I am attending BYU-Idaho and this is my first semester. As part of my religion class studying The NewTestament, we were asked to write down three lessons that stood out to us and then pick one to go into more detail on. One of my three lessons is Obedience, the first law of heaven. I choose this, because this is a saying my dad would always use when my sisters and I lived at home as kids. It bring back good memories and helps bring the right ton to the topic of obedience.
John 2:5 His mother saith unto the servants, Whatsoever he saith unto you, do it.
I love this scripture, especially when you take it out of context, but first lets look at it the way it was intended. In the account of John, this is a very powerful and personal miracle that Christ performs for his mother. Jesus and his disciples were invited to a wedding celebration. In the middle of the celebration, the guests are thirsty, but there is no more wine to be had. Mary turns to her son, in full faith, and asks him to fix this problem. Christ performs his first somewhat public miracle. He turns water into wine and he shows his Godly power, even though he was not ready to. He does this, because he loves his mother and is an obedient son.
Christ had a mission to carry out. His ministry of preaching repentance to the Jewish people had only started. I would imagine he wanted conditions to be right in order to continue bringing many to repentance and unto his father. If word got out that he was more than just a teacher, but a man of miracles, that ability to teach would be halted. With this all at stake, Jesus listened to his mother, explained his position, then, Jesus saith unto her, Woman, what have I to do with thee? mine hour is not yet come. Despite this, he still proceeded to perform the miracle. Christ showed us of his perfect obedience to his mother, a promise he made many years before as a boy, at the temple in Jerusalem.
To take a look at my focus scripture, it says His mother saith unto the servants, Whatsoever he saith unto you, do it. Looking at this, by itself without the background story, it sounds like Mary is talking strait to us. Telling us to obey whatever her son, Jesus the Christ, should ask us to do. I love how forward that is. As a mother, she knew exactly who her son was. She had pondered those many things in her heart and been given witness to his Godhood. She knew and in knowing, she had no doubt that he would do this for her, because of the love that is Christ. I dare say, Mary wanted each of us to have that same knowledge of his love on our behalf.
If we are to take that scripture as if she is saying this to us, that would mean, we must be the servants. What would servants of Christ do? They would share the pure love of Christ. We should all want our family, our friends, and complete strangers, to listen to him, to Jesus, the Son of God, and follow him. As his servants, we should be sharing the word to follow him in complete obedience. Obedience is one of those interesting principles to teach. It is better to teach by example than it is by words. That is exactly what Christ did. I know as we turn our hearts and wills over to Christ, in full obedience, we will be blessed beyond measure with peace and joy.
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