Jesus’ Surprising Timing

John 2:1-7

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Jesus does some surprising things in his ministry, and during this season, I’ve just been reading the gospels and noticing surprising truths about Jesus. For the next couple of sessions, I just want to look at Jesus very first miracle, Jesus turns water into wine, and notice some surprising things. So John, chapter 2 beginning of verse 1.

Three days later, there was a wedding in Cana of Galilee. Jesus’ mother was there. Jesus and his disciples were also invited to the wedding. When the wine was gone, Jesus’ mother said to him, “They have no wine.” Jesus said to her, “Woman, what does that have to do with you and me? My time has not come yet.” His mother said to the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.” Six stone water jars, which the Jews used for ceremonial cleansing, were standing there, each holding twenty or thirty gallons. Jesus told them, “Fill the jars with water.” So they filled them to the brim.

Now maybe you know what happens next? Jesus is going to turn the water into wine. But before we get to that, did you notice some other surprising things here? Jesus’ mother comes to him. They are a wedding together, and there’s this potentially embarrassing problem that the wine is about to run out and his mother comes to him and notifies Jesus, they have no more wine. And then Jesus says, Woman, why do you involve me with this? As if he’s saying, I’m not going to help. He says, my hour has not yet come. It’s not time for that.

And then he immediately, almost immediately, goes and changes water into wine and does this amazing miracle. So maybe you think, wait a second, didn’t you just say I’m not going to do this and then you went and did it? It’s this timing question, it’s surprising.

What’s going on here? Well, Jesus knew exactly what was going on in this situation, and he also knew what Mary, his mother, was getting at, and perhaps she was coming up to Jesus as his mother. He’s been a resourceful person before Jesus, take care of this now. And he knew it just wasn’t quite time, and it wasn’t going to happen exactly like she expected it to. It’ll happen on God’s timeline in God’s way. And when Jesus did this, he didn’t do it as a big, showy display of his power. He actually does it really quietly, and only a handful of people notice what’s going on. In God’s timeline, in God’s way.

And the reaction of Mary is pretty neat, isn’t it? Even when he says, no, not now, not how you’re thinking this could happen. I think she switches from just being a mother of Jesus. Hey, go do this for me, my son, to disciple of Jesus. Trusting that no matter what he has in his plan, it’s going to be good. And she shows that faith as she goes out to the servants and says, Do what ever he tells you.

That’s the kind of faith that I pray for, too. And for you that Jesus will bless you with that, that no matter what the timetable looks like, no matter what potentially embarrassing problem comes up in your life or just downright devastating problem comes up in your life that we can look to Jesus and faith and know who he is and know his power and know his love and do whatever he tells you in the timeline that he gives you. And where do we find what Jesus tells us? We find it in his Word, and we can trust him and follow him according to his Word.