"My Hour" Sermon: John 2:1-5

“My Hour”
[John 2:1-5]
September 2, 2010 Old First Presbyterian Church

We look at the beginning of a very familiar history today: the wedding at Cana. Three days after Jesus had called Nathanael to be His disciple, Jesus and His disciples and His mother, Mary, were invited to a wedding in Cana. And they enjoyed the wedding and its celebration, eating and drinking and giving thanks for the wedding of the couple. But, at some point, the host ran out of wine.

We’re not told if this was an oversight or due to a lack of money, but in either event, it would have been an incredible embarrassment when the guests found that there was no more wine to drink. So Mary turned to her Son, Who she understood to be God the Savior, and she said to Him, “They have no wine.” The implication being, “Jesus, they have run out of wine – do something by the Power of Your Divinity to correct this problem before our hosts are embarrassed.”

So let us understand, first, that Mary believed in Jesus’ ability to provide for human needs. She understood that her Son is Divine and that God promises to provide for all of our needs. And by her understanding, having an appropriate amount of wine at a wedding was a need, so she told Jesus to do something about it.

But Mary was out of line. Jesus owed Mary honor as His mother. He owed her respect. He owed her obedience as her Son in His Humanity. But He did not owe her anything – He did not have to submit to her – in His Divinity.

So Jesus rebuked her, “Woman.” Notice, He did not call her, “Mother,” but “woman,” to draw a sharp distinction between her as a human and Him as God. “What does this have to do with me? My hour has not yet come.”

We see, then, that Jesus, as God, has a Plan, and He will keep to that Plan without deviation for anyone. Solomon wrote, “The heart of the man plans his way, but the Lord establishes his steps” (Proverbs 16:9, ESV) and “The lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from the Lord” (Proverbs 16:33, ESV).

We freely make decisions and plans, but they only occur as God has willed them. And Jesus said it was not the hour for this to happen. But, we know that Jesus did change the water into wine, so Jesus must have been referring to something else.

We find the answer in His saying, “My hour has not yet come.” What did Jesus mean by “His hour”? When did Jesus’ Hour occur?

We find it in the Garden of Gethsemane in Jesus’ High Priestly Prayer, as He prayed, “Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you” (John 17:1b, ESV). “The hour” that Jesus was referring to was the hour of His Humiliation at the hands of humans – when He put aside His Divine Authority and allowed the Romans and the Jews to take Him and mock Him and scourge Him and even crucify Him. This is the hour Paul refers to when he writes, “[Jesus] humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross” (Philippians 2:8, ESV).

Jesus would not be told what to do in His Divinity; He would not submit Himself to the whim of sinful man until it was time for Him to suffer to death. At that hour, Mary would remember that prophecy of Simeon, “Behold, this child is appointed for the fall and rising of many in Israel, and for a sign that is opposed (and a sword will pierce through your own soul also), so that the thoughts from many hearts may be revealed” (Luke 2:34b-35, ESV).

Mary humbled herself and received the rebuke of her Son and God and, no longer commanding Jesus, she told the servants to do whatever He said.

How are we to respond to this?

Let us understand that God has a Plan and that Plan cannot fail. As Nebuchadnezzar confessed, “his dominion is an everlasting dominion, and his kingdom endures from generation to generation; all the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing, and he does according to his will among the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth; and none can stay his hand or say to him, ‘What have you done?’” (Daniel 4:34b-35, ESV).

Therefore, we can trust God to bring about His Plan – to keep all of the promises He has made in His Word. “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths” (Proverbs 3:5-6, ESV).

However, we must remember, even as we trust God and pray to Him, that our minds our limited – we do not always know what God wants or when God will bring something to pass. As Paul writes, “Oh, the depth of the riches and the wisdom and knowledge of God How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor? Or who has given a gift to him that he might be repair? For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be the glory forever. Amen” (Romans 11:33-36, ESV).

Where does that leave us?

Paul wrote, “He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?” (Romans 8:32, ESV). God loves us so much that He gave His Own Son to reconcile us to Him – if God was willing to do that, we can surely trust that He will provide for all of our needs – in His Time, according to His Plan.

That is why Jesus taught His disciples to pray, not merely for their “daily bread,” but to pray that his “will be done, on earth as it is in heaven” (Matthew 6:10b, ESV). As Jesus’ brother wrote, “Come now, you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit’ – yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. Instead you ought to say, ‘If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that’” (James 4:13-15, ESV).

So let us believe in the Sovereignty and Authority of our God and Savior. Let us ask of God boldly, in Jesus’ Name. But let us also recognize that our minds are much smaller than God’s, and we do not know His whole Plan. So let us humble ourselves as Mary did, as James calls us to do, and pray boldly – according to God’s Will, if Jesus is willing, if this is the hour.

Let us pray:
Almighty God, we are awed that You give us the privilege to come into Your Presence with our prayers. We ask that You would assure us of Your Sovereignty – Your Plan over all. We ask that we would follow after You and submit to You in accordance with Your Word. And we ask, if You are willing, that You would fulfill the requests of our hearts this day. And we ask all these things in Jesus’ Name, Amen.