The Glory of Cana's Miracle
“Jesus saith unto her, Mine hour is not yet come. This beginning of miracles did Jesus in Cana of Galilee, and manifested forth His glory.” — John il, 4 and 11.
How shall we reconcile these statements! Jesus felt that His hour in Cana was beneath His destiny — that He had come into the world for a higher end; and yet it is declared that the miracle manifested His glory. How explain this discrepancy! There is no discrepancy, there is a beautiful harmony. The hour was certainly inadequate to express Christ’s glory. He had a far bigger work to do than the satisfying of a festive moment — a larger mission than the brightening of a social throng. But do you not see that this stooping beneath His own glory is the very thing that makes Him glorious. The miracle of Cana was a sacrifice on the part of Jesus.
It was a diversion from the main line. It drew Him out of His road. It engaged His great powers on an obscure work — a deed of simple domestic kindness whose range would be very limited, and which the outside world would never see. To pass from His own great hour into that trivial hour, to bend from the mountain to the valley, to interest Himself in what was interesting only to another — this was a sacrifice. And the sacrifice was the glory.” He pleased not Himself.’’ His eye was on the height, but He averted it to the plain. He put Himself in the place of those who had nothing in common with Him. He tried to figure the world, not as He saw it, but as see it. He looked at the deficiency of wine from my point of view. The power to do this was the real miracle; it was this that manifested His glory.
Lord of the marriage feast, grant me this power! I have often reached great unselfishness in a cause dear to my own heart; I have toiled for it without murmuring. But if an interruption came, if another asked me to help outside my own mission, I have met the request with impatience. I need an hour of Cana — an hour of Thy marriage feast. I deem my own mission to be the wine of life, my brother’s mission to be only the water. Help me to see the water as wine! Help me to live for one moment in my brother s soul! Help me for one hour to measure the things of life with his eyes! Doubtless I have far surpassed the marriage feast of Cana; I have left it out of sight behind. But give me a microscope by which I may see it again! Give me the microscope of sympathy! Put me in that light where my brother’s little things will be magnified! Show me that Cana is still to him as large as Jerusalem is now to me! Remind me that yesterday Cana was as large to me as it now is to him! Send me back to my yesterday I Send me back to my surmounted hour I Send me back to the days when I spoke as a child, understood as a child, thought as a child! Send me back to the toys I have broken, to the pleasures I have outgrown, to the occupations I have become weary of; let them all live again in the interest for another! I may retrace the steps of my onward march; but the hour of retracement will be an hour of glory.