Today’s post, by John Hindley, launches our Incarnation Series.  John is pastor of BroadGrace Church in rural Norfolk (England) – www.broadgrace.org.uk.  John authored the really helpful Serving Without Sinking (UK Link & USA Link) and has another title coming out next year.  He is an Acts 29 Europe church planter, is married to Flick and has three little ones.  I haven’t met John yet, but hope to soon as I hear good things about the Christ he has preached to student groups in this part of the country!  Pleased to Dwell finishes in John 1, so why not start there with this post from John Hindley?

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 ‘“Everyone brings out the choice wine first and then the cheaper wine after the guests have had too much to drink; but you have saved the best till now.” This, the first of his miraculous signs, Jesus performed at Cana in Galilee. He thus revealed his glory, and his disciples put their faith in him.’ – John 2v10-11

From what John says, I estimate that Jesus made around 600 bottles of the finest wine as the first sign he did. The first miracle Jesus did was to save a wedding party from fizzling out. This comes after John has stressed the wonder of the incarnation. When you read John 1, the great introduction to the gospel climaxes in verse 14, ‘The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth’.

John is setting up his gospel to display the wonder of the eternal God, the Word, the One from the Father’s side becoming a man so that we might be drawn into the family of God; Father, Son and Holy Spirit. By the end of John 1v18 we are left amazed and wondering what such a God-man will do. Then John shows us Jesus gathering a ramshackle bunch of disciples, creating furious mayhem in the Temple, confusing a leading theologian, sitting in the dust by a Samaritan well, healing without consideration of religious custom and feeding hungry crowds. John lifts us to the heavens in his portrayal of Jesus in chapter 1, and then shows us an incarnate Christ who is very… human.

The miracle at Cana is perhaps the most strange. This first sign seems almost flippant. The issue is not a paralysed man or grieving widow, there is no demon confronted or sinner comforted. The issue is an embarrassing lack of wine at a party. Jesus response seems almost reckless. Verse 10 tells us people had already been drinking. Jesus seems more concerned that the party goes well than he does about the risk of drunkenness. This wedding points forward to his great marriage of his Bride on the cross and the coming wedding supper when he returns, as made clear by this being  the ‘third day’ in verse 1 and  not yet ‘his hour’ in verse 4.

But more simply, this Word made flesh is a God who wants to be with us. A God who wants to draw up a stool alongside us, pour us a drink and know us, love us and draw us to himself. I have not thought enough about the incarnation, but what I see shows me a God so good, so close, so loving and so generous that I want to think more, and know him more.