Recently, my church challenged us to kick off 2018 by reading through the Gospel of John. As I began reading through John, I noticed something striking to me in the first few chapters. In chapter 1, John the Baptist points out to his followers that Jesus is the Lamb of God (v.36). Following Jesus, they ask him where he's staying. Instead of simply telling them where, he invites them to "Come and see." One of these followers is Andrew, who immediately goes and gets his brother Peter and brings him to Jesus (v.40-42).
Shortly after this, Philip meets Jesus and tells his friend Nathanael about him. Nathanael is skeptical, so Philip invites him to "Come and see" (v.44-46). Skipping to chapter 4, we see a similar interaction happen with the Samaritan woman at the well. After encountering Jesus, she goes to her town and says to her people, "Come and see a man who told me everything I ever did" (v.29).
What I love about each of these instances is the invitation offered. In each passage, when Andrew, Philip, and the Samaritan woman meet Jesus, their first instinct was to invite their community to meet him and bring them there. It reminds me of hiking ahead of friends and being the first to see a beautiful view or waterfall, and quickly running back to say, "You guys have GOT to see this."
Jesus isn't someone who can just be explained with mere words, he's someone people must experience for themselves.
Juxtaposed between these passages is Jesus' first miracle, turning water into wine. I LOVE that Jesus chose this to be his first miracle, because it reminds me that life with Jesus is one big party, a feast! His first miracle was choosing to keep the party going, and not with just any wine, but the best wine. Jesus doesn't skimp on us, but he lavishly gives in abundance.
As followers of Jesus, our lives get to be this invitation for others to "come and see" what Jesus is all about. And what's great about that is we aren't inviting people to something boring or rigid, but we're inviting them to an exciting feast - to meet the Lord of the Wine.
*Written by Jordan Field*