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of course, present at every wedding but oftentimes as an uninvited rather than an invited guest. Our Lord’s disciples were invited on His account, and those who would receive Jesus must always be ready to receive His disciples (Matt. 10:40). Jesus’ en emies at a later date tried to make capital out of His sociability and called Him “a gluttonous man and a wine bibber” (Matt. 11:19). He was not that but He was of a social turn of mind and a genial disposition. It is no mark of pre-eminent piety to frown upon all light-heartedness and festivity. If we would invite Jesus to all our social gatherings He would be glad to come and would bring with Him a deeper joy than we would know in any other way. He.went to that marriage because He was in vited. He is absent from many of ours because He is not invited. Any one who is getting up a social gather ing of any kind should be sure to send an invitation to the Lord Jesus. If you think it would be out of place to invite Him to such a gathering you would better not have it. It is well to note in what spirit Jesus attended the marriage. He went to be of use and as a witness to the truth. When we follow Jesus by going to social gatherings, we should always be sure that we follow Him in the spirit in which and the purpose for which He went. V. 3. “And when they wanted wine (rather, when the wine failed), the mother of Jesus saith unto Him, They have no wine.’’ The need of Jesus was felt “when the wine failed.” In all earthly experiences, the wine fails sooner or later and then it is we feel our need of Jesus. What the Lord Jesus had done up to that time we are not told, but now He steps forward as the Needed One. It was good for them that the wine failed for they got better in its place; and
is not here mentioned by her name, Mary, nor is she so mentioned any where in John’s Gospel. She has not appeared before in this Gospel and will not again until the crucifixion. V» 2. “And both Jesus was called (rather, And Jesus also was bidden), and His disciples, to the marriage!’ God in the beginning had instituted marriage (Gen. 2:18-24) and now He honors and adorns it by His presence at a marriage feast in the person of His Son. The Bible nowhere counte nances the monastic notions that treat marriage with a measure of contempt (cf. Heb. 13:4; 1 Tim. 4:1, 3)._ It is a fact full of the deepest signific ance that our Lord performed His first miracle at a marriage feast. The tense used in the first,clause of the verse shows that it was upon His re turn from His visit to John the Bap tist that our Lord was invited to this marriage feast. And now for the first time the little group that He had gathered around Him from the disci ples of John (ch. 1 :35, 37) are called “His disciples.” That home in Cana of Galilee did well to invite Jesus to their marriage feast: He saved the oc casion from disaster. And we would do well to invite the Lord Jesus to all our marriage feasts. The intimacy of Jesus mother with the household presumably led to the invitation of Jesus and His disciples, but it must have been a pious home or they would not have invited such guests. Na thanael might have been invited be cause of his personal acquaintance with the family *(John 21:2). By our Lord’s accepting the invitation, He showed plainly that He came not to abolish but to sanctify festal occa sions. There is a wide gulf between asceticism and Christianity. He was already aware that He was on His way to the cross (vs. 19-21) but He sought to throw no gloom over the proper festal joys of this earth. He is,
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