Do whatever he tells you
Readings: John 2. 1-11
‘Do whatever he tells you’, the words found on the lips of Mary speak of her trust in her Son, she doesn’t fully understand yet, hence the disagreement about His hour not yet having come, but she does understand enough; about his power that he can do something, and about his character that he will do something. And in these five simple words we find ourselves challenged as those who are now both his servants and his friends.
You may remember I preached on this passage around this time last year. And we’d started to look at what this sign, as John calls it, points to; about Jesus as the one who deals with our shame and who brings grace in abundance. That’s what we thought about last year on Epiphany 3. And this year I was going to focus on another of what this sign points to, but then those words of Mary struck me and that sermon will have to wait for 2026.
‘Do whatever he tells you’.
I don’t know about you, but I’m the sort of person who likes to know the whole plan. If we’re doing something together, I don’t really enjoy being drip-fed instructions, I like to have the overview, the run down of what we’re doing and how this is all going to work out. I don’t need to know every step but think of it like Ikea furniture, I’m happy to just follow the instructions but I like to see the picture of what I’m building first. It reassures me that I know what I’m doing and that I’m on the right track as I go through the steps. But God often doesn’t work like that, he doesn’t always give us the endpoint, he just gives us the next step.
It’s true of Jesus here in our Gospel reading this morning. If I was one of those servants I’d want to know what his plan is here. Give me a quick heads up, ‘hey, I’ve got this, the water is going to turn into wine, it’s going to be great, don’t panic’. But he doesn’t do that, he just gives them the next step, and the next step, and the next step. And perhaps as they’re taking this cup or ladle of water to the chief steward they’re wondering if the plan here is just that everyone is so drunk at this point that they won’t notice it’s water.
You know, I’d never really noticed this until this week, Jesus doesn’t even interact with the water to give them some reassurance that something will happen. He doesn’t touch it, doesn’t speak, doesn’t wave his arms around, doesn’t even audibly pray. All he does is instruct, they do, and the miracle happens. The water is changed and now it’s the best wine of the festivities.
‘Do whatever he tells you’.
Do we trust Jesus enough to do whatever he tells us, even if he hasn’t given us the endpoint or the why? Because really this is about trust, when it boils down to it it’s about trust. These aren’t his servants, they might not even know him. Some commentators theorise that this is a family wedding, that’s why Jesus is here, but these servants even if they know him a bit don’t know him really well.
And even if they did there’s nothing about him that means they’re expecting something to happen. This is his first miracle, they’re not looking back to other ones and going ‘something is going to happen, any moment now’. And it’s their reputation that’s at stake here. Yes the groom will get the flack, but who is he going to blame for bringing out water and trying to pass it off as wine? The servants, Jesus can just slip away. They have to trust him.
‘Do whatever he tells you’.
How are we at doing that in our day to day lives? How good are we at trusting that Jesus has got this?
And I don’t mean so much those times where we feel that perhaps Jesus is telling us to do this or that, I’m not talking about those more subjective times, particularly the bigger things, because those take discernment and prayer and wisdom and talking with others, we probably don’t want to rush those and take the time to ensure it is God we’re trying to listen to. It applies to these times yes, but we’d want to put another few layers in too.
But in our discipleship, as we open the Bible and read what it says, as we read of how we are to live, what we are to do and not do. Do we trust enough to do whatever he tells you? Even if we can’t make full sense of it?
Because whilst we’re his servants we’re very different from the servants at the wedding. The servants at the wedding are not his servants, as I say they don’t know him, at least not well. But they listen, and they do. We’re Jesus’ servants, and we do know him, we know who he is, what he has done, we know that he is fully for our good to the point that he will die for us to ensure our good. We know him and we love him, and yet how often do we express less faith than these servants who don’t.
Do we find ourselves dissecting Scripture rather than listening to God speaking through it. For example the Bible says ‘do not murder’. We like that one, that one makes a lot of sense, we get why that’s in there, we get why God would be against murder, we’re against murder, it’s a bad thing.
But when God puts in place boundaries for how we use our finances? For sex? Gives us guidance on how we’re to care for the poor and the vulnerable? Sets rules in place for forgiveness and what that’s meant to look like? Do we listen and do we do even when it doesn’t fully make sense to us? When God tells us to love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us, which includes those we disagree with, and disagree with strongly. Do we do it? And not a pray that God would smite them, or that he’d get rid of them, but pray for their good, and really mean it? Do we pray for those in power in our world, pray for their good, even when we disagree on their policies or think they’re rather useless? Do we still pray that God would bless them and use them for his glory? Do we ‘do whatever he tells you’, even when we can’t fully make it make sense for ourselves?
Because if we only do it when we can make sense of it we don’t trust God, not really. To paraphrase the 4th century north African Bishop St Augustine of Hippo ‘if you believe what you like in the Gospel, and reject what you don’t like, it is not the Gospel you believe, but yourself’.
Do we trust, really trust that he is for our good, enough to do whatever he tells us, even if we cannot make full sense of it in the here and now? It’s tough isn’t it, I’m not saying this is easy to do, it’s hard. But do we trust him enough to do it?
Because when we do something wonderful happens. These servants, they discover two things as they trust Jesus, firstly he doesn’t let them come up short. The story doesn’t end with egg on their face, the water does change, it does become wine, better wine and the party continues. Jesus, as they listen and do, won’t let them fall. Won’t let them down, will not let them reach the end and discover that he’s sold them short, that actually they shouldn’t have listened and things would have gone better had they just trusted their instincts. We reach the end and all is well.
Jesus will not let us come up short if we are listening and obeying. That isn’t to say everything will always be amazing, nothing bad ever happen and if it does it’s because we’re not being obedient enough. It would be great in some ways if that was how it works, at least we could narrow down what the issue is. Terrible in others thought, because lets be honest we’re not always good at listening and obeying. But in the end, on that last day of this age and the beginning of the new, we won’t have been shortchanged, everything will fall into place, as last we will see they why, truly understand. We may not get the picture on the cover of the instructions now, but we will at last see what Jesus has been leading us towards. It will all have been worth it in the end.
And here’s the second thing that happens as these servants obey, they reveal Jesus. They reveal his glory. John notes as the passage ends that Jesus did this first of his signs and revealed his glory. But Jesus’ glory is revealed because these servants obeyed. They’re tied up in it. As I say in many ways Jesus doesn’t ‘do’ anything, but as the servants do what he says, he is active behind it all, and in their obedience the disciples and the servants catch a glimpse of who Jesus really is, see the sign that points them to the reality of who it is in their midst.
As we, those that Jesus calls both his servants and his friends, as we ‘do whatever he tells us’ we too begin to reveal his glory, in our lives, in our difference from the world around us, in him at work in us, we start to reveal who Jesus is, start to become living signposts to the one who has come to save and heal and restore.
As we grow in trust, as we put more and more of our faith in him, he becomes more and more visible in us. Because it is only when we are faithful to him, only when we are trusting him, that that can really properly happen. When we live different, live as Jesus calls, we reveal him to the world.
Again that doesn’t always mean that everyone will see us, if we’re getting this right, and become a Christian. Some will be very opposed to us for exactly the same reason some are drawn, because they see Jesus. But nevertheless, it is in our obedience that Christ is revealed in us, and his glory revealed in our lives.
‘Do whatever he tells you’, in those simple five words of Mary, we find a challenge. A challenge to trust in Jesus. In his character, that he will not let us come up short, that he truly is for our good, even when we don’t fully understand. And in his power, that in our obedience to him he will be at work both in us and in those around us. My brothers and sisters, let us not simply lean on our own understanding, but learn day by day to grow in trust, even when it is hard, even perhaps painful, for he truly is for our good. And in the end, what will come, much like that wine, is far greater than what has gone before.
Amen.