Do You Believe?

Elder Brian Haferkamp preaches on John 9:1-41, the healing of the man born blind.

Read John 9:1-41

There is a key word in this passage that keeps coming up from beginning to end. In the Greek, the word is πιστεύω. The ESV translates this word as "believe." This is a good translation, especially if you're trying to be succinct. As with most words, however, there is more in the meaning.. The word means to think something to be true; to be persuaded of something; to place confidence in someone or something. 

In our passage today we see a dichotomy of belief. On the one hand we have the man born blind who only exhibits faith from the beginning to the end. On the other hand we have the religious leaders who only exhibit unbelief from beginning to end. In the middle of it all is Jesus Christ.

When a person comes into contact with Jesus he or she is encountering the Truth. When encountering the Truth there are only two choices: belief or unbelief. We see this all throughout the scriptures and it is in full view in this story of the man born blind. 

Jesus had just left the Temple where he made one of the biggest reveals of his ministry: He is the light of the world, the Son of God, and, more than that, he is God (“Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am.”). After saying this he flees the Temple and he passes by a man born blind who was begging on the street.

The disciples ask Jesus a quite common question, “Was it this man’s sin that made him blind or his parents’ sin?” There was a common saying in Israel that said, “The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children's teeth are set on edge.” The implication was that the sins of the father were passed down to the sons and daughters. This was a common understanding of situations involving those born with deformities or disabilities, like the man born blind.

More than 500 years before the birth of Christ, Ezekiel addressed this proverb in a prophecy:

Ezekiel 18

The word of the LORD came to me: 2 “What do you mean by repeating this proverb concerning the land of Israel, ‘The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children's teeth are set on edge’? 3 As I live, declares the Lord GOD, this proverb shall no more be used by you in Israel. 4 Behold, all souls are mine; the soul of the father as well as the soul of the son is mine: the soul who sins shall die.

5 “If a man is righteous and does what is just and right...he is righteous; he shall surely live, declares the Lord GOD.

30 “Therefore I will judge you, O house of Israel, every one according to his ways, declares the Lord GOD. Repent and turn from all your transgressions, lest iniquity be your ruin. 31 Cast away from you all the transgressions that you have committed, and make yourselves a new heart and a new spirit! Why will you die, O house of Israel? 32 For I have no pleasure in the death of anyone, declares the Lord GOD; so turn, and live.”

With this same heart Jesus looks at the man born blind and says that it is not the sins of his father that has made him blind from birth. Instead, he is here to glorify God because God will show his power in this man. Jesus says the same thing about Lazarus in chapter 11:

John 11:4

But when Jesus heard [about Lazarus's death] he said, “This illness does not lead to death. It is for the glory of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it.”

Jesus creates mud with his spit and puts it on the man's eyes. He then tells the man to go and wash in the Pool of Siloam and he will see.

We do not read of any hesitation in the man. He goes to the Pool of Siloam, washes off the mud on his eyes, and is able to see. 

Amazing grace! (how sweet the sound)

   That sav'd a wretch like me!

I once was lost, but now am found,

   Was blind, but now I see.

We're not told why the people brought the man to the religious leaders but they did. Maybe they just wanted to get some clarification or judgment from the Pharisees about the validity of his testimony about his eyesight. 

The religious leaders interrogated the man, then brought in his parents, then brought in the man a second time. Still they persist in their unbelief. Faced with the decision to believe or not believe they chose to persist in unbelief. 

In verse 34, the leaders cast out the man born blind. The Greek word here actually means to be cast out of the synagogue. We might translate it "excommunicated." He was no longer welcome in the synagogue or the Temple. 

Finally, Jesus meets the newly sighted man outside the Temple and confirms his belief a second time. The man confesses his belief and worships Jesus as the Messiah. The term "Son of Man" would have been a title known by the Jews to mean the Messiah.

Jesus lays out a part of his mission on earth, which is to bring people to a decision; to bring a change. He came to give sight to the blind and to make blind those who believe can see.

A few observations about belief.

Christ will never force you to choose him but he will force a choice.

When Jesus saw the man born blind he stepped in an acted upon the man. After rubbing the mud on his eyes he commanded the man to go and wash in the Pool of Siloam and he would see.

The man could just as easily have thrown off the mud from his eyes. He was in a place of decision. Should he go and wash or stay? 

If you watch Christ in the Gospels you will see that he is gentle. He is all-powerful yet he never forces that on anyone.

Matthew 11:28-30

28 Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”

Revelation 3:20

20 Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me. 

Jesus did not come to usher in his Kingdom by force. He came to seek and save the lost, open the eyes of the blind, and to save those who were given to him by the Father.

John 1:9-13

9 The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world. 10 He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. 11 He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. 12 But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, 13 who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.

The Word of God is a gift to be received. He is not unmerciful. He is not here to take you by storm. He stands at the door of your heart and knocks. 

But for all his gentleness and meekness, he stands as the dividing line; the judge. He is the cornerstone of what God is doing in the world. 

Matthew 21:44

44 And the one who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; and when it falls on anyone, it will crush him.”

There is no neutral encounter with Christ. You are choosing belief or unbelief. The man born blind persists in belief at every encounter with Christ and the religious leaders persist in their unbelief when encountered by the testimony of Christ’s work and, later, by Christ himself. 

One is broken by the cornerstone. The others are crushed.

Putting your belief in Christ will cost everything

Had the man born blind not followed through in belief he would have maintained the status quo. It was the life he had always known; the life he knew how to live. 

With his newfound sight I believe he would have had the opportunity to enter into society.  He was born into sin, as the religious leaders tell him in this story. But he was presented to the Pharisees whole. It seems that, to the religious leaders, his healing would have been a sign of the forgiveness of his sins. Jesus addressed this idea with the paralytic who was lowered from the ceiling.

Mat 9:5-6

For which is easier, to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Rise and walk’? But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins”—he then said to the paralytic—“Rise, pick up your bed and go home.”

In our story today, the man born blind had been outcast from birth and now had an opportunity to be "in." He was standing at the door ready to enter into society. All he had to do was recant his story of Christ’s healing and he would be in. Again, Christ’s work brought him to a choice of belief or unbelief. There was no middle ground.

He chose belief in Christ even with the opportunity to rejoin regular society. His choice meant he was excommunicated from religious life--and thereby, removed from the community, his family, and even being able to offer sacrifices for the forgiveness of his sins. 

Putting your belief in Christ will cost you everything.

Luke 14:26

26 “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. 27 Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple.”

Philippians 3:7-11

7 But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. 8 Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ 9 and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith— 10 that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, 11 that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.

Hebrews 11:13-16

13 These all died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth. 14 For people who speak thus make it clear that they are seeking a homeland. 15 If they had been thinking of that land from which they had gone out, they would have had opportunity to return. 16 But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared for them a city.

Belief will take you beyond your understanding

The man born blind witnessed to the truth of what Christ had done. He stood before the religious leaders and they were forced to make a choice for belief or unbelief. So with this miracle confirmed before them why did they hold to unbelief?

One reason is that this didn’t fit within their worldview. What happened was outside their rules and understanding of the world; even their understanding of God himself. 

Would God use this sinner, Jesus, who defies the Law and does work on the Sabbath to complete such a miraculous sign? Would God break his own Law? 

God is not confined to our understanding of him. So much of what he does and says is a mystery to us. It is beyond our understanding and scope. Yet we are called to believe even in our lack. 

John 20:24-31

24 Now Thomas, one of the twelve, called the Twin, was not with them when Jesus came. 25 So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord.” But he said to them, “Unless I see in his hands the mark of the nails, and place my finger into the mark of the nails, and place my hand into his side, I will never believe.”

26 Eight days later, his disciples were inside again, and Thomas was with them. Although the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” 27 Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here, and see my hands; and put out your hand, and place it in my side. Do not disbelieve, but believe.” 28 Thomas answered him, “My Lord and my God!” 29 Jesus said to him, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”

30 Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; 31 but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.

Hebrews 11:1

Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.

The religious leaders were faced with the truth in front of them that God would break their Sabbath laws; the extra laws they had come up with to make sure that they could be righteous whether God was involved in that righteousness or not.

Believing that God’s Word is the Truth will take us beyond where we are comfortable. If you believe that the scriptures are true then you believe:

  • The entire universe was created by words

  • God destroyed all life that he created with a global flood

  • God destroyed one of the great armies and rulers of the world without violence

  • Food fell from the sky

  • God healed people by looking upon the image of a snake

  • God became a man who existed as fully God and fully man

The difficulty of believing these things is that they all run contrary to what we know and understand about the universe. If you need to come to understanding before belief you will not have the faith God requires. 

Brothers and sisters, our culture is a skeptical culture. We do not easily accept things in faith. We do not trust easily. 2020 has been an object lesson of American skepticism.

What God requires of each of us, however, is belief. Believing Christ, believing God’s Word, will make you very uncomfortable. It will take you past the limits of your understanding. It will cost you everything to hold onto Christ. Brothers and sisters:

Philippians 2:5-11

5 Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, 6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. 9 Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Let us be like those we read about in the chapter of faith, Hebrews 11. Let us not place our confidence in what we can see and taste and touch but put our faith in God each and every moment, even when that belief takes us beyond our human understanding and our comfort. Do not box God in by your own understanding.

Christ stands at the door and knocks. God, give us faith to open the door to you. Help our unbelief! Amen.

The Comfort of God's Presence

Elder Brian Haferkamp preaches on John 6:16-21. He reminds us that Christ is with us and his presence is a comfort to our souls.

In this account of Jesus walking on the water John's focus is on Christ's presence and what that means for his disciples.

Much of what Jesus has done up to this point has been outward focused, not focused on his disciples. We might say evangelism over discipleship. The disciples were called and have watched Jesus heal, perform miracles, and teach others. In chapter 6 we see Jesus taking his disciples aside and showing them something they need to understand if they are to do the work ahead of them.

In verse 15 we see that because Jesus fed the 5,000 men on the hillside the people were going to take him and force him to be their earthly king. Rome, with all of its power, glory, and authority could not make bread from nothing. A king that could provide everlasting food for his people would make them a great people. Even King David never did that!

So after the people ate, Jesus withdrew to a secluded mountain spot. Jesus sent the disciples down to the sea and told them to row their boat to Capernaum while he went up on the mountain alone. The accounts of this event in Matthew and Mark confirm that Jesus sent the disciples away before he dealt with the crowd.

Jesus asked the disciples to row toward Capernaum, which is not straight across the middle of the Sea of Galilee, but it is on the northwest shore, about a 6 mile trip.

While rowing across the Sea of Galilee the disciples were caught in a storm. I have never been there myself but I’ve read and seen videos where sudden eastern winds would come down from the Golan Heights on the eastern shore. Wind, cold, and rain sometimes come out of nowhere and cause large waves on the normally placid sea. The disciples didn’t set out on this journey until it was almost dark. So in the night a storm rises up and comes over the sea as the disciples are rowing. 

In 1986, two brothers found what is known as the “Sea of Galilee boat.” During a major drought the water levels were very low and, on the northwest shore of the sea, these two fishermen saw something large sticking out above the water at the shoreline. Over a period of a week or two archaeologists excavated and took the boat to be cleaned up and preserved. Several studies concluded that the boat was used sometime between 100 BC and 100 AD. The boat also confirmed written evidence that this was the typical construction of boats on the Sea of Galilee at the time.

The boat is 27 feet long, 7.5 feet wide, and about 4.5 feet tall at its tallest point. The construction was flat and shallow so it could allow for fishing along the shoreline. Often we are given the picture of the disciples and Jesus sailing on a large sailing vessel with a large mast. This boat would have also had a mast for sailing, but was far from large. You should go online and take a look at the boat. I think it will help you to understand what the disciples were up against in this story.

So the disciples are on the Sea rowing against the wind and fighting the waves. I looked up rowing times for a boat to cross the Sea of Galilee. From my very amateur estimations, the trip Jesus asked the disciples to make should have taken 2-3 hours to complete. 

John’s account tells us that the disciples had rowed 3-4 miles, so a little more than half way. The accounts in Matthew and Mark tell us that it was the fourth watch of the night, most likely 3-6am. So the disciples had painfully rowed through the night, from nightfall to the very end of the night and into the next morning. They were making little headway because the wind and the waves were against them.

Jesus then comes alongside them and they are terrified. And what does he say?

John 6:20

20 But he said to them, “It is I; do not be afraid.”

With one word, Jesus calms their hearts and minds. “It is I; do not be afraid.” 

Throughout the scriptures, God comforted his people by reminding them of his presence. 

In the Exodus, God provides a physical manifestation of his presence in the pillars of fire by night and cloud by day.

Exodus 13:17-22

17 When Pharaoh let the people go, God did not lead them by way of the land of the Philistines, although that was near. For God said, “Lest the people change their minds when they see war and return to Egypt.” 18 But God led the people around by the way of the wilderness toward the Red Sea. And the people of Israel went up out of the land of Egypt equipped for battle. 19 Moses took the bones of Joseph with him, for Joseph had made the sons of Israel solemnly swear, saying, “God will surely visit you, and you shall carry up my bones with you from here.” 20 And they moved on from Succoth and encamped at Etham, on the edge of the wilderness. 21 And the LORD went before them by day in a pillar of cloud to lead them along the way, and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light, that they might travel by day and by night. 22 The pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night did not depart from before the people.

Exodus 14:5-31

5 When the king of Egypt was told that the people had fled, the mind of Pharaoh and his servants was changed toward the people, and they said, “What is this we have done, that we have let Israel go from serving us?” 6 So he made ready his chariot and took his army with him, 7 and took six hundred chosen chariots and all the other chariots of Egypt with officers over all of them. 8 And the LORD hardened the heart of Pharaoh king of Egypt, and he pursued the people of Israel while the people of Israel were going out defiantly. 9 The Egyptians pursued them, all Pharaoh's horses and chariots and his horsemen and his army, and overtook them encamped at the sea, by Pi-hahiroth, in front of Baal-zephon.

10 When Pharaoh drew near, the people of Israel lifted up their eyes, and behold, the Egyptians were marching after them, and they feared greatly. And the people of Israel cried out to the LORD. 11 They said to Moses, “Is it because there are no graves in Egypt that you have taken us away to die in the wilderness? What have you done to us in bringing us out of Egypt? 12 Is not this what we said to you in Egypt: ‘Leave us alone that we may serve the Egyptians’? For it would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the wilderness.” 13 And Moses said to the people, “Fear not, stand firm, and see the salvation of the LORD, which he will work for you today. For the Egyptians whom you see today, you shall never see again. 14 The LORD will fight for you, and you have only to be silent.”

15 The LORD said to Moses, “Why do you cry to me? Tell the people of Israel to go forward. 16 Lift up your staff, and stretch out your hand over the sea and divide it, that the people of Israel may go through the sea on dry ground. 17 And I will harden the hearts of the Egyptians so that they shall go in after them, and I will get glory over Pharaoh and all his host, his chariots, and his horsemen. 18 And the Egyptians shall know that I am the LORD, when I have gotten glory over Pharaoh, his chariots, and his horsemen.”

19 Then the angel of God who was going before the host of Israel moved and went behind them, and the pillar of cloud moved from before them and stood behind them, 20 coming between the host of Egypt and the host of Israel. And there was the cloud and the darkness. And it lit up the night without one coming near the other all night.

21 Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and the LORD drove the sea back by a strong east wind all night and made the sea dry land, and the waters were divided. 22 And the people of Israel went into the midst of the sea on dry ground, the waters being a wall to them on their right hand and on their left. 23 The Egyptians pursued and went in after them into the midst of the sea, all Pharaoh's horses, his chariots, and his horsemen. 24 And in the morning watch the LORD in the pillar of fire and of cloud looked down on the Egyptian forces and threw the Egyptian forces into a panic, 25 clogging their chariot wheels so that they drove heavily. And the Egyptians said, “Let us flee from before Israel, for the LORD fights for them against the Egyptians.”

26 Then the LORD said to Moses, “Stretch out your hand over the sea, that the water may come back upon the Egyptians, upon their chariots, and upon their horsemen.” 27 So Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and the sea returned to its normal course when the morning appeared. And as the Egyptians fled into it, the LORD threw the Egyptians into the midst of the sea. 28 The waters returned and covered the chariots and the horsemen; of all the host of Pharaoh that had followed them into the sea, not one of them remained. 29 But the people of Israel walked on dry ground through the sea, the waters being a wall to them on their right hand and on their left.

30 Thus the LORD saved Israel that day from the hand of the Egyptians, and Israel saw the Egyptians dead on the seashore. 31 Israel saw the great power that the LORD used against the Egyptians, so the people feared the LORD, and they believed in the LORD and in his servant Moses.

Earlier, in the book of Genesis, God comforted Jacob on the eve of taking his family to live with his son, Joseph, in Egypt.

Gen 46:1-4

So Israel took his journey with all that he had and came to Beersheba, and offered sacrifices to the God of his father Isaac. 2 And God spoke to Israel in visions of the night and said, “Jacob, Jacob.” And he said, “Here I am.” 3 Then he said, “I am God, the God of your father. Do not be afraid to go down to Egypt, for there I will make you into a great nation. 4 I myself will go down with you to Egypt, and I will also bring you up again, and Joseph's hand shall close your eyes.”

Then, coming out of the Exodus, God comforted Joshua as the nation was about to enter the land of Canaan.

Joshua 1:1-9

After the death of Moses the servant of the LORD, the LORD said to Joshua the son of Nun, Moses' assistant, 2 “Moses my servant is dead. Now therefore arise, go over this Jordan, you and all this people, into the land that I am giving to them, to the people of Israel. 3 Every place that the sole of your foot will tread upon I have given to you, just as I promised to Moses. 4 From the wilderness and this Lebanon as far as the great river, the river Euphrates, all the land of the Hittites to the Great Sea toward the going down of the sun shall be your territory. 5 No man shall be able to stand before you all the days of your life. Just as I was with Moses, so I will be with you. I will not leave you or forsake you. 6 Be strong and courageous, for you shall cause this people to inherit the land that I swore to their fathers to give them. 7 Only be strong and very courageous, being careful to do according to all the law that Moses my servant commanded you. Do not turn from it to the right hand or to the left, that you may have good success wherever you go. 8 This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success. 9 Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go.”

When King David tells Solomon that he is to build the temple he says this to him:

1 Chronicles 28:20

20 Then David said to Solomon his son, “Be strong and courageous and do it. Do not be afraid and do not be dismayed, for the LORD God, even my God, is with you. He will not leave you or forsake you, until all the work for the service of the house of the LORD is finished.

Finally, when Jeremiah the prophet, is called as a prophet God assuages his fear with the assurance of his presence.

Jeremiah 1:4-8

4 Now the word of the LORD came to me, saying,
5  “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you,
and before you were born I consecrated you;
I appointed you a prophet to the nations.”
6 Then I said, “Ah, Lord GOD! Behold, I do not know how to speak, for I am only a youth.” 7 But the LORD said to me,
“Do not say, ‘I am only a youth’;
for to all to whom I send you, you shall go,
and whatever I command you, you shall speak.
8  Do not be afraid of them,
for I am with you to deliver you,
declares the LORD.”

God assures us of his presence and that is meant to be a comfort to us. Why would that be a comfort in times of trouble? It is because of who he is. Let us remember what our theology tells us about God:

  • God is all-powerful

  • God is all-knowing

  • God is love

  • God is grace

  • God is mercy

  • God is all-present

  • God is eternal

  • God is faithful

  • God is holy

  • God is sovereign

If this is who God is--and this God is for us and not against us--what do we have to fear? The Apostle Paul puts it this way:

Romans 8:31, 37-39

31 What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? 37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38 For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

God’s presence is meant to be a comfort to us. His power, his holiness, his goodness, his love--these are meant to dispel our fears, give us confidence, and remove our doubts.

When God sends us out into the world--into the fight; into the storms--he never leaves us or forsakes us. 

Deuteronomy 31:8

8 It is the LORD who goes before you. He will be with you; he will not leave you or forsake you. Do not fear or be dismayed.”

Matthew 28:19-20

19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

Out on the sea in the middle of the night, the disciples may have been wondering what happened to Jesus. They might have been thinking some of the same thoughts that their fathers thought as Pharaoh chased Israel into the wilderness. Why did Jesus send us out here to die? Where is he?

And yet he was not far. My guess is that Jesus was on the mountainside overlooking the sea and watching their struggle. And when the time was right, he came near and comforted the disciples with his presence. He was never far away and he had not left them. In fact, it is possible that he was interceding for them in that storm; asking the Father to protect them.

I read this in a book this week and thought it was timely:

Storms serve a purpose: They expose dangerously weak foundations and invite new construction to our internal worlds.

Jesus sent his disciples out into a storm. He asked them to make a journey he must have known was both dangerous and difficult. God does that. He calls us into dangerous places. He calls us to speak boldly. He asks us to wait an interminable amount of time. He gives us more than we can handle. He calls us to labor physically, emotionally, and spiritually for long periods of time.

In the journey of obedience there are fierce storms. Storms coming from outside of us in the way of the words, emotions, and thoughts of others. Storms coming from within us in the form of doubt, fear, and the inability to see what’s ahead. How many times you’ve gone through storms often doesn’t matter. You still must fight the world fighting against you and your own internal struggles. 

There is a truth that we need to know and take with us today: God will never leave nor forsake us. 

If you are laboring at the work that God has given you, he is with you. If you are struggling with internal doubts or you’re wondering if God even cares about you anymore. Be assured that he sees you and he has promised that he will never leave or forsake you. Bid him come, step inside the boat with you, and to comfort you with his presence. When Christ is in the boat with us we feel the lightness of his burden and ease of his yoke.

I want us to see one more thing about this story. Look at verse 21:

21 Then they were glad to take him into the boat, and immediately the boat was at the land to which they were going.

I see the mercy of Christ here. These men had been rowing all night and were only halfway to their destination. They were exhausted and afraid. They were beaten by the waves and painfully making headway. Then Jesus comes to comfort their hearts with his presence. But he is also compassionate. He sees that they are worn out and brings them in the rest of the way. 

In Exodus 34, when God passes before Moses, he says this has he passes:

“The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, 7 keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children's children, to the third and the fourth generation.”

This is the first of many times that God reminds his people that this is who he is. It is his character that he is gracious and merciful. Getting back to the story of the disciples, we see his mercy on display as he miraculously gets them where they need to go without forcing them to continue to labor. He has quieted the storm and waves and removed the physical struggle of rowing. There was purpose in the rowing and purpose in the storm. Now those have served their purposes. 

Maybe you find yourself out on the open waters today. The storms outside you are tossing your little boat and the doubts about God’s love and care for you are raging within. Maybe he has called you to do something and it’s like you’re not getting anywhere. There is a headwind and you are rowing--you’re exerting your effort the best you can--but you just aren’t going as far or as fast as you’d hoped. Maybe you’re here today and you’ve been doing your best to row your little boat without Jesus. You’ve tried to power through the winds and storms of life and you’re exhausted.

I want to encourage each of you today that Christ’s presence is a comfort; a gift and a mercy; a help in time of trouble. When Jesus gets into your boat--when he comes into your life with power and presence--the winds die down, the wave-tossed conditions turn to still waters, and you are given rest from your struggle. 

If you have never known the peace of Christ--if your entire life has been rowing your boat against a headwind in a storm-tossed sea--then ask Christ to come and get into the boat with you. He is there and he makes his presence known. Invite him into your boat. Ask him to come into your life and be your Lord and Savior. The wind will soon die down and the waters grow peaceful. He will take care of the rowing and give you the rest you have been longing for.

If you are in Christ, the storms will come. They will come out of nowhere and some of them are terrifying. Know that God has sent you out into the storms both with himself and with others--your brothers and sisters in the Church. If God is for us, who (or what) can be against us? He will never leave us nor forsake us. When the time is right, we will be present with him and he will calm the storms and mercifully take over and get us where we need to go. 

“The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness...

8 It is the LORD who goes before you. He will be with you; he will not leave you or forsake you. Do not fear or be dismayed.

Amen.

The New Birth: Jesus and Nicodemus Talk Shop

Elder Kevin Wood preaches on John 3:1-21, where Jesus and Nicodemus “talk shop.”

It is unquestionably the most famous verse in the entire Bible. It is displayed prominently on banners at sporting events. It is on t-shirts and baseball caps and jewelry and bumper stickers. I know people who use it as their computer password, which probably isn’t such a good idea, especially if you’re not shy about being a Christian.

I refer, of course, to John 3:16.

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.”

You probably know it even better in the classic King James Version with its ‘begotten’ and ‘whosoever believeth’ and ‘everlasting’; say it along with me if you want:

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”

If you can only quote one Bible verse from memory, it’s probably John 3:16. I know it’s the first one I ever memorized, in both English and Spanish. “Porque de tal manera amó Dios al mundo, que dio a su Hijo unigénito, para que todo aquel que cree en Él, no se pierda, mas tenga vida eterna.”

But it’s one thing to know or to memorize this famous verse; it’s another altogether different thing to understand it. And to understand it, we must understand the context in which it was said. And that context involves a phrase and concept which is itself extremely well-known, but perhaps not at all well-understood: to be “born again”.

Last week we talked about the first of seven signs or miracles done by Jesus which John chose to include in his gospel to show that Jesus was indeed the Christ, the Son of God. But I noted that John also includes some interesting conversations which Jesus had with all sorts of people. This week we consider the first of his recorded encounters with people other than his disciples, in which both this idea of being “born again” and this famous verse of John 3:16 make their grand appearance.

Let’s begin by reading the first two verses of John chapter 3:

Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. This man came to Jesus by night and said to him, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him.”

It is nighttime and Jesus receives a special visitor, a member of the religious elite, of a group known for their religiosity and their desire to keep themselves pure from any defilement, including defilement through association with certain kinds of undesirable people: prostitutes, tax collectors, and Gentiles, to name just a few.

Up to this point, by contrast, Jesus seems to have been associating almost exclusively with the common people, even choosing his disciples from among them. And the Jewish religious leaders, including the Pharisees, have been hearing about Jesus. They no doubt heard about him going out to be baptized by John and the strange reports of the people about what had happened there, and they would have heard about his miraculous turning of water into wine at a wedding. And then they may have witnessed for themselves something we skipped over, when Jesus went down to the temple in Jerusalem at the Passover, and angrily chased out the money-changers and those selling animals for sacrifices.

The fact that this particular Pharisee, Nicodemus, comes at night, in secret, suggests that the Pharisees as a collective have already formed a negative opinion of Jesus. We know, of course, that later Jesus will have numerous run-ins with the Pharisees and condemn them for their self-righteousness and hypocrisy.

Therefore, when Nicodemus says to Jesus, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him”, we can guess that he really wasn’t speaking on behalf of all of his fellow Pharisees, but only for himself and perhaps a few others of like mind.

He is apparently sincere. He is apparently a seeker of the truth. And he has come to Jesus to find out for himself what this strange new teacher is all about.

He is a respected leader of the Jews. He is no doubt a teacher himself. He no doubt knows the Jewish Scriptures extremely well. He has come to have a face-to-face conversation with Jesus, likewise a teacher and a person who knows the Scriptures very well. We might say that Nicodemus has come to “talk shop” with Jesus, to discuss their mutual profession and mutual interest.

Upon hearing Nicodemus’s flattering words of introduction, Jesus responds, but probably not in the way that Nicodemus expected. We don’t know, of course, whether there was more to the conversation which John did not record; that is entirely possible. But from what John did record, it appears that Jesus does not return the compliment, nor ask Nicodemus what he wants, but instead makes a probing statement. As we go through the book of John, we will see this same pattern. Jesus is not much for small talk; he normally cuts to the chase and goes straight to some point which is of particular relevance to the person or situation in question.

We pick up in verse 3:

Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.” Nicodemus said to him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?” Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.”

Let’s pause here for just a moment. Having heard Jesus’s explanation of the need for a person to be ‘born again’ (or ‘born anew’), to be born of water and also the spirit, is it entirely clear to you? Are you satisfied with Jesus’s explanation?

Before you answer that, let me inform you that the church has been arguing about what Jesus meant by these words for the past two thousand years, and still today there is wide disagreement. And as we shall now see, even a learned and apparently sincere man like Nicodemus found himself more confused than ever by Jesus’s explanation. If he had said at this point, “Why, thank you, Rabbi, that clears things up nicely”, it would have been with a huge dose of sarcasm. Nicodemus responded not with sarcasm, however, but rather with a further appeal for understanding.

We pick up in verse 9:

Nicodemus said to him, “How can these things be?” Jesus answered him, “Are you the teacher of Israel and yet you do not understand these things? Truly, truly, I say to you, we speak of what we know, and bear witness to what we have seen, but you do not receive our testimony. If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you heavenly things? No one has ascended into heaven except he who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.

By the way, have you noticed that the element of water has been a part of the last three messages? We had John the Baptist baptizing with water. We had Jesus turning water into wine. And now we have Jesus speaking of being born of water and the Spirit. As we continue this series, we’ll hear Jesus speak of the living water, and heal a lame man at the pool of Bethesda, and walk on water, and heal a blind man using the water in the pool of Siloam, and wash the disciples’ feet with water. This is a unique characteristic of John’s gospel as compared to those of Matthew, Mark, and Luke. It turns out that there are as many references to water in the Gospel of John as in the other three gospels put together. Is this intentional? Is John trying to tell us something? It might be something to think about as we continue with our study over the coming weeks.

But back to today’s lesson, which, it turns out, presents plenty of difficulty all by itself.

During my 35 years or so of being a Christian, I have heard a number of sermons on this passage. But I’m not sure that I have ever heard two which interpret it the same way.

The words of Jesus here which present the greatest difficulty for understanding are when he says in verse 5 that a person must be “born of water and the Spirit” in order to enter the kingdom of God. You could go to five different churches over the next five weeks and hear five messages with five different interpretations of what Jesus meant by “born of water and the Spirit”. And in each case, you might hear a carefully constructed explanation which very likely would convince you that that particular interpretation was the right one. That is, until the next week when you were presented with an equally convincing argument for a different interpretation.

All of these interpretations are potentially the correct one. But not all of them can be, because they are mutually exclusive.

The first interpretation considers “water and the Spirit” to be a single unit, that is two words referring to the same thing. It’s like if you were to say “my colleague and friend is retiring”, in which case we would know that your colleague and friend are the same person; otherwise, you would have used the plural and said “my colleague and friend are retiring”.

Thus, those holding this view would say that “water and the Spirit” has the sense of “water, even the Spirit”, or “water, that is, the Spirit”; this type of grammatical construction is perfectly valid in New Testament Greek although fairly uncommon in John [the ascensive or intensive use of ‘kai’]. In other words, they are saying that “water” here refers simply to the Holy Spirit, as a metaphor.

In possible support of this view is the fact that Jesus chided Nicodemus for his lack of understanding: “Are you the teacher of Israel and yet you do not understand these things?” Remember, Nicodemus came to “talk shop” with Jesus; he was a Pharisee, an expert in the Jewish law, and therefore well-versed in the Jewish Scriptures. As such, he would have been familiar with a passage from the book of Ezekiel. Chapter 36, verses 25-27 of that book read:

“I will sprinkle clean water upon you, and you will be clean. I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all your idols. I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws.”

Here, then, we have the prophet Ezekiel speaking of a future time when God will provide the people with a new start through a cleansing by water – whether real or symbolic – to wash away their impurities and their idols, along with the gift of his indwelling Spirit to transform their hearts from stone to flesh.

Therefore, when Jesus speaks to Nicodemus about “water and the Spirit”, this should have brought this passage from Ezekiel, and perhaps some others, too, to his mind.

The problem with relying on this connection to say that when Jesus spoke of “water and the Spirit”, he was using both terms to refer to the Spirit, is that the passage in Ezekiel doesn’t explicitly say that the water symbolizes the Spirit; they could be separate things there, too.

In addition, Jesus goes on to say to Nicodemus, “If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you heavenly things?” If “water and the Spirit” both refer to the Spirit, how is it that Jesus has been speaking about earthly things?

This passage from Ezekiel is also cited by those who hold to a second interpretation, that “born of water” refers to baptism. The connection between water and baptism is obvious. And for a connection between water and the spirit, we need look no further back than the first chapter of John’s gospel. Verses 32-34, in reference to John the Baptist, read as follows:

And John bore witness: “I saw the Spirit descend from heaven like a dove, and it remained on him. I myself did not know him, but he who sent me to baptize with water said to me, ‘He on whom you see the Spirit descend and remain, this is he who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.’ And I have seen and have borne witness that this is the Son of God.”

Here we have baptism with water, and baptism with the Spirit. Could Jesus be speaking of the same thing when he tells Nicodemus that one must be born of water and born of the Spirit? Advocates of this view will point also to Titus 3:4-7, in which Paul links a symbolic or actual ‘washing’ with the Spirit:

But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by his grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.

The interpretation that “born of water” in Jesus’s words to Nicodemus refers to water baptism is the view of the Roman Catholic church as well as other churches which hold either that water baptism is the means by which a person is regenerated or saved, or that water baptism and an accompanying or subsequent spiritual event are the two means by which a person is regenerated or saved.

One significant problem with this view is that in the subsequent verses, when Jesus fleshes out how the new birth actually takes place, he talks only about “believing”, and makes no mention of water or baptism.

Another problem is that one wonders why Nicodemus wouldn’t have understood Jesus. When a Gentile converted to Judaism in the first century, he was considered to be like a newborn child. In addition, he was required to be baptized. Jewish baptism, or immersion, was a ritual washing done in a pool of water and symbolized cleansing and a new beginning. It was done for various reasons, including by priests in the temple before a divine service, by women after menstruation or childbirth, and by all men before Yom Kippur; it was also performed on a dead body before burial. And as already mentioned, it was done by a Gentile when he converted to Judaism, and in fact is still done by Jewish converts in our day. If Jesus was referring to baptism in his conversation with Nicodemus, one wonders why Nicodemus wouldn’t have picked up on this.

There is a third interpretation which is related to the one about baptism. It is that “born of water” refers to repentance. This is just a matter of association, since baptism is a representation of repentance. Remember, that’s what John the Baptist was preaching: “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” and “I baptize you with water for repentance” (Matthew 3:2, 11). It’s also what Peter and the other apostles would preach later, as in Acts 2:38: “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit”.

Still another interpretation is that the ‘water’ in “born of water” refers to the Word of God. There are some New Testament passages which speak of God’s Word as the means or agent used by the Holy Spirit to bring about regeneration, such as 1 Peter 1:23, which even uses the same idea of being “born again” [although a different Greek construction]: “… you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God”.

Then there is Ephesians 5:25-26, which also brings in the idea of water: “Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word …”. [another passage is James 1:18]

The main problem with this view is that Nicodemus would likely have had no reason to associate water with the Word of God; these other New Testament references obviously weren’t in existence at the time, and there doesn’t seem to be anything in the Old Testament which would suggest such a metaphor.

This brings us to our fifth and final interpretation, which happens to be the simplest and most straightforward one, and that is that “born of water” refers to physical or natural birth.

This view is well supported by the immediate context, the flow of conversation. When Jesus makes his initial statement – “… unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God” – Nicodemus clearly thought that he was referring to a second physical birth: “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?” When Jesus then replied, “… unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God”, the most straightforward interpretation is that “born of water” refers to physical birth and “born of the Spirit” refers to some kind of spiritual experience. This is further bolstered by Jesus’s next words: “That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit”.

“Born of water” as a metaphor for physical birth makes scientific sense because as we all know, a baby in the womb is surrounded by amniotic fluid, which is normally released as part of the birth process, the so-called “breaking of water”. Also, as noted earlier, when a Gentile converted to Judaism, he was considered like a new-born child.

One objection to this view is that it means that Jesus was saying something like “unless one is physically born and then spiritually born, he can’t be saved”. But what human being hasn’t been physically born? Why would Jesus “muddy the waters” by saying it here? Why didn’t he just say, “unless one is spiritually born, he can’t be saved”, and leave the physical birth out of it entirely?

In answer to this objection, it should be pointed out that it was Nicodemus, not Jesus, who brought physical birth into the discussion through his misunderstanding. And as we can see numerous times in John’s gospel, when the people misunderstand the spiritual significance of Jesus’s words and deeds because they are focused on the physical world, Jesus often repeats or rephrases their misunderstanding as part of his clarification. [Other examples: 4:10-14, 20-24, 32-34; 6:31-35; 7:27-28; 8:12-14, 32-36, 39-40, 41-42, 48-49; 9:2-3, 40-41; 13:8-10, 36-38; 14:5-6, 8-9; 16:17-22; 18:36-37; 19:10-11.]

First-century Jews put great confidence in their physical lineage as descendants of Abraham to put them in good standing with God. John the Baptist had already warned them “Do not presume to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father,’ for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children for Abraham” (Matthew 3:9), and Jesus will confront them later in John’s gospel over this same issue [e.g., chapter 8]. As a Pharisee, Nicodemus no doubt trusted in his Abrahamic lineage, in his physical birth as a Jew, as a stepping-stone if not a guarantee that he would one day enter the kingdom of God. Here in this encounter, Jesus is telling him: your physical birth, even as a descendent of Abraham, is not sufficient to qualify you for heaven; you must also have a spiritual birth. You must be “born of the Spirit” in addition to being “born of water”; you must be “born again”.

Before moving on, let us take a brief look at other New Testament teaching on the new birth. For whatever Jesus meant by being born again, it must be consistent with, or at least not contradictory to, what God has revealed in other parts of the Scriptures.

There is no other place in the entire New Testament where the exact Greek words translated “born again” or “born anew” appear, but there is a very similar Greek word in 1 Peter which is typically translated into English the same way, as “born again”. I already read to you 1 Peter 1:23: “… you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God”. Near the beginning of this same chapter, Peter also wrote, in verses 3-5:

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.

In these passages from Peter we see that our being born again is an act of mercy on the part of God, not because we deserved or earned it; also, that it is accomplished through the resurrection of Christ; and finally, that it bestows upon us an imperishable, eternal inheritance. What we have surmised from our reading of the conversation between Jesus and Nicodemus is consistent with all of this.

And then there is another concept in New Testament teaching which is clearly related to this idea of being “born again”. We find it, for example, in 2 Corinthians 5:17: “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.” This concept of an old man and a new man, an old and new self, an old and new nature, appears in various other passages, too, including Romans 6:3-6, Ephesians 2:4-6, and Colossians 2:13-14. We are born with our old self or nature; we must be re-born or born again with a new self or nature.

Finally, we should point out that John himself, in the first chapter of his gospel, referred to a spiritual birth, too. Verses 12-13 tell us: “But to all who did receive him [that is, Jesus], who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God”. Those who believe in Jesus’s name are given the right to be born anew, in a spiritual sense, such that they are considered to be the children of God.

With these last verses in mind, along with the entire context of Jesus’s conversation with Nicodemus, we come now to that famous verse, John 3:16. It flows quite naturally from verse 15, in which Jesus said “that whoever believes in [the Son of Man]” – that is, in Jesus himself – “may have eternal life”. Verse 15 marks a transition, in which Jesus begins to boil down the essence of what it means to be “born again”; it means, at its core, to believe in him.

Jesus continues his explanation with those well-known and well-loved words: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.”

Or, maybe not. That is, maybe they weren’t really Jesus’s words.

“What?!”, you say. “Of course they are Jesus’s words. My Bible has them in quotation marks, meaning that they are a continuation of Jesus’s previous comments. Look, it’s that way right here in our pew Bibles.” Or if you have a red-letter edition of the Bible, perhaps of the English Standard Version (the same as our pew Bibles) or the King James Version or the New American Standard, you could point out to me how John 3:16 is written in red, so they must be Jesus’s words, right?

No, not necessarily. When John wrote his gospel, did he switch to red ink whenever he wrote down Jesus’s words? Did he use quotation marks? No, and no. There is no punctuation in the original Greek of the New Testament – not even commas or periods – and there is certainly no red ink.

This normally presents no great problem, because it is usually fairly obvious where a direct quote ends and where the writer’s commentary begins. But with John’s particular style of writing, it is more difficult. And this is one of those passages where it is impossible to know. As a result, some scholars think that Jesus’s words end with verse 15 and that verse 16 begins John’s commentary, while others think that Jesus’s words go all the way through verse 21. Still others think that Jesus’s words end with other verses.

So … either Jesus said those famous words of John 3:16 … or he didn’t, and John wrote them as a commentary. Does it matter? In the end, not really, if we believe that all of John’s gospel is the inspired Word of God. If Jesus said those words, they are most certainly inspired of God, for they are from the mouth of the very Son of God. And if John wrote those words as a commentary, presumably summarizing what he had heard Jesus teach on the subject, we believe that he did so inspired by the Holy Spirit.

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.”

To “believe in Jesus”, this is what is at the core of the new birth, of being “born again”. But what does “believe in Jesus” mean? Do we believe in Jesus in the same way that as children we might have believed in Santa Claus, or the Easter Bunny, or the Tooth Fairy? Is Jesus some character with special powers whom we only think about at selected times of the year or on particular occasions?

I would hope not, because that’s not who Jesus claimed to be, nor the Jesus whom John and the other apostles and disciples witnessed and later testified him to be.

Believing in Santa won’t give you eternal life nor anything which lasts forever; at best it will get you some material possession which if you’re lucky will last a year before breaking. Believing in the Easter Bunny won’t give you the abundant life which Jesus promises; at best it might get you an abundance of Easter candy to fill your belly and probably give you a stomachache. Believing in the Tooth Fairy won’t give you true joy, love, peace, and hope; at most it will get you an extra nickel or dime … well, I suppose today with inflation it might get you a dollar.

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.”

Jesus – or perhaps John – continues as follows in verses 17-18:

“For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.”

These are words of acceptance or words of condemnation … words of life or words of death … good news or bad news.

Though God did not send Jesus into the world in order to condemn it, still, in the end some are condemned while others are not. But this is not based on our physical lineage, nor our station in life, nor our riches, nor even our works, but rather on whether we have believed or not believed in Jesus Christ.

As Paul would write later in Romans 8:1-2: “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death.”

Some will be condemned, but it won’t be because God rejected them; it will be because they rejected God. Words of life … or words of death.

Do you believe in Jesus? Do you believe that he is the Christ, the Son of God?

Jesus – or again, perhaps John – concludes with verses 19-21:

“And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed. But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God.”

We have here a return to a theme which marked the beginning of John’s gospel: the opposition of light and darkness. It is a theme which will return time and again. John’s gospel is noteworthy for its dualism: for this contrast between light and darkness, as well as other contrasts, some of which we saw in today’s passage, for example between the flesh and the spirit, between earthly and heavenly things, and between life and death.

The previous verses spoke of words of life and words of death. Likewise, these speak of works of light and works of darkness. Those who love the darkness are like those who reject God, and those who love the light are like those who accept him.

Does this passage teach that only those people who are morally upright will come to the light, come to God? That would put the burden on us, and give us the credit, too. But as we will see later in John’s gospel, in accounts such as that of the Samaritan woman, many of the people who will respond affirmatively to Jesus’s invitation are not the morally upright. Rather, they are people who recognize their own sinfulness and need for a Savior. They are people who, yes, know what it means to live in the darkness, but they have grown tired of such a life, and have come to the light, willing that their deeds be exposed, in order that their life might be transformed.

Likewise, even those whom the world might view as morally upright are in need of a Savior. No matter how good their works might appear to be outwardly, inwardly there will be pride or self-righteousness or envy or lust or any other number of evils. Nicodemus was certainly a man whom the world viewed as morally upright, and yet it appears that he recognized that not all was well, and he came to Jesus to find some answers.

If there are areas of your life which show a love for the darkness rather than the light, will you ask God to help you change them?

We began our story with Nicodemus, and we shall end it with him, too. We saw in the beginning how he seemed to be a sincere seeker of the truth. He came to see Jesus in order to ‘talk shop’, and probably got much more than he bargained for. What he thought of all that Jesus told him about the need to be born again and about believing in him for eternal life, we are not told.

But John does give us some clues later in his gospel. Let us turn first to chapter 7, beginning in verse 43:

So there was a division among the people over him [that is, Jesus]. Some of them wanted to arrest him, but no one laid hands on him.

The officers then came to the chief priests and Pharisees, who said to them, “Why did you not bring him?” The officers answered, “No one ever spoke like this man!” The Pharisees answered them, “Have you also been deceived? Have any of the authorities or the Pharisees believed in him? But this crowd that does not know the law is accursed.” Nicodemus, who had gone to him before, and who was one of them, said to them, “Does our law judge a man without first giving him a hearing and learning what he does?” They replied, “Are you from Galilee too? Search and see that no prophet arises from Galilee.”

When all of the other Pharisees have completely rejected Jesus’s claims, Nicodemus courageously defends him before them all.

Then near the end of his gospel, after Jesus has been crucified, John tells us something more. Turn with me to chapter 19, beginning in verse 38:

After these things Joseph of Arimathea, who was a disciple of Jesus, but secretly for fear of the Jews, asked Pilate that he might take away the body of Jesus, and Pilate gave him permission. So he came and took away his body. Nicodemus also, who earlier had come to Jesus by night, came bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about seventy-five pounds in weight. So they took the body of Jesus and bound it in linen cloths with the spices, as is the burial custom of the Jews. Now in the place where he was crucified there was a garden, and in the garden a new tomb in which no one had yet been laid. So because of the Jewish day of Preparation, since the tomb was close at hand, they laid Jesus there.

Nicodemus, this man who came to Jesus very early in his earthly ministry, has apparently been a secret disciple of his all this time. And here at the end, he comes to lovingly care for Jesus’s body, to prepare it for burial, and, we might say, although Nicodemus wouldn’t have known it, for his resurrection, too.

Jesus explained it all to Nicodemus: you must be “born again”, “born of water” but also “born of the Spirit”. If you believe in me, you will have eternal life.

The evidence suggests that Nicodemus accepted the message, difficult though it was.

The question is, have we?


Water into Wine: Letting Jesus Work

Elder Kevin Wood preaches on John 2:1-11. Jesus performs his first sign: the turning of water to wine at a wedding in Cana.

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This month we began a new sermon series from the gospel of John. In the first two messages, brought to us by Brian, we saw how Jesus was described and explained first as the Word made flesh, and then as the Lamb of God. Both of these descriptions point to Jesus as the Messiah or Christ, the Son of God. And this was precisely the reason why John wrote his gospel, as he tells us near the end of it, in chapter 20, verses 30-31: “Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.”

As you may have noticed from our bulletin covers these past three weeks, we have taken our sermon series title from that purpose statement: “Jesus is the Christ: the Son of God revealed through word and deed”.

John indicates that he included in his gospel certain signs done by Jesus as evidence of his deity. You may have noticed in the reading of today’s text that the account ended with the statement: “This, the first of his signs, Jesus did at Cana in Galilee…”. If you continue reading through John’s entire gospel, you will find a total of seven signs or miracles described in some detail. In chapter 4, for example, Jesus heals a royal official’s son even though the son was not present, and John concludes that account by saying: “This was now the second sign that Jesus did when he had come from Judea to Galilee” (v. 54).

The other five signs are the healing of a paralyzed man at the pool of Bethesda in chapter 5; the feeding of the 5,000 and walking on water in chapter 6; the healing of a man born blind in chapter 9; and the raising of Lazarus from the dead in chapter 11. Note, however, that John does not continue numbering these as the third sign, fourth sign, etc. In fact, with the exception of the feeding of the 5,000, he doesn’t even specifically refer to them as signs. Nevertheless, Bible scholars have fairly consistently noted the fact that there are seven signs or miracles described in some detail in John’s gospel.

Does this mean that Jesus only performed seven miracles? Of course not! The other three gospels describe various other miracles which Jesus did. And even John notes that Jesus did other signs which he did not describe in any detail. A little later in chapter 2 (v. 23), John says that “… when [Jesus] was in Jerusalem at the Passover Feast, many believed in his name when they saw the signs that he was doing”. And in chapter 3, John records that a Jewish religious leader named Nicodemus said to Jesus (v. 2): “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him”. Both of these took place before John describes what he calls Jesus’ second sign in chapter 4. Likewise, in chapter 6, John notes that (v. 2): “… a large crowd was following [Jesus], because they saw the signs that he was doing on the sick”.

Why then have Bible scholars made such a big deal about John describing these seven signs or miracles? Much of it no doubt has to do with the number seven, a number which does have significance in some biblical writings, suggesting perfection or completion. The fact that John also includes seven statements by Jesus of the formula “I am …” – “I am the bread of life”, “I am the light of the world”, etc. – only adds to the perceived significance, although once again John doesn’t make anything of, or even mention, having included seven of these statements. And the fact that John did write another book much later in which the number seven does have great significance – the Book of Revelation with its seven churches, seven lampstands, seven seals, seven plagues and so on – has probably led some to believe that he must also have intentionally chosen seven signs for his gospel.

Some scholars and theologians go so far as to use the seven signs as evidence of what they call a new creation theology in John’s gospel. Just as Genesis begins with “In the beginning…” and an account of creation, so John’s gospel begins with “In the beginning…” and an account, though much briefer, of creation. They thus extrapolate that the seven signs correspond to the week of creation, and then the resurrection of Jesus is an eighth sign signifying a new week and therefore a new creation. Whatever we might think of certain parts of this theory, it is true that Jesus referred to his future resurrection as a sign. We find this in John’s gospel later in this same chapter two, when Jesus cleanses the temple of the money-changers and those selling animals and birds for sacrifices. This prompts the Jews to demand of him, “What sign do you show us for doing these things?”, to which Jesus answers, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up”, referring to his future death and resurrection (2:18-19).

In any event, John must have chosen the seven signs rather deliberately as ones which he felt would lead the readers of his gospel to – as he said in his own words – “believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God”.

But John includes in his gospel much more than just the miraculous signs done by Jesus. He also includes some interesting conversations which Jesus had with all sorts of people, such as with the aforementioned Nicodemus, and with a Samaritan woman with a colorful history, and with another woman caught in the very act of adultery. These encounters, just like the encounters involving miracles, also reveal much about Jesus as the Christ, the Son of God, and the purpose of his ministry on earth. Therefore, we will also consider these as part of our sermon series.

Permit me to make one final note on the context before we consider this, the first of Jesus’ signs. The text begins with the words “on the third day”. On the third day of what? The third day of the week? The third day of the month? No, the obvious meaning in the context is “on the third day” after what came immediately before, which if we turn back to chapter 1 we will see was the calling of Philip and Nathanael as disciples, which in turn took place just one day after the calling of Simon Peter and Andrew. In other words, Jesus has just called together his band of followers, and they no doubt still have a lot of questions about who he is. They are intrigued by this strange teacher who could tell Nathanael that he knew where he was – under the fig tree – when he couldn’t physically see him. But Jesus has already warned them that “You will see greater things than these”.

What they are about to witness is, in fact, a “greater thing” which is going to have a profound impact on them and on how they view Jesus.

Let’s begin by reading the first five verses of John chapter 2:

On the third day there was a wedding at Cana in Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there. Jesus also was invited to the wedding with his disciples. When the wine ran out, the mother of Jesus said to him, “They have no wine.” And Jesus said to her, “Woman, what does this have to do with me? My hour has not yet come.” His mother said to the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.”

A wedding is a happy time; it is a celebration. It is an event which in our own days is usually painstakingly planned so that all goes well. Nobody wants surprises, or mistakes, at their wedding.

I don’t suppose that it was all that different two thousand years ago in Galilee. And yet in this case, something goes awry, terribly awry.

The wedding described here was a celebration gone wrong. It was a celebration gone wrong.

It wasn’t because the groom got cold feet and didn’t show up, or because the bride fainted, or because someone in the audience stood to speak when the minister said, “if anyone can show just cause why this couple cannot lawfully be joined together in matrimony…”.

No, it was because they ran out of wine. Now in the United States of America in the year 2020, I don’t suppose anyone would get too bent out of shape about the wine running out at a wedding. We might make a little joke about it, or say something reassuring like, “Now that doesn’t matter one little bit; they’re still man and wife, after all”.

But in first-century Jewish Palestine, running out of wine at a wedding was a huge faux pas, an incredible blunder, a disaster really. In that culture and that day, a wedding feast was an incredibly important event in the life of a person, his or her entire family, and even his or her entire village. It was a public event which signified not only the joining of husband and wife, but of two families. And it was the family of the groom which was primarily responsible, hosting the celebration in their own home and providing food and drink for all of the guests over several days.

To run out of wine at a wedding feast would have been humiliating to the groom’s family, indicating an inability or an unwillingness to follow social etiquette and fulfill an expected societal responsibility. Remember, this was a culture which valued hospitality above nearly everything else. Running out of wine at such an important celebration would have been a social catastrophe that would have severely damaged the family’s reputation for years to come.

The celebration has gone wrong; the wine has run out. This really was none of Jesus’ business, nor Mary’s, but she decides that they ought to do something about it. And so what we have next is a mother’s request. A mother’s request.

Verse 3 tells us quite simply: “When the wine ran out, the mother of Jesus said to him, ‘They have no wine’.”

Now why would Mary say this to Jesus? Remember that at this point, Jesus has apparently not done any miracles. Yet it is clear from Mary’s subsequent instruction to the servants to “Do whatever he tells you” that she is expecting him to do something, and that something is clearly not making a run to the nearest Binny’s.

Why do you suppose that Mary seemed to have such confidence in Jesus taking care of the problem? Maybe once when he was a boy, she gave him some water to drink, and he turned it into Kool-Aid?

There are actually several apocryphal stories of the boy Jesus doing miraculous signs. There is one about him as a five-year-old, forming 12 sparrows out of clay – on the Sabbath, no less – and when confronted by Joseph about it, he claps his hands together and tells the sparrows to fly away, which they do. Likewise, there is another from when he was seven and he and some other boys were forming various kinds of animals and birds out of clay, and Jesus makes the animals to walk and the birds to fly and gives them food and drink which they consume; in that case, the other boys’ fathers subsequently prohibited their sons from playing any more with Jesus. There is another story of him making clay birds and breathing life into them which even made it into the Quran (5:110). Not surprisingly, many of these stories foreshadow his later miracles as an adult, such as healing a sick child or restoring a man’s foot which had been accidentally cut off or producing an entire feast out of a single grain. The main difference is that the boy Jesus in these accounts can at times be a bit mischievous or even malevolent, such as when he strikes people dead.

Note that even the earliest of these fanciful stories is dated many years after the writings in our New Testament, and there is absolutely no evidence whatsoever that there is any truth to them. Therefore, Mary’s reason for having confidence in Jesus’ ability to do something miraculous in response to the wine running out at the wedding must have come from something else.

Mary may not yet have witnessed Jesus do any miracles, but she did have very personal knowledge of who he was. She knew firsthand of his miraculous conception, and had the revelation given to her by the angel Gabriel, and had heard the prophecies made by Simeon and Anna, and had pondered twelve-year-old Jesus’ staying behind at the Temple in Jerusalem, which he called his “Father’s house”. More recently, she no doubt had heard about what John the Baptist had said of her firstborn son, calling him the Lamb of God and the Son of God, and also of the testimony from heaven itself in the form of a dove and a voice which said, “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased”.

Mary had treasured up all these things and probably many more over the past thirty years. More than any other human being on earth, she knew in her heart that Jesus was God’s own son. He may not yet have performed a miracle, but she surely knew that he could and that he would, when the time was right. And I would submit that although the text does not tell us, that it was the Holy Spirit himself who prompted Mary at this moment to make her request, not in the form of a demand or petition, but a simple statement: “They have no wine”.

Jesus’ response to Mary’s request likely strikes us as unusual if not jarring. Verse 4 tells us: “And Jesus said to her, ‘Woman, what does this have to do with me? My hour has not yet come.’”

This sounds very much like a rebuke. And in at least one sense, that’s what it was: a rebuke. A son’s rebuke.

By calling his mother “Woman”, it also sounds disrespectful. But was it?

The term translated “Woman” here is the same form of address Jesus used later with the woman at the well (John 4:21), with the woman caught in adultery (John 8:10), and with Mary Magdalene at the tomb (John 20:15). We therefore should not view it as harsh in any way. In fact, Jesus used the same term when from the cross he addressed Mary and John with these words: “Woman, behold, your son!” and “Behold, your mother!” (John 19:26-27)

Still, while it was in no way a disrespectful way to speak to a woman, it was a strange way to address one’s own mother. Perhaps this was Jesus’ way to indicate that when it came to his ministry and his mission, she was just like all other women, indeed all other human beings. That is, she was just a sinful human person in need of repentance and salvation just like all others. It was a bit like the time later when Mary and Jesus’ brothers tried to come to see him, and Jesus said, “My mother and my brothers are those who hear the word of God and do it” (Luke 8:19-21).

The Roman Catholic Church, by the way, interprets these verses in John in a very different way which leads to the opposite conclusion: rather than Mary being just a normal person like the rest of us, she is special, exalted. Using the new creation theology I noted before, they make the argument that John’s gospel must be interpreted against the backdrop of the creation story. When Jesus called his mother “Woman”, he was comparing her to the “woman” of the creation story. That is, Mary is the new Eve, and when we read the prophecy told about the serpent and Eve in Genesis 3:15 – “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel” – we should identify Mary as the woman through whom the prophecy is fulfilled.

We might go along with this view up to this point, but the Catholic interpretation goes on to say that just as Mary was the first to notice the problem of the wine at the wedding and bring it to Jesus’ attention, she is the mediator who notes our needs and intercedes for us. Pope John Paul II, in his Redemptoris Mater published in 1987, wrote that the account of the wedding scene at Cana exemplifies “Mary’s solicitude for human beings, her coming to them in the wide variety of their wants and needs … it has a symbolic value: this coming to the aid of human needs means, at the same time, bringing those needs within the radius of Christ’s messianic mission and salvific power … Mary places herself between her Son and mankind in the reality of their wants, needs and sufferings … she acts as a mediatrix not as an outsider, but in her position as mother .. [h]er mediation is … in the nature of intercession …”. We would, of course, entirely reject the notion that this account by John points to any kind of mediatory role of Mary in our relationship to God. In the words of the Apostle Paul in 1 Timothy 2:5: “For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus”.

But let’s go back to the question of the rebuke, or supposed rebuke. Note that Mary does not appear to take it as a rejection; instead, she tells the servants, “Do whatever he tells you”. In addition, as we will now see, Jesus will do just as Mary has requested, and will in fact go above and beyond what even she must have imagined.

The scene is set. Mary is convinced that Jesus will do something to fix the problem. And Jesus doesn’t disappoint. We pick up in verse 6:

Now there were six stone water jars there for the Jewish rites of purification, each holding twenty or thirty gallons. Jesus said to the servants, “Fill the jars with water.” And they filled them up to the brim. And he said to them, “Now draw some out and take it to the master of the feast.” So they took it. When the master of the feast tasted the water now become wine, and did not know where it came from (though the servants who had drawn the water knew), the master of the feast called the bridegroom and said to him, “Everyone serves the good wine first, and when people have drunk freely, then the poor wine. But you have kept the good wine until now.”

If you read different commentaries about this account you will find a wide variety of opinions about why John included it. Some surmise that it is to show us that Jesus is concerned even about the everyday things or seemingly unimportant things of life. Others say that it is to demonstrate that God can take something ordinary and make it into something powerful, such as he will later do by taking ordinary people – the disciples and his other followers, both male and female – and making them into great witnesses of the Lord. Still others say that by turning water into wine, and the best wine at that, Jesus was showing how if we turn to God he will turn our dull, boring life into one which is exciting and dynamic, the best it could possibly be. And then there are those who say that the fact that it took place at a wedding was to point to Jesus’ role in drawing people unto God for the ultimate wedding celebration, that of Christ and his bride, the Church.

I don’t think that John’s purpose, or at least primary purpose, was any of these. I think that his purpose was much more straightforward. But to explain, we need to take a quick detour. We need to take a trip back to our high school days.

[show (and describe) H2O molecule] Does anyone know what this is?

Yes, that’s right, this is a model of a water molecule – one oxygen atom bound to two hydrogen atoms – H2O. Without this, there would not be life on earth. Some of you look lost already, but try to stay with me.

To appreciate what Jesus did, we need a lesson in chemistry. We need a lesson in chemistry.

[show glass of water] If I were to give this glass of water to you and ask you to turn it into ice, could you do that?

Yes, of course, you could. It would be especially easy on a day like today; you could just set it outside for a while and it would turn to ice.

Do you know what a molecule of ice looks like?

Looks familiar, doesn’t it? It’s exactly the same as a water molecule. Changing water into ice doesn’t change its nature, only its form.

Likewise, if I were to ask you to turn this glass of water into steam, could you do that?

Yes, of course; you could go over there to the kitchen and dump it into a pot and set it to boil on the stove.

Do you know what a molecule of steam looks like?

That’s right, it’s no different than the molecules of water and ice. Changing water into steam doesn’t change its nature, only its form.

But if I were to ask you to turn this glass of water into wine, could you do that?

A typical wine might contain about 86% water; that part you could do. But what about the other 14%?

Take a look at this one. It looks a little bit like a cross between a dachshund and a giraffe. Other than water, this is the most prevalent substance in wine and in most alcoholic drinks. It is ethyl alcohol, or ethanol. It’s what gives you that ‘buzz’ if you drink too much alcohol.

Now, do you see any problems in trying to turn this [H20 molecule] into this [ethanol molecule]?

You’d have a lot of problems, because ethanol contains carbon – these two black spheres in the model – and more specifically, hydrocarbons, or carbon bonded to hydrogen. That’s what makes this an organic compound, as opposed to an inorganic compound like water.

Do you think that you’d have much luck making wine out of a rock? Or beer out of sand? No, you need to begin with something organic, something living, like grapes or barley. That is, you or I would need to begin with something living; Jesus, however, doesn’t. He doesn’t need grapes on a vine in order to make wine. Maybe this gives some additional meaning to one his later “I am” statements in John’s gospel: “I am the vine; you are the branches” (John 15:5).

And, of course, wine is more than just water and ethanol. There are from 800 to 1,000 different compounds in wine, nearly all of them organic and most of them much more complicated in their molecular structure than ethanol. In fact, they are so complicated that I couldn’t make them with Emily’s molecular model set because there aren’t enough pieces. If you can’t make ethanol out of water, you’re not going to be able to make any of them, either.

We use words like create and creative rather loosely. A mother gives her child some play-dough, the child shapes it into a dog or cat or house, and the mother exclaims “how creative you are!” She might even post a picture on social media and brag “look what my little Johnny created!” But when Jesus turned water into wine, he was performing a creative act in its fullest, most literal, sense. He was performing a creative act.

John began his gospel with these words: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.” In other words, John began his gospel by attributing the power of creation to Jesus, God incarnate. Therefore, when it comes time for John to select which miracles or signs to include in his gospel, it makes perfect sense for him to choose as the first one a miracle which demonstrates Jesus’ creative power.

Water to ice? That’s nice. But water to wine? That’s divine!

You can’t turn this [H20 molecule] into this [ethanol molecule]. I can’t turn this [H20 molecule] into this [ethanol molecule]. But Jesus can turn this [H20 molecule] into this [ethanol molecule]. That is why what took place at that otherwise obscure wedding in Cana of Galilee two thousand years ago was significant. It demonstrated in a very real and powerful way the divine nature of Jesus.

Let us conclude by considering the results of Jesus’miracle, and especially the response of the people who witnessed it. Verses 9-11 read as follows:

When the master of the feast tasted the water now become wine, and did not know where it came from (though the servants who had drawn the water knew), the master of the feast called the bridegroom and said to him, “Everyone serves the good wine first, and when people have drunk freely, then the poor wine. But you have kept the good wine until now.” This, the first of his signs, Jesus did at Cana in Galilee, and manifested his glory. And his disciples believed in him.

Other than Mary and Jesus’ disciples, the only ones who knew what had happened were the servants. We can only imagine their astonishment and wonder. They are astonished observers. The servants, and no doubt the disciples, too, are astonished observers.

The servants knew that they had filled the six jars with water, most likely transporting the water from a well and pouring it into the jars. Each jar held from 20 to 30 gallons, making 120 to 180 gallons in all. How had all that water turned into wine? When had it turned into wine?

It must have been sometime between the point when they poured it into the jars and when it was tasted by the master of the feast. But nothing had happened during that time which could have turned it into wine. The only thing which could explain it, somehow, was the presence of this mysterious teacher named Jesus and his ragtag group of disciples.

The master of the feast was astonished, too. This, by the way, was a position of honor. Think of it as a cross between a wedding planner and a master of ceremonies. He presided over everything, including controlling the level of dilution of the wine in order to keep the guests from getting drunk.

The master of the feast is astonished not only because last he knew they had run out of wine – a huge problem for him – and now they had wine, but also because of the quality of the wine. He is so astonished that he calls over the bridegroom and says to him, “Everyone serves the good wine first, and when people have drunk freely, then the poor wine. But you have kept the good wine until now.”

John doesn’t provide us with the response of the bridegroom. But we can surmise that in addition to being astonished, he must have been extremely relieved. Jesus has just saved his skin, so to speak.

The disciples were among the astonished observers. But their response went beyond astonishment. John tells us very simply: “And his disciples believed in him”. They are astonished observers, but they are more than that, they are believing disciples. They are believing disciples.

Wait, you say, didn’t they already believe in him? At some level, yes, they must have believed in him enough to respond to his invitation to follow him. But remember, for some or perhaps all of them, that invitation had come just a few days before. And Jesus apparently hadn’t done any miracles yet.

But as we noted before, he had warned them. “You will see greater things than these”, he had told them. And now having witnessed a “greater thing”, their level of belief in him increased significantly. For John, it was enough to say that it was at this moment that they believed in him.

By the way, let’s not forget who John was. He was not only one of the twelve apostles, he was the one who was closest to Jesus on a personal level. If the apostles had gotten tattoos, John’s probably would have said: “John and Jesus, BFF” … best friends forever.

Because John writes about himself in the third person throughout his gospel, we sometimes forget that he witnessed and experienced the events described. When he wrote “And his disciples believed in him”, remember that he was one of those disciples. Likewise, when at the end of his gospel he wrote “Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples”, remember that he was one of those disciples who witnessed those many other signs. When he wrote that these signs “are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God”, we could just as well read that these signs “were performed so that he, John, might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God”. And when he says “and that by believing you may have life in his name”, we can surmise that this was first true of John himself: “by believing he had life in Jesus’ name”.

As John’s fellow apostle Peter would write, referring especially to their being on the Mount of Transfiguration with Jesus: “For we did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty” (2 Peter 1:16).

John included this account of Jesus turning water into wine in his gospel because he wanted those who would later read it – and that includes us – to believe in Jesus, to believe that he is the Christ, the Son of God, and furthermore, that by believing we might have life in his name.

You probably don’t need Jesus to turn water into wine for you. If you think that you do, you may have other issues that we need to talk about.

But perhaps you do need Jesus to take the messed-up parts of your life and make them right again. Or to take that deep-seated feeling of loneliness, or inadequacy, or hopelessness, or anxiety, or fear, or shame, and to turn it into something else.

Mary, although not our mediator, does show us exactly how to go about it. After she made the need for wine known to Jesus, did she set about supervising him on how to do it? Did she say, “Now, Jesus, why don’t you have them fill those pots there with water, and then you can wave your hands over them or say some bit of hocus-pocus or stick your pinkie finger in them, and, voila, the water will turn into wine?”

No, Mary made the need known to Jesus and then stepped aside to let Jesus work.

When faced with a problem or a need beyond our capability to handle, how do we respond? Do we despair? Do we still try to deal with it ourselves? Or do we follow Mary’s example and make the need known to Jesus and then step aside to let him work?

May we let Jesus work in our lives. May we believe the signs which Jesus did in the presence of the disciples. May we believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God. And by believing, may we have life in his name.