John 2:10c

"you have kept the good wine until now."

'Don't waste the good stuff on them!', I've heard it said. 'Why do that when those who might appreciate it more could benefit more?' I'm prone to think this way, as if there's a hierarchy of deserving grace (an oxymoron). Those with more have worked hard to get where they are, and those with less have what's coming to them. What fine, discriminating taste buds I have. What a discerning mind I possess. Hooey! Rather what a backward, selfish and discriminatory life I lead. President Clinton, of all people, once said, "I want you to imagine what would have happened in your lives if there had been no connection whatsoever between how hard you worked and the results you got, because that is exactly the situation faced by more than one billion people who live on less than a dollar a day. The connection between how hard they work and the result they will get has been broken." How right he is. And that's when it comes to our physical well being. How about our spiritual well being? How hard one works digs them deeper in the hole, and how accepting one is of their bankrupt plight elevates them to a place of receivership by Jesus.

'Save the best for last!', I've also heard it said. This Jesus did, and always does. He saved the best wine for last, when custom would dictate otherwise. Why? Could it be because something better than the wedding feast was coming in Him? Could it be because the discerning, sophisticated guests already received their full and the less fortunate would now know, taste and enjoy something even better than the guests of honor? Could it be because "many who are first will be last, and the last, first"? (Matthew 19:30). Yes, all this and more I'm sure.

How about me? Do I look forward with more anticipation to the feast in Jesus than I do the junk food this present world offers? Do I save the best for the guests with least? Do I see the last as being first and the first as last? No, all this and less I'm sure.

How shall I do as Jesus? By the enablement of Him with the Comforter He sent to reside in my being. There's simply no other way. The gospel's power to save is the gospel's power to selflessly die that others might live.