Hebrews 10:5 “Therefore, when He came into the world, He said: "Sacrifice and offering You did not desire, but a body You have prepared for Me.”
In this section we will look at examples in scripture of those who have chosen to walk in God’s perfect will for their lives. Our first example which we will discuss is the Lord Jesus, for He is the ultimate example of one who sought God’s perfect will for His life and then walked in it. Someone will say that we can’t look at Jesus as an example because He was the Son of God, and so He always knew what God’s perfect will was for His life. By saying that however, these people imply that Jesus had God’s blueprint for His life right from the start, even before He came to the earth as a baby, and He just acted out what He already knew. But that is not the case at all. As revealed to us in the above quoted passage of scripture, Jesus knew God’s overall plan for His life, for He knew that He was sent by the Father to die on the cross for our sins. Jesus also knew that the scriptures were written about Him, and so we have numerous accounts in the gospels, of our Lord performing various acts so that the scriptures could be fulfilled (John 19:28). Nevertheless in our Lord’s daily walk on the earth, He had to seek the Father’s will for His life just as we are required to do.
John 2:3-11 “And when they ran out of wine, the mother of Jesus said to Him, "They have no wine." (4) Jesus said to her, "Woman, what does your concern have to do with Me? My hour has not yet come." (5) His mother said to the servants, "Whatever He says to you, do it." … (11) This beginning of signs Jesus did in Cana of Galilee, and manifested His glory; and His disciples believed in Him.”
Scripture teaches us that from childhood Jesus had learnt how to follow the leading of the Holy Spirit (Psalm 71:17). The above quoted passage of scripture is the incident when our Lord Jesus attended the wedding at Canna in Galilee. The evidence is very strong that this particular wedding was for one of Jesus’ younger sisters. They had run out of wine, and Mary’s daughter and new son in law were about to be embarrassed because of this. And so what does Mary do? She goes to her oldest Son Jesus, and tells Him about their predicament. We pick up the account when Mary is speaking to Jesus. We all know the account of how Jesus performed His first miracle by turning the water into wine. But I want to concentrate on what Jesus and specifically Mary said during this encounter. When Jesus replied to Mary, He told her that His time had not yet come. If you study scripture you will see that Jesus only began His public ministry in Jerusalem at the feast of Passover, which took place a short while after this incident, for that was when His hour would have come as predestined by God the Father. Mary didn’t grasp what Jesus had said to her however because it was hidden from her, but nevertheless she knew her Son. And so she told the servants to do whatever Jesus told them to do. Some have thought that Mary said what she said; because she had witnessed miracles performed by Jesus before that time and thus expected Him to perform a miracle for His sister’s wedding. But the Holy Spirit does not lie, and we have read in this account that this miracle was the beginning of signs that Jesus did. In other words, prior to this incident Jesus had not once performed a miracle during His time on the earth. And so rather, the reason that Mary was so confident was because she knew her Son. All through Jesus life as He was growing up in Joseph and Mary’s home He had been led by the Holy Spirit, for although Jesus had not yet been baptized with the Holy Spirit He still had the Holy Spirit living on the inside of Him. And so consequently Jesus always knew what to do in every situation faced by the family. Mary had learnt that whatever crisis arose in their home, that she could go to her oldest Son and ask His advice. Jesus could always advise them what to do, because He was constantly being led by the Holy Spirit. And that included the affairs of life that affected His earthly family. And so that is why Mary told the servants to do whatever Jesus told them to do. She was not expecting Jesus to perform a miracle. She was expecting Jesus to know just where they could get more wine at that time of night, because Jesus had always known in the past just what to do when the family had a crisis.
Michael E.B. Maher
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