TD Jakes - The Mysterious Wedding At Cana (03/27/2023)
In John's Gospel, after revealing Jesus' full divinity in chapter 1, chapter 2 surprisingly places Him at a wedding party in Cana where they run out of wine—a minor problem that exposes the emptiness beneath worldly celebration. Through Mary's intercession, Jesus turns water into wine using ordinary tools, showing that in a wineless world, God works off-schedule with our time, talent, and prepared tools to bring supernatural transformation.
From Divinity to a Wedding Party
John has raised the bar so high that he has taken us to the pinnacle of the mountaintops of a greater understanding of that which we are beholding is of God and not just men. That is why the wedding is so strange, because in the first chapter John establishes Jesus as being God wrapped up in flesh.
And then it makes it so strange that in the second chapter we go from the divinity of Christ himself, the incarnate God wrapped up in flesh, we go from that, and all of a sudden in chapter 2, we are slammed into, hey, ho, hey, ho, we are at a party.
How did we get from divinity to a line dance? The Jesus that we just saw sitting on the circle of the earth with all power in His hand is now hanging out at a party. Look at the oxymoron. Look at the yin and the yang. Look at the divine and the natural.
The next time we see Him, He is not just God wrapped up in flesh, He is hanging out at a party, and it is a bit mysterious. The mysterious wedding at Cana does not seem to fit with the auspicious power of the first chapter.
In the abyss of chapter 2, the problem is we partied and we ran out of wine. Jesus and His disciples are not out healing the sick nor raising the dead, no, they are at a party.
Is Jesus just at a party to be at a party, or is He in fact trying to teach us something at the party? There is something strange going on, because Jesus is hanging out at the party, and all of a sudden, His mother comes to Him.
A Wineless World
His mother comes to Him and says, “Jesus, they have no wine.” Now, that is a strange problem. It is not like Mary and Martha who came to Jesus and said, “My brother is dying.” It is not as painful or as severe as the widow of Nain who is carrying her dead son to a grave.
Running out of wine is not a life-threatening situation. It is not a disaster. It is not nearly as painful or as severe as leprosy. The big problem here is in spite of the festivity, Mary reveals that beneath the gyrations of the flesh, and the partying, and the moving, and the celebration which went on for days, that they were partying, but they had no wine.
You might have a nicer house than mine. You might have a better car than mine. You might have more degrees than I do, but what does it mean if you have no wine?
We live in a world that perpetuates an ideology that they have it going on. They want to seduce you into thinking that somehow you are missing something that they have. But the Bible says they may still be shaking, but they have no wine. They may still be jumping, but they have no wine.
Do not let them fool you with their fanciness. The Bible says they have no wine. Eventually they have to come to us. They have no wine.
Time: God's Schedule and Off-Schedule Blessings
I am going to talk to you about time, and I am going to talk to you about talent, and I am going to talk to you about tools, because between the time, and the talent, and the tools, we are going to come to understand how to deal with a wineless world.
This is a wineless world. This is a perpetrating world. This is a deceiving world. Mary has come in here and she has come out of time. This is a syncopated story. This is an offbeat story. This is an off-scheduled story.
Mary comes to Jesus with this minor, insignificant problem at a moment in which He says, “Woman, my hour has not come.” The syncopation of the miracle suggests that this is off schedule and out of beat.
But let us notice the majesty of a God who has a schedule. In order for Him to say, “My hour has not yet come,” it means that He is not just flying by the seat of His pants, that His life has a timing to it, it has a rhythm to it, it has an order to it, it has a structure to it.
Jesus operated on schedule. Solomon says that there is a time, and a purpose, and a season for every purpose under heaven, that God has a schedule. He has a time.
When it is my time, you cannot do nothing with me. When it is my time, you cannot stop me from getting ahead. When it is my time, you might as well clap for me.
But this suggests to us that every now and then, God does something off schedule. Every now and then, God will break His own rule to bless you. God will come in and do something that was not on your date book, was not on your schedule.
Talent: Leadership and Obedience
There is the talent involved here, because leadership solves problems. Leadership seeks solutions. Look at Mary who just took it in her own hands to walk over to Jesus and see Him as an answer.
She would not have asked Him if she did not know He could. Do not nobody know a child like his mama. The very fact that His mama walked over to Him and said, “They have run out of wine,” is a sign that she knew that He had the power.
He says to her, “Woman,” He does not even call her Mama. “Woman, my hour has not yet come.” Now, to me that is a no. It sounds like a no to me.
But she acts like she did not hear, because sometimes you cannot take no for an answer. Leadership is a talent. Leaders do not take no for an answer, they find a solution.
He told her no, my hour has not yet come, and she acts like she did not even hear Him. She turns to the servants and says, “Whatever He tells you to do, do it.”
You are coming into a season that if you do not have the talent of obedience, you are going to miss the miracle. Whatever He tells you to do. It might be something stupid like march around a wall. It might be something as dumb as touch the hem of His garment.
You do not have to understand it, just do it. You do not have to feel it, just do it. You do not have to agree with it, just do it.
Tools: Prepared for the Miracle
None of that is really the mystery. It is really in this whole thing about the tools. God is going to give you tools, tools, tools. He is going to give you everything you need to accomplish everything you are trying to do.
Jesus says go get some water and put it in those stone jars. There are six stone vessels each holding roughly twenty to thirty gallons of water. That is a lot of water.
Sometimes God will send something into your life that you do not understand why it is in your life, and you do not have no use for it right now, but save it. The stone jars did not make no sense at first, but now if you do not have the tools, this miracle will not happen outside of tools.
You can have great talent, you can have great time, but if you do not have great tools, I have seen people who had talent and had time but did not have the tools to be effective.
God collects the tools before the time, so God will give you tools before your time of operation. You can tell when He is about to do something in your life, because He starts bringing tools.
The Mystery of Transformation
We know it was water when they poured it in the vessels. We know it was water when they poured it in the serving decanters.
There is going to be a substantive change. Something that started out one substance is about to turn into a completely different substance.
You do not even know when it happened. I want to talk to somebody who got healed and you do not even know when. I want to talk to somebody who grew up and you do not even know when it happened.
Somewhere in the pouring out, somewhere in the keeping on keeping on, somewhere in the go ahead anyway, somewhere in the do it.
Sometimes you got to take what you got and go ahead anyway. And while you are pouring it out, God will.