John 2:1-10
The Wedding at Cana
2 The next day[a] 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.[b] 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!”
Matthew 20:29-34
Two Blind Men Receive Sight
29 As Jesus and his disciples were leaving Jericho, a large crowd followed him. 30 Two blind men were sitting by the roadside, and when they heard that Jesus was going by, they shouted, “Lord, Son of David, have mercy on us!”
31 The crowd rebuked them and told them to be quiet, but they shouted all the louder, “Lord, Son of David, have mercy on us!”
32 Jesus stopped and called them. “What do you want me to do for you?” he asked.
33 “Lord,” they answered, “we want our sight.”
34 Jesus had compassion on them and touched their eyes. Immediately they received their sight and followed him.
Transcript
(Transcribed by TurboScribe)
It's been an interesting week in our household. You get one little germ factory coming home, and then Omar works with the other germ factories, and then she becomes a germ factory, and she comes home, and then germs go everywhere. So it's been an interesting week.
I think I've done the best of the three. So yeah, it's one of those silly, silly weeks that happen. That anthem that the choir sang this morning, boy, you took me back many, many, many years.
When I worked at the Christian radio station in South Africa, that was one of the favourite songs I played, but I can't remember the artist who sang that. There was another woman. It wasn't just Gloria.
There was another... It's still not the right one, but I'll find it. She sang it better than any of them, but you did it so beautiful this morning. It just touched my heart, and I just thought of those words again.
Jesus, you're the centre of my joy. All that's good and perfect comes from you. You're the heart of my contentment.
Jesus, you're the centre of my joy. Isn't that true? When we find Jesus, and he touches your life, you find that joy. Not the joy that the world brings that's here today and gone tomorrow.
The joy that carries you through happiness, that carries you through those moments when it's just hard and tough and difficult, and you can still sing Jesus. You're the centre of my joy. Thank you for the gift of your words, Lord.
Thank you for the gift of prayer, and that we may speak of this amazing gift. May we in this morning, as we speak of our need before you, Lord Jesus, may we see you and only you in your beautiful name we pray. Amen.
There's nothing that can take you from being so happy and life is good to almost having a heart attack faster than when you're driving in your car and all of a sudden, that little orange engine light comes on, especially if you're in the middle of nowhere. Now, sometimes you're lucky and it can still get you to where you need to go. Sometimes, car goes slower and slower, starts making some noise, and it stops.
And you know, that's it. I need help. Sometimes life can be like that too, right? We're just cruising along on this wonderful path of life and all of a sudden, bam, and something breaks.
And you know, I can't fix it. I need help. So what do you do? Well, if your car breaks down, not so bad.
Take out your cell phone. Hopefully, in the middle of nowhere, you have cell phone reception and you call CAA or you call a tow truck and you say, I don't know what it is. This light came on, made a noise, stopped.
I kicked the tyre, didn't help. I got angry at the car and hit the steering wheel. That didn't help.
I need help. And in life, you tag someone. T-A-G.
You take it to Jesus. You admit that you do not have the resources I need. Help.
And then you give it to him in faith. You tag him. I need help.
And then leave it there because we know in his hands, it's safe, right? Is it that easy? We struggle a little bit. Maybe we'll do the T and the A, but sometimes the G of the tag is a little more difficult, that giving it and leaving it. Let me tell you a little bit about a moment like this of being able to say I need help and then letting it go and leaving it.
And some of you have heard the story and I'm sorry about that, but I think it's the best story to explain it. We emigrated to Canada in the year 2002. We came from mid-summer in February to mid-winter.
Landed on the 12th of February. What a shock. God, what did you do? And God was good.
We ended up in this beautiful place called Central Church that loved us and has loved us for all these years. When we left, I left mom and dad. I'm an only child.
Elsie had to leave her mom and her mom was really sick. We knew we would never see mom alive again. So we had to say goodbye to mom.
Knowing that, we bought or we took extra money and we put it aside to buy Elsie a ticket to go back to go see her mom. Because when you emigrate, as the Fond of Estes, since they know all about it, it's not that easy. You take a family of five, you take everything you have, you sell it, and then we divided by eight.
I think you divided by 10 when you came. And the little bit you have, that's what you make a life with. But we kept some there for Elsie because we knew that moment would come.
It was June of that year that the doc called a friend of ours and he said, Elsie, if you want to see mom alive, you better come because I don't think she's going to make it much longer. So we said, thank you, Lord. We saved the money.
Elsie could get on a plane. She went and Elsie went to go see her mother. She stayed for a month.
Mom did not die. Elsie had to come back. Elsie came back.
She was back one week. We were in the mall in Sears, that was still then of Sears, going down the escalator when the phone rang and her brother said, mom passed away. I could see it on Elsie's face.
She said when she came back, I'm okay. If mom passes, I'm fine. When she got that call, she was not fine.
She needed to go bury her mother. We did not have the money. We really did not have the money.
By then, we did not have credit. So what do you do? You take it to the Lord. We admitted that we did not have the resources and we gave it to him.
Didn't say anything to this church except on a Sunday morning, I stood and I said, would you please pray for us? Elsie just heard mom passed away this week. We need your prayers. That was it.
I came into church that Monday. Why? I don't know. Went to my office and as I tried to open the door, it was kind of stuck a little bit and I bent down and felt it was something under the door and took it out.
It was an envelope and I looked at the envelope. It was thick. It says this is for Elsie to go bury her mother.
$2,100. That was the exact amount that Elsie needed to buy a ticket to go bury her mother. I'm not telling a story.
It's the truth. To this day, I don't know who did that, how that got there, but it did. It's a true story.
All we could say is, I need help. As I sat there and I was crying, it reminded me, Philippians, do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, through prayer and petition and with thanksgiving, make your requests known to God and the peace of God that transcends all understanding. Regard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
And I was reminded in that moment how faithful God is to his word. If only I can say those simple words, Father, you are good. I need help because you know what happens when I do that.
That's the moment where I take that stuff that I do not have the resources for and I put it in God's hands and I let it go because God can do it in his time. Remember I said that road sometimes from A to B has ups and downs and twists and turns and sometimes feels that I can't get to the end, but God can do it. All I need to say is, I need help.
I said that this morning because I feel miserable as I stand here. So I sat there, I said, I need help. You know what? I'm going to get through the sermon.
I know it. There's a story that you know well and I've preached on this, I think three, four, five times in my life, but not this way. John chapter two.
I love John. The easiest Greek in the whole New Testament. You can wake me up 12 o'clock at night and I can understand it.
I'm not going to teach you Greek today. We'll read it in English from the New Living Translation. The next day there was a wedding celebration in the village of Cana in Galilee.
Jesus's mother was there and Jesus and his disciples were also invited to the celebration. The wine supply ran out during the festivities. Now watch.
Enter from the left, Mary, Jesus's mother. So Jesus's mother told him, they have no more wine. And we just stopped there for a moment.
Mary identifies the need. They have no more wine. I need help.
She's not bossy. She doesn't say, hey Jesus, time for you to show up a little bit. Go down to the corner there.
There's a beautiful vineyard. Bordeaux grapes. You go make those grapes.
Immediately be ready. And then just turn them into those beautiful bottles of Bordeaux wine. Bring that up and serve the wine.
You can do it, buddy. Go, go, go. Doesn't do that.
She doesn't try and fix the problem because she does not have the resources. She doesn't blame someone. She doesn't say, yeah, this bridegroom, come on, he should have taken care of the wine.
What does Mary do? They have no more wine. She states the problem. Now, if I read this correctly, and if you read the previous bit of this correctly, I don't think Jesus had any intention of doing any work at this wedding except being one of the guests.
So what's his answer? Dear woman, that's not our problem, Jesus replied. My time has not yet come. I don't think he planned to turn the water into wine.
But Mary had a need. I need help. Mary, typical mother.
Oh, she's so cool. But his mother told the servants, do whatever he tells you. I can see in my mind's eye, Mary, little twinkle in her eye, just walks away.
Do whatever he tells you. I have a need. Take it to Jesus.
Admit that you can't do it yourself and then give it to him and leave it with him. That's exactly what she did. Do whatever he tells you.
I wonder, I wonder what was going on in his mind. And I wish I could see his face. I think I could see this wry smile.
Oh, mother. Oh, mother. And yet, she identified the problem.
She brought it to him. She left it with him. And what happens? Standing nearby were six stone water jars used for Jewish ceremonial washing.
Each could hold 20 to 30 gallons. So Jesus told the servants, fill the jars with water. When the jars had been filled, he said, now dip some out, take it to the master of ceremonies.
So the servants followed his instructions. And the rest of the story is history, right? When the master of the ceremonies tasted the water, that was now wine, not knowing where it had come from, though of course the servants knew, called the bridegroom over. And he said, a host always serves the best wine first.
And then when everyone has had a lot to drink, he brings out the less expensive wine. But you have kept the best until now. Problem, presented.
Prayer, answered. Crisis, averted. All we need to do is to say, I need help and take it to Jesus.
Hear me when I say this and forgive me when it sounds a little harsh. I don't take it to the LCBO because what's that blue stuff? The bad blue or whatever, I don't drink, so I don't know this. It won't help you.
Being angry about it won't help you. Taking it out on others won't help you. Blaming it on someone won't help you.
Take it to the one who will help you and who can help you. And who wants to help you. And give it to him.
Let it go. And I know sometimes we think, but this is just impossible. There's no way.
Because that bam that happened in my life, that's just so huge. Well, can I end with another story? It comes from Matthew chapter 20. As Jesus and his disciples were leaving Jericho, a large crowd followed him.
Two blind men were sitting by the roadside, and when they heard that Jesus was going by, they shouted, Lord, Son of David, have mercy on us. I have a need. The crowd rebuked them and told them to be quiet, but they shouted all the louder.
Lord, Son of David, have mercy on us. I need help. Jesus stopped, called to them.
What do you want me to do for you? He asked. Lord, they answered, we want you to do the impossible. We want our sight.
And Jesus had compassion. Oh, there's my Greek word. Sorry.
There goes your Greeks. Plach nit somai. That which touches the heart and just turns it right over in itself.
Jesus had compassion on them and touched their eyes, and immediately they received their sight and followed him. I need help. What can I do for you? Because he has compassion.
He came into this world for you, for me. He came into this world so that we could see God for who he is, one who cares, one who loves, one who wants to take those things in life that go bam and stop us in our tracks. He wants us to speak to him because that's why he's there with his Father, to stand there for you and for me.
All I have to say is, Father, you're good. I need help. Amen.