“His mother said to the servants, ‘Whatever He says to you, do it.'” (John 2:5)

This word was spoken by Mary the mother of Jesus to the servants at the wedding at Cana, after they had run out of wine. But there may not be a more apt word for us today, 2000 years later: “Whatever He says to you, do it.”

For those of us who consider ourselves to be Christians, this should be our basic commitment. If Jesus is our Lord, then whatever He says to us, we should do. In Luke 6:46 He asked: “Why do you call Me, ‘Lord, Lord’, but do not do what I say?” Lordship implies obedience; hence where there is no obedience, there is every reason to question the Lordship.

As at the wedding at Cana, no matter how unusual or difficult the Lord’s request of us is, we are to obey it. What must the servants have been thinking, when Jesus commanded them in :7 to “Fill the waterpots with water.” Why would He ask them to do such a thing then? How was that going to help their current problem? But theirs was not to reason why; theirs was to obey: “Whatever He says to you, do it.”

The same should be true for us today. The Lord will undoubtedly ask us to do things which we would prefer not to do; which don’t make “sense”; and which fly in the face of “standard procedure” and worldly wisdom — but He has plans to glorify Himself through our obedience. So again, our part is just to obey: “Whatever He says to you, do it.”

It would be difficult to find a more succinct summary of what it means to follow Jesus as Lord — then or now — than what we find in the seven words which Mary shared with the servants at Cana that day: “Whatever He says to you, do it!”