Holy Monday Devotional
For Holy Week, Immanuel has created a series of online devotionals. Each devotional is adapted from a 
monologue written by Rev. Aaron Fulp-Eickstaedt. Immanuel will perform these monologues and others at this year’s Maundy Thursday service (April 13, 7:30 pm).
“I was at the meal where Jesus did his first miracle. My family and I were servants in charge of keeping up with the wine. It was a wedding feast, a big celebration, in my village of Cana, in Galilee. Jesus was there with his disciples and his mother, and he was in on the fun. People were having a great time, dancing, telling stories, reveling.
Then the unthinkable happened. We ran out of wine! And we ran out well before the party was supposed to end, a huge embarrassment to the groom. That’s when I heard the mother of Jesus tell him, “They have run out of wine!” What Jesus said to her astounded me. “Woman, what do you have to do with me? My hour has not yet come.” But his mother, she wouldn’t let it go. She called us over and told us to do whatever Jesus told us. So we did.
We filled six large thirty gallon jars with water and then we dipped some out and took it to the steward. A look of amazement crossed his face. “Everyone serves the good wine first, and then waits until the end of the party to pull out the lower quality stuff. But you have saved the good wine until now.” Later, people said that the way Jesus turned water into wine was a sign. But a sign of what? Not just a sign of his power. Not just a magic trick. Maybe it was a sign of his mission. Maybe he was the good wine.
A prayer for the day:
God, we run out of wine, wisdom, and, sometimes, even hope for our future. But by Your grace, we never lose Your abiding presence. Draw especially near to us during this holiest of weeks. Amen.
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