Bible Reading: John 2:1-12
Key Words: And both Jesus was called, and his disciples, to the marriage.
A marriage without Jesus is a self-induced trial waiting to happen.
Some time ago a young man – let’s call him Joe – reached the time in life when he began thinking of marriage. He was nervous about the whole thing, but he knew what he wanted in a wife, and he started looking around. His eyes roamed here and there, and he went out of his way to meet new girls. Finally he had met every girl in town, and had flirted with most of them. But only one stole his heart - Jo Beth. He worked his way into a relationship with her, and, to his great joy, she returned his affection. They fell in love, and one evening he proposed. She accepted. Their families were thrilled, and the word quickly spread through all their friends. Joe and Jo Beth just beamed. They couldn't hide their joy as they started planning their wedding. They chose the date. They contacted the minister. They talked about the flowers and the candles and the ceremony and the food. They started talking about the guest list. Who should they invite? They sat down and started compiling names. Their parents and grandparents and relatives, of course. Their friends. Their work associates. And then Joe said something interesting. Or maybe it was Jo Beth. Or perhaps it just came to them both at once. "What would you think of inviting Jesus himself? Let's add him to the wedding just like we'd invite anyone else. Let's send a special, formal invitation to Jesus Christ to be a part of our marriage."
So they did. And Jesus Christ came. And when Jesus attends a wedding, you never know what will happen. And what happened on this occasion is recorded in the Gospel of John, chapter 2. Jesus took the occasion to perform his first miracle – the turning of water into wine.
It was evidently a young couple well known to Mary and Jesus. The Lord had undoubtedly sold wood products to people in Cana. He was, you remember, a carpenter, and Cana was only about three miles or eight miles from Nazareth, depending on which archaeological site is chosen. It seems that Mary felt a sense of responsibility to see that things went well at the wedding banquet, so it could well have been a relative. At any rate, the young couple didn't hesitate to invite Jesus to their wedding.
Jesus wants to attend our weddings, live in our homes, and help us build our marriages. He wants to turn water into wine, ordinary relationships into very special ones. Charles Erdman put it this way: "All the signs wrought by our Lord were symbolic of the experiences which would result from faith in Him. It is most significant, therefore, that His first miracle, which was an index to His whole ministry, was so related to the joy of a wedding feast."
A Christian marriage has the presence of Jesus Christ in it, filling the house, having His glow on the home, and making the relationships spiritual and special. And that makes all the difference.
What to do:
✞ Remember, a marriage without Jesus is like a pool of water in the desert – all dried up!!
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