Is Jesus Too Cool for School?

“On the third day a wedding took place at Cana in Galilee. Jesus’ mother was there, and Jesus and his disciples had also been invited to the wedding.” 

John 2:1-2 NIV

Why was the Son of God at a wedding? Didn’t he have more important things to be doing? Cana of course was the setting for his first miracle, but we’re not told that anybody knew ahead of time what Jesus was going to do. 

 

The simple answer: Jesus was at a wedding because he was invited. 

I think at some point or other, we’ve all met people that were “too cool” to give us the time of day. Or maybe they spent time with us, but seemed to do so begrudgingly. Jesus is not like that. If we examine the scriptures carefully, it’s actually quite remarkable how often Jesus is willing to go places where he’s invited. See Luke 5:29, 7:36, 10:38, 11:37, 14:1, 24:28. 

The best part is that Jesus doesn’t even seem to be inconvenienced by these invitations. In Luke 19:5, Jesus basically invites himself to the house of Zacchaeus. In Matthew 14:14-16, we see Jesus having compassion on crowds of people. His disciples tell him to send the crowds away, but Jesus insists on remaining with them. 

So this is something wonderful about Jesus: he loves being with his people! Jesus wants to be invited into my house. He wants to spend time with me. And in every instance listed above in which Jesus was invited somewhere, he either had something incredible to teach or some marvelous miracle to perform. 

In light of this, I think there are four takeaways for us:

1. Invite Jesus to spend time with you and take an extended amount of time to be with him. It is the joy of your Savior to commune with you and connect with you in a deep way! When you’re in his presence, don’t be in a rush or thinking about the next thing you need to do. Just enjoy the time and linger. 
2. Invite Jesus into every situation! Before going into work, church, event, meeting, or activity, ask God that the name of Jesus Christ be glorified in whatever you happen to be doing. The presence of Christ may or may not lead to a powerful miracle. But I think it’s fair to say that the presence of Christ does not leave a situation unchanged!
3. Have an approachable and invite-able spirit! Put another way, don’t be “too busy”. When someone wants to spend time with you or needs your attention, don’t be quick to blow them off. Yes, I understand the importance of boundaries with some people. And yes, life can get hectic and we can’t always be available. But even then we can still respond to people with an earnest and caring heart that wants to give them the time of day. 
4. Learn to love quality time with the body of Christ. I’ll confess. This is probably the hardest one for me personally. It doesn’t take too long for me before I get “people’d out” during a social event. There’s a point where I need to go off on my own to recharge. And there’s nothing wrong with that! However, it is important to value and treasure the time I do get to spend with people. The setting may not always be to my liking, but I can learn to enjoy the people in spite of the setting. Pray about this for yourself. And as a bonus challenge, try to hang out with someone you don’t normally talk to! 

Prayer:

Thank you Jesus that you are not far from any of us! Like the father of the prodigal son, you are always ready to welcome us into your arms. Remind us to invite you into every situation, treasure our time with you, and share your same love with others! All praise, all honor, all glory be to God forever in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth! Amen and amen!