Miraculous Humanity by H. Jones

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jul 28, 1903

Miraculous Humanity

By H. Jones

AMONG the many lessons which may be learned from the marriage in Cana of Galilee one of the most significant is that Jesus began his wonder-working ministry by a social and not an ecclesiastical act. It is true that in his reply to his mother (who then replied not to him, but to the servants, bidding unquestioned obedience to her Son), we have an initial revelation of the truth that divine authority is his, not hers. But I now draw special attention to the fact that in doing what he did at Cana, and thereby beginning to reveal the power of God, which won the belief and attachment of his disciples, he virtually began to reveal the relationship of our Father which is in heaven to us his children.

Jesus appears at the outset of his ministry as showing his knowledge of and love for man at a feast, and seals forever God’s interest in and concern for social life, involving human love, which surely we may hope preceded this marriage at Cana,—not mere Platonic affection, but love in which the implanted passions of humanity were felt and followed.

This is an initial divine protest against the unsocial asceticism which many have admired as showing the best divine form and use of morality, and as illustrating the true “religious” life. The formulated separation of the sexes as desirable in the interests of the highest Christianity can not be reconciled with the very first act of Jesus Christ himself in the beginning of his ministry.

But there is a still deeper, wider meaning in the whole matter of this miracle at Cana. The works, especially the wonder-works, of Jesus were illustrative. His miracles were parables. They convey a lesson, while they satisfied a need. His actions as well as words were figurative, and have been regarded as such by many expounders of the gospel; and no one of them, perhaps, has a wider significance than the miracle at Cana. It reveals Christ, the Son of God, as rejoicing with those that rejoice, though it be at a village wedding feast, as well as weeping with those that weep, and thus setting his seal of approval upon familiar social relationships.

The thought of water becoming wine is full of instructive significance, showing progress, advance, development in God’s world. There low things are instrumental in producing high results, as (since the fabric of man’s body is built of his food) when corn from the earth passes into the brain of man, or when, through the action of nature, rain and dew are sucked into the grape. Thus the thought of water becoming wine in accordance with the will of Christ, is significantly typical of all true spiritual Christian procedure. The meaner, simpler, original elements of life have a new taste given to them as they are touched by the finger of divine power. The lower instinct becomes a sacred inspiration. Animal appetite is superseded by human love. It is implanted in us by him who has granted its five senses to the human being, but it is sanctified, consecrated, by his Son Jesus Christ. The realm of nature is found to be sacramental as our eyes are opened by the Spirit of God.

So, under Christ, in Christ’s kingdom, water is ever being changed into wine. This beginning marks all his work. And as we are in union with him, enabled to see with his eyes and judge with his judgment, so the presence, power, and operation of God are seen and felt to be everywhere, permeating this world with the savor of a better life, pleading against a gross and carnal use of what God has provided for our sustenance and use.

This, indeed, is far from being felt and understood. Men content themselves with the material employment and application of what can be touched, pocketed, and tasted. But there is a double sense in which all things can be taken and done. He does not think of it, but the laborer who turns the soil in the field with his plow is in co-operation with God himself, who sends the sunshine and the rain. That sense of divine relationship is the most precious and exalting that we can possibly have. It lifts human toil into divine duty, common experience into spiritual perception, and is as much a perpetual wonder-work as the changing of water into wine.

The story of that scene when the ruler of the feast unwittingly admired the way of Christ rather than that of man is full of deep truth, which men generally have overlooked.

The seal of Christ is set at once in the beginning of his ministry upon the simplest social observances, and we have a glimpse of the eternal miracle which is often wrought in lifting a man’s heart out of a lower life, and touching it with a transformation which is divine.—H. Jones, M. A., Prebendary of St. Paul’s.