Josh Benner

Author: the Josh Benner Blog

  • Jesus, water, and wine. Studying John 2:1-12

    Jesus, water, and wine. Studying John 2:1-12

    Summary: In John 2, Jesus and his disciples attend a wedding feast. The feast runs out of wine. Mary, the Mother of Jesus, approaches him about the situation and after saying that his time has not yet come, he performs a miraculous sign when he turns water into wine. 

    1. Conflict

    On the third day there was a wedding at Cana in Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there. 2 Jesus also was invited to the wedding with his disciples.3 When the wine ran out, the mother of Jesus said to him, “They have no wine.”

    Jesus is at a wedding feast in Cana, which is a town in Galilee. And the feast runs out of wine. This was a serious faux pas and huge social embarrassment at the time. Now the groom was responsible for the financial burden of the wedding.

    In the first century, in this region, weddings could last over a week. Many in the town would have been invited. They were huge parties. So Mary approaches Jesus, saying “they have no wine.” She seems to feel some sense of a burden to try to help out. 

    Jesus gives a seemingly abrupt response in verse 4. Jesus said to her, “Woman, what does this have to do with me? My hour has not yet come.”

    Some translations like the NIV try to soften the language by saying “Dear woman,” but what he literally says is “woman.” 

    Now if my mom had asked me for something and I said, “woman,” I would have gotten backhanded. But it’s a different culture than our culture, and this should not be taken as a sign of disrespect. 

    Towards the end of this gospel, when Jesus is on the cross, he entrusts the care of Mary to the Apostle John and he again uses the same word.  

    John 19:26: 

     When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to his mother, “Woman, behold, your son!”

    So while it may sound odd to our ears and language, Jesus is not disrespecting Mary. 

    The hour

    Back in our passage, Jesus asks “what does this have to do with me? My hour has not yet come.” 

    Throughout John, Jesus refers to his hour, and the hour is referring to the time of his death.

    To give just one example. John 17:1, Jesus is praying shortly before his arrest:

    “Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you,

    In Verse 5, after Jesus gives his response to Mary, Mary is undeterred. There’s no offense in what he’s said. 

    His mother said to the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.” 

    As I said a few moments ago, we don’t know exactly what she expected. 

    We all face situations where we have to trust in Jesus and where we don’t know exactly how he will work things out, but we have to trust him, nevertheless. 

    We have situations with our health, where we don’t know how things will work out. But we have to trust in Jesus. We have situations in our hearts where we struggle with brokenness, despair, depression, but where we must turn to Jesus, even when we may be tempted to think that even he can do nothing. We have situations in relationships where there is so much brokenness and damage that all hope seems lost, but we must turn to Jesus, and depend on Jesus, and lean on Jesus. 

    He says to Mary my hour has not yet come.

    It’s the beginning of his ministry. Everything Jesus does is building up to the crucifixion. 

    That’s the purpose of his ministry. His hour. His death for a sinful humanity. And part of that seems to also be captured in Jesus’ response to Mary. 

    This story is showing that Jesus operates based on the will of God, not of Mary. He is not here at the whims of man or of the world. He is here for the divine mission and the divine mission. 

    2. Resolution 

    The text tells us in verse 6 

     Now there were six stone water jars there for the Jewish rites of purification, each holding twenty or thirty gallons.

    So they find six stone water jars. Not just any jars, but jars that were used for Jewish rites of purification. At this wedding feast, water would be poured out onto the hands of the Jews for washing before they ate. Jesus tells them to take these jars of water and to fill them up. Six jars, 20-30 gallons. Upwards of 180 gallons, or by modern standards, roughly 900 bottles of wine or 150 boxes of Franzia. 

    And Jesus instructs the servants: 

    “Fill the jars with water.” And they filled them up to the brim.

    Verse 8: And he said to them, “Now draw some out and take it to the master of the feast.” So they took it.

    Now the story doesn’t explain the process by which Jesus turned the water into wine. We just see the result. 

    Verse 9: When the master of the feast tasted the water now become wine, and did not know where it came from (though the servants who had drawn the water knew),

    So the servants were aware that Jesus had made the wine. 

    “the master of the feast called the bridegroom10 and said to him, “Everyone serves the good wine first, and when people have drunk freely, then the poor wine. But you have kept the good wine until now.”

    What the master of the feast is saying is that they would normally use the better wine first and then go to the cheap stuff, but when he tastes the wine that Jesus made, he says that it’s the better wine. 

    Think about that for just a moment. Hundreds of gallons of water. And somehow, Jesus turns it all into premium wine.

    Out with the old, in with the new  

    And we have seen something else of theological significance. 

    Jesus is showing a transition of the old to the new. He’s using the jars of water used for Jewish purification rituals to do his mighty work. It’s symbolic of the Old Covenant and the New Covenant which Jesus is ushering in. 

    That’s not saying that he replaced the old covenant in that action. That’s not saying that the people who saw this miracle grasped the significance at the time. 

    But it’s not just about turning water into wine, Jesus does this miraculous act to point to something greater. 

    Jesus is Lord of the big things and the small things

    Something else that’s important in this passage. I mentioned earlier that running out of wine would have been a huge social embarrassment. But let’s keep in mind, that Jesus intervenes here. It’s not like this was a life and death situation. It’s not the end of the world.

    Jesus is Lord of the big things and of the small things. And of everything in between. We need to trust him in all situations and seasons of life. Big and small. And to know that there is no situation that’s too inconsequential for us to approach Jesus. It’s not like we’re nagging him, and if we come to him in the small things, we’ll wear him down in the big things. That Jesus is fully of grace and goodness.

    Obviously we turn to Jesus, look to Jesus, pray in the big things, but never feel like something is too small to bring to our Lord. 

    It’s common after a football game to hear a player thank God when talking to the media. Some people mock this and say “does God really care who wins a game?” 

    God isn’t a part-time God, he’s a full time God. 

    1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 says: 16 Rejoice always, 17 pray without ceasing, 18 give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. 

    It doesn’t say to rejoice only when things are good, to pray only for the big things, to give thanks only in the victories. But we should live a life that is devoted to Christ and is lived with a focus on Jesus to the Glory of God. Jesus is the Lord of all things.

  • What was Jesus’s first miracle? An overview of John 2

    What was Jesus’s first miracle? An overview of John 2

    Summary: In John 2, Jesus and his disciples attend a wedding feast. The feast runs out of wine. Mary, the Mother of Jesus, approaches him about the situation and after saying that his time has not yet come, he performs a miraculous sign when he turns water into wine. 

    It’s debated what Mary was expecting when she came to Jesus. At the end of our passage, John tells us in verse 11 that this was the first of Jesus’ signs at Cana in Galilee. But the best evidence from the gospels seems to be that this was the first miracle he performed, anywhere. 

    That’s the view I hold. And on that view, it seems unlikely that Mary would have expected Jesus to perform a miracle here. Jesus is her faithful son. She’s going to him for help in a time of need. The miraculous works of Jesus are done for specific purposes within his ministry. 

    The Bible doesn’t tell us very much about the early years of Jesus. Aside from his birth narratives in Matthew and Luke, there are just two other events recorded of the early years of Jesus and they’re both in Luke’s gospel. Luke 2 tells us of the baby Jesus being brought to the temple. And then we’re told a story from Jesus’s childhood where his parents go to Jerusalem for the Passover and mistakenly think he’s with them when they leave. And that’s all that we have of the younger Jesus. 

    So what was the rest of his childhood like? Was he doing miracles? 

    At the end of John, the apostle talks of how the world would not contain the books about what Jesus had done were they all to be written down (John 21:25). But I don’t think we should assume he was doing miracles his entire life. Again, the miracles are done for specific purposes within his ministry to point to his divinity and glory.  

    In Mark’s gospel, during the ministry of Christ, the people in his hometown are seeing the mighty works and hearing the teaching of Christ, and this is all new to these people. 

    On the Sabbath he began to teach in the synagogue, and many who heard him were astonished, saying, “Where did this man get these things? What is the wisdom given to him? How are such mighty works done by his hands? 3 Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary and brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon? And are not his sisters here with us?” And they took offense at him (Mark 6:2-3). 

    With the fact that the author will say that this is Jesus’ first sign, I don’t believe Jesus had done any miracles prior to this. 

    Before his ministry began, I don’t hold to a view that Jesus was just doing miracles left and right as a kid. Biblically, there’s no support for that. Theologically I think it makes more sense that he wasn’t.

    His miracles aren’t magic tricks. In the X-Men comic books and movies, the various characters are mutants who live in the natural world and are born with various powers. But they have to be trained to control their powers. 

    In the original X-Men movie, before some of the main characters wind up at the Xavier School for Gifted Youngsters, the characters are all realizing the powers they have. Rogue’s power is that she absorbs your energy just by touching you and so she goes to kiss her boyfriend and puts him in the hospital. They have these powers that they can’t even control. 

    I think it’s important not to have that image in mind for the younger Jesus. 

    He’s not a superhero. He’s God incarnate.  

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  • Catholic priest uses wrong word for 26 years. Baptisms invalidated

    Catholic priest uses wrong word for 26 years. Baptisms invalidated

    A Catholic priest in Arizona used the wrong word when performing baptisms for over a quarter of a century. Now his diocese is saying that the baptisms are invalid. 

    The issue is that the priest, the Revered Andres Arango was saying “we baptize you” when he was supposed to say “I baptize you.” The Catholic teaching is strict to their exact wording and because he say “we” instead of “I,” they are viewing these baptisms are invalid. 

    Baptism is a subject where there is a vast array of beliefs across Christendom. There are opinions on what baptism accomplishes, when a person can be baptized, who can do the baptizing, how a person is baptized, what is said when a person is baptized, the necessity of baptism. And then there are procedural questions. Are they sprinkled or dunked? If they’re dunked is it once, or is it three times (Father, Son, Holy Spirit)?  And there are many other questions. 

    Because baptism is such an important part of the Christian faith, there have been many views over the centuries. 

    For the record, my view is that baptism is an outward action that is a public display of an inward faith. True baptism is done by the Holy Spirit for a person who is regenerated. That is the actual cleansing of the human soul, and this cleansing is symbolized with water through baptism. And so in my view, I don’t take the rigidity that Catholics have on baptism where it can be nullified by a person unwittingly saying one wrong word. It’s based in places such as Ezekiel 36 and John 3. 

    Why does one little word matter so much? 

    On the website for his local diocese, they say: 
    “It is not the community that baptizes a person and incorporates them into the Church of Christ; rather, it is Christ, and Christ alone, who presides at all sacraments; therefore, it is Christ who baptizes. The Baptismal Formula (the words used in the Rite) has always been guarded for this reason: so it is clear that we receive our baptism through Jesus and not the community.”

    I find that argument interesting (I also find it to be a bad argument, but still interesting). I find it interesting that you can’t say “we” because it’s not the church who is doing the baptizing but that you must say “I” because it is Christ who baptizes…

    But in practice, it is the priest who’s doing the baptizing. And I find it interesting that if the priest says “I,” that it’s tantamount to Jesus himself saying “I.” 

    So the baptism is contingent upon the grace of Christ and (in the Catholic view) a human priest serving as a mediator. Yet, if the priest says the wrong word, then the grace of Christ can’t be conferred to the person who has made a good faith attempt to be baptized? So Jesus is gracious, but the priest can make a mistake where the sacramental benefit of baptism is withheld? Sincere question. Doesn’t that imply that the priest is more powerful than Jesus? (I’m sure no Catholic would agree with that statement). 

    This certainly goes to part of the heart of the disagreement between Catholics and Protestants. Scripture and tradition. The Catholic Church gives essentially equal weight to tradition as scripture. And so their tradition and teaching is a certain wording. And even though that wording is found nowhere in the Bible, they view their interpretation as being absolutely binding. 

    There is also the issue of human priest as mediators. The role of a priest is that they serve as a mediator between man and God. Jesus is the great high priest who mediates between us and God (Hebrews 4:14-16). This is why most Protestants don’t believe in a priestly office today. Because we don’t have fallible priests who can say the wrong thing and mess us up with God. We believe in a great high priest who is perfect, Christ the Lord. 

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  • Marriage as a picture of the gospel

    Marriage as a picture of the gospel

    In the Bible, so much of the marriage language about weddings, brides, and grooms is discussing the relationship between God and his people. In the Bible, in spite of humanity’s sin, turning away from God, the Lord is depicted as a faithful groom.

    In the New Testament, the church is depicted as the bride and Christ is the groom. That’s part of the reason why our passage said “husbands love your wives as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her.”

    Jesus has a sacrificial love for the church. In Ephesians 5, the Apostle Paul says:  “This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church (Ephesians 5:32).”

    What Paul is saying is that marriage itself is a picture of the love that Jesus has for his church. The gospel gives a picture of what marriage is supposed to be.

    Marriage is about faithfulness. God is faithful to his people. He is faithful to his promises.

    Marriage is about forgiving. Because we sin. And the closer a person is to us, the deeper the wounds we can afflict. And nowhere is that truer than in marriage.

    Marriage is about grace. You are to love your spouse unconditionally. They don’t earn your love or approval. We can’t earn God’s love. God freely offers the love that we could never earn.

    Marriage is about love. Because “God so loved the world that he gave his only son that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life (John 3:16).

    4 Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant 5 or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; 6 it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. 7 Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. 
    -1 Corinthians 13:4-7

    The gospel gives marriage its greater meaning. Jesus is the groom who sacrificed everything for his bride.

    Despite all of our imperfections, our mistakes, our times of selfishness, the worst things we’ve ever done, in spite of that, God offers to love freely and unconditionally. God loves us at our worst. God does not love us because of what we have done, or how we make him feel. He loves us because he loves us. And all we have to do to receive that love is to accept it. To know there is grace.

    When marriage is done right, there aren’t many things better than that in the whole world. Two people who love each other who have fun with each other, who bring out the best in each other.

    Originally published January 4, 2019.

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  • Sermon: Two Worlds – John 17:6-19

    Sermon: Two Worlds – John 17:6-19

    Just before his arrest, Jesus offers a prayer to God. In this section, Jesus will pray for the disciples and for their consecration. Jesus will also talk about the fulfillment of his ministry as he sends out his disciples to continue that work after he is no longer physically present in the world.

    Sermon transcript