That's a Fact Jack!!

John 2:1 The next day there was a wedding celebration in the village of Cana in Galilee. Jesus’ mother was there, 2 and Jesus and his disciples were also invited to the celebration. 3 The wine supply ran out during the festivities, so Jesus’ mother told him, “They have no more wine.” 4 “Dear woman, that’s not our problem,” Jesus replied. “My time has not yet come.” 5 But his mother told the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.” 6 Standing nearby were six stone water jars, used for Jewish ceremonial washing. Each could hold twenty to thirty gallons. 7 Jesus told the servants, “Fill the jars with water.” When the jars had been filled, 8 he said, “Now dip some out, and take it to the master of ceremonies.” So the servants followed his instructions. 9 When the master of ceremonies tasted the water that was now wine, not knowing where it had come from (though, of course, the servants knew), he called the bridegroom over. 10 “A host always serves the best wine first,” he said. “Then, when everyone has had a lot to drink, he brings out the less expensive wine. But you have kept the best until now!”

I don't want to try to explain extra things into this scripture to make a point and in not doing so I can only say, "Jesus turned the water into wine!!" Jesus, in his awesome power, did the impossible to help this wedding celebration stay a celebration. Had Jesus not changed the water into wine the result for the couple and for the entire family would have been disastrous!! Jesus came through making the impossible very possible. Quite a few places in the New Testament the point that God can make the impossible very possible is written. Our God does make all things new and He turns the worst situation into a very good situation because "He is God!" The evidence of His love is seen in the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross and for those who are Jesus followers we know of that great love for the world as well. But many times we feel the need to explain away what Jesus did on this earth and what scripture records of the facts. In the above scripture Jesus turned water into wine because He responded to the need and that is a fact! We don't deserve Jesus doing anything for us and that is true, but the love of God trumps our inadequacies and our failings and responds to our needs.

Another miracle happened in John 4:46 As he traveled through Galilee, he came to Cana, where he had turned the water into wine. There was a government official in nearby Capernaum whose son was very sick. 47 When he heard that Jesus had come from Judea to Galilee, he went and begged Jesus to come to Capernaum to heal his son, who was about to die. 48 Jesus asked, “Will you never believe in me unless you see miraculous signs and wonders?”49 The official pleaded, “Lord, please come now before my little boy dies.”

50 Then Jesus told him, “Go back home. Your son will live!” And the man believed what Jesus said and started home. Jesus healed the officials son and the man believed and it happened. A miracle.....(def) - an extraordinary event manifesting divine intervention in human affairs. Two different words are listed in the definition; divine and human. First of all, human reasoning will never understand the miracles of God and so as humans we try to explain it and end up explaining it away and thus minimize the belief in God's power because of our lack of divine understanding. It seems like we are always trying to analyze what really happened through word gymnastics and end up chasing our tail and in the process we lose the faith we should have as "believers!" So when we need to shore up our faith for some need we cannot because we have spent most of our time "humanizing" God in our thinking and pollute the whole thing. When I pray to Jesus and ask Him for something or about something I have to believe He is listening and I have to believe He will respond and then I leave it there trusting in His miracle working power. It stops being about me and it becomes ALL about Him and His response, and that takes the human element out of the experience and replaces it with the divine.

Now if you don't believe in the divinity of God then you have another issue that is totally human based and weak at best. In the two examples of the miracles of Jesus listed above Jesus intervened and changed things by His divine power and that is a fact. The Fiction comes in when we try to understand it all. Faith takes out the need to understand it and we just come to an understanding that it is all in God's hands and that is a fact. So quit chasing your tail if you are trying to figure out the God of the universe and just let Him be GOD! That is a very important part of the faith thing and you might just miss the whole thing if you try to get your human reasoning in the mix. That's a Fact Jack!!

The Pilgrimage continues......

David Warren