"Do Whatever He Tells You"

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John is upfront about the reason why he wrote his Gospel:

30 Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; 31 but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name [John 20:30–31].

Now through the end of February we will cover chapters 2–5 of John’s Gospel, and what we will see as we read is that Jesus is slowly but surely revealing Himself more clearly to the people He encounters.

The reason why I write and put together these Scripture reading guides is the same reason John wrote his Gospel, and my prayer is that, over the next month, you’ll come to know Jesus better and thereby receive more of the life that only He can offer.

Let’s go. 

 

John 2:1-5

2 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.” 4 And Jesus said to her, “Woman, what does this have to do with me? My hour has not yet come.” 5 His mother said to the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.”

 
 

For the next several chapters, Jesus will interact with important Jewish institutions or themes (a wedding, the temple, the Jewish leadership, a sacred well). In each interaction, He will say something cryptic that requires the listener to lean in and wonder what Jesus means. Then, He will do or say something that shows that His ministry is new (compared to the Old Covenant of Israel) and what He offers far exceeds what the Old Covenant can offer. People either then turn toward Jesus in faith and believe or turn away from Jesus in unbelief.

Here, the Jewish institution is a wedding. I think the interaction between Jesus and Mary is meant to be funny, as her response indicates. I can imagine her rolling her eyes and half-smiling as she says to the servants:

“Do whatever he tells you.”

P.S. “The hour” Jesus refers to is His death (see 13:1), but of course no one in the story could yet know that. This is one of the many cryptic statements Jesus makes that only becomes clear in retrospect.

QUESTION OF THE DAY:
“Do whatever He tells you.” What is the next obedient action Jesus is asking you to take today?