We are on our second to last week of our series called Say What? Right? But first
things first, I want to just let everyone know this is gonna be as short as
possible, alright? Because it is Mother's Day, I'm sure there's lunch plans, etc. etc.
But we also have dedications and baptisms that we're gonna do, and so I
want to make sure that we really have as much time for that as possible. So let's
jump right in to our Bibles. We are going to be in John chapter 2 and John chapter
19, and so if you don't have a Bible, we'd love for you to take one from our
bookshelf and take that home, or just download a Bible from any of the digital
app stores. John, it goes Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Acts, Romans, that's in what's
called the New Testament. I like to call it the Second Testament. One of my
favorite theologians is actually coming out with a translation called the
Second Testament. And so John 2, John 19, and we have a tradition of just giving
the scriptures our best attention when we read that. So whatever that means for
you, if you want to sit for that or if you'd like to stand with me as we read
these scriptures, let's go ahead and do that now. John 2, starting in verse 1, says
this, on the third day a wedding took place in Cana in Galilee. Jesus's mother
was there. Jesus and his disciples had also been invited to the wedding. When
the wine was gone, Jesus's mother said to him, they have no more wine. Well then
why do you involve me? Jesus replied, my hour has not yet come. His mother said to
the servants, do whatever he tells you. John 19, starting in verse 25, near the
cross of Jesus stood his mother, his mother's sister, Mary the wife of
Cleopas, and Mary Magdalene. When Jesus saw his mother there and the disciples
whom he loved standing nearby, he said to her, woman here is your son, and to the
disciple here is your mother. From that time on this disciple took her into his
home. Let us pray. God of every tribe, every tongue, every color, every nation, we
thank you for the scriptures. That we still have them 2,000 years later and
we're still working to understand them, to honor them, but mostly to learn about
you and be led towards you. So today I pray that whatever you have for us that
it would stick, that it would become a part of the framework of our faith, that our
faith would become stronger as we become more like your son. Amen. Thanks to all
you can have a seat. In the entire book of John, Mary the mother of Jesus is only
mentioned two times. 18,658 words and Mary is only mentioned twice. Remember
when we went through the book of Mark, right? We spent a number of weeks going
through the book of Mark and I kept reminding you that Mark is an author. That
he's putting these things together on purpose. We should be thinking like an
author as well as we think about how these things are being put together. The
same is true for John. John is an author. So when things like this happen, when you
notice something only happens once, or oh it only happens two times, oh and they're
a complete opposite ends of this entire book. We should pay attention. But when we
pay attention, we also have to be careful not to read too much into things. If we're
paying attention, we might notice not only is Mary only mentioned twice, but
neither time does John actually mention her name. He only calls her Jesus's
mother. Luke and Matthew mentioned her by name 17 times between them by name. But
John only twice. And when he mentions her, actually when he mentions Jesus's
mother, he doesn't use her name. He only calls her Jesus's mother. Now why? We
don't know why. We don't really know why. Remember last week when I mentioned
FIDO, F-I-D-O, this idea these concentric circles in the middle there's the F
there is the foundational ideas. These are the things that that salvation is
based on. They were like okay these are the things that are absolutely we need
to believe these things. Jesus is the Son of God. Okay interpretations. Okay
that's the outside of it. Oh there's a bunch of scripture and this is how we
interpret that. And then D on the outside of that further from the center is
deductions. We go okay these are just things we deduce. They're not reasons for
us to argue and O is opinions. If anyone goes oh this is exactly why he doesn't
call her Mary. This is exactly why he only mentions her twice. It's exactly oh
these are to me what would be considered deductions. They are not things that we
should be basing the foundational ideas of our faith on. And so it is okay even
when we notice something like this for us to say why didn't he use her name to
say I'm not sure. That's completely okay. What we can be confident about is that
it doesn't mean that John thinks her name doesn't matter because in Middle
Eastern culture there can actually be honor in a title like the mother of this
very important figure. So we shouldn't read disinterest or unimportance into
how John is writing this and we also shouldn't read indignation or
irritation into some of the other things that we see here because again if we're
paying attention we might read these passages and notice that not only did
John not use her first name but Jesus doesn't call her mother either time. What
does he call her? Woman. Both times he says woman and because we have modern
21st century Western eyes and ears we might read irritation or impatience in
Jesus' words. Maybe we hear the word woman like that and we go woman? When I
was a kid and my mom was a beautician on a regular basis, primary way that she
made money she would take us around to different people's homes and we were
often just a long further ride from here to there as she made house visits and
one time on the way to a person's house being the impatient young boy I was I
wanted to know how long it was gonna take for her to do the hair for Mrs.
so-and-so but I didn't say Mrs. so-and-so I said something along the
lines of when are you gonna be done with this woman? I was like eight. Let's just
say there were some repercussions but this isn't the tone that Jesus is using
in first century in the first century in the town of Cana and Galilee in Israel
and the area of Palestine calling your mother woman had no negative edge or
connotation whatsoever to it. It was just neutral so we need to be careful about
reading those kinds of things into the things that get said in the Bible. Now
there are absolutely times when Jesus was indignant even irritated or
frustrated with people that were around him. It's true if you read it you can see
it and that is true. This just isn't one of those times so let's not look at this
and put on Jesus that he was being impatient or irritable towards his
mother. So those are the things that are not happening in this passage okay? So
what is happening in this passage? The first passage they're in Cana and they're
at what are they at? They're at a wedding right? Two points Chris. We
don't know why. We don't know whose wedding it is at least not for sure. There
are early theologians from the second century that have written about all that
it was because they were related to so-and-so and such and such. We don't
know that for sure. We just know that while they're there that Mary tells
Jesus hey they're out of wine and she's implying to him maybe you should do
something about that but then Jesus says my time my hour has not yet come but
then for whatever reason he performs the miracle anyway as some of us often do
when our mother asks us to do something right we're like I don't have oh I
better do it anyway all right in the second passage Jesus is on the cross he
is actively dying in the middle of performing a miracle the miracle of
taking on the sins of the world that the night before he prayed to the Father
knowing that the Father was asking him to do this and he said if there's
another way if this cup can pass but then he did it anyway also the night
before we know that he sat with his disciples that he shared bread and wine
he said this bread it's my body it's broken for you this wine is my blood it's
poured out for you so now as he's on the cross his body broken his blood shed
Jesus looks at his mother and he says to her here is your son and at his disciple
John and says here is your mother scripture says John writes it down this
way from that hour from that time Jesus or John took in Mary as his own mother
are you guys hearing any of the parallels hearing of the similarities
between these two stories we could focus on these two passages any either one of
them you could preach five different ways you could come up with five
different things to preach about especially when you put them together
you could come up with any even more but we could focus on the parallel of the
wine between the first and the second passage there's no wine in the first one
he says his blood is the wine in the second one or is what the wine is this
blood in the second one the wine ran out his blood was poured out we could focus
on how in the first passage Jesus says it's not my time but in the second
passage when it's absolutely was his time in that moment of ministry that he
says the John should take Mary from that time on it's the same word we could
focus on the miracles of changing jugs of water into the best wine that they
had tasted or turning death on a cross into salvation in life but the thing
that I really want to make sure that we don't miss today is this in the first
story the first time John mentions Mary they're in Cana and they're at a what
they're at a wedding what happens at a wedding two people become one and in
their culture especially not just two people become one but two families
become one in the second story the only other time John mentions Mary we see
Jesus on the cross what happens Jesus adds Mary to John's family two families
become one of all the imagery of all the lessons that we could pull from these
passages I don't want us to miss this because of what Jesus did on the cross
not only does Mary become a part of a new family but everyone is invited to
the cross to be part of one family Jesus is looking down at the world from the
cross saying look this is your family now Jesus is looking at all of us right
now saying look around at the family that is yours now when we have baptisms
it's a sign of someone saying I want to be a part of this family now as we
dedicate children it is us saying they are part of our family we will help
raise them up in the way they should go so from weddings to crucifixions from
dedications to baptisms we are all being invited into one family and not only us
everyone we know is being invited into one family