The Bible is a master piece I think that I will never...

The Bible is a master piece I think that I will never fully understand. What I do understand is how easy it is for some people to devote their entire life to studying the Bible; I guess that is why they are labeled the title “Bible Scholars”. I hope to one day be able to say I have an understanding of the intricate ins and outs of the Bible. I would love to have a better understanding of how the Old Testament intertwines with the New Testament. How one story told in the NT matches and references one from the OT. Just think about all of the imageries and codes that oneself could get lost in studying.

On a sad note, I strongly feel that several of the so called scholars get so tied up in the ins-and-outs that they lose sight of what really matters. In John 8:19-21 Jesus declares “You do not know me or my Father”, “I am going away, and you will look for me, and you will die in your sin. Where I go, you cannot come.” These so called scholars get so tied up in the legalistic views and codes that they truly do not know Jesus or God. They never actually take the time to fully digest the beauty of it all. The Bible is a very beautiful story that gives us the keys to everlasting peace and happiness. If your too busy trying to decipher what the third day means, you might end up missing the bigger picture. (I will talk more about this in a minute.) And not really get to know the one true love we are wired to receive.

One of the biggest issues these scholars face is one of the biggest sins of all. PRIDE. According to Dictionary.com the definition of Pride is: “a high or inordinate opinion of one's own dignity, importance, merit, or superiority, whether as cherished in the mind or as displayed in bearing, conduct, etc.” In other words blinded by what really matters. I believe that this is Satan’s finest attack against mankind. This is far worse than murder, stealing and so on. I believe that the fall of humankind in the garden was due to pride. Satan uses pride to blind men, and this causes men to reject that which is right and good. Until every knee is bowed and every tongue confesses, pride will run wild through our society. The day will come that pride will be dealt with, the day that Jesus returns. Going back to the scholars, they dig into the bible so much that they think that because they can quote the bible verse to verse and cross reference to other parts of the bible they are Godly men and will go to heaven. Not so fast my friend, there is only one way to go to heaven and it is not by memorizing the bible. It is through Jesus.

Now that I have gone off the deep end, I will get back to what I originally started writing about. I am currently studying the book of John. It is a great read. My pastor when he started to preach on John said he is going to offend some people with the talks, and possibly turn off others. I think that is needed, I call it a reality check.

I have been stuck on John 2:1-11. It is the story about Jesus going to a wedding telling his Mom that he is not ready and turning water into wine. In the past before I knew anything about anything in the Bible, I would read this passage and feel very uncomfortable. I was raised to think that alcoholism is bad and that good Christians did not drink. So of course I would get hung up on this verse thinking why is Jesus turning water into wine and providing the guests with alcohol. Since he is doing this it must be ok.

That was then, now I have a better understanding of the whole story and think that it is a wonderful story full of imagery and mystery and when put together with an understanding of the times we are given a snapshot of Jesus ministry and purpose. The whole story in a nut shell is his ministry. First of all, John 2:1 “on the third day a wedding took place this is probably a reference to the 3rd day after the last recorded events, the call of Philip and Nathanael (1:43-51). An interesting point is that if one does take the events of chapter 1 to fill the first week of Jesus’ public ministry, and as such to constitute a parallel with Genesis 1 (the old creation versus the new creation) then the wedding at Cana would take place on the 7th day (Reference from Bible.org)

So we have two things of interest here, the 7th day and the 3rd day. Another interesting note is that a typical Jewish wedding celebration would have lasted a full week. So the wedding would actually be on the 7th day of the week.

In verse three, Jesus mother comes to Him and tells Him they are out of Wine. If one just reads the Bible they would over look part of his response, just as I did until earlier tonight. His response was “dear woman, why do you involve me”? In that time frame as with now it is not polite to refer to your mother as “Dear woman”. However I believe that he refers her to woman instead of mother is because he has begun his ministry, and because of this he mother is no longer mother but as another woman. He is no longer a child of a woman but a Son of God and no longer belongs to flesh. I think that his response is also a response given to say that he will do what he does on God’s time but not by command of the flesh. All this time it is safe to assume that several of the disciples are with him while this conversation is going on.

Mary goes on to tell the servants to do as he instructs. Because they do, I feel that the wedding is of family, so Mary has deep connections to the party. Jesus instructs the servants to poor water into six jugs, these jugs were used for ceremonial washing. This is where you can start picking the story apart, and referencing wine in the OT in Amos, Hosanna, Jeremiah. All of which the disciples would be aware of the references to the OT through their studies.

My thing is this; I do not want to go to deep into breaking down the passage. The point is in this short passage, within a week of Jesus coming into his ministry, his actions are reflecting his life and purpose on this earth. The wine in my opinion is a symbol of his blood. Because the wine is in the ceremonial washing bins, he is telling them that saving the best wine for last is the only way to go, no one will go after me, and only the best will be through me. If you dig too much you will miss the picture, the big picture. However studying the bible and having an idea of what the actual customs were of that time did help me in understanding what is really happening and made it more real.