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A man’s child was dying. He was desperate, and he knew that only one person could possibly save his son. The father traveled 16 miles by foot, and found Jesus in the little town of Cana in Galillee. He begged Jesus to heal his son, and Jesus did. Jesus spoke, “Your son lives,” and at exactly that hour the boy was healed. This is the second sign Jesus performed.
There’s a story I’ve been listening to for years about a woman who met a man at a well. I’ve heard the woman called many things. Sinful. Scandalous. Promiscuous.
She was married five times, and when we meet her in the story, she was living with a man who wasn’t even her husband.
But what if we’ve missed something all this time?
Following Jesus isn't about Law. It's about love. It's about living dedicated to a love that carries us forward. Living grateful for the love that redeems us. It's about living inspired, and compelled to extend the love and grace extended to us by Jesus.
They were having a joyous celebration, but to the Joneses with a baby that couldn't sleep through explosions, it was annoying. It’s funny how one person’s celebration can be really annoying for someone else, especially if they don’t understand the reason for the party.
Jesus was making a habit of having celebrations with all of the wrong people. And in all three stories, Jesus was trying to explain the reason for celebration. He wanted everyone to know just how joyous the occasion was.
I was talking with a friend this week who is preparing for a cruise. On Saturday they’ll head to Texas, board a cruise ship and head out on a new adventure. But as she was telling me about her cruise, I couldn’t help but think about stories that always make the headlines, you know the ones, hundreds of people sick on a cruise ship. How would you be feeling if you had a ticket for the next voyage on that ship? Or what if you booked tickets to fly somewhere and then you saw on the news that the airline had a tragic plane crash. Would it make you a little unsettled about flying with them? When something like this happens, it makes you second guess where you’re going, right? You start to wonder if you should just stay home.
In our story today, Jesus is on a trip. He’s traveling to Jerusalem to celebrate a major holiday. It’s almost time for the Passover celebration, which is a huge Jewish festival where Jews from all over the world gather in Jerusalem.
Peter wants to stay right there, in that moment as long as he can. He wants to linger on the mountain with the figures God has sent to redeem Israel. He’s ready to pitch tents and settle in. Why not stay there, in that moment, on that mountain top forever? But, there’s more that has to take place before it can be all mountain tops. Peter had a taste of what’s to come, and he wants to stay, not realizing that there is so much more to come.
This week our family grew by the addition of yet another girl. The girls have been asking for a puppy for awhile, and every time we drove by a Petco, the chatter in the car would turn to puppies as they eyed the big red and blue logo on the side of the road. I always reminded them that we couldn't get a puppy until everyone was potty trained. That always seemed like a long ways out. But a few months ago, Harper was potty trained and they certainly didn't forget my words.
This week I heard the same story over and over again. It popped up in my Facebook Newsfeed between political rants and drama, and it was the narrative at the coffee shop and on the bleachers. I hear it quite a bit, but right now, in the thick of February, I hear it more frequently and I hear it with more desperation. Societal expectations are wearing you down. People expect a lot from you. Don’t they?
Jesus does not come to give us a list of new rules, instead he tells stories, he speaks in parables, setting up his teaching in such a way that there aren’t hard and fast, black and white, rigid lines. Instead, he tells us stories about how to have values, values that are rooted in love for God and love for people. And here we see, here we hear from the mouth of Jesus that more important than the law of Sabbath is the core value to save life. That’s at the heart of his mission, to love God and love others.
This week I talked about being a TYPE 5 on the Enneagram, and revealed all my secrets. If you want to know what it's like to be a five, to be in the head center, or learn a little more about who I am- here it is.