Set Expectations - August 3, 2010

Good Tuesday morning! Another clammy morning with clouds and humidity. Whatever happened to that infamous High Plains dry air I have heard about? Actually, we prayed long and hard for the drought to end and that appears to have been granted to us. So now we complain about the humidity? You bet, complaining is one of the activities we are too good at doing. In this life we do find a lot to complain about. We live in a world stained by sin and that is going to generate a lot of things that hurt us in some way. How do we fight this urge to whine and complain? Easy, take our eyes off of the source of the problems and look at the one who is the source of life and joy. A few servants looked to Jesus in our verse today, and he gave them some instructions seemingly fraught with peril.

...he said, "Now dip some out, and take it to the master of ceremonies." So the servants followed his instructions. (John 2:8)

Did Jesus really just tell the servants to take a cup of water to the master of ceremonies? No doubt the MC would be expecting a cup of wine. If I happened to be one of those servants back then, I might feel a bit of fear in approaching the head man in charge with a cup that didn't meet his expectations. Did you notice a subtle change in what Jesus said though? Yesterday, Jesus clearly said to fill the stone jars with water, but today he says to dip "some" out. Is this change intentional or simply an economy of words? We'll find that out in the succeeding verses, but for today we don't want to miss this little change. Of course the main point is once more that the servants obeyed without question.

We have the same duty to Jesus. Sometimes his instructions may seem to go against all human logic and sense. We don't know why someone might be called from a good paying job to take a missions post in a far country that pays little or nothing in terms of money. We don't know why a pastor might suddenly be called to move to a smaller (or larger) church in another state. We may not know why we feel called to go a certain way or to live and grow right where we are, but we do know that to obey Jesus is best for us in the end. Perhaps one of the servants thought a little, "Oh, dear" to himself when taking that cup to the master of ceremonies. Certainly bringing a cup of lukewarm water to someone expecting wine could cause an embarrassing scene if nothing else. What happened the last time you took a good swallow of water when you expected your favorite soft drink in your glass? Right, you might have spit out perfectly good water because your expectations were set for something flavored and sweet. What will happen when the MC gets that cup? It's kind of frustrating to do this one verse at a time, eh?

Have a great and prosperous day in Christ!

Bucky