Tag Archives: the third day

JESUS SAVED THE DAY

Bible Study, ,

JESUS SAVED THE DAY

“On the third day a wedding took place at Cana in Galilee. Jesus’ mother was there, and Jesus and His disciples had also been invited to the wedding. When the wine was gone, Jesus’ mother said to Him, ‘They have no more wine.’

“‘Woman, why do you involve me?’ Jesus replied. ‘My hour has not yet come.’ His mother said to the servants, ‘Do whatever He tells you.’

“Nearby stood six stone water jars, the kind used by the Jews for ceremonial washing, each holding from twenty to thirty gallons.

“Jesus said to the servants, ‘Fill the jars with water’; so they filled them to the brim. Then He told them, ‘Now draw some out and take it to the master of the banquet.’ They did so and the master of the banquet tasted the water that had been turned into wine. He did not realize where it came from, though the servants who had drawn the water knew.

“Then he called the bridegroom aside and said, ‘Everyone brings out the choice wine first and then the cheaper wine after the guests have had too much to drink; but you have saved the best till now.’

“What Jesus did here in Cana of Galilee was the first of the signs through which He revealed His glory; and His disciples believed in Him.” John 2:1-11 (NIV).

“The third day”…why did so many things happen on the third day according to John’s story? What was significant about the third day? Is this a veiled reference to something much more important than simply a chronological record of timing? The early church Fathers categorised John’s gospel as a “spiritual” gospel, hence it is quite comprehensible that John would have included “the third day” as a symbol of the greatest event that ever happened “on the third day” – the resurrection of Jesus.

If this miracle – turning water into wine – was a sign of what was to come, then the resurrection of Jesus would usher in the era of the Spirit when the Father would pour out His Spirit “on all flesh” as Joel predicted, turning the “water” of the Old Covenant into the heady “wine” of the Holy Spirit in the New Covenant.

Just as John began his gospel by taking his readers right back to Genesis 1 and linking the human Jesus with His eternal existence and creative work before He appeared on earth, so now he takes us back to Genesis 3 — the first wedding and its significance for revealing the glory of God.

Is there a subtle hint that the first marriage ran out of the heady wine of pure love and the powerful bond of unity because sin intruded and ruined God’s intention for marriage? Marriage was intended to reflect the ecstasy of the loving unity in the Godhead which is the essence of God’s glory…

Why did John begin his story with “On the third day”? Was this just a chronological detail or was this a subtle reference to the outcome of His resurrection “on the third day”– the promise of the “new wine” of the Holy Spirit who would be poured out on the church in the abundance which the 120 to180 gallons of miraculously-produced wine symbolized?

Was this chronologically the first of Jesus’ miracles; the first of the recorded miracles according to John; or the first in importance because it summed up in a graphic story the purpose for His coming — to provide in abundance the “new wine” of Holy Spirit, transforming life into a perpetual celebration?

If we try to stick rigidly to a literal time line, we can easily accuse John of inaccuracy. However, if we understand how John used his material to serve his greater purpose — to present Jesus as the Son of God in order to spur his readers to putting their trust in Him — the whole incident comes alive and begins to make sense.

John concluded this story with his interpretation of the episode so that his readers would be in no doubt about the meaning of the miracles he reported. He called it “the first of the signs.” This tells us, first of all, that there would be more signs to follow. It also points us to the reason Jesus responded to His mother’s request. It was not just to bail the bridegroom out of an embarrassing situation.

Everything Jesus said and did was intended to put His Father’s glory on display. Since He insisted that He and the Father were one, that meant that whatever He was, the Father was. Both His compassion and His power are reflected in His action, God stepping in to save the day and to bring in the hope of a better day for all who believe in Him.

His disciples understood! Do you?

Acknowledgement

Scripture taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Wrapping Things Up

Christian Life, , , ,

WRAPPING THINGS UP

“Just then some Pharisees came up and said, ‘Run for your life! Herod’s on the hunt. He’s out to kill you!’ Jesus said, ‘Tell that fox that I’ve no time for him right now. Today and tomorrow I’m busy clearing out the demons and healing the sick; the third day I’m wrapping things up. Besides, it’s not proper for a prophet to come to a bad end outside of Jerusalem.'” Luke 13:31-35 (The Message).

How typically Jesus! Still headed for Jerusalem, He was unperturbed by these Pharisees’ scare tactics. ‘That fox!’ was His response. ‘I’m not afraid of him. My mission and my destination are fixed and Herod can’t do anything about it,’ In any case, Herod did not feature in Jesus’ life as he did in John the Baptist’s. John owed his demise to his attack on Herod’s morals. Jesus had declared war on the warped religious system of the Pharisees that robbed God of any real heart. If anyone was out to get Him, it was the Pharisees, not Herod. Jesus did not buy their story.

What was His mission, then? He put it in a nutshell in His reply. “To clear out the demons, heal the sick and wrap things up on the third day.” Clearing out the demons and healing the sick was His mission to His suffering people – to demonstrate and announce the kingdom of God; and wrapping things up on the third day was the purpose of His coming – to reveal the heart of the Father and to reconcile His alienated family to Himself by giving His life for them.

Jesus knew that His end would come in Jerusalem, the seat of religious power and the symbol of God’s presence among His people, the temple. Jerusalem represented the core of the power struggle between two kingdoms, the dominion of darkness and the kingdom of God. The cry of victory from the usurpers of God’s authority would be short-lived because of ‘the third day’. The religious hierarchy thought that they had silenced Him for good when He hung lifeless on a Roman stake. They did not take seriously either His promise or His power. The ‘third day’ proved them oh, so wrong!

It is ‘the third day’ that vindicates everything Jesus said and did. Other religions may challenge His authority and His supreme Lordship but, for all their theories and their following, all they prove is that they have been horribly deceived. No self-proclaimed prophet, philosopher or seducer of people can silence the voice of the resurrection or disprove its truth. The greatest legal minds have tried and failed. There is too much evidence to prove that Jesus ‘wrapped things up’ when He rose from the dead on the third day and is seated at the right had of the Father in power and glory.

Since He rose from the tomb and is alive today, every believer can be sure that everything else He said is equally true. That means that, for example, He is the only way to the Father. He is the Light of the world; only in Him can we have peace in a troubled world and hope in every hopeless situation. He is the only true revelation of the Father because to see Him is to ‘see’ the Father. He is the source of truth and life.

Jesus calls us to follow Him and those who follow will never walk in darkness. He has given us His Spirit, resident and at work in us, to transform our hearts from greedy and self-centred people to sons of God who resemble the Father in loving generosity and unselfish service to all around us.

Millions of people in every nation who have believed and followed this risen Jesus, are living proof of His resurrection, and so are the millions who have laid down their lives and who are still being martyred today, on the strength that Jesus lives and that His word is true. They have been murdered through the same religious fanaticism that murdered Jesus but, because Jesus lives, so do they. And so can you!

But it’s your choice…