Today’s author is Prince of Peace member, Paul Sponheim.
For this second devotion on the Wedding in Cana, we are still focused on the final verse in John 2: “This the first of his signs Jesus did in Cana of Galilee, and his disciples believed in him.”
We notice that there is no record or account of mass conversions but it is clear that powerful happenings took place in Cana that day and his disciples believed in him. Let’s consider what Jesus believed about his disciples.
There is ample biblical testimony to the reality of the creator God at work in miraculous happenings in the life of Jesus and his followers. No mass conversions but empowered disciples who change the world by their lives. That creator God is the one that the Old Testament recognizes in saying, “The heavens declare the glory of God and the firmament shows his handiwork.” But in the scriptures this confidence in God’s power is not so much about a God creating the world. It is more about the sending of the Son into that world to change it. In fact, Jesus in John 20 actually uses the parallel in saying, “As the Father has sent me, so I also send you.” The sense is that Jesus is a man on a mission, a son empowered and sent. In Chapter 5 of John’s gospel, Jesus is criticized for healing on the Sabbath. In verse 23, he says, “The Father is still working, and I am working.” That is a faith held by Jesus himself and capable of empowering his followers.
I don’t know that there is any complete account of the efficacy of believing disciples in the Christian faith. But if you were to look at the place of believing disciples in the Civil Rights movement, you’d have a task worth doing. I wonder if anyone has made a study of that nature, or of the efficacy of people of faith in the educational institutions of the United States? I think of the church- connected private colleges in the middle west as a striking example. Or one could take the history of medicine and ponder the power seen in faith-motivated leaders in hospitals and health care. In John 14, Jesus actually speaks to this connection, making the remarkable assertion that his disciples will perform “greater works” than he has done. So, the disciples who believed in Cana of Galilee are in the front of many other streams of efficacy. The disciples are sent and they are empowered.
As we make our way into the Lenten season, it is appropriate that we pause to appropriate the power that faith provides for the believer. No mass conversions at Cana, but the world-changing efficacy of Jesus was seen as the chief steward of the wine marveled over what had happened to the water in the stone jugs. That power is still available to people of faith. May we claim it to the good of humankind and the fulfillment of God’s intentions.
One further note. Jesus’ disciples are said to believe “in him.” It is not clear what statements of faith would express their believing. Believing does give birth to convictions which have empowering efficacy. They believe in the man Jesus of Nazareth, and the world will know the power of that faith.