THE KING’S BUSINESS
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hold.” Our Lord liked that (Ps. 81: 10). Note here again .the minute particularity of John’s narrative. He recalls how those jars were brimming over with water. Marks of exaet truthfulness are found in every line of the story. When we think of the brimfulness of these waterjars on that wonderful occasion, we should never forget that it is always true that “the river of God is full of water” (Ps. 65:9). The servants showed great faith in bringing the water. They might naturally have said, “What we need is wine; Why bring water?”. V. 8. “And He saith unto them, Draw out now, and bear unto the gov ernor (rather, ruler) of the feast. And they bare it.” Here was another test of faith. Had they, not just put water into those jars and what did the ruler of the feast want with water? But the words of Mary had sunk into their souls, “Whatsoever He saith unto you, do it,” “and they bare it.” They did just what they were told and left the consequences with Christ. On His bare word they faced the proba bility of being laughed at; they made no remonstrance, they asked no ques tions, seemingly they did not even hesitate, that was the “obedience of faith.” Oh, that we had more Chris tians like this today. We are not told at what moment the water became wine. Our Lord did not touch it ; He did not even speak to it and com mand it to become wine; He simply willed it. Who is it whose unuttered will has such power as this? Is not this the same silent but omnipotent will that is working every day through nature and in our vineyards is chang ing the water that falls from heaven into the wine that is in the grape? The miracle here is no more mys terious than that which occurs every year in every vineyard in the land; it is simply more unusual. There is nothing contrary to nature in it sim-
tained more than 20 gallons, and there was a total of about 130 gallons. Many would-be critics of our Lord have sought to criticise' the enormous quantity of wine set at the disposal of the company, but we have in it simply an illustration of the largeness and fulness of Christ’s gifts. He sup plies all we need, and more than we need, in every emergency (Phil. 4:19). He not only fills our cup but makes’ it “run over” (Ps. 23:5). One can but pity the spiritual blindness of the one who finds occasion for criticism here. Our Lord not only met the present emergency but left in that happy household a visible memorial for a long time to come of His pres ence with them on the marriage day. We have in .this verse, as we have in many other places in the Gospel, an indication that John wrote his Gos pel not primarily for the Jews but for the Gentiles who needed to have Jew ish customs explained to them. V. 7. “Jesus saith until them, Fill the waterpots with water. And they filled them up to the brim.” The ser vants did as they were told and did it thoroughly. They too are worthy of our imitation; they filled them “up to the. brim.” “Up to the brim,” that is the kind of obedience Jesus likes but of which He gets little. How nerveless we are in doing what Jesus bids us do—always wondering how little He will accept, and we stop there. If we only had more of that “up to the brim” obedience, then there would be more “up to the brim” bless ing. Our blessing will always be just as brimful as our obedience. If these servants had filled these jars half full then that would have been all the wine that they would have gotten (cf. 2 Kings 4:6; 13:18, 19). They went in for a brimful blessing and they got it (Matt. 9:29). They said to them selves, “If He is going to turn water into wine, we will get all we can
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