St. John’s MTC,UK , Lenten Lantern -2013, Day 1

Change! To change!!
John 2: 1-11

A man goes out on the beach and sees that it is covered with starfish washed up on the tide. A small boy is walking along, and picking them up and throwing them back into the water.
“What are you doing, son?” the man asks. “You see how many starfish there are. You’ll never make a difference.”
 

The boy paused thoughtfully, and picked up another starfish and threw it into the sea.
“It sure made a difference to that one,” he said.
St. John the apostle signs his gospel with the acts of signs that Jesus’ glory be manifested in them and everyone may believe in Him (v.11). For St. John the greatest miracle happened is the self emptying birth (Phil 2:6-8) of Jesus and all the miracles of Jesus are signs to reveal Him. The wedding at Cana becomes the locus of His first sign.

The first sign at Cana recalls a comparison with the first temptation (Matt 4:2-4) that Jesus underwent at the desert. The tempter’s first temptation was to find the solution for Jesus’ hunger through employing the divine rights of sonship (v.3). The tempter tries to convince Jesus that the essential being of Son of God is attained through the fast of forty days and forty nights and it is the time to take a ‘test run’. Often we get blind of our hunger; but the hunger for ‘bodily breads of individualism’ did not blind Jesus to find the procession of ‘eternal words of life for all’ that hunger, from the mouth of God (v.4). Whatever Jesus attained through the fast of forty days and forty nights was not to trade for ‘bodily breads’ with the ‘eternal words of life’.

In a Hebrew wedding party the profuse flow of the best wine is a natural expectation of the invited. A minor lack of wine could bring an immense disgrace to the host family. Jesus who showed a blind eye to the hungers of individualism did not wait to manifest His glory in quenching the thirst of collective disgrace. Jesus who prevented himself from signs of might could not wait to show the signs of compassion at the eventual disgrace of a family. The challenge before us today is this – Are we bestowed with a power to perform signs of might? Or are we bestowed with a spirit to perform signs of compassion? The Christ who did not change the stone to bread in the desert was moved with a loving compassion to change the waters of Cana into the best wine of the town. Jesus who did not change the stone to bread at the behest of His hunger allows himself to be the change at the necessity of others.

One song from the songbook - paadamonnay (Lets sing together) published by CSS Books, Thiruvalla, Kerala (RP 1997) is particularly relevant in this context. The song, vazhiyorukkan orungum koottare (Comrades, ready to make the way) is written by K.J. Baby.
visakkumbol virunnorukkan appamundo koottare? (Comrades,do you have bread to make the feast?)
kalline appamakkan siddhiyundo koottare? (Comrades, can you convert stone to bread?)
mamsathe appamaakkan sidhiyille koottare? (Comrades, can’t you convert flesh into bread?)

The lyricist taunts the superfluous hypocrite ‘spirituality of mighty works’ and asks the fellow men and women to become the change they envision. My dear brothers and sisters God has endowed us with a spirit to believe and a loving heart to be moved with compassion. We are searching outside this temple of God for the mighty works of God, which is not God expects of us. We can become positive changes that change the whole order like the leaven that leavens the whole dough (Luke 13: 20, 21). Like the boy of the story in the beginning let us make a difference for at least a few during this season of lent and meditation.

Even if a problem seems so vast as to be insoluble in its entirety, it's still worthy to be mitigated.
Prayer: God, thank you for your signs in our lives. Make us signs in manifesting your glory.
In Jesus’ name. Amen