Am
I Graceful or Censorious?
When the wine ran
out, the mother of Jesus said to him, “They have no wine.”
John
2:3
Warren
Wiersbe, in his book Angry People,
wrote about an incident in the life of Joseph Parker, the great British preacher.
Joseph Parker was preaching at the City Temple in London. After the service one
of the listeners came up to him and said, 'Dr. Parker, you made a grammatical
error in your sermon.' He then proceeded to point out the error to the pastor.
Joseph Parker looked at the man and said, 'And what else did you get out of the
message?' What a fitting rebuke!"
Many
of us today go to church, school, parties to find fault, to gossip, and to
criticize. We so love to find faults and go about spreading it like a forest
fire.
In
Jesus’ day running out of wine at a wedding reception was not a mild social
faux pas, it was considered extremely rude to the guests who had attended the
wedding bearing gifts for the new couple.
In fact, it was more than rude, it was offensive, so much so that there
are actual records from Jesus’ day of family’s being sued for running out of
wine at a wedding. So, the wedding
families found themselves facing an embarrassing and potentially threatening
situation both socially and legally because “the wine gave out”.
When
Mary came to know about it, she could have remained silent like many others.
Being silent would have resulted in the family to be the talk of the town for
not being prepared in organizing a wedding. That sure would be a shame to the
family members.
Mary
opened her mouth but not for gossiping but to solve the shortcomings of the
family. It was the graceful intervention of Mary that resulted in the family’s
pride and prestige being restored.
It
has become an inherent nature for us to find faults in others. Has there ever
been a single day when we have not found fault in one of our friends, relatives
or superiors?
This
lent can we take a decision not to gossip and find fault about others but
rather be a helping hand in restoring them?
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