December 2 - Son of Man

December 2 – Son of Man

Isn’t it interesting?  In Matthew and Luke’s Gospels we are made aware of Jesus’ humanity right off the bat because we see that he was born of a woman.  In John’s Gospel, the thing that makes him human is a party.

At the end of John 1, Jesus says, “I tell you the truth, you shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.”

Jesus identifies himself as the Son of Man and then he goes to a wedding party with his mom.  That places him fully in the human realm.

Not only does he go to this party, but it happened just after he called the first of his disciples.  Andrew left John the Baptist to follow Jesus and then went to get Simon Peter, James and John.  Philip and Nathaniel came next.  John tells us that the disciples had also been invited to the wedding.

They were well into the party when the wine ran out.  The bridegroom had obviously not prepared for the size of the party.  Were there more people at the party because of Jesus being in attendance? 

In Matthew, we read about John the Baptist’s popularity.  People from all over the area, including the Pharisees were coming to the Jordan River to be baptized.  The crowd that observed Jesus’ baptism and heard John’s words regarding the Lamb of God (John 1:29-34) would have been pretty large.  If people saw the Spirit of God rest on Jesus’ at His baptism, he would have gained some notoriety.  It was a very small world in those days.

What would a young bridegroom do if someone that popular showed up at his wedding and many people came because of him?  The rules of hospitality were clear.  No one was turned away. Food and wine would have kept coming out for the guests, no matter how it depleted their stores, no matter how many attended.

But, tragedy of tragedies! They ran out of wine.  This would have brought a great deal of shame to the bridegroom and would have devastated him and his bride.  We don’t really understand the concepts of hospitality and shame and how far reaching those ideas were.  But in first-century Israel, this could change his status in the community whether it went well or poorly.

Jesus’ mother was paying attention.  She knew that Jesus could do something about it.  Now, think about that for a moment.  This woman had known him for thirty years.  I’m quite curious as to the number of things that Jesus would have done in their home to make her approach him about handling this situation. 

He didn’t want to.  He wasn’t prepared to face the onslaught of changes this would bring to his life, to the lives of his family and to those disciples he had just called to be with him. But, she wasn’t to be thwarted.  It was time. The first public miracle would take place in a very human celebration.  His ministry began.

Jesus came as the Son of God and He came to the earth to participate fully as a Son of Man.  What better place to begin than at a wedding … a party.