On the third day there was a wedding at Cana in Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there. 2 Jesus also was invited to the wedding with his disciples. 3 When the wine ran out, the mother of Jesus said to him, “They have no wine.” 4 And Jesus said to her, “Woman, what does this have to do with me? My hour has not yet come.” 5 His mother said to the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.”
6 Now there were six stone water jars there for the Jewish rites of purification, each holding twenty or thirty gallons. 7 Jesus said to the servants, “Fill the jars with water.” And they filled them up to the brim.8 And he said to them, “Now draw some out and take it to the master of the feast.” So they took it. 9 When the master of the feast tasted the water now become wine, and did not know where it came from (though the servants who had drawn the water knew), the master of the feast called the bridegroom 10 and said to him, “Everyone serves the good wine first, and when people have drunk freely, then the poor wine. But you have kept the good wine until now.” 11 This, the first of his signs, Jesus did at Cana in Galilee, and manifested his glory. And his disciples believed in him.
12 After this he went down to Capernaum, with his mother and his brothers and his disciples, and they stayed there for a few days.
In view of all we have looked at regarding this miracle, John’s deliberate mention of the time and place of Jesus’ first “sign” points to Christ’s first miracle as an anticipation of the third day of the resurrection (Luke 24:46), the guarantee of that day when the ultimate wedding of Christ to His bride is consummated with His return (Rev. 21:1–5).
Oh…there is much going on in that wedding feast and Jesus’ presence…and the sign points us away from itself to what God has and is doing for the salvation of the world.
We have two signs given to us that speak specifically of redemption, two signs given to the church, to both nourish our faith and to point us to the HOPE of our faith. They are the sacraments, the Lord’s Supper and Baptism.
What is their purpose? What is their point? It is the same.
Are they not signs, pictures, physical things with common ordinary elements, water, bread, wine, the ordinary being used to express the extraordinary? These are the means of grace, along with preaching…those mysteries that God sets apart to speak to those who understand the life of faith.
We are pointed away from the signs, away from the water, bread and wine, they are not the point, rather they point us to a greater reality…they bring faith to see the unseen realities of heaven, because they bring us to see Jesus.
Our engrafting into Christ, our belonging to the kingdom of heaven, our feeding, our nourishment and our participation, NOW, in what will be even greater when we see Jesus face to face.
I am going to tell you the most profound thing you will ever read and yet, it is also the most simple thing you will ever read: Everything, everything, if you are a Christian, is about Jesus…It is not about you or me, it is not about what story you want to write, or about fame, or living a long life, or soccer, or work…it is not even about you being happy!
It is about Jesus! And that is what it means to be a Christian. And I can assure you that most of our problems in this sin sick world, why at times we navigate so poorly, is that our eyes are focused on our circumstances or on self, or some passing pleasure…instead of Christ our Savior.
No, you say, my situation is more complicated, more complex…oh…it might be complicated, but the answer is the same, remember do not despise the simplicity of your remedy because of the complexity of your problem. And His name is Jesus.
We will see John consistently make this point. When Jesus turns the few fish and loaves into enough to feed 5000, we spin around, in awe, with chills, but not at the loaves and the fish but at the Man, and the authority and power of Jesus…time stands still and we hear him say, “I am the bread of Life.”
The opening of eyes of the man born blind, another “sign”, doesn’t cause us to chase down the once blind man but to stand in awe and hear Jesus saying, I am the light of the world.
The raising of Lazarus, also called a sign, doesn’t direct our attention at Lazarus, but it is immediately connected with Jesus as the giver of life, as he proclaims: I Am the resurrection and the life.
The sign will always point away from itself to point us to the glory of the One who performs it, or in whose name it was performed. This truth is strikingly made in this passage. Note that everything else remains in the background.
Who was the bride? Who was the groom? Why was Mary there, why was Jesus invited? Were they relatives or friends? Did the disciples know the bride or groom, was one of them friends with the bride’s parents? We are not told…because…it does not matter, it is completely irrelevant to the point that God is making.
The point is to see the glory of Jesus to see and to believe on the King of heaven who has come to give life, who has come to give wine, the new wine and to abolish those physical, worldly things which people place before their eyes as their hope.
Many OT people as well as the NT Pharisees missed the point altogether, and sadly many today are still missing the point. Christianity is not about you finding happiness. It is not about having a sense of peace about your life.
It is also not about the “spirit of Jesus” as some today refer to, meaning it is simply about doing nice things and being generous…like Jesus did…no…Christianity is not about being nice.
It is ABOUT Jesus…Who He is, what He has done and what He is going to do…period. It is therefore about radical transformation…counter-cultural revolution, where sins are forgiven and the dead are raised to new life.
Notice in this passage from the prophet Isaiah how the reference of wine, of feasting and how such imagery is designed by God to push us toward earthly celebrations as pictures of the consummate celebration and the full joy of our salvation: Isaiah 25:6-9
“6 On this mountain the LORD Almighty will prepare
a feast of rich food for all peoples,
a banquet of aged wine—
the best of meats and the finest of wines.
7 On this mountain he will destroy
the shroud that enfolds all peoples,
the sheet that covers all nations;
8 he will swallow up death forever.
The Sovereign LORD will wipe away the tears
from all faces;
he will remove the disgrace of his people
from all the earth.
The LORD has spoken.
9 In that day they will say,
“Surely this is our God;
we trusted in him, and he saved us.
This is the LORD, we trusted in him;
let us rejoice and be glad in his salvation.”
There is a feast, there is food and wine that our earthly feasts picture, but cannot do justice to. John wants us to see more. Every time you sit to enjoy the blessings of God and every time you put wine into your mouth and you feel the warmth of its gentle burn, then, may our minds be taken away with THE feast and THE wine of life eternal, and of the great banquet we anticipate.
There is a wedding feast yet to come, where the wine flows in abundance, without fear of being depleted, and it flows to us who believe, even now, the wine of the kingdom of God, the new wine of life in Christ.
And as Charles Spurgeon wrote, “…if now, with eyes defiled and dim, we see the signs but see not him: O may his love the scales displace, and bid us see him face to face.”
Prayer: Father, so easily is my heart turned toward those things which have nothing to do with the truth of my Savior and His kingdom. So easily I fail to see how You have connected all of life into one glorious tapestry of praise and adoration. Instead, I am drawn to pursue the empty promises of this world even when I know that they cannot deliver what I am so desperately in need of. Forgive me Father. Give my holy aspirations and set my affections only on Jesus who is the truth and hope of every life. In Jesus Name, Amen.
Hymn: For All The Saints