John 2:1-11

Josiah Parr looks at the effect Jesus has on our circumstances when we turn them over to him

Josiah Parr

It's currently the Football World Cup in Brazil and it's undeniable that as each country left they were filled with anticipation that this year would be the year they would bring home glory. One thing really stood out to me, as I watched the England team board the flight to go to Brazil, I saw that their faces were filled with such hope, such expectation, some would say filled with naivety.

Expectation and hope are a great place to start, after all who would want to begin anything, if you begin feeling like you would fail and wondering what the point was. For any of us who are trying something for the first time, allow that hope & expectation to be something to spur you forward.

What happens when you fail though? When you've come up short?

Knowing what I know now, the expectations and hope of the England team were completely dashed. Two losses, one draw and an early exit from the championship. The first England team to ever go out in the first round.

We've probably all experienced falling short of the mark; not quite getting to the level we expected. The question is where do you go when you find yourself in this situation? It's really easy to become cynical and jaded. To feel like there's no point in trying, because trying only gets you failure.

In John 2:1-11 it says, '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." His mother said to the servants, "Do whatever he tells you." Nearby stood six stone water jars. 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. 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."'

Wedding ceremonies at this time were no small affair, they lasted for days.

I recently went to France to my brother-in-law's wedding. It was my first ever French wedding and I had no frame of reference. My brother-in-law had told my wife & I that the reception was in a hotel and that there were rooms available if we'd like. We politely declined because we had already hired a house which was 45 minutes away from the wedding reception. We didn't think about that detail until we arrived at the reception. The Hors d'oeuvre's began at 6pm and were served until 8pm, then the starter was served at 9.30pm and the main arrived at midnight. I was told by one of the wedding guests that an average French wedding would finish at 4am and an excellent French wedding would continue onto the next day. Now this isn't a problem for anyone who understood the culture because they had all booked hotel rooms, but we had not. We learnt the lesson the hard way.

In this story where Jesus attends the wedding, it was up to the master of ceremonies to make sure there was enough, so that no-one would leave the wedding wanting more. Mid-way through though, they discovered they had run out of wine. They've come up short. This is a major embarrassment for the master of ceremonies. However it's at this point that Mary steps in and instructs the servants to do whatever Jesus says.

The amazing thing for me is that the water that was turned into wine was way better then what they had before. You may have experienced falling short, but it's who you turn to in these moments that defines the outcome. We see that when we turn to Jesus in these types of moments, that actually the best is yet to come. The encouragement is to go one more time.