Educating Christian Children

The Beginning of Miracles

Professor: Dr. R.J. Rushdoony

Subject: Conversations, Panels, and Sermons

Lesson: 5-7

Genre: Talk

Track: 5

Dictation Name: RR312C5

Location/Venue:

Year:

[Audience Speaker] …Bookstore on Broadview Rd. I didn’t know the fellow very well who ran the bookstore, he has been a member of our church now for some years, Rick Larsen. Rick handed me a book entitled: Law and Liberty and he said: “Here you might enjoy reading what this guy has to say. This guy was Dr. R.J. Rushdoony, and shortly after I devoured that book he said: “You know, you might enjoy this larger work of his called The Institutes of Biblical Law and so I bought that one- Rick has a way of selling books- and I remember I bought that book about Christmas time, and throughout the entire Christmas season I sat reading The Institutes of Biblical Law. And then I went back to the bookstore and they said: “Did you know that there is a Volume 2?” and I bought it as well and found myself reading it the same way; and since then I have been privileged to hear Dr. Rushdoony on tape, and have read most of the books that he has written in an attempt to appreciate his call to the church to forsake the Anti-Nomianism that has so characterized Evangelicalism over the past few years- a departure from the law of God- and a call back to the church to live out its faith by obedience to God’s Holy and unchanging Law.

Dr. Rushdoony has spoken this weekend at our conference on Revival, Reformation, and Reconstruction and it is our privilege this morning to have him speak to us. His message this morning is going to be The Beginning of Miracles. Dr. Rushdoony would you come and give God’s word to us this morning?

[Rushdoony] Our scripture this morning is from the Gospel of John 2:1-11. John 2:1-11 The Beginning of Miracles.

“2 And the third day there was a marriage in Cana of Galilee; and the mother of Jesus was there:

2 And both Jesus was called, and his disciples, to the marriage.

3 And when they wanted wine, the mother of Jesus saith unto him, They have no wine.

4 Jesus saith unto her, Woman, what have I to do with thee? mine hour is not yet come.

5 His mother saith unto the servants, Whatsoever he saith unto you, do it.

6 And there were set there six waterpots of stone, after the manner of the purifying of the Jews, containing two or three firkins apiece.

7 Jesus saith unto them, Fill the waterpots with water. And they filled them up to the brim.

8 And he saith unto them, Draw out now, and bear unto the governor of the feast. And they bare it.

9 When the ruler of the feast had tasted the water that was made wine, and knew not whence it was: (but the servants which drew the water knew;) the governor of the feast called the bridegroom,

10 And saith unto him, Every man at the beginning doth set forth good wine; and when men have well drunk, then that which is worse: but thou hast kept the good wine until now.

11 This beginning of miracles did Jesus in Cana of Galilee, and manifested forth his glory; and his disciples believed on him.”

This miracle, the first recorded by John, is called “The Beginning of Miracles” and the word is used in the sense of the Alpha and even the Omega of all miracles. That is we understand this miracle, we will understand what our Lord’s ministry was all about. This, the beginning of miracles was a revelation of all the miracles.

It is important to understand that the miracles are revelational. Other people have healed, doctors heal routinely; but the emphasis in the gospels is not on the fact that ‘here is a healed man’ but that Jesus Christ, the incarnate Son of God has healed him; and that the meaning of the miracle transcends the fact of restored health.

40 or 41 years ago it was my privilege to be invited by a very fine Christian doctor, and together with Dr. Van Til we attended a medical society meeting. The reason why this Dr. felt that Dr. Van Til and I should attend that meeting was because the Dr. who was speaking was talking about the relationship of faith and healing, of a religious faith, not a faith in being healed, but a faith that governed the person and therefore was related to the healing.

The Doctor made a very interesting statement, he was a surgeon, and he said: “I have seen over the years that there is a correlation between recovery and a man’s hopes and plans. And if a man is hoping that he can last out the week so that he can see his son or daughter who are coming from a distance, he doesn’t last much longer. But if the man or woman is thinking while in bed: “When I am well and back home,” (not ‘if I am well’ but ‘when I am well’) “There are certain things that I want to do that I should have done, and by God’s grace I am going to do it.” And he said those that looked ahead, past the hospital to the time at home when they could do certain things they felt they were called to do, whether they were great or small, they recovered, they went home, he said. And the relationship was very marked.

Well, this miracle has a like part in Johns teaching of us. Because John in his gospel does not, as do Matthew, Mark and Luke, record a whole series of miracles (all of which are important, all of which in their own way are revelational of God) what the apostle John does is to single out a small handful, and the purpose is to tell us: “This is how as Christians you are to live. This is why you have been restored, made a new creation, called by God to go out and be His own.” So the miracles recorded in John are in particular chosen, because each one reveals a facet of the Christian life. But this one, above all others because it is the beginning of miracles, the meaning, the essence, the heart of all miracles, and the miracles culminate in the triumph over death that was worked in Lazarus.

There was a marriage in Cana [tape skips]

…Now she was helping, she was at work in the kitchen, she was aware of the fact that there was a shortage. This meant that she was a relative of the groom. Weddings in Bible times were very important. The family was God’s basic institution according to scripture, and it still should be. God created marriage in Eden, there was no other institution established in Eden- we can say that the roots of church and state and more were in Eden, but marriage was established in Eden- it is not for eternity, it is for time only, but it is a type of things that are also eternal, as Paul makes clear in Ephesians 5, and therefore marriage is very basic. So much of the imagery, the language that the Bible applies to God is drawn from marriage: “Our Father who art in heaven.” “Thine maker is thine husband.” And so on and on; we are taught to pray in the language of the family: “Our Father who art in heaven.” So the family is very clearly important to an understanding of scripture.

Marriages were very important; the first step was the betrothal, when the two families agreed that they would give their son and daughter unto one another in marriage. After the betrothal the groom to be worked to gain a dowry; he had been doing that already, but he worked to complete the dowry. We don’t know what the exact amount was normally, although Jewish records indicate that in Old Testament times it was about 3 years income. Now consider, all of you men, what that means; multiply your income by three times, and think: “This is what I would have to hand over to the bride’s father to give to her, and it was her insurance money that I would never do her wrong, because if I did I would lose it.” She could not spend it, she held it as a security for her children and for herself.

That was a considerable amount. It tells you how important marriage was; it always began with a parade from the grooms house to the brides house. Even a funeral procession was required in Israel to stop, cease its mourning and for a time follow in the trail of the wedding procession, rejoicing that there was a wedding in Israel. In any ordinary wedding it was three days of banqueting; with a wealthy couple it was a week.

All the friends and relatives came together to help out, by providing the food and the drink and making sure that there was help enough. And the relatives would function as the deacons, the deaconous, because the word ‘deacon’ means ‘a servant’. And so the mother of Jesus, being here at the marriage, and having a hand in the preparation, came out to Jesus where He was with His disciples, and said to Him: “They have no wine.” In other words, “Do something about it.” This was the first miracle, but Mary had no doubt as to who Jesus her Son was, nor any doubt as to what He could do. And being a daughter of Israel, she knew from all of the Old Testament the typology of scripture, how important it was, and how fitting an occasion for a great miracle there was here in Cana of Galilee, a wedding. So she was in effect saying to Jesus: “This is an opportunity sent from your Father. Here, at a wedding, reveal yourself!” And Jesus saith unto her: “Woman, what have I to do with thee? Mine hour is not yet come.”

Now the trouble with that in English is, it doesn’t read right, because the word ‘woman’ doesn’t convey the force of the Greek term which perhaps would be better translated as ‘lady’. It was a term that could be applied even to Queens, and it was not derogatory, it was a term of respect and honor for any woman. So while our Lord called her ‘lady’ and said “What have I to do with thee? I am no longer your son, to be commanded by you. Mine hour is not yet come. This is not the time for the revelation of my messianic destiny.” Well, Mary was a good mother, she knew her son, she knew that He had not said ‘no’. So she said unto the servants: “Whatsoever He saith unto you, do it.” Now she was in a position to command, and there were set there 6 water pots of stone after the manner of the purifying of the Jews, containing two or three firkins apiece. We could roughly say that since they were of different sizes, 2-3 firkins each, they probably contained between 27 and 35 gallons capacity; sizeable vessels. Jesus saith unto them: “Fill the water pots with water.” And they filled them to the brim. Well, that took a while because it took a great many gallons to fill each one of those water pots.

Then when they had finally filled them, Jesus said unto them: “Draw out now, and bear unto the governor of the feast.” And they bear it. The governor of the feast was like a master of ceremonies, and in effect it was given to him to test the wine.

“When the ruler of the feast has tasted the water that was made wine, and knew not whence it was, but the servants which drew the water knew, the governor of the feast called the bridegroom and saith unto him: every man at the beginning doth set forth good wine, and when men have well drunk, then that which is worse. But thou hast kept the good wine until now.”

A word or two about the wine. The Jews then, as now, have a deserved reputation for being a sober people, not given to drinking. An alcoholic Jew, even today, is a rarity; a great rarity. Studies have been made of the rate of alcoholism in all the various races, and there is a physiological correlation between the ability of some people to hold their liquor, and of others not to hold it. But the Jews went a step further. Water in those days, and still in many parts of the country, is dangerous to drink; many areas of the world, if you go there and are knowledgeable, you prepare by either not drinking water, or taking some purifying agent to use.

Well, what the Hebrews and then the Jews did, was to cut the wine 50% with water. That did a couple of things, first it made it non-intoxicating, then second it cleansed the water, because red wine to this day, and it has been used by armies on the march for millennia, as a preventative against epidemics, stomach disorders, because red wine tends to kill such things. Of course a great many people apparently believe in over-kill. (laughter)

But red wine was routinely mixed; we have that tradition in communion in that in many churches, the wine is mixed with water, 50%. And so it was that if any had been watching what the deacons were doing, they would have assumed they were simply cutting the wine by 50%, these deacons or servants.

Now, this is a curious miracle. Our Lord was insistent that each of these water pots be filled to the brim, so that everyone going and coming could see that it was water, entirely, to the brim. The miracle created an amazement: “The very best wine! Amazing! You did not try to impress people the first day, or at the very beginning, you waited until now to bring out the best wine. Very unusual.”

Now what was the meaning of all this? The first miracle of Moses was a turning of water into blood, it was a judgement on Egypt, it brought devastation because the peoples were dependent on the stream, a stream that was now running blood. And it was fitting because what Moses had to say to Pharaoh and Egypt was a ministration of death, but by His first miracle our Lord turned water into wine, and this was the inauguration of all that would follow, because His was a ministration of life. He came as the dispenser of that true wine which makes glad the heart of man, as Psalm 104:16 tells us. It set forth here his whole work, turning earth into heaven, making of this old world a new creation, taking us fallen creatures and making of us the sons of God. This was a prophecy of the world’s regeneration; when that day and hour shall have truly come, He himself, the true bridegroom, would take His bride into the eternal kingdom. Christ was here revealed as the true bridegroom, who gave unto His people the dowry of eternal life and joy. He was here revealed as the one who honors the bond of marriage, and the whole of the natural life; and this is a point we must remember, because the pietistic movement within the church has treated the natural life with disdain, and we must remember the natural realm as we see it today is fallen. It was created completely good, it will be recreated totally good and incapable of ever falling again. So our Lord here honors a natural bond, the bond of marriage. He honors a wedding feast, a time of eating and drinking, because the natural life under God is a blessed life.

When I was not yet in my teens, there was a woman in the neighborhood- I never knew what had happened to her husband, whether he was dead or had deserted, I don’t know- but I used to go, very often, to Jacks to swap books with him or to play something or other, and Jacks mother was a very fanatic and super-holy Bible teacher. There wasn’t a church in the entire city that was good enough for her, and she was super-holy; I mean she was so spiritual that on the occasions I was over there and Jack begged his mother to have me stay for dinner, and I would telephone home that I was going to stay and have lunch at Jacks, she always put a show on at the table. She would talk about it being a spiritual hardship that we had to in this mortal flesh, eat in order to live. And she treated it as really painful to put up with something so physical and material as eating and digestion. I was quite young then, and not old enough to be a cynic; but I would wonder why Jacks mother was so big and heavy, especially when she didn’t like to eat and always complained about the necessity.

Well, as I grew up and began to understand a few things, I began to appreciate an elderly pastor, a friend of my fathers, a very vigorous man in the pulpit- he was an old fashioned hell fire and damnation preacher when he was on that subject, but he was full of the glories of life in Christ, and the privilege of being a Christian when he was on those subjects. I remember that he was a very vigorous person, whatever he did; and when he sat down at the table whether at home, at a restaurant or at our place, his wife trotted out a bib and put it on him, because she said: “You always get so excited when you eat, and you start talking and waving your fork and spoon around, you have got to have a bib on you.” And he would grumble about it, but he put it on. But when we sat down to eat I can remember to this day the lip-smacking prayer that that old man gave. He would thank God for the food- he would look it over first- (laughter) and he would praise God that this or that woman, whoever did the cooking, fixed these dishes: “Which are so marvelous, they are a way of praising Thee oh Lord, and of enabling me to praise Thee and give thanks unto Thee.” I loved it, I thought: “This man is a man of God!” and I have never changed my opinion since.

Well, this is what the beginning of miracles, the essential miracle of Cana of Galilee set forth, it revealed Christ as the one who honors the natural bond of marriage, who honors the banqueting and drinking at the wedding, because He both created all things spiritual and material, and blessed them. And saw when he created all things that were very good, and to be held in honor among all His people, He created all things and blessed all things, and also because the natural life as exemplified in marriage, sets forth His relationship as God’s bridegroom to His people, the church.

But, Christ is revealed here also as the giver who gives lavishly, both of things spiritual and things material, both to fulfill our needs and to crown our joys. He did not say, when he performed this miracle, He did not say to Himself: “Well, I’ll make them wine that is just about as good as they’ve had, I don’t want to spoil them.” No, He made the very best wine.

Nothing is second class with our Lord Jesus Christ. My wife Dorothy and I occasionally will be somewhere at a service, and somebody will pray, and it is very upsetting to both of us- do you remember when you were in school and somebodies chalk would scratch on the chalkboard, and what a horrible sound that was? Well, that is what it was like to hear some people pray occasionally as they would say: “Oh Lord, just give me this” or “Just give me that” as though God is a stingy God and we have got to beg for the least little thing. “We are not asking much Lord, just a very little thing; we don’t want the best, you can give us the leftovers and we will take them.” I think that is sinful. I think it’s sinful. When we pray, our Father is richer than we can imagine. He will decide whether we should get what we ask for. But when we pray let us treat Him with respect, not as someone who is so stingy that we have to wine for what we want. We go to Him, make all our wants and wishes known, and then leave it to Him in His wisdom to decide whether or not we should have that. But we don’t hold back on our needs.

I like the saying of Luther- now of course I don’t like that fact that he was not Kosher, but he echoed the saying of rabbis, when he once said with regard to eating pork, he said: “If you are going to eat ham, be sure to get a good piece.” And then he said to people who were sneaky, cowardly sinners: “Sin bravely, God loves a lusty sinner.” What he was saying in effect was: “Stop this crawling around and acting as though God is a niggardly person like yourself. Deal with God honestly, He is the giver who gives lavishly, both of things spiritual and things material; both to fulfill our needs and to crown our joys. What a wonderful savior we have. Don’t insult Him with a stingy type of prayer. Our God is not stingy, our Lord is the king of all kings, and Lord over all Lords.”

Christ is also here revealed as the one whose infinite love is backed by infinite power. What a remarkable thing. We love our children, and our friends, as much as is humanly possible. But our love is not backed by an infinite power; how our heart aches at times when we would do things for loved ones, and spare them the grief they are undergoing, or do things for our children. But our love is neither infinite, nor is our power; but our Lord’s is; because He is the one who is full of grace and glory, He is the one who the renewer of all things. “Behold I make all things new.” This, the beginning of all miracles, tells us of the glorification of the world in His new creation. It tells us of our life here and now, under His transforming power. The regeneration of all things is typified in this miracle. This beginning of all miracles sets forth all the miracles of Christ, culminating in the new creation. It reveals that our life in Christ is to be one of joy. To be one of joy.

There are some people who call themselves Christians who are killjoys. I have known some- thank God very few- whose attitude was that if you laugh too much and enjoy things too much, somehow you were not really a good Christian, and who required the children to sit up straight all Sunday afternoon and read books that they chose for them. They were killjoys. Laughter on the Lord’s day has its place, definitely; I know that John Calvin thought so. Out life in Christ is to be one of joy.

Our Lord says in John 16:24 “Ask, and ye shall receive.” Why? “That your joy may be full.” Not that you can get what you need at the moment, “Ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full.” That is our Lord’s purpose in answering prayers, and so when we pray we should be joyful. Whether we get what we want or not, we should be joyful.

Everything this miracle talks about- teaches us- was set forth a couple of centuries ago by a very, very remarkable Christian; a man who admitted to his extremely evil and profane life from before his teens, and before he was out of his teens he was not only a slave master selling slaves from Africa to the new world, but himself became a slave to a black woman in Africa. Of course, you know who I am talking about, John Newton. John Newton wrote what I believe is the single greatest hymn on prayer, it sets forth this text.

This is what John Newton in one verse said: “Thou art coming to a king; large petitions with thee bring, for His grace and power are such, none can ever ask too much, none can ever ask too much.”

The Lord is interested in us, not merely in our bare needs, but in our joys. Ours is not a stingy God. Let us pray.

At Thy command our Father, we come to ask that we might receive, that our joy may be made full in Jesus Christ. We thank Thee that Thy gifts to us are full measure, heaped up and running over. Oh Lord, heal us of our stinginess towards ourselves and towards Thee, and towards Thy kingdom. Grant that we come to Thee in all things boldly, for Thou hast so commanded us. Teach us oh Lord to pray, to glorify Thee, to cast our every care upon Thee, for Thou Lord carest for us; to know that in all things Thou wilt never leave us nor forsake us, so that we may boldly say: “The Lord is my helper, I shall not fear what man may do unto me.” How great are Thy promises oh Lord, and we praise Thee. Bless these Thy children, Thine under-shepherd of Thy flock; make them more and more Thine day by day, and make them might and effectual in all that they do. In Christ’s name, amen.