Words of Jesus Podcast - Jesus' Unexpected Response

Episode Date: June 18, 2021

Jesus unexpected response; transfer responsibility of His mother to his brother - water turned to wine. It was a big day. Jesus and his disciples - also Mary, his mother-were guests at a wedding in Cana of Galilee after he had gathered the first of his disciples. When it was time to serve wine to the wedding guests, Mary said to Jesus: "They have no wine." Jesus replied: "Woman, what have I to do with thee? Mine hour is not yet come." Mary said to the servants: "Whatsoever he saith unto you, do it." Designating the six water pots of stone, Jesus said to the servants: "Fill the waterpots with water." When they were filled, Jesus instructed the servants: "Draw out now, and bear unto the governor of the feast." When it was carried to the ruler of the feast, it was fine wine. The disciples, seeing this manifestation of the glory of Jesus, believed on him.

Think Red Ink Ministries presents The Words of Jesus Series with Don C. Harris Hello friends, welcome to the Words of Jesus series brought to you by Think Red Inc. Ministries in Pytown, New Mexico. Hello, I'm Don Harris. I'm excited to share this series on the words of Jesus with you. This book includes the story of Jesus, His life, his friends, his ministry, as recorded in the four Gospels. We're going to see how Jesus examines

and instructs and corrects. We all need to be examined a little, and instructed a little, and perhaps corrected a lot. We're starting with chapter 6. We have enjoyed the correct a lot. We're starting with chapter 6. We have enjoyed the series all the way through. If you have not been a part of the series, we want you to know that those kind of things are made available to you through ThinkRedInc.com. And all you have to do is write to me, Don, at ThinkRedInc.com and I'll be glad to

put you in touch with whatever you need to catch up on the series or whatever else you need. We have all kinds of products available for you there at ThinkRedInc Ministries. And one thing that is peculiar about what we do is we never charge for ministry. We never charge for materials. Alright, chapter 6 of this little book is the story of Jesus changing water into wine. Jesus and his disciples

also Mary, his mother, were guests at a wedding in Cana of Galilee after he had gathered the first of his disciples. When it was time to serve wine to the wedding guest, Mary said to Jesus, They have no wine. And Jesus replied, Woman, what have I to do with thee? Mine hour is not yet come. Mary said to the servants, Whatsoever he saith unto you, do it.

Designating the six water pots of stone, Jesus said to the servants, Fill the water pots with water. When they were filled, Jesus instructed the servants, Draw out now and bear unto the governor of the feast. When it was carried to the ruler of the feast, it was wine. The disciples seeing this manifestation of the glory of God, glory of Jesus, believed on him.

There's a lot of things about this story that are going to be worthwhile for us to study, look at, consider. And I guess we'll just take them in order. I think that it's interesting that Jesus went another direction than I think we would have if we were writing the story. And many times I've heard the story reiterated and

this part just seems to be left out. And I don't know if it's because people don't understand it they can't necessarily apply it I don't know why it's avoided but I don't understand it. They can't necessarily apply it. I don't know why it's avoided, but I don't know that it should be. I think Jesus was very clear when he was talking about his disciples remembering and recording for posterity his life.

And one of the things that he said that he would do to and for his disciples was that he would give them a supernatural ability, I can assume it's supernatural, to remember all things. He said that I'm going to help you remember all things. And I think that's exactly what's going on. They're remembering what was said.

Now, the thing that just doesn't seem to fit was that, well, let's just face it, Mary was somewhat distressed. We don't know who this wedding necessarily was, but we can assume that it was close to Mary and Joseph's family because Mary felt some responsibility here. Like she was helping with this wedding and she was distressed

because evidently the person that's holding the wedding or the mother or the father or whomever was distressed because they had run out of wine. She came to Jesus and said, we have no wine. Now, you would think that with our modern day understanding of who Jesus was, that he would just be so

concerned. I imagine there's certain denominations that would have expected him to say, good! They don't need no wine! Then there are others who would think that he would just immediately kowtow to his mother's wishes and fill the need. I'm sure there's a lot of opinions that we would naturally have about the way Jesus would have handled this situation, but

this particular answer that he gave her was a little off-center of all of the supposed or proposed answers that he would have given. And what was the answer? Woman. Now that in itself, I mean, the very first word is really kind of strange, isn't it? Those of you who saw the beginning of the series saw that we actually were witnessing what I deemed as Jesus's self-celebrating of his own bar mitzvah where he was, as the bar mitzvah

requires, coming out from under the authority. And I said that cautiously because I think that a child never really comes out from under the authority of either parent. To one degree or another though, a child when he's below 12 years and younger is essentially subject to his mother's wishes and then as he bar mitzvahs he goes

under his father's authority and essentially starts to build his life in such a way that determines the rest of his life, his vocation and most everything about him. And a young man goes under his father to learn those kinds of things. Well, at that particular point I think perhaps it was

settled at least within Christ that this wasn't mommy anymore. And we find this even at the cross. You find that he, because he moved essentially out from under the fleshly element that most all humans live under and moved into that spiritual category, I think that it's coming out here as well. I don't know why he would choose a term like woman to refer to his mother other than what I'm saying now. And I can't say that I'm any kind of authority. I wasn't there.

I've never had the Lord tell me anything about this. It's not as though I'm giving you some revelation that I've had. I'm just trying to figure out why he says what he says, which is a lot of what I do. And he says, woman, what have I to do with you? Now, not only has he separated himself from that familial tie by saying mother or woman or at least woman

instead of mother but he goes on to say that you have concerns that are not mine. Now, I know that some people have a helpful attitude, a helpful spirit, if you will, about them and that when somebody needs something they feel obligated as if it is their own duty, as if it is their own responsibility to help. And frankly this is founded in women a lot more than it is men. Men's attitude about a lot of these things is, well you

should have thought of that to begin with. Who planned this wedding anyway? But a woman tends to take on the responsibility like, sure, you can help. Now through my life, I've been involved in a lot of different industries and have expertise in areas of electronics and mechanics. And wow, I mean, I don't know. That's the kind of life I lived.

And so I was involved in a lot of things. And people who know me, when I get around somebody that has a particular problem, I'll have a friend somewhere say, hey, he can fix it. And I think that perhaps was her attitude about this wine thing. I don't know what she was expecting him to do. I don't know. Maybe she didn't even know. As a matter of fact her instructions to her friends there

was, look, if you want this to work out, you got the right guy on the job. He can make things happen just the way they need to happen, but you need to listen to him and do what he says to do. I was telling you before that I think Mary remained in a quandary, in a questioning attitude for much longer than the original conception of Christ. I know she pondered a lot of things in her

heart, the Bible says, but I think that we saw in Mary a resignation, so to speak, that this was not her boy. Now, let me explain what I mean. Do you remember the story, Hannah, was it Hannah that was the mother of Samuel? Her husband found her praying one time

and he says, what are you praying for? And she says, well I'm praying that I'd have a child. Because it was very important, and still is important to a woman, to bear children. But she made a promise to the Lord that if you give me this child, I'll give him back. there is such a thing as a mother's love that can be so much so and her relationship with God be such that her desire for this child is for that child to please God in every way.

It can even be her goal to have this child fall under the authority of God more so than her own. Now, I'm telling you, in my experience, which is, I mean, it's one person, you know, 60-some-od odd years of one person's life. I realize I don't know everything here, but it's been my experience that this is very, very rare. The Bible uses a descriptive term of somebody you don't want to fool with

as a she-bear or a bear robbed of her whelps. And this is a very common thing if you've done any counseling or dealt with people at all with women in particular that you can pretty much get away with all kinds of misuse and abuse in a woman's life but when you mess with her kids you're messing

with your own life. And I understand that. However that You're messing with your own life. And I understand that. However, that protective part of the love she has for her children needs to be removed from her possessive attitude toward her children that I think that it is rare that we see this attitude as in Mary that

this is not my son. This boy belongs to the God that I serve. Which is really a beautiful thing and a hugely unselfish thing for her to do. However, I want you to know that through the centuries, through the centuries of time Mary has always been known as the mother of Jesus. She didn't

lose anything here. She didn't give up something. She made a gift of herself as much as her son. And when it comes to this giving this giving over, it's that particular

thing that I'm talking about that is just extremely rare. As time went on in Mary's life, she started more and more to realize that this is the Son of God. I don't think that was fully realized by her when she was first impregnated, when she first received this news from the angel. I don't think that it really became a full part of her life. And you have to understand that even at 12 years old,

she could not understand his attitude about, I have to be about my father's business. It was just not said in her head that Jehovah God was his father. And I think it started to. And we're talking about somewhere around, well this is like 18 years later at this wedding. I think that it had occurred to her. And I don't think she took exception to being called woman. I don't think that she was surprised that Jesus's attitude about this situation is,

look, what's important to you is not necessarily important to me. He explained to her, if we're not careful here, you're going to make me into a showpiece and my time has not yet come. She also knew that this boy obviously exemplified in the prior 18 years between the time that they found him in the temple until now

he obviously showed to her and her husband and indeed to the world that he was just not like every other child. And one thing that she had learned through this whole experience here was that it is going to require, if you want this guy, her son, to fix this situation, then you're going to have to do what he says to do. Now I was saying before that

there was a, I think that there's a change that took place in her and in him way back when he was 12 years old. It is being reiterated here, and it is reiterated one more time, or at least the situation is laid out for us one more time, if you remember at the crucifixion he looked at his brother and said, behold thy mother. Woman, behold thy son. You remember this? Even though he had occupied this place of spiritual authority and

spiritual kinship regarding Jehovah as his God. He was not negligent of the fact that he was leaving his mother on the earth with no one to take care of her. Joseph had long been gone you remember? And so he placed, though he was the firstborn son

he placed a brother in charge of his mother. Still called her woman. And when he referred to the brother and the mother he said, behold thy mother. Now I can see that in there. Can you see that? There was a separation that took place in her mind and in his mind when he started his ministry

on this earth. Now I don't know that he appreciated so much this being employed to be the package store. I'm sorry. I don't mean to offend. I'm just trying to put pants on this scripture. I just don't think that he appreciated being put in charge of the booze for the wedding. And so he made the comment

that his hour had not yet come. And then Mary, she wasn't even daunted by this phrase. Wasn't even daunted by his reluctance. Calling her woman didn't seem to be a big deal. She took everything in stride like she was just a part of what's going on here. That she hadn't overstepped any bounds or anything. I've heard it preached that she did. I don't know that she did.

Because she continued. And you know, it's just I just think that if we're not careful we can read more into this than perhaps we should. You may think that I have done so already. But nevertheless we have Mary making the comment to him, to the people there about him whatever he says to do, do it. Now

I cannot think of any scripture about Jesus as our king, as our ruler, as our lord, as our boss that is more pertinent or more necessary than what she actually said that day. I can't imagine there being anything more important in your life and in your thought than this thing that whatever he says to do, we should do it.

If you want him involved in what you're doing, then you should do whatever he says to do. He asked his disciples one time. I believe it was his disciples, yes. He says, why do you call me Lord and not do what I say? Now, I've told people before, we're going to cover that little bit of red ink in the scriptures. And I'll probably say it there too because it's so poignant. It just pretty much lays out this idea.

And the idea is for us to apply these things to our life, is it not? So if you've got your boss walks up and you're at your desk working, and he lays his hand on his shoulder and bends down and whispers in your ear and says, why do you call me boss and not do what I say? Do you think that everything's fine with your job at that point? Do you think that your boss is pleased with you? Or do you think that there is an impending peak slip somewhere that is going to be filled out and you're going to be looking for a job it is obvious that your boss is not pleased with whatever it is that you're doing why would he ask such question I think that the key is to

engaging our God, our Lord Jesus, the power of heaven in our lives is contained in this very thing she told those people that day. Whatever he says to you, do it. If you do, everything's going to be fine. I know people that essentially ignore most everything that the scriptures tells us to do. It talks about keeping the commandments. It talks about him even offering us the feast of the Lord. Us unworthy Gentiles are privileged to be able to keep the feast of the Lord. We don't do that.

We keep our own feasts. We keep our own feasts. And we're not doing what he says to do. We're not living like he says to live. It's not whatever he says to do. We're not living like he says to live. It's not whatever he says to do, do it. It's not mimicking Christ. It's not being a little Christ. It's not him showing in our lives to the world. It's us doing whatever we want to do and relying on forgiveness and what we mistakenly call grace

to get us through. Friend, that's not whatever he says to you, do it. That is not practicing that at all. That is whatever you want to do, do it. He'll forgive you. He'll forgive you and everything will be fine. There won't be any wine. There won't be any miracle. There won't be any intervention, but everything will be fine. There's people who say, oh, I don't think that works have anything to do with salvation, but I think that works will determine whether or not we have eternal rewards or crowns or some other idea that they have in their head

that is going to be a reward to people who are obedient. I don't know why any thinking person can read the Scriptures and think that you can live any way you want to live and everything's going to be okay. No, it's whatever he says to do do it all right we'll see you next time bye-bye ¶¶ you've been listening to don c harris of think red ink ministries ThinkRedInc.com. That's ThinkRedInc.com. Join us again for the next episode in the Words of Jesus series. you