There’s a wedding. There’s a feast. There’s a crisis. There’s a God who saves the best wine for last.
John 2 isn’t just a story. It’s a sign. A disruption. A whisper. A shout.
The wedding at Cana is where the divine touches the mundane, where water, ordinary and utilitarian, is transfigured into celebration. Into joy. Into the best wine they’ve ever tasted.
Which says something, doesn’t it? That Jesus’ first public miracle isn’t about power or performance or even preaching. It’s about presence. It’s about rescue from embarrassment. It’s about joy.
But don’t get too comfortable.
Because the second half of the chapter? He’s flipping tables. He’s cracking whips. He’s purging the temple. And if you’re paying attention, it’s the same Jesus.
The same Jesus who fills cups with wine, is the one who empties temples with righteous fire.
Why? Because both scenes are about space. Sacred space. Sacred time. Sacred encounter.
At Cana, Jesus fills empty vessels. At the temple, He confronts empty religion.
The God who rejoices with you at weddings is the same God who dismantles what gets in the way of worship. He will not let your shame define the party. He will not let the machine define the temple.
Because He’s remaking everything. From the inside out. Even the temple…He says it’s His body now.
Which means: the presence of God isn’t confined to bricks and bureaucracy. It’s now mobile. Incarnate. Alive.
You. Me. We are now the vessels. The living temples. The carriers of joy and justice.
So, what if the miracle today isn’t just wine from water? What if it’s waking up to the Spirit’s wild disruption? What if it’s letting Him tip over the tables we’ve grown too fond of?
Because Jesus didn’t come just to improve your life. He came to remake it. To fill it. To turn it upside down… so it could finally be right-side up.
So maybe the real question is: Where in your life is He trying to pour new wine? And where is He flipping tables?
That’s how Paul begins this part of the sentence. “Therefore.” A hinge. A pivot. A breath before revelation. It’s as if he’s saying, In light of everything…the affliction, the confusion, the groaning of creation and the groaning within…let me tell you how we survive the ache. How we don’t quit. How we don’t crack under the weight of a world that keeps coming at us.
“Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day.”
And you know what? That’s true.
The mirror doesn’t lie… Crow’s feet deepening. Hairline retreating. Joints muttering complaints with each stair. Bodies breaking down, and sometimes spirits too.
But then… there’s this inner place. A sanctuary the world can’t touch. Where, in the quiet, when you stop scrolling, stop spinning, stop pretending…
You hear the whisper: You are being renewed.
Not once. Not on some mountaintop high. But day by day. Like manna. Like breath. Like mercy that’s new in the morning.
And then Paul has the audacity to say this:
“For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.”
Light and momentary?
Paul, you were beaten, shipwrecked, jailed, hunted, stoned, abandoned. And you call that light?
Only someone who’s seen beyond the veil can talk like that. Only someone who’s had the curtain pulled back and caught a glimpse of the coming glory. Not the fluffy, escapist kind. But weighty glory. Substance. Kavod.
Something that makes the ache worth it. Not because the ache vanishes, but because it transforms. Because it births something eternal in us. Resilience. Compassion. Hope.
Which is why…
“We fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen.”
Because what is seen is always changing. Always decaying. Always slipping through your fingers.
But what is unseen… That’s the real. The eternal. The kingdom breaking in. The Christ in you. The Spirit groaning with you. The glory waiting within you.
So we do not lose heart.
Not because life is easy. Not because the pain isn’t real. But because renewal is deeper than decay. Because glory is heavier than suffering. Because the unseen is more solid than the seen.
Therefore.
Don’t lose heart, beloved.
Even when the world says you should. Even when your body betrays you. Even when all you see is fog…
Fix your eyes. There’s more going on than you can see. More being formed in you than you yet understand.
The same Peter who once sank into the waves. Who denied the Christ by a flickering fire. Who ran when the sky turned dark and the veil tore in two.
That Peter.
He stands up now…not just in courage, but in Spirit.
Because something has shifted. Something new has broken in. Something ancient and future, mysterious and real. Something that makes people stop and ask, “What does this mean?”
You see, they were trying to make sense of the wind. The fire. The languages. The presence.
So Peter gives them language for the new world being born.
“This… is that.” That prophecy from Joel, the one about sons and daughters prophesying, about visions and voices and a Spirit poured out on all flesh?
This is that.
This is the fulfillment not of fear, but of promise. Not of hierarchy, but of invitation. Not of judgment, but of awakening.
Peter preaches a sermon soaked in Scripture, but not to prove a point… to open their eyes.
He walks them through David, through resurrection, through Jesus… the one they saw, the one they rejected, and the one God raised.
And the crowd… they get it.
They are cut to the heart. Not in shame. Not in guilt. But in holy recognition. Something has broken in, and it is bigger than them. Wider than their categories. Fuller than their control.
So they ask the only thing left to ask:
“What shall we do?”
And Peter, once a denier, now a proclaimer, answers with the clarity of someone who’s walked through fire:
Repent. Not just “say sorry.” Turn around. Change your mind. Step out of the old narrative. Step into this new kingdom where everyone has a voice, where the Spirit speaks in every language, where the curtain is torn and the invitation is wide.
Be baptized. Sink into death so you can rise in life.
And receive the gift. Not earn. Not achieve. Receive.
Because this promise? It’s for you. For your children. For the ones you think are far off.
For everyone who hears the whisper: This is for you too.
And that day… Three thousand said yes. Three thousand entered the new world. Three thousand were swept up in the Spirit’s river, flowing not from a temple, but from people.
So maybe the question today isn’t just, “What happened then?”
Maybe the real question is: What’s happening now?
Because the Spirit still comes in fire. Still speaks in surprise. Still invites the least likely to stand up and speak out.
What should I do with the extra time I have now in light of COVID19: This is a question I have been hearing from many these last weeks. For many people working from home, and those who unfortunately simply can’t go to work due to the governmental restrictions issued to quell the spread as quickly as possible, they are faced with more “idle time” than they have ever had.
Sure, you could binge-watch all kinds of shows on Netflix, which I know many people have been doing, but there are many other more life-giving things you could do with this nation-wide long-lasting “snow day” of sorts.
The current reality has created an opportunity for us to go deep with God and those closest to us. However, I know that the vast majority of people will not maximize this potential life-changing time because we lack the understanding and often the discipline to harness any time for the benefit of our soul.
The Apostle Paul gives us this sage advice in the letter he wrote to the church in Ephesus:
“Be very careful, then, how you live—not as unwise but as wise, 16 making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil.” ~Ephesians 5:15-16
Paul is making an assumption that he feels he needs to address. People often don’t make wise choices thereby missing divine opportunities that could change their life and bless a dark world.
In the book “Ordering Your Private World,“ author Gordon MacDonald writes about the LAW of UNSEIZED TIME. To his thesis, he relates that there are four laws about our extra time.
LAW 1: Unseized time flows toward my weakness.
LAW 2: Unseized time comes under the influence of the dominant people in my world.
LAW 3: Unseized time surrenders to the demands of all emergencies.
LAW 4: Unseized time gets invested in things that gain public acclamation.
Right now we are moving through a moment that we have never been in before. So not only are we struggling with the change, we are confused about the unknown waters our lives have drifted into. Since there is not a specific end date to all of this, most people will simply waste the gift of time they have been given, and will most likely regret it later.
LAW 1 states that unseized time flows toward my weakness. This is so important to understand. MacDonald knows that we move toward the things we use to medicate our pain, the things we do numb out from the tension, or the things that are time wasters when we have an excess.
What is the weakness in your life that you gravitate toward?
What things do you tend to use to fill available minutes or hours?
Becoming aware of this is half the battle, but not the whole battle. Knowing where your unseized time flows wakes you up to the shadow that would betray and reduce you, however, you don’t have to let that win the battle. As your awareness is ignited you realize that you now can choose differently, and think differently.
Here are some powerful quotes from MacDonald:
“If my private world is in order, it will be because I have made a daily determination to see time as God’s gift and worthy of careful investment.” (68)
“Disorganized Christians rarely enjoy intimacy with God. They certainly have intentions of pursuing that camaraderie, but it never quite gets established. No one has to tell them that time must be set aside for the purpose of Bible study and reflection, for intercession, for worship. They know all of that. They simply are not doing it. They excuse themselves, saying there is no time, but within their private worlds they know it is more a matter of organization and personal will than anything else.” (72)
“If my private world is in order, it will be because I have determined that every day will be for me a day of growth in knowledge and wisdom.” (96)
The second LAW which states: “Unseized time comes under the influence of the dominant people in my world,” is also true. I promise you that if you don’t have a plan for your time, someone else does! Other dominant people will begin influencing your time allocation. This is especially true if you are a people pleaser.
Our current crisis is an opportunity for you to seize your time and leverage it for spiritual growth in the garden of your soul. To this end, MacDonalds states: “If my private world is in order, it will be because I regularly choose to enlarge the spiritual center of my life.” (124)
Your spiritual garden needs a gardener and that is you! To tend your spiritual garden well you need to know your rhythms of maximum effectiveness, have good criteria for choosing how to use your time, and budget your time far in advance just like you would your money.
DANGER: When we allow our unseized time to flow towards our weakness we lose some valuable privileges such as:
We will never learn to enjoy the eternal and infinite perspective on reality that we were created to have. Our powers of judgment will be substantially curtailed.
If the spiritual center of our private world goes undisciplined, a second privilege we will lack will be a vital, life-giving friendship with Christ.
A third privilege undisciplined spirits will lose is the fear of accountability to God.
Letting the spiritual center fall into disrepair means, fourth, that we lose the awareness of our real size in comparison to the Creator.
Finally, a neglected, disordered spiritual center usually means that we have little reserve or resolve for crisis moments such as failure, humiliation, suffering, the death of a loved one, or loneliness. (129-130)
A final thought…
One more reason many don’t use their unseized time to culture the spiritual garden of their soul is because they are afraid of intimacy with God. “What if God doesn’t like me if I show up?” “Ya know, God and I have this safe distance kind of relationship where I don’t ask too much of Him and He doesn’t ask too much of me, so we just kinda let it be.” Or, “If I enter stillness, silence and God’s presence, I am just simply afraid of what might percolate up from the deep waters of my life. Things I haven’t dealt with, things I am bitter about, things I have not forgiven, or even things I have wrongly done to others.”
If this is you, know that God is love, and His love will begin to dissipate the fears in your soul. He is longing and waiting for you to slip into His presence and receive His grace. There is no fear in love, for perfect love casts away all fear the Apostle John reminds us.
While our world is in COVID19 driven crisis, many have also been given a gift of time that can create the shalom we are longing to experience.
The choice is yours, don’t let your weakness win the current gift of extra time that sits before you.
