Today's Daily Lesson comes from John chapter 2 verses 1 through 11:
On the third day there was a wedding at Cana in Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there. 2 Jesus also was invited to the wedding with his disciples. 3 When the wine ran out, the mother of Jesus said to him, “They have no wine.” 4 And Jesus said to her, “Woman, what does this have to do with me? My hour has not yet come.” 5 His mother said to the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.”
6 Now there were six stone water jars there for the Jewish rites of purification, each holding twenty or thirty gallons. 7 Jesus said to the servants, “Fill the jars with water.” And they filled them up to the brim. 8 And he said to them, “Now draw some out and take it to the master of the feast.” So they took it. 9 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 10 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.” 11 This, the first of his signs, Jesus did at Cana in Galilee, and manifested his glory. And his disciples believed in him.
Earlier this year I had the honor of officiating the service for L.E. Anderson, proprietor of Honey Child Catering here in Lubbock. As I was thinking on what text to preach from the story from the Wedding Feast at Cana came to mind. "It was a wedding disaster!" I said. "A food fiasco! -- They hired the wrong caterer. They should have hired Honey Child."
Because I was eulogizing a caterer I was given insight into the Wedding Feast story I had never seen. Just like a good caterer, who has done his job when nobody thinks of him except to wander at the food, so too Jesus is behind the scenes at Cana. He takes it as his role to make the bride and groom look good -- not his own self. And when the good, I mean the really good stuff, comes out nobody even knows it's Jesus. The bridegroom gets all the credit. And Jesus doesn't say a word otherwise -- he saves the day but nobody gets thrown under the bus for being unprepared. All anybody knows is that there was plenty of wine and it was plenty good.
Wedding disaster averted.
Jesus the Good Caterer.
We're coming up on 2016 and here are two of my New Years Resolutions:
1) Fewer meetings and more parties -- because all the interesting things Jesus did happened at parties.
2) Be a good caterer -- be less about who gets the credit (or blame) and more about making others look good.
If I keep both of those it'll be proof that the miraculous wine at Cana is still flowing . . .
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