“[Jesus’] mother said to the servants, ‘Do whatever he tells
you.’” –
John
2:5
What do you believe about Jesus? What does your life say
about what you believe about Jesus? These are very important questions for us
to consider and for us to ask ourselves as we follow Jesus with our lives.
One of the greatest messages in the New Testament, in my
opinion, comes from Mary, the mother of Jesus, in
John
2:1-12. Here at a wedding in Cana in Galilee, Mary asks Jesus to do
something about a dire situation at the wedding feast. The wine had run out in
an embarrassing turn of events at the feast and this threatened to end the
festivities prematurely.
Jesus responds with initial resistance, saying to Mary, “My
hour has not yet come.” Then, “His mother said to the servants, ‘Do whatever he
tells you’” (
John
2:5). It is at this point that Jesus does His first recorded miracle. He
takes the six water pots, which were for ceremonial washing and cleansing,
holding about 120-180 gallons of water, and He turns the water into wine. This
blesses the couple and the occasion and the celebration is able to continue.
In the book of James the author states that you can tell a
lot about what someone believes by looking at what they do.
James says, “But someone will say,
‘You have faith; I have deeds.’ Show me your faith without deeds, and I will
show you my faith by my deeds (
James
2:18).” Our beliefs affect how we live our lives and how we live our lives
illustrates what it is we believe.
So, what do our deeds say about what we believe about Jesus?
If someone were wondering if we were following Jesus, could they tell if we
were following Jesus by looking at our lives and by looking at where we are
headed?
Just this week the printer was acting up in the teacher workroom
and it would not print my work, no matter what I did to try and solve the
problem. When I went to the printer to assess the situation, it said,
“printing,” but it was not printing. I took no comfort in the fact that the
printer was telling me that it was printing, when it was in fact doing nothing
of the sort. What the printer was saying and what it was doing were two
completely different things.
I proceeded to reflect on this “printer incident” for the
rest of the day. I thought to myself, “This is exactly what we do in our
relationship with Christ sometimes.” I wondered if Jesus was looking at my life
and asking, “Are you really following me?” We say we are Christ followers, and
if someone looked at our label it may read, “Following Jesus,” but are we
really following Jesus? Do our lives say that we are following Jesus? Are we
doing whatever He says to do?
