John 2:1-11

The servants mentioned in our verses this week are asked to do something out of the ordinary–outrageous even! --and the request came from a man who wasn’t their employer, but a guest at the wedding. “Fill the jars with water” (v7), didn’t mean putting a couple of Mason jars under the tap in the kitchen. It meant hauling water up from a well to fill “six stone water jars…each holding from twenty to thirty gallons.” (v6) That’s a lot of water, friends.

Step two of Jesus’ request of the servants was even more outrageous: take some water that they knew was water and present it to the master of the wedding as if it was wine. Say, what? I can only imagine the internal dialogue of the servant tasked with taking a cup of water to the master of the wedding.

“This could end so badly for me. It’s water, I know it is, because I just helped fill all those jars. He’s going to think I’m an idiot for bringing water to him thinking it’s wine; everyone knows the difference between water and wine! This is so ridiculous. Why am I doing this? Mary said to do whatever Jesus said, so here goes nothing! Deep breath…some wine for you, sir.”

What if the servants had said no to Jesus? The servants couldn’t have foreseen the future and what was about to happen, they only needed to act when asked to and participate in the prep work for something truly miraculous. In the end the water was indeed turned to wine, and the servants witnessed and were part of something miraculous.

Likewise, we can’t always see the whole picture when we’re called to take action; we merely need to take the first step, then next one, and the next. Some of the work we’re called to is tedious, menial, and grinding. Some of us have been toiling day in and day out for what seems like eternity waiting for the miraculous to occur. What if in the small steps of obedience we take, part of the miracle is the changing of our own hearts and minds?

How good are you at following directions? We say it a lot to our kids, and I’ve mentioned it here before, “Slow obedience is no obedience.” The act of obedience works toward whatever the end goal is, and it changes the heart. How can you be open to saying “yes” to Him today?