Parallels and Belief

This is again a second sign that Jesus performed when He had come out of Judea into Galilee. (John 4:54)

Yesterday I noticed that there might well be significance in the repeating pattern of places and circumstances in this story from the previous events mentioned in chapter two. When I wrote about that I had not yet even noticed this verse which reinforces that concept almost conclusively. In addition, as I read through this story of the royal official and his sick son I could not help but start to see close parallels with the previous story that happened in this very same town the last time around. At the end of this story John seems to try to put in one last emphatic clue that the two stories indeed are supposed to be compared and linked together more than just casually. There must be some very important lessons lurking just under the surface that can be easily overlooked without spending a little more time to contemplate and listen to the Spirit unpack these stories for us.

I want to look at the similarities between these two stories and then see what might emerge as important lessons for me. These will be taken from chapter 2 and chapter 4 without trying to detail all the references.

Juice for the Wedding Party	Healing for a loved son.
On the third day there was a wedding in Cana of Galilee	After the two days He went forth from there into Galilee. (that would likely be the third day)
the mother of Jesus was there	there was a royal official
both Jesus and His disciples were invited to the wedding	the Galileans received Him he went to Him and was imploring Him to come down and heal his son; for he was at the point of death.
the wine ran out	there was a royal official whose son was sick... he was at the point of death.
"Woman, what does that have to do with us? My hour has not yet come."	a prophet has no honor in his own country
"Whatever He says to you, do it."	imploring Him to come down and heal his son (compare with Matthew 8:8)
"Whatever He says to you, do it."	"Unless you people see signs and wonders, you simply will not believe."
"Fill the waterpots with water." "Draw some out now and take it to the headwaiter."	"Go; your son lives."
"Draw some out now and take it to the headwaiter." So they took it to him.	The man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him and started off.
the headwaiter tasted the water which had become wine	As he was now going down, his slaves met him, saying that his son was living.
the headwaiter called the bridegroom	his slaves met him
you have kept the good wine until now	he inquired of them the hour when he began to get better
This beginning of His signs Jesus did in Cana of Galilee, and manifested His glory	This is again a second sign that Jesus performed when He had come out of Judea into Galilee
His disciples believed in Him	he himself believed and his whole household

That is a fascinating list of both contrasts and similarities. I want to let this sink in awhile and ponder what all of this might mean, especially in relationship to my own journey in faith.

There are a few things that I do want to take note of right away, however. I find it very interesting, this comparison of Jesus' mother and the mention of a royal official. At first glance it would not seem that Jesus' mother would be linked with royalty until I begin remembering the fact that Jesus Himself is the greatest King ever. To be the mother of the King of Kings is royalty if ever there was royalty by association.

There is a great deal more under the surface within the story of the water to wine that is mostly missed unless the culture and expectations are appreciated better. The feelings and assumptions likely swirling around in people's minds at that event need to be linked to their past and their current circumstances. I recently listened to a teaching session about this story by James Wilder in his Munchies series where he shares significant insights into what may very likely have been going on in the minds of both the disciples and the other guests of this wedding in Cana. They have very significant implications here when this issue of royalty comes into focus.

But to sum it a bit, it is quite likely that everyone involved in that wedding party were intensely excited about the rumors that Jesus was the long-awaited Messiah. This intensity was so prevalent that it may have even tended to spoil the attentions that should have been expected to be focused on the Bride and Groom. There may have been some very mixed emotions on the part of the Bridegroom about the presence of Someone who was overshadowing and eclipsing the honor and attention that would normally be expected to be given to the him and his new wife.

Given this context it would also give added meaning to the part of the story where the Bridegroom is confronted about making a mistake in his choice of what wine to serve when. It was an assumption on the part of the headwaiter that seemed apparent to the servers given the evidence, but was not actually true. This could have had the potential of created mixed feelings about Jesus in the heart of the Bridegroom.

Consider it from his perspective. This young man shows up from the desert with a bunch of very thirsty companions and is invited by one of the women involved in the planning of the wedding to join the party without advance notice. Then this group of newcomers promptly create a crisis in the planning and resources by drinking far too much of the refreshments and causing the hosts to run out of supplies long before the party is supposed to be over. That, on top of drawing away much of the focus of people's attentions would only add insult to injury. Given all of those factors it was very likely a prime opportunity for grace to be displayed by someone to save the day.

But there is much more involved even than just all of that. If we can get much deeper into the minds and expectations of the Jews chaffing under the oppressive control of Roman occupiers, desperately wishing for a powerful king/messiah to appear and show the world who was boss and liberate their nation to make them the supreme rulers of the world, we might begin to appreciate the direction of imagination that would be going on in everyone's minds when Jesus is fingered as the one who is supposed to fill that role.

In addition to all that, it was part of cultural expectations in that time that the wealthy and powerful of the town were expected to help out with the expenses of such community celebrations. Since the whole community always joined together and celebrated for days on end consuming large amounts of food and drink, the Bride and Groom could not be expected to foot the full expenses for all of that. So it was common practice for the wealthier people in town to kick in and foot part of the bill and provide a significant portion of the party supplies – of course in return for some subtle IOU's on the part of the newly married couple. There were certainly typical political-like favors and expectations all mingled into these sorts of events and Jesus was coming right into the middle of all these unspoken dynamics.

If indeed He was the Messiah, the King that His disciples were claiming Him to be, then as a King He should fill the role that the powerful and rich always played in such events. All of these dynamics are part of the unwritten part of both of these stories that the people in John's day would have understood without the explanations that we need today. And all of these subtle factors also play into the issues swirling around the word belief when it came to Jesus. For to people in His day, believing might have meant something quite different than what we read into that word. Their belief in Jesus as Messiah would be strongly influenced by their preconceived ideas about the whole notion of what a Messiah was supposed to do and be for them.

But then, maybe we have far more preconceived ideas of what we think God is supposed to do and be for us that are just as confusing and frustrating as the false expectations that the Jews had for a deliverer to come and save them from the Roman legions. We now can see that they were so focused on a Messiah to save them from their external circumstances that many of them failed to have any appreciation of the real purpose and character of Jesus and the true role of a Messiah.

Likewise, I find it all to familiar today to feel myself and hear sentiments from others along these same lines. We want God to fix our problems, our external ones in particular. We want Him to bless us financially, to protect our reputation, to deliver us from people who hurt us and to make us important and famous and rich and popular or whatever else we crave. But when Jesus shows up as as humble, weak-looking plain man with no visible attractiveness or apparent power – the kind we want anyway, we find it very hard to feel faith welling up inside of us that this person could ever do all of the things that we want a God to do for us. So really, we are not much different at all from the Jews who struggled so hard to believe in the days when Jesus walked this earth.