With a Glad and Broken Heart
With a Glad and Broken Heart by Rev. L. John Gable
January 16, 2022
I want my heart to be gladdened by the things that gladden the heart of Jesus, and I want my heart to be broken by the things that break the heart of Jesus.
We see both of these in our Gospel lesson this morning from the second chapter of John’s Gospel. Let’s start with the wedding feast in Cana. A wedding celebration in first century Palestine was a big deal. Families would scrimp and save for years to provide, not only for the couple being married, but also for the guests who would attend the ceremony which would last upwards to a week. Everyone in the village would be invited, as was Mary the mother of Jesus, as was Jesus, who apparently was able to bring His plus 4 or plus 12!
Clearly John is going to tell us a lot about Jesus in his Gospel, ultimately with the intention that we too will come to believe that He is the Son of God and commit to Him as Savior and Lord, but in this opening story he also wants to remind us that Jesus is a pretty regular guy, not the kind of religious fanatic one might expect, not a hermit, a recluse or an ascetic, not a denier of gladness, but a regular kind of a guy who is committed to His family and friends and enjoys going to weddings and parties, something He will be criticized for later in His ministry. John wants to make it perfectly clear that Jesus is not only fully divine, He is also fully human, human enough to meet us in the “everyday” of our lives.
During the wedding celebration the family experiences a social faux paus! They run out of wine, which is little wonder if the festivities last for a week! When Mary hears about this she turns to Jesus and says, “Do something about it!” She, evidently, knew that Jesus had it within His power to do something, but apparently Jesus wasn’t sure He was quite ready. It seems He was caught between the demands of His earthly mother and the timing of His Heavenly Father. No one likes to be pinned between mom and Dad.
The tension is resolved when Mary turns to the servants and says, “Do whatever He tells you.” Friends, that five word sentence could well sum up the demands of discipleship, then and now, “Do whatever He tells you.”
We know the story. Jesus tells the servants to take six very large stone jars which were used for Jewish rites of purification and fill them with water, then to take some of it to the steward, the headwaiter or toastmaster. When they did so, the steward was amazed that this family had done what no other family would ever do; they saved the best wine for last. He didn’t know where the wine had come from, only the servants did. With a glad heart, Jesus made the provision, and He continues to do the same today.
I had a hallway conversation a week or so ago with Todd Townsend, the area director of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, who has an office in our gym. I asked him how the year had ended and he told me that during the week after Christmas they still needed $2500, so he began to pray about it. As he prayed his phone dinged and he saw a text message that someone sent in $500, returning to prayer, a few minutes later his phone dinged again and someone else sent in another $500. Just a few minutes later he got a notice that still someone else had sent them $1500! All of this took place within a few minutes as Todd was praying. I laughed with him as he told the story, then told him he should have been praying for $5000! Jesus is still in the provision-meeting business.
We see here that He is teaching a lesson though that has to do with more than just wine for a party and the symbolism is not lost on John as he tells this story. Jesus is introducing a new age, a new eon, what we commonly call the in-breaking of the Kingdom of God and He uses water and wine to show it. The water in the jars used for ritual purification represented the old order, the old way of practicing religion. Jesus turns that old water in to the best wine anyone has ever tasted, representing the new way of life He offers in the Kingdom of God. The Old Testament is filled with images of the Kingdom as a great Messianic banquet, tables filled with an abundance of rich foods and fine wines. Jesus is saying that in Him that Kingdom has come, here and now.
John tells us this was the first miracle, he calls them signs, which Jesus performed and he will frame his Gospel around seven such signs. This one I find to be curious. No fanfare, no angels or lightning or thunder, but it is a start, just enough for Mary and His disciples and the servants to see. As we will continue to see in the weeks to come, there is a lower story being told here, a wedding, a depletion of wine and the best being served last, and there is also an upper story of how God is at work even in the everyday, ordinary events of our lives if we have eyes and ears and hearts open to see it.
This first lesson gives us a glimpse in to what makes Jesus glad…family, friendships, celebrations. We will also come to see that His heart is gladdened when His teachings are taken to heart and put in to practice: love of God and caring for the needs of neighbors; when the lost are found and the prodigal returns home; when seeds are sown which bear fruit and buried treasures are found; when hearts are opened and the fruit of the Spirit flourishes and grows in His followers: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control; when justice is done and mercy is shown and the ways of God are followed. There are many things which make glad the heart of Jesus, which should lead us to ask the question, “Is my heart made glad when I do the things which make His heart glad? As one who is called by His name, am I doing whatever He tells me to do?”
The second story in our Gospel lesson sets the stage for the second question we should be asking ourselves: is my heart being broken by the things which break His heart?
We see a very different side of Jesus in this story, a side which catches some people off guard, they don’t expect to see this kind of reaction from “gentle Jesus, meek and mild”, and it actually offends some who hear it.
After a brief respite with His mother, His brothers and His disciples in Capernaum, the new headquarters for His ministry, Jesus goes to Jerusalem and He is angered by what He sees happening there in the Temple area. Animals (cattle, sheep and doves) are being bought and sold, and money is being changed and exchanged. At issue here is not that this is happening, animals were needed to sustain the sacrificial system of ancient Judaism and Temple taxes had to be paid with Temple coins not the idolatrous coinage of the Roman Empire with the image of the Caesar stamped on them. The issue here was that these practices were being carried out in the Temple, in the sacred house of God. Imagine if we made a practice of cancelling our worship services or moving them to another space because we needed this space for a rummage sale or to collect your tithes and offerings. Nothing wrong with those practices in and of themselves; however, the issue here was “location, location, location” and Jesus was deeply offended that this buying and selling and trading was being done in the Temple. Note how He says, “Take these things out of here! Stop making My Father’s House a marketplace!” Notice how He refers to it not simply as the Temple, but as MY FATHER’S HOUSE. He is personally offended, might we say His heart is broken, by what He sees going on there.
With that He makes a whip of cords and begins driving the dealers out of the Temple and overturning their tables. He is offended by their disrespect for that holy place and their Holy God, His Heavenly Father.
It kind of makes you wonder how He got away with doing this, doesn’t it? Why wasn’t He arrested by the Temple police or stopped by the buyers and sellers? John is making the point of showing us Jesus’ authority. The other Gospel writers will also tell this same story, but each of them puts it right at the end of His ministry, part and parcel to what led Him to be arrested and put to death, but not John. He wants us to know, right from the get go, that Jesus has power to perform signs and miracles and authority even over the rulers and religious practices of the day, then and now.
While admittedly some are surprised, or even offended, by Jesus’ anger and righteous indignation, we should appreciate the Gospel writers’ telling of this story as a reminder to us that there are some things which caused Jesus to get angry, as they should us as well. By anger, I am not talking about our selfish, little outbursts when someone offends us or we’ve not gotten our way. That is more a sign of our immaturity than it is an act of righteous indignation. Jesus’ anger was born of His offense at the things which offend God, and ours should be as well.
What kind of things break the heart of Jesus? It would be safe to say any act of willful sin and disobedience. I believe He is heartbroken by those who hear His message and reject Him; by those who say they will follow Him and then turn back, as well as by those who profess to believe in Him, but then do not put His teachings in to practice. Is He angry at those who do such things? I’m not sure anger is the right word, but I do believe His heart is broken when we do such things as should our hearts be as well.
Dr. Martin Luther King once said, “Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.” We might rephrase that by saying, something within us begins to die when our hearts are not broken by the things that break the heart of Jesus.
- When we say we love God and our neighbors as ourselves, but then do not show that in the way we live our lives
- When we hear the cries of the poor and needy but then deny them help, refusing to give the extra coat or walk the extra mile
- When we witness acts of injustice and discrimination and inequity but refuse to speak or act to make changes
- When we judge others for the speck in their eyes without regard for the plank in our own
- When we pray to be forgiven but then refuse to forgive
- When we, in word or thought or action, belittle, dishonor or disregard the image of God in others.
- I believe that the heart of Jesus is broken when He sees how glad we are to receive His grace and mercy but then refuse to extend it; when we nod in agreement with His teachings, but then refuse to put them in to practice.
I don’t know that Jesus has any plans to come again in anger just to whip us into shape; I prefer to believe that when He comes again it will be to rescue and redeem us in His love; but do I believe His heart is surely breaking by many of the things He sees us do, and not do, in His name.
At the end of each of these stories, the wedding feast in Cana and the overturning of the tables in the Temple, we are told His disciples came to believe in Him, so they continued to follow Him, to walk with Him, to learn from Him, to allow their hearts to be changed and their lives to be shaped by Him.
May this be our prayer as well today, that as our faith is deepened and we grow in our relationship with Jesus that our hearts might be gladdened by the things which
gladden His heart, and broken by those things which break His. And in these ways show that we belong to Him.
Rev. L. John Gable
Tabernacle Presbyterian Church
Indianapolis, IN