{"id":7051,"date":"2015-10-26T00:05:30","date_gmt":"2015-10-26T07:05:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/?p=7051"},"modified":"2015-10-25T22:31:08","modified_gmt":"2015-10-26T05:31:08","slug":"party-favor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/2015\/10\/26\/party-favor\/","title":{"rendered":"Party Favor"},"content":{"rendered":"

On the third day there was a wedding in Cana of Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there. Jesus and his disciples had also been invited to the wedding. When the wine gave out, the mother of Jesus said to him, \u201cThey have no wine.\u201d And Jesus said to her, \u201cWoman, what concern is that to you and to me? My hour has not yet come.\u201d His mother said to the servants, \u201cDo whatever he tells you.\u201d Now standing there were six stone water jars for the Jewish rites of purification, each holding twenty or thirty gallons. Jesus said to them, \u201cFill the jars with water.\u201d \tAnd they filled them up to the brim. He said to them, \u201cNow draw some out, and take it to the chief steward.\u201d So they took it. When the steward tasted the water that had become wine, and did not know where it came from (though the servants who had drawn the water knew), the steward called the bridegroom and said to him, \u201cEveryone serves the good wine first, and then the inferior wine after the guests have become drunk. But you have kept the good wine until now.\u201d Jesus did this, the first of his signs, in Cana of Galilee, and revealed his glory; and his disciples believed in him. (John 2:1-11)<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\tJesus was at a party. They ran out of wine. He made more. Jesus\u2019 first miracle tells us something surprising about him. <\/p>\n

\tJesus\u2019 mother knew he was the Messiah. She asked him to take care of a rather mundane problem. He warned her about the consequences of her request, but she insisted. With his obedience, he began the public ministry that would lead to his crucifixion.<\/p>\n

\tNo problem, however inconsequential, is beyond mattering to Jesus. Jesus loved his mother and what was important to her was important to him because she was important. Jesus cared that the people at a party had fun, and that the hosts not be embarrassed.<\/p>\n

\tFor some Christians, realizing what Jesus did at that wedding may be profoundly disturbing. But instead, it should be comforting. People enjoyed spending time with Jesus, where they did not enjoy spending time with religious leaders. In fact, religious leaders criticized Jesus heavily for his relationships with sinners. In the minds of many of the religious leaders, Jesus was not religious at all. <\/p>\n

\tAnd that is precisely the point. Religion does not and cannot fix the problems of the world, but a relationship with Jesus does. Even if the problem is only a lack of wine at a wedding.<\/p>\n

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On the third day there was a wedding in Cana of Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there. Jesus and his disciples had also been invited to the wedding. When the wine gave out, the mother of Jesus said … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_s2mail":"yes"},"categories":[18,17,16],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7051"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7051"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7051\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7053,"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7051\/revisions\/7053"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7051"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7051"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7051"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}