthly lives comfortable. He sent him to give us eternal life in Heaven.
When we remember that truth, we can react the same way that Mary did, trusting that Jesus knows best. Even after Jesus told her that it wasn’t yet his time, Mary told the servants at the wedding, “Do whatever he tells you.” She trusted that whatever Jesus did, whenever he did it, it would be the best thing for everyone.
Jesus’ mission is not to solve our earthly problems. But that doesn’t mean he doesn’t care about our earthly troubles! Even though it’s not his purpose or mission at this wedding, Jesus still does take care of the problem by performing an incredible miracle. He produces almost 180 gallons of the finest wine out of jars of plain water. Jesus saves the newlyweds from embarrassment, and provides them with enough leftover wine from the wedding to supply their needs as they began their married lives.
Jesus doesn’t perform this miracle to make all the wedding guests “ooh” and “aah,” like a magician. In fact, it seems that only Mary, his disciples, and some servants even knew what had happened. Rather, as John tells us, Jesus performed this miracle to “reveal his glory,” so that “his disciples put their faith in him.”
Why does God grant miracles to some people, and not to others? As this miracle shows, God is looking out for the spiritual welfare of his people, whether he performs a miracle or not. If a miracle doesn’t happen, it’s because God is more concerned about a person’s spiritual troubles than their earthly problem. Maybe God doesn’t miraculously heal the cancer, because it’s time for that believer to go home to heaven. Maybe God didn’t let you win the Powerball because your new wealth would make you forget about your reliance on him. He won’t send a miracle if it’s going to harm your soul!
And if God does perform a miracle, it’s because it will in some way enhance a person’s spiritual connection to Jesus! The miracle at Cana helped assure Jesus’ new disciples that the one in whom they had put their faith was indeed the Son of God.
In John’s gospel, whenever Jesus performs a miracle, John calls it a sign. The purpose of a sign isn’t to make you focus on the sign itself, but rather to point your attention to something else. As you drive down the street, the brightly colored signs on both sides aren’t there to make you focus on the signs. Rather, they are there to draw your attention to the restaurant they advertise. The restaurant owner would be very disappointed if you simply sat in the parking lot staring at the sign, and never came inside to eat. And if you only focused on the sign and not what it points to, you’d miss out on the delicious food the restaurant offers.
In the same way, Jesus’s miracles were signs, to point us to something more important. Jesus didn’t turn the water into wine to impress people. Rather, Jesus’ miracles were signs to draw people’s attention to the fact that he was God. His miracles were intended to validate the faith that his followers already had. If we only focus on the “sign” of Jesus’ miracles, we lose sight of the most important thing they pointed to.
Jesus’ greatest miracle was not that he was able to change water into wine, but that he changed our unbelieving hearts of stone into Spirit occupied hearts of faith. The greatest miracle Jesus performs is that he changes our status from God’s enemies, to God’s children.
So, looking for a miracle? You don’t have to look any further than the cross; than the baptismal font; than the communion rail; than the very words of God, recorded in the Bible. Those are miracles that God provided to care for our souls! And because of those miracles God has performed for us, we don’t have to worry about our earthly troubles. If God loves us enough to perform the greatest miracle of making us his own, then certainly, in love and grace, he will take care of our earthly troubles, whether by miracles, or normal, everyday means he provides. The greatest miracle, is that God has revealed his glory to us, so that we might “grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ.” Looking for a miracle? Look no further than yourself! You are a miracle of Jesus’ unfathomable love. Amen.