On the third day there was a wedding at Cana in Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there. Jesus also was invited to the wedding with His disciples. When the wine ran out, the mother of Jesus said to Him, "They have no wine." And Jesus said to her, "Woman, what does this have to do with Me? My hour has not yet come." (John 2:1-4)
I love the fact that Jesus did His first miracle at a wedding feast—turning water into roughly 150 gallons of the finest wine. What a wedding gift!
And yet, there's a darker note in this story. Jesus says to Mary, "My hour has not yet come." This is the exact language He uses to refer to His suffering and death in other places (see Mark 14:41; John 7:30, 8:20, 13:1). What does the cross have to do with wine for a wedding feast?
Throughout the Bible, God uses the image of a wedding feast to describe what it will be like when He brings all His people home forever, to live with Him eternally. It will be a time of feasting and celebration—and wine is a symbol of happiness. But you can't get wine without crushing grapes—and from the grape's point of view, that's pretty painful!
Jesus knew His future—as the Holy Spirit says, "It was the will of the Lord to crush Him; He has put Him to grief" (Isaiah 53:10a). No wonder His mind went straight to the cross. And yet He's completely willing, even glad, to give us this wonderful gift. As always, He goes above and beyond—to give us life, joy, and salvation.
WE PRAY: Thank You, dear Lord, for Your generous love. Amen.
Reflection Questions:
* How do you think the family reacted when they found out what Jesus had done?
* Do you think Mary understood what Jesus was talking about?
* When have you seen God being generous to you?
Lenten Devotions were written by Dr. Kari Vo.
Today's Bible Readings: Exodus 23-24 Matthew 28
To Download Devotion MP3 to your computer, right click here and select "Save Link As" or "Save Target As" or "Download Linked File As"