The G4 PROJECT - Day 4

Wedding, Water, Wine

Jesus was invited to a wedding in Cana, along with his disciples and family.

While they are there the wine runs out.  This would have been a major embarrassment to the family.

Jesus’ mother makes a implied request of Jesus – “they have no wine (please do something)”

Jesus, noting the separation between them as He has moved into adulthood says, “Woman, what does this have to do with me?  My hour is not yet come.”

He is saying, “the hour of my revealing isn’t yet, the time when I bring reconciliation at the cross is yet a ways off.”

He knows that once the limelight is on Him that in essence the clock is ticking down to the Hill of the Skull.  I will freely admit I don’t totally get how that works with God’s sovereignty… but there it is.

Mary, in good Jewish mother form, ignores his reply and says to the servants, “do whatever he tells you.”  Again the implication that He will do something.

This is such a curious interaction and one completely unique as Jesus is both fully divine and fully human.  And it sounds like Mary is telling her son (who is also the Son of God) what to do.  Curious.

Jesus has the servants fill six stone water jars to the brim with water.

I’ve heard and read several different interpretations on this:

-       the 6 jars represent the 6 days of creation, 6 being the number of man and Jesus was coming to bring to completion the plan of God

-       the 6 jars represent the ‘fullness’ of the Old Covenant and Jesus is indicating that a new covenant is starting by filling them to the brim showing that the OT has served its purpose and is ‘done’.

-       The water remained water in the jars, but only those who tasted it after Jesus instructions received wine.

The thing that I don’t get is the ‘why’?  To help the new couple save face?  Perhaps.  Why does the master of the banquet indicate that most people “bring out the good wine first and then later when the guests are drunk brings out the cheap wine, but you saved the best wine until now!”  Wine was a staple in their culture and was to them a sign of joy and God’s blessing.  But drunkenness was specifically against the law.  So who exactly tasted this miraculous new wine?  Just a few?  Did the entire party partake?

Surely Jesus wasn’t advocating or making it possible for drunkenness to occur.

The text indicates this was the first of His miracles.

There is much I don’t get here.  But one thing is clear – Jesus, while remaining faithful to not dishonor God, was not afraid to be at a party; that He blessed a wedding celebration and that even from His very first miracle He knew He was headed to the cross.

The G4 Project - Day 3

What's in a Name

READING: John 1:35-51

SOUNDTRACK: the blissful quiet of a house before all are awake

Jesus begins to call His first disciples:

Andrew had been one of JtB’s disciples who upon hearing JtB’s declaration (the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world) that Jesus is the long awaited Messiah, literally begins to follow Him.  This interaction was enough to convince him John was right and he runs to get his brother, Simon.

“So you are Simon son of John?” Jesus rhetorically asks.

There are some British phrases which I love.  Typically in America we would say something like, “Our drummer is named Tom.”  The British would say, “We have a drummer called Tom.”

I like ‘called’ better, because as humans we love to name things: animals, cars, battleships.  I have a friend who names each new server we get at the church… we’ve been naming things since the Garden.  And while we have our chosen names for things, we call them one thing, there are many instances in Scripture where God has an altogether different idea.  My name, for instance, means ‘dark water’.  Simon, in Hebrew means ‘listening, obedient’.

Yet Jesus tells him, “You shall be called ‘Peter’” and that is how most of us know him today.  ‘Peter’ means ‘rock’ and anyone who has read through the gospels sees that if anything he was not necessarily a rock of stability.  He often was the one to lob a dumb question (from our perspective).  But a question that was most likely on the other disciples’ minds.

But then look at what happened at Pentecost after the resurrection!  Peter does become a ‘rock’ and a pillar within the first leadership of the Church.  Jesus knew who Peter would be.

As the much overplayed song on the radio says, “there is hope for me yet… God’s not finished with me yet.”  And Revelation indicates that there are least some (the overcomers) who receive from Christ a white stone that has written on it their new name – the name He knows them as.

I wonder what God’s name is for me.  Because while ‘dark water’ may be fitting on some days, I’d rather be less brooding and more useful.

What, perhaps, is God’s name for you?  Not how you see yourself, but who He knows you to be and who you will become through His grace?

Next we are told that Jesus tells Phillip to follow Him.  Phillip excitedly goes to get his doubtful brother Nathanael, telling him, “We have found him of whom Moses in the Law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph."

Phillip sees enough of Jesus to see that He is not just a good teacher, or a new prophet, but rather the fulfillment of the prophecies.

Nathanael retorts with, “Nazareth? Can anything good come out of Nazareth?”

Nazareth at the time (I have heard) was a melting pot of ethnicities and cultures.  People from many nations; of many religions lived there.  To the upright Jew, Nazareth was seen as a cesspool of sorts – that no one of moral standing could possibly come from that degenerated area.  (Aside:  Again what a picture of the heart of God that He chooses to live in this type of area!  Not with those who have it ‘together’)

“But come and see!” Phillip insists.

Nathanael, reluctantly I am sure, goes with him.  Before he can say a word, Jesus says of him, “Look!  Here is a true Israelite in whom there is nothing false (no deceit).”  I have also read – but cannot verify – that Jesus’ words mean:  “Here is a true Israelite, whose bloodline is pure.”

Regardless, it is enough to catch Nathanael’s attention.

“How do you know me?” he asks of Jesus.

To paraphrase Jesus’ response, He says, “Before your brother told you about me, I saw you sitting under the fig tree.” It was very likely that not only had they been separated by some distance, but that given Jesus’ earlier declaration of who Nathanael was, that Nathanael may have been in prayer while under that tree.

It is enough for Nathanael to instantly declare that Jesus is both the Son of God and the King of Israel – no light titles indeed!

You can almost hear the broad smile in Jesus’ response:

Jesus answered him, "Because I said to you, 'I saw you under the fig tree,' do you believe? You will see greater things than these." And he said to him, "Truly, truly, I say to you, you will see heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man."

Greater things!

And he alludes to Himself as Jacob’s ladder – the bridge between heaven and earth – the One who would restore the rift, the broken relationship.  Ultimately this ladder finds its fulfillment at the cross.  Nathanael has met the promised One – the Messiah, God’s Son, the King of Israel.

the G4 PROJECT - Day 2

The G4 Project – Day 2

JtB & JtC
READING: John 1:19-34
Soundtrack: Nesciens mater: choral works of Jean Mouton (selected tracks)

John the Baptizer (JtB) enters the scene.  Having read Luke not that long ago, it is plain that John and Jesus are cousins – however both John’s parents were human.

John comes baptizing the people for repentance of sins.  In John and Jesus’ day the people were expecting the Messiah at any moment - and many want to be ready; to be right with God.  This expectation was due in part to the Roman occupation and the Hebrews desire to be freed from this oppression as they had once been freed from Egyptian oppression.

Naturally the religious leaders send a delegation to John asking him who he thinks he is: “Are you the messiah?  Are you Elijah? (fulfilling the prophecy in Mal. 4:5) Are you the Prophet? (whom Moses spoke of in Deut. 18:15)?”

“I am not the Christ” John responds. “I am not Elijah (though Jesus would clarify this later). I am not the Prophet.”

Then who are you?  We need an answer to take back to those who sent us!

“I am ‘the voice of one crying out in the wilderness, “Make straight the way of the Lord,”’ as the prophet Isaiah said." (Isa. 40:3)

Whoa!!!  Don’t just skip over this!  One of my frustrations with many English translations of the Bible is that the sacred name of God “YHWH” (often pronounced Yahweh) is translated to the generic ‘Lord’ and most often this connection is made by having LORD (all caps).  I think we miss something by using ‘Lord’.

This is no generic 'god' being spoken of!  This is The One and Only, True and Living God Who revealed Himself and His sacred Name to Moses in the burning bush!

John was not saying I have come to prepare the way for a great religious teacher or a new rabbi.  John was saying, “I am here doing what God has called me to because God Himself is coming!”

Powerful words!

John the Baptizer goes on to say that the One Who is coming is so great that he (John) is unworthy even to the most humiliating of tasks assigned to a slave of that day – untie a sandal!

John (author) skips over JtB’s baptizing of Jesus, but it is fascinating when you read the Gospel accounts together.

Since JtB and Jesus are cousins I firmly believe that when JtB said to Jesus “You should be baptizing me” it was not because he yet recognized Jesus as the Christ.  JtB knew his cousin was a very righteous man and that for that reason Jesus should be the one doing the baptizing.

However in the G4 we see when the realization hits JtB:

"I saw the Spirit descend from heaven like a dove, and it remained on him. I myself did not know him, but He (God) 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."

Only after Jesus is baptized by JtB does JtB realize that his very own cousin is not just Jesus bar (son of) Joseph, but Jesus the Christ (JtC) – Son of God!  Even Yahweh enfleshed!

“The next day (after JtB had baptized Jesus) he saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, "Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world! This is he of whom I said 'After me comes a man who ranks before me, because he was before me.' I myself did not know him, but for this purpose I came baptizing with water, that he might be revealed to Israel."

The Hebrews… Israel… had been awaiting a Messiah to deliver them as Moses once had.  JtB, directed by the Spirit, tells them that not only will Jesus bring them deliverance – but that Jesus Himself will be the Passover lamb for this deliverance and coming exodus.

Here comes the all-powerful Word of God, creator of heaven and earth, come to demonstrate the heart of the Father... to help us 'see' and know God... and to be slaughtered like a passover lamb, so that flagrant, rebellious offenders deserving of separation and anguish and flame would be forgiven and adopted.