We want Jesus to make things better. But what if he disrupts our normal way of doing life in the process? In these two healing miracles that John records, Jesus shows how deeply He cares for those who are suffering, but He also shows that He will disrupt our status quo on the way to making us well.

It’s a tale as old as time; whenever we turn away from God, we start digging - into work, into Tinder, into Netflix; we never stop looking for life. Jesus knows we're all thirsty, and he approaches the woman at the well to offers a true thirst quencher, something that your soul needs as badly as your body needs water.

All of us naturally put ourselves at the center of the world. Without being transformed, that’s where we try to stay. This story is in the Gospel of John because: God wants us to know that life works best when I remove myself from the center of the world. If you long for saving faith, to deeply love those around you, to have real influence in the world - let yourself go from the center, and rejoice that Jesus is there.

Born again: it's become more of a political category than a spiritual reality in our day and age. So whether you’ve identified as a Christian for decades but don’t feel very born again, or you think that being born again means nothing more than claiming a political identity that you don’t care for: Jesus offers something better. And the life of Nicodemus shows us what it looks like not just to be born again but to live born again.

In the act of becoming a living a sacrifice, our minds are transformed and renewed, and our watching world sees Jesus.

We all live by faith. What does the Biblical author Habakkuk mean that the righteous will live by their faith?

Living by faith means we don't have all the answers and we're not in control of life, but we have a life-giving and joy-filled relationship with the One God who is.

What makes Jesus angry?

Turning relationship with God into a transaction. Turning people into customers.

What does he do about it?

He reveals what’s wrong, and He loves us even still.

Parties don’t work well when the wine runs out.

And it reminds us: whether we are experiencing a party without wine; a car without gas; a bank account without money; a heart without joy; a relationship without love - it’s hard to keep things running when we run out of something vitally important. Whether it is the car or the party or the heart or the relationship, running out makes us feel helpless, ashamed, despairing, sad.

When we run out, we’re tempted to quit, or look for someone to blame, or give up on the possibility of joy.

This, the first of Jesus’ signs, says he has greater plans and higher hopes than that. Jesus is the Lord of the Party who will do whatever it takes for our joy.

Who are you? John 1 is full of a crowd of people asking themselves the same questions you are, and then learning to see themselves as Jesus does, learning to see Jesus as He is. What are you seeing today? Can you see past your performance or your popularity or your past? Can you see that you matter to the one who matters more than anything else?

In the beginning was love. But we know the pain of longing for love and not knowing how to find it.

So John opens his Good News by telling us, all of us:

God is love.

Love came down with Jesus to bring us to God.