“Do whatever He tells you.”
(John 2:5)
Dear Friends –
One of my favorite passages in the New Testament is the accounting of the Wedding Feast at Cana; it is abundantly rich with theological insight and the symbolism so openly displayed makes understanding apparent. Jesus, His mother Mary, and His disciples were all invited to a wedding feast at which Mary noticed at some point, that they ran out of wine. She tells Jesus, “They have no wine. (And) Jesus said to her, ‘Woman, how does your concern
affect me? My hour has not yet come.’ His mother said to the servers, Do whatever He tells you.” Mary didn’t take Christ’s rebuff personally, after all, she knew she had given birth and reared the Son of God, The Messiah, who had a world to save! She obviously did not want to see these family friends embarrassed and humiliated for their lack of preparation, so she nudges Jesus into His public ministry and first miracle, which He seemed to imply by His rebuff that it was His choice, not hers… but, like a dutiful son, He relents to His mother’s wishes. Oh, the mother in me just loves how that Son respects His mother that much, He responds not out of duty, but love. And isn’t that just the way He does with each and every one of us that goes to Him with a request? He gives what we need because He loves us!
As an Italian, I can well relate to the horror that would occur by running out of wine in the middle of a dinner party, however, we are meant to see that Mary’s response represents much more: the recognition of Israel losing its’ obedience to God with destitute living. John uses the wedding feast to represent that Christ’s arrival is uniting Divinity with humanity… a marriage that will give Grace 
back into a disgraced existence, for all those who had fallen away from God. Wine is the elixir of the gods so they say, but Biblical usage implies its’ intoxicating effects to the natural and supernatural are to elevate the simple to the Divine. A simple glass of water may quench your thirst, but a sparkling glass of wine does so much more, and that is equivalent to a simple life existing on its’ own abilities as opposed to one that imbibes the Holy Spirit and allows Almighty God to infuse one’s existence to a better quality of life, full of grace. Jesus had the waiters fill the stone jars used for Jewish ceremonial washings with water to the brim, and miraculously changed that water into wine by Divine Intervention… symbolic of His desire for the Jewish nation and for each and every one of us. Once they tasted the water transformed into wine, they knew it was the better, as do we when we know our transformed lives with God are so much better than the old sinful ways.
When Mary was told by the Angel Gabriel that she was to be the Mother of God, she was not given the details of the joys and sorrow that calling would bring to her, but never-the-less, her belief, faith and complete trust in Almighty God had her immediately
responding, "Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word." (Luke 1:38) Her total submission to the Will of God reminds us that we too need to understand whatever God brings into our lives we must accept as being for our best interest, if not immediately, eventually. We need to take Mary’s words to the waiters as our life motto: “Do whatever He tells you.” Noah didn’t question God when He told him to build an ark that a flood was coming… he just built the ark even with all the neighbors laughing at him through the whole effort, until the flood came. Abraham didn’t falter in the act of sacrificing up his son as God had commanded, and that which God stopped when He saw the test of Abraham’s faith would not waiver. Good and bad come into our lives, but never without God’s knowledge or permission… just do whatever He wants… the handiwork of Almighty God will not disappoint but only bring you to a more enriched life worthy of heaven.
OBEY vs REVOLT
Conflict arises from many different causes, and the more the causes, the worse the conflict. We are undergoing a pandemic rare to our lifetime, which has germinated many sprouts of discontent starting with a dormant lifestyle bored with inactivity. Fear of death, out-of-work, financial insecurity, social contact inhibited, loneliness to a repetitious routine of treading water, getting nowhere fast, can lead to anyone cracking under the pressure of it all. Toss in revolt over mandatory wearing of a mask and you have 
physical scrimmages occurring in storefronts, even with gun-totting rebels taking aim on occasion. A late-night encounter of a black man with police ending in death has screams of racism and police brutality rearing its ugly head once again. With such a majority of idle people having nothing to do, a cause to unite for destructive power takes root, and normally sane people are caught up in the frenzy of crowd hysteria and hideous malevolence and destruction grows and grows. This is called the devil’s playground for he delights in steering idle hands and simple minds into utter chaos to promote evil’s dominance… to affect and eradicate God’s morality.
Anarchy overtakes peaceful protests and Black Lives Matter, a very anti-Christian organization, incites destroying government property and attacking law enforcement at all levels… of course, they want to defund the police, the only
oppositional source that can dominate them! Can you imagine a world without justice-imposed… free will goes amuck when no consequences are enforced on evil behavior… that’s very anti-God or anybody’s ethical creeds. A sense of what’s right and what’s wrong has been lost to this age of relativism and increasing secularism, where disobedience to God’s Commandments is seen to them as freedom, a false one that will, however, condemn them to hell eternal. Churches are vandalized, set afire, and religious statues as well as those of historical significance, are mutilated and destroyed because the current culture doesn’t like what they think history did years ago… how dare such arrogance be allowed to impose their illogical reasoning. We learn from history… we don’t destroy it… and we don’t avenge it! Local and state officials won’t cooperate with Federal Troops bringing order, because they don’t want to be seen as siding with President Trump, it would hurt their political image and their inflated egos. Consequently, the safety and security of their community are not more important to them as it should be, and thus partisan politics joins the melee with slaughtering blows to the whole country. How much chaos must we endure before Democrats learn unity, and not the devil’s division, is required to bring peace, safety, and order to this UNITED States of America? They have fought Trump from day one and yet he still manages to do a lot of good for this country despite his obnoxious tweets. President Trump and Vice-President Pence are Christian men who have steadfastly defended religious rights during their administration. Democrats defend Planned Parenthood, abortion, euthanasia, and leaning toward socialism, place growing government power first, and at God’s expense… Republicans, who are more inclined to do the Will of God, must remain a majority in office. Christians must remember all this divisive conduct when it comes time to vote and
mark your ballot accordingly to keep religious freedom sacrosanct… lawlessness and anti-God factions did not build this country, just the opposite, but they most certainly can destroy it.
Ask yourself: “Are any of these rebellious people doing the will of God?” Of course not! So, they are not our brothers, sisters, and mothers as Jesus inferred, and therefore must be dealt with accordingly. Christians are not rioting, looting, killing people, destroying businesses and neighborhoods, ridiculing history, and religion… there is no question that those malevolent people are the spawn of the devil, who avidly works to promote disobedience to Almighty God. They must be stopped, and not by returning evil for evil, but with prayer to Almighty God, voting effectively to remove from office those not doing God’s will, and following whatever direction He may give you to champion a cause to extricate evil from our lives. Obey God… be revolted by evil… make America good again!
