carbonated joy

During his time on this crazy little world Jesus did some crazy otherworldly stuff.
He gave sight to the blind, and raised the dead! He cast out demons, and fixed broken people!
But…
The first and last miracles of Jesus were both…well…kind of…unnecessary.
They didn’t HAVE to happen.
They are like mismatched bookend miracles at the beginning and end of his earthly adventure. Both bookends were grounded in completely this-worldly, everyday human stuff.
And THAT is what makes them wild and beautiful.

Bookend # 1:
There is a BIG wedding celebration in Cana.
Jesus is at the wedding, along with His Mom, and His friends.
Back then, weddings were big social events. They were serious parties!
AND, Jesus was at this party. Evidently he was was the type of messiah that got invited to parties.
I like that!!
Only fun people get invited to parties!!
Jesus wasn’t a jerk. (Put that on a bumper sticker!)
AND, on this occasion, Jesus kept the party going.
It’s a young couple just starting out.
This is their BIG day.
All of their friends and family were there to help them celebrate.
There was a buffet with pizza rolls and those little cocktail weenies, and a DJ…
okay, maybe not.
But there WAS wine.
Until…
there WASN’T!!
They…BRACE YOURSELF…ran out of wine…
Turn out the lights the party is over!
Mary can’t help but notice.
AND, Mary, who seems to be a pretty stereotypical Jewish momma, decides to take action and get involved. Actually, she is trying to get her boy involved. She is kind of pushing him into the spotlight.
At first, Jesus is hesitant.
But, then he sees the newlyweds.
They are about to be embarrassed.
It’s not the end of the world.
People will talk about it, But eventually people find something else to talk about.
Life will go on.
But, something wild and beautiful happens…
God picks up the tab.
He turns water that was usually used for ceremonial hand and feet washing into divinely distilled deliciousness.
Jesus popped the cork on some new wine.
He didn’t have to keep the party going…
but he did!
He knew that once he crossed this line, there was no turning back. The wedding party became his coming out party.
Think about it…
If you are revealing yourself to be the miracle maker, wouldn’t you want your first miracle to be huge? Something earth shaking and life altering,
Not a catering job!
Once Jesus does this, it changes everything…EVERYTHING!
It changes the wedding, it changes the world.
It starts the clock on the plan to rescue EVERYONE.
But, Jesus sees the newlyweds.
The potential embarrassment, the potential shame.
And so, Jesus turns water into wine.
He didn’t have to.
He simply didn’t want a family to begin life together with a social faux pas.
How cool of God!

Bookend # 2:
This story starts with Jesus in a garden.
In the original story the human race lost it all in a garden.
AND NOW, the plan to get it all back is starting in a garden.
Jesus is in the garden with his friends when an angry little mob shows up. They are led by His betrayer. They are there to arrest an innocent man.
That’s when a not-so-innocent man steps in and takes action…
Peter has a sword.
Who gave Peter a sword?
NEVER give Peter a sword!
Peter has walked with Jesus for three years, yet he is still clueless, and NOW he is armed with a sharp object!
There is a guy at the front of the pack named Malchus. He is a slave. He belongs to the high priest. He is there in the garden because he has to be.
He is just doing his job.
For some crazy reason, Peter lunges at him and chops off his ear!! I’m guessing Peter had bad aim. I think he was actually trying to cut Malchus’ head off with a modified zombie slice. But, like so much of his life, Peter screws up. He missed and got the ear…whoops.
The earlobe went flying and landed in the dirt. I suspect it looked like a little bloody Vienna sausage flopping around on the ground .
Losing a chunk of ear was probably quite painful for Malchus, but it didn’t kill him. With a few Tylenol he could be back at work the next day. He might never be able to wear sunglasses again, but at least he suddenly looked like a MMA fighter. This had to be good for his street cred!
But, something wild and beautiful happens…
God picks up the ear.
He didn’t have to. Jesus is pretty busy at this point of the narrative. He knows what is about to happen. In the next few hours, Jesus is about to be betrayed, beaten, and executed.
He is about to lose a lot more than an earlobe.
His time is running out.
But, Jesus sees Malchus.
The look of pain, the look of embarrassment, the look of shame.
And so, Jesus stops the clock long enough to reach down in the dirt and grab the earlobe off the ground. Then, he reaches over and simply reattaches it to Malchuses head!!
And they STILL arrest him!! You would think that if a man is magically reattaching ears that he would get a “get out of jail free” card!!! BUT, NO!!!!
In reattaching the Vienna sausage ear, Jesus also gave Malchus a much better story!! “Jesus healed me” is ALWAYS a better story than “Peter cut me”.
Do you catch where Malchus is standing when Jesus heals him? On the opposite side, even if he’s not standing IN opposition, he IS standing WITH opposition. He is standing with the accusers and attackers. Most people wouldn’t give an “enemy” a chance. Jesus doesn’t have an issue with it. He fixes Malchus where he is at.

Two unnecessary miracles…
They were both just examples of extravagant kindness.
They were both proof that God is crazy about people.
Water is transformed into wine…
An ear is reattached to a face…
The mismatched bookends of Jesus’ earthly miracle roadshow.
The miracle motivation for both bookend seems to be to save some people from shame and embarrassment…
WOW!
Jesus was about to save them from sin and death, but first…he saves them from being embarrassed.
We find ourselves in need of fresh miracles.
It’s nothing big, it’s just the small, everyday stuff.
We don’t even want to mention it, the Creator is busy running the universe.
We’ve ran out of wine, we are tired, and stale, and it seems like the party is over.
Life has taken a swipe at us, we’ve been cut. It’s just a flesh wound, but it stings.
We can just keep going and suck it up, right?
But, something wild and beautiful is happening.
Jesus sees YOU.
And because, God is kind and crazy about you, He offers new wine, He recreates you, He fixes the broken places.
No miracle is too minor.
Look for the unnecessary miracles in your life.
I promise they are there!!