ALOHA! MERRY MONDAY IN HAWAII! BY PARRIS BAILEY
“And he saith unto him, Every man at the beginning doth set forth good wine; and when men have well drunk, then that which is worse: but thou hast kept the good wine until now.” John 2:11
Well as you know (I only keep saying it) Frank and I are celebrating 40 years of salvation and being married. It feels oddly strange that two rebellious hippies have been caught by the grace of God. From our commune bible school in the 70’s to pastoring a local church I guess we have had quite a life. We are thankful for our four children, five grandchildren and our precious church. They all have all put up with a lot from us through the years.
I love this expression from this commentary; “THE CONSCIOUS WATER SAW IT’S GOD AND BLUSHED.” (Sacred Epigrams in Latin) Christ transported a circle of pious and devoted men to heaven, and gave them to drink from the mysterious fountain of His highest life-power. He showed how in His kingdom want vanishes in the riches of His love. The water being turned into the wine of His wonder-working divine power- It was no nectar, but a divine beverage, into which the water was changed. Lange
Christ comes into all of our lives to enrich, change and transform us. Peoples commentary says, “The believer may have the tasteless things of this world changed into the richest spiritual joys. The gospel heightens and hallows all our comforts, and purifies all our daily joys.” Have we allowed our water as it is being poured forth to be changed? Or are we on a cycle of ever doing, ever working, every pushing and yet not tapped into the power of God? Christ came with his spotless life of righteousness to do away with the law and man’s efforts. Renaissance Bible says, “Only then could He give us the wine of life-the kind of wine of such superior quality that, by the very contrast with human experience without Christ, it burst the bottles of society’s conventions and reduces them to rubble.” I find it interesting that the next chapter in the book of John, we find Jesus clearing the temple and meeting with Nicademus about being born again. All of this points to a new day and a new way of worship.
Lewis says, “It was a miracle of the old creation, the creator who, year by year, turns water into wine, so to speak by a natural process, on this occasion speeds up the process and attains the same end. But if it is a miracle of the old creation, it is a parable of the new creation. Christ has come into the world to fulfill and terminate the old, order, and to replace it by a new worship and truth which surpasses the old as much as wine surpasses water. ”
Maybe you too have run out of wine, go ahead fill the water pots with water to the brim and begin to pour. He waits for this moment- when we are done, Christ steps in and makes all things new again.