Read John 2: 1 – 12

Running out of wine at a wedding feast back then, wasn’t just inconvenient, it was a great embarrassment and any family would have struggled to recover from the shame of it.

So, although this particular miracle wasn’t about saving a life, it was about saving a young couple and their family the indignity of having the wine run out at their wedding.  Without Jesus’ intervention this wedding would have been the talk of the town – for all the wrong reasons.

One of the most stand out things about this miracle is the sheer abundance of the wine that was provided out of loving generosity beyond imagining – this isn’t just about the provision of a few bottles of plonk, this is about several enormous vats of wine, far more than could possibly be needed, even for such a big wedding feast which is likely to have been a big community occasion – Jesus creates something like 678 litres of wine!

Now, John is the only Gospel writer to tell us about this event.  He writes about the transformation of water to wine to signify the effect that Jesus can have on peoples’ lives (now as then).  Jesus came (as John tells us later, in chapter 10) so that we might have life in all its fullness – and this wine certainly isn’t just ‘plonk’ it’s the best most full-bodied wine.  Because of Jesus’ intervention, the most delicious wine is provided for the end of the feast!

Jesus’ mother tells the servants “do whatever he tells you”.  So, perhaps doing as Jesus tells us is important in order for transformation to happen. Perhaps we’re required to take those 5 words very seriously.

Of course, Mary knew Jesus very well, so perhaps there’s also something here about what happens when we take Jesus seriously as his mother did, and also as the servants at the banquet did – they were people who probably didn’t really know him at all.  So, here we start to discover that Jesus is not just for those ‘in the know’, an elite few, but for everyone.

Which leads me to notice that the first people to realise what had happened were not the important people there but the lowliest of them, the servants.  They were the only ones who knew that they had put water – plain old water – into the jars and that the best wine came out of the jars.

What do we know about the jars that were used at this wedding feast in Cana?  Well, they were the sort of jars used to contain water for the ritual washing that the Jews were required to undertake to fulfil Jewish Law. But Jesus is doing a new thing with the trappings of ritual and law.  Amos 5: verse 21 says – ‘I hate, I despise your festivals, and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies’.

Jesus is doing a brand-new thing, he will teach in a new way.  This wedding is a foretaste of the great heavenly feast in store for God’s people.  In using the jars that were used for the Jewish purification rites, Jesus gives us a sign (or a clue!) that God is doing a new thing.  From within the old Jewish system, Jesus is bringing purification to Israel and the world in a whole new way.

Jesus begins his ministry by putting joy and celebration into the heart of community.  This miracle has everything to do with abundance, joy, happiness and celebration – remember Jesus didn’t transform wine into water, but water into wine, and not just any old wine – but vast quantities of the best wine!!

Now this miracle was a very practical one, a practical action of Jesus’.  So, what practical action you can take this week to help someone in need? How can you bring joy, or abundance, or transformation to someone’s life?

And how can Jesus transform you? Just ask!

Rev Janine