The Amount of the Miracle:
by Samuel Bland
10/26/2018
I have not made a post here in a long long while, that much is obvious. One reason why is because of something we all experience: life can be just crazy busy. Another reason why I have not posted is because I kept feeling like I need some special revelation or deep insights in order to make it worth anyone's time. I realize though, that we all have different perspectives and thought processes and maybe perhaps my simple thoughts on paper might be interesting enough to read. I also have a tendency to overthink things to the point of paralysis and I end up never finishing a post. In order to overcome this, I plan to force myself to post more in small, simple thoughts, and hopefully it helps you out in some small way.
In the Gospel of John chapter 2, we read about Jesus' first miracle of turning the water to wine (John 2:1-11). I was reading this the other day and noticed a couple things I wanted to share.
Jesus and his mother Mary were at a marriage gathering and the wine had run out. After Mary informed Jesus of the situation, she turned to the servants and said to do whatever He tells them to do. As we later read, the servants took her words literally and followed her instructions exactly.
Jesus then comes and tells the servants to fill six waterpots with water. The servants did exactly that. In fact, the Bible says that they filled the waterpots "to the brim." You can't get much fuller than that!
The waterpots were then given to the guests and the miracle of turning water to wine occurred.
It is interesting though, the strict obedience the servants displayed by doing exactly what Jesus wanted. More than likely, the servants did not know who Jesus was. However, Mary knew who He was, and the servants knew Mary. When Mary instructed the servants to do whatsoever Jesus told them to do, there was no "personal interpretation" or halfhearted execution. They did exactly as they were told.
When Jesus fed the multitude with nothing more than 5 loaves and 2 fish, the miracle was performed by Jesus and the abundance of the miracle was dependent on Jesus.
In the case of the water to wine, however, the miracle was done by Jesus, but the abundance of the miracle was dependent on the actualized faith of the servants.
The servants had faith in Jesus and did as instructed. God honors faith and thus performed the miracle. This part was beyond the servant's control and ability. There was one thing Jesus did let them have control over though, and that is the measure of the blessing. The amount of the miracle relied on the works of their faith, the feet on their faith, what they did with their faith.
If they had little faith, or the wrong attitude about the situation, the servants could have very easily filled the pots halfway. Technically, they would be doing as they were told and it would require less effort on their part.
If that had been the case, the amount of wine they received after the miracle occurred would have been less. Because of their faith and strict obedience, however, they filled the pots with water to the brim, which resulted in more wine and a more abundant miracle.
This story goes hand-in-hand very well with the story of Elisha, the widow, and the pots of oil (2 Kings 4:1-7).
The widow was poor, had much debt, and had nothing to pay off her debts. When she asked Elisha for help, he told her to go gather as many pots as she could and take the one tiny pot of oil she had and use it to fill the rest of the pots.
A miracle was performed. The one tiny pot of oil the widow had ended up filling all the other pots she had gathered. In fact, I am sure that after the last pot was filled up, she was wishing she had gathered more pots! The widow was then able to take the excess oil and pay off her debt.
Once again we see the miracle being performed by God, and once again we see that God allowed the extent and the amount of the miracle to be determined by the person involved.
