MONDAY 20th
John 2:1-12
NIV (v11) – ‘What Jesus did here in Cana of Galilee was the first of the signs through which he revealed his glory; and his disciples believed in him.’
ESV (v11) – ‘This, the first of his signs, Jesus did at Cana in Galilee, and manifested his glory. And his disciples believed in him.’
Have you ever wondered what it must have been about Jesus that caused the disciples to be willing to just walk away from their families, jobs etc to follow him for the three years that they spent with him.
Imagine if you were busy at your workplace, and suddenly this guy walks in who you may have seen but not spoken to, you may have heard about but not know too much about and he says to you, ‘Come on put your spray gun down take your overalls off, and follow me.’ (I have used myself as an example as I was a car sprayer) What would I have done, what would you have done? I would have thought about my home, my wife, my family, the mortgage, the bills and I’m sure I would have hesitated and to be perfectly honest I think I would have said something like ‘hang on a minute, I am pretty busy, I’ve got to get this car finished, and well there is my family to think about, come back next week, or next month and I’ll think about it.’ I would have wanted to enter some form of negotiation.
But when it comes to the disciples, we read that Jesus sees them, says ‘Follow me’ (John 1:43 Phillip, Matthew 9:9, Mark 2:14, Matthew) or ‘Follow me and I will make you fishers of men’ (Matthew 4:19-22, Mark 1:16-20, Simon Peter, Andrew, James and John) and they immediately leave what they are doing to follow him. What was it about Jesus that made them do this?
We know from John 1:35 that Andrew was already a follower of John the Baptist and as we saw in an earlier devotion he switched allegiance when he learned who Jesus was as ‘the Lamb of God’, so he was already aware of the cost of discipleship, but there must have been something that caused them to be drawn to Jesus. Was there something about who he was as a person, something in his voice that was compelling, had they seen something of his character and personality that drew them, maybe they had heard something of what had happened in the temple from when he read from the book of Isaiah, (Luke 4) or even had heard some of the message of the forerunner, John. They had seen how spectacular John was in his ministry and this one who was to follow was going to be even greater.
We could give a lot of speculative ideas and thoughts, but what is true is that they gave up their nets, the tax collecting etc and followed him. Now, when we get to the scene in John chapter 2, the marriage at Cana in Galilee, we can see that it is only a few days after Jesus had called the fishermen, (John 2:1) and at this wedding something was going to happen that would convince them that they had done the right thing, that following Jesus was worth doing. And even if they did not really understand too much about him, from then on, they would get to know him more. For our text says, ‘This the first of his signs, Jesus did at Cana in Galilee, and manifested his glory. AND HIS DISCIPLES BELIEVED IN HIM.’
Jesus does call each of us to follow him, initially we do this by accepting him as our Lord and Saviour, by putting our faith and trust in him, that is what the disciples did when they responded, they trusted him entirely. He asks us to trust him, and then after our initial response he challenges us ‘If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it . . .’ (Luke 9:23-24) For most of us following Jesus won’t mean we leave our jobs and give up our families, we follow him from the comfort of where we are, others will have to give up, especially those who commit themselves to serving the Lord Jesus in mission and ministry. Some go abroad and live in completely different circumstances, some remain in what we call the homeland, but for a season, relocate, leaving what was comfortable to serve wherever God has called them, Discipleship costs, but the rewards are high! As you hear the voice of Jesus calling you to follow him, how will you respond?
Finally in Luke’s gospel we have more about the cost of following Jesus, it describes how I said I would have been at the beginning, full of excuses, it is Luke 9:57-61, but Jesus finishes it off by saying (v62) ‘No one who puts his hand to the plough and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.’ Today, if you have put your hand to the plough, that is you have chosen to follow Jesus, keep going, remain faithful, for he will honour you even if at times the going may be tough.