Water to Wine: John 2:1-11

Jesus kept a wedding reception going. How? Here’s the history of the event.

Jesus, His Mother and His disciples attended a wedding feast in Cana of Galilee. Cana would have been a small village with just a few hundred people. In a small village like Cana a wedding feast would have been a big deal in the community and would have been a major event in the lives of the families involved. Such an event would be a celebration, the memory of which would stay with you for the rest of your life!

Suddenly a crisis arises! They ran out of wine!

That’s like the bar going dry at a wedding reception today that advertised an open bar! Mary, the mother of Jesus speaks to Jesus about this crisis and tells Him they just ran out of wine. Jesus responds to Mary in John 2:4b, “Woman, what does this have to do with me? My hour has not yet come.” (ESV) Jesus’ point to Mary is the time for Him to be known to Israel by way of miracles wasn’t right.

Mary totally ignores Jesus and tells the servants at the feast to do whatever Jesus tells them to do.

Six stone water jars were nearby. These were there to hold water for Jewish purification rituals, but they were empty. These six jars were large. They could hold between 20 and 30 gallons each! Jesus tells the servants to fill them with water. They filed the jars to the brim with water. Jesus tells them to take some out and give it to the master of the feast.

When the master of the feast tasted the water, it had been turned into wine! Figure each of the six jars averaged holding 25 gallons each. Suddenly, the reception went from no wine to 150 gallons of wine! Jesus turned water to wine and kept the reception going!

As you might imagine the master of the feast is a bit blown away and calls the groom over. He tells him the wine is of a fine quality and usually people put out the great wine first until people have had too much to drink and then put out the average wine. He’s asking why the great quality wine is being served late in the reception!

Why would Jesus turn water to wine at a wedding feast where people probably will drink too much? Ephesians 5:18 still says, “And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit.” (ESV) I’m sure that drunkenness is sinful and is the opposite of being filled with the Spirit of God. I have thought about this since about January of 1972 when it seemed wise to me to cease the consumption of alcoholic beverage! I’m not sure about the answer. It could be Jesus didn’t want this young couple to live for the rest of their lives in their home village with the embarrassment of running out of wine at their wedding! I know this much; Jesus is perfect and doesn’t make mistakes! I’m willing to trust Jesus with what he did at the feast to keep it going.

There are public gatherings that are important to people and this wedding was one of them. Jesus did a miracle to keep it going.

Today, we’re in a shut down of many of our public gatherings! The COVID-19 pandemic is closing off school, shopping, eating out in restaurants, funerals and church are restricted along with sporting events. All these public events happen because they’re important to people. I suspect they’re important to Jesus because He still cares about people!

Notice people had to do their part when Jesus turned water to wine. The servants had to fill the water jars with water. I suspect we need to do our part in being able to open our public gatherings today! We probably need to sit 6 feet apart. Our part may mean we wear masks and make sure we don’t have the virus, or a temperature when we go to gatherings. We probably need to wash our hands regularly and practice reasonable hygiene.

How does Jesus do His part? I don’t know. That’s up to Jesus, but when we do our part in faith and trust Him to do His part He will come through. He can keep our public gatherings going like He did for that young couple in Cana of Galilee! He can still turn water to wine! Trust Jesus! He will come through!