In chapter 2 of his gospel, John shows us what a dramatic difference Jesus makes when he arrives on the scene. What a difference he makes at the wedding he goes to at Cana!  What a difference he makes when he comes to the temple in Jerusalem. And of course, what a difference he makes to us when we encounter him.

Lets look first at what happened at the wedding at Cana.

Cana was in Galilee, not too far from Jesus’ hometown of Nazareth. Jesus was invited; along we are told with his disciples. Now John tells us this was on the third day, only a few days after Jesus had called his disciples, which means that the wedding organizers had very little notice of the extra guests that Jesus was bringing to the wedding. Maybe this is what caused the problem that occurred; the wine ran out.

Wine, we are told was used as what we might call a long drink, it was diluted with water in the way we dilute orange or lemon squash. But the wine had run out. Quite a catastrophe, for everyone involved, especially for the bridegroom whose responsibility it was to supply his guests with their needs.

Mary, Jesus mother knows what to do. She comes to Jesus and tells him of the problem. It’s unlikely that Mary expected a miracle, we are told by John that this was actually the first miracle that Jesus did. Most probably Mary turned to Jesus because he was the one who she had always relied on for help. He was her oldest son, by now it seems Joseph had died, and Jesus had been the man of the house, the breadwinner. So Mary turns to Jesus.

What does Jesus do? First of all, and this is a bit puzzling, Jesus seems to tell his mother off: ‘Woman, what concern is that to you and to me?’ The NIV puts it: ‘Dear woman, why do you involve me?’ ‘My time or hour has not yet come.’ It helps us if we remember that in different cultures people have different customs and speak in different ways. If you go to a wedding in Essex, you reckon to give a present to the bride and groom. In Malta on the other hand, when people go to a wedding they expect the bride and groom to give them a present.

In the culture that Jesus lived, it was in no way rude to address a person as woman, although we would think it rather rude. That’s why NIV makes it ‘Dear woman’. Jesus was not rude to his mother, but what he was saying to her, was ‘My main purpose in life from now on is not solving all the practical problems of my family and friends. God has given me another task to do, and the time for that has not yet come’.

We sometimes like Mary need to be reminded, that Jesus is primarily concerned with greater issues than our problems and difficulties. Yet that is no reason to stop bringing our requests and concerns and putting our trust in him. Mary still persisted in her faith and trust, and so she says to the servants, ‘do whatever he tells you.’ That is always very good advice for anyone, ‘do whatever Jesus tells you’.

So Jesus tells servant to fill up the large stone jars that are standing there. He turns the water into wine. And it was good wine. John tells us this was Jesus’ first sign. That is what John calls the miracles, ‘signs’.

A sign is something that points to something more important than itself. On the High Street, there is a sign that says Baptist Church. The sign itself is not the Baptist Church, but it points towards this building here.

When Jesus performed the sign of changing water into wine, he brought help and blessing to that wedding. But it was a sign that pointed to something far more important. It points to the reality that when Jesus comes to us he bring his generous abundant blessing. He brings forgiveness, he brings the gift of the Holy Spirit, he brings purpose and direction for our lives, he brings the best. Jesus said I have come that they might have abundant life. What a difference it makes when Jesus comes.

So we come onto the visit of Jesus to the temple in Jerusalem. John’s gospel is different to the others in that he tells us about this incident at the start of Jesus ministry. The other gospel’s tell us of it when Jesus comes to Jerusalem just before he is crucified, but they do not mention Jesus earlier visits to Jerusalem as John does. Maybe Jesus actually cleansed the temple twice, maybe the other gospels fit it in when they tell of other things Jesus did in Jerusalem; but lets just look at this event as John tells us of it.

Jesus comes to Jerusalem for the Passover, the great Jewish feast where the people remember God delivering them from slavery in Egypt. Jesus had been before, but now he comes with God’s authority. He sees the sheep and cattle in the temple courts on sale to be used as sacrifices, and the doves. He sees the moneychangers with their stacks of coins.

The whole set up was a monopoly arranged by the chief priests to get money from those who came to worship. To buy animals for sacrifice or to pay the temple tax, people had to change their Roman currency for the local currency at a fairly extortionate commission, and then they had to pay the high temple prices for the animals to be offered as sacrifices.

In holy wrath he makes a whip and drives out the sheep and cattle and overturns the moneychanger’s tables and orders the people selling doves to take them out. What a scene. ‘Stop making my father’s house a market place!’ he declares. In saying that, Jesus had declared himself God’s son, acting with his father’s authority.

Such actions certainly do not go unnoticed by the powers that be. So Jesus is asked for evidence of his authority. Notice they ask for a sign. It was the way that God spoke to his chosen people, through signs, going way back to the book of Genesis. Once again Jesus says something that is difficult to understand. ‘Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.’

Understandably, the Jews were perplexed at Jesus words. How could he build or raise up a temple in three days? The idea was preposterous. Yet what Jesus was saying that was so profound, words of eternal truth that could only be grasped when further light had been shed. They would only be understood when the time came for Jesus to be glorified.

John tells us what Jesus meant. He meant that when they crucified him, as he knew they would, he would be raised to life in three days. And so it came to pass in due course on the third day Jesus rose from the dead. The sign was performed for all to see. The evidence was there, the empty tomb, the testimony of the disciple. God did as they asked he provided for all time a sign of Jesus authority.

But yet there is more meaning in Jesus words than that. The temple, the one place in the world that was a focus for prayer and worship, the place of pilgrimage was going to be destroyed. In 70ad the Romans came and demolished it, the sacrifices and temple services ceased.

But that did not matter, because God in his infinite wisdom and loved had raised up another chosen focus of worship for men and women the world over; that focus is his son Jesus Christ. It is to Jesus Christ that men and women everywhere may come, and in him they can encounter God and be restored as the children of his family.

When Jesus comes he brings change. He brings blessings that are precious and real if we receive them in faith and thanks and worship. But he also comes to cleanse us. To challenge the things that we allow to clutter our live, to call us to discard the things that we hold so important that we squeeze out the true treasures he gives.

The question is, how do we respond to Jesus?
The disciples we are told (v11) believed in him. They were going in the right direction.
We are also told that when he was in Jerusalem, many believed in his name when they saw the signs that he was doing.

Yet John tells us that Jesus would not entrust himself to them, because he knew all people, he knew what was in everyone. Does that make 2 categories? Is there a difference between the disciples who believed, and the ones who were in Jerusalem who could not be trusted? No they are all in one category. That sin and frailty is in everyone. Of his disciples, one would betray him, another deny him and all the rest run away, when his hour did come. He knew he could not trust himself to them at this stage because his hour had not yet come.

Yet he comes to people and invites them to be his disciples, his students. And ultimately, he trusts us to carry on the task of spreading the news of his glory.

Amen.
 

Acknowledgement.

I lay no claim to originality in my sermons. They are an attempt to pass on the gospel message in a contemporary way and depend on the bible as well as others who have studied and written on the passages in question. In preaching from John’s Gospel, I acknowledge my debt to Roy Clements for his book Introducing Jesus and I have also used material from Readings in John’s Gospel by William Temple. PN Jan 04

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