QUALITY and QUANTITY

 

January 29, 2025

John 2:6-10

6 Nearby stood six stone water jars, the kind used by the Jews for ceremonial washing, each holding from twenty to thirty gallons.
7 Jesus said to the servants, “Fill the jars with water”; so they filled them to the brim. 8 Then he told them, “Now draw some out and take it to the master of the banquet.”They did so,


9 and the master of the banquet tasted the water that had been turned into wine. He did not realize where it had come from, though the servants who had drawn the water knew. Then he called the bridegroom aside 10 and said, “Everyone brings out the choice wine first and then the cheaper wine after the guests have had too much to drink; but you have saved the best till now.”

John tells us that these six stone water jars held 20-30 gallons. So that means there must have been at least 150 gallons of wine! Enough for a wedding, and then some. That is abundance!

But there is more than that. This is the best of the best of the best. The steward says, “Everyone brings out the choice wines first and then when the guests have had too much he brings out the cheaper wines. But you have saved the best till now”. Here is quality and quantity!

The Bible says: “Things beyond our seeing, things beyond our imagining, things beyond our hearing … have all been prepared by God for those who love him”. The best he has kept for us.

The Apostle Paul wants us to see this generous heart of God and so he says God works in ways “above all we can imagine or ask” (Eph 3)… so he prays that we know ‘the height and length and breadth of the love of Christ”. Jesus himself speaks often about our generous God giving to us abundantly, “pressed down, shaken together, running over."

I was reading recently about a “box waller”, this was an individual that would go house to house in rural India, selling puffed rice. People would bring their containers to him so that he could fill them. But as he poured the cereal into the containers he banged the sides to make sure more cereal could fit in. As he shook and banged the sides the rice settled so yet more could go in. It was “pressed down, shaken together running over”.

That is Jesus’ picture of our generous God. I mean by any standard 150 gallons of wine is mega, mega abundance. It’s a sign of the way God acts. God is generous. God is Gracious. God is glorious. There we have the GLORY IN THE ABUNDANCE.

In the very ordinary things of life we need to know this is the way God works. God is in the business of taking ordinary things and ordinary people, and transforming them so we can know abundance.