What is God’s grace?
God’s grace is wine that appears out of nowhere when the wine that we humans provide for the wedding celebration runs dry. It is six water basins intended for washing being transformed into nearly three thousand bottles of additional wine, all so that a young couple might not be shamed because they were not able to supply an appropriate feast for their guests. Grace is God’s abundance when our own attempts are meager. Grace is God’s abundance just when it is feared that God does not care.
It is significant that the first sign that Jesus provides in John’s gospel is one in which he provides more joy, more blessing, and more abundance than the couple (or any couple for that matter) deserves. The story of the wedding at Cana is a story of pure, heavenly grace.
And, all of that abundance…all of that grace from Jesus comes because of one simple request. In conversation with Jesus, Mary the mother of Jesus, mentions the problem she sees to her son. “They have no wine,” she simply remarks.
Sometimes, prayer is as simple as that. Sometimes, prayer is simply talking to Jesus as if he were sitting right here…because through the Holy Spirit he is. We do not need the finely crafted words heard from highly trained pastors who write their prayers ahead of time so that they might sound eloquent and theologically precise, images reflecting the biblical tradition.
Our words can be very simple. Actually, prayer does not even need to be thought out very well. The words of prayer can simply tell the truth of a situation: “They have no wine.”
Mary did not go as far as saying, “Please provide more wine.” She certainly did not say, “We know of your divine providence and trust that you can always provide for our needs. We ask that this day your providence shine down on us, your humble servants, that this couple, faulty as their preparations have become, may be blessed by the exuberant bounty of your wine that you provide from your own hand.” No, Mary’s prayer simply tells the truth, “They have no wine.”
It is interesting to note that Jesus really had no intention of doing anything about this situation until Mary asked. Jesus’ response was somewhat dismissive, and by somewhat I mean extremely: “Woman, what concern is that to you and to me? My hour has not yet come."
This dynamic of prayer is not new. Throughout the Bible you see requests being raised up toward heaven and God deciding to change course after hearing the prayer. In the beginning of Exodus when the people of God cry out because of the pain of their enslavement, God hears their groaning and decides to take action (Exodus 2:24).
Later, Moses convinced God not to destroy the people that God had just saved from the Egyptians after they had fashioned a golden calf and started to worship the calf instead of God (Exodus 32:9-14).
When King Hezekiah falls ill and is told by Isaiah that he will soon die, Hezekiah pleads with God to extend his life so that he might get his house in order. God grants the request and the King lives 15 more years (2 Kings 20:1-11).
Then there is the famous encounter of Jesus with the Canaanite woman who asks Jesus to heal her daughter. Jesus initially refuses because it is not a part of his mission, but the woman quite cleverly convinces Jesus to have mercy and show some grace. (Matthew 15:21-28).
All of this is to say that prayer is not simply a form of meditation to calm our fears (though that can be a side benefit). It is an actual conversation with the living God and sometimes God can be convinced to change course and show grace.
So, when you pray, pray boldly.
It is OK to pray for the impossible. It is OK to pray even if you have no idea what you want the outcome to be. It is OK to pray the boldest of prayers. Sometimes, God will agree and wine will appear where there previously was only water.
Take a moment to search your heart. If you could pray anything at all, what would it be? What is it that you want God to hear? What is it that you wish God would take an interest? Take a moment right now to pray boldly.
Mary does “Pray boldly.” She mentions a problem to Jesus and hopes that he will do something about the problem. But, there is a second part to Mary’s prayer. When Jesus questions whether or not this is really something about which he should intervene, Mary says to the wedding servants, “Do whatever he tells you.”
These words cannot simply be overlooked in anticipation of the amazing and miraculous part of the story. Taking time to pause in the story, we see that Mary tells the servants to do whatever Jesus tells them.
What are Jesus’ possible responses here? Jesus could have said, “Go home, the party is over.” Jesus could have said, “I have some wine at my house, go fetch it.” Jesus could have said, “Who needs wine when we could have beer!” In other words, Jesus could have said any number of things.
Mary does not have a certain expectation of Jesus, she simply makes her request and waits to see what Jesus will do…if anything at all.
In all honesty, sometime when we pray boldly, the answer will be “No.” When Mary makes her request, she holds open all the possibilities. In other words, she allows God to be God. She allows Jesus to do as Jesus sees fit. She, herself, is not the savoir of the world; she simply talks to the savoir of the world.
We see this same dynamic going on when Jesus prays in the garden of Gethsemane. Jesus prays boldly that his life be spared, but he is still open to what God the Father has in store.
“And going a little farther, [Jesus] threw himself on the ground and prayed, ‘My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me; yet not what I want but what you want.’”
Jesus has no problem asking for something bold, but he also knows that God the Father will decide whatever God needs in order to bring grace to the world. Therefore, he adds, “yet not what I want but what you want.”
Sometimes, the right answer to our prayer is “No,” and we simply do not know why. But, at other times the water might be turned into wine in an act of abundant and undeserved grace for all. In either case, the way that we the disciples of Jesus Christ pray is the same: we pray boldly and then wait patiently for whatever God has in store.
Do you feel stuck in faith? Do you feel as if your faith has started to dry with no source of living water coming in the future? Then do this one simple act of discipleship: open yourself to the possibilities that God could have in store by praying boldly and waiting patiently.
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