Devotion: Water, Wine, Wedding ... Why? (John 2:1-11)

Audio file of this devotion.

1 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. John 2:1-11

The first miracle that Jesus performed during His earthly ministry was changing water into wine at a wedding celebration in a small town in Galilee called Cana. If you're familiar with this story, you may have wondered about the way that Jesus responded to His mother when she asked Him to intervene. After all, it sounds somewhat harsh to our ears. Or you may be perplexed by Jesus turning around and doing something right after telling Mary that it wasn't His issue and it wasn't His time. Some Christians are troubled by the vast amount of wine that Jesus made (between 120 and 180 gallons) and the possibility that He may have contributed to drunkenness at the wedding feast.  You might have wondered what it must have been like to be one of the servants whom Jesus told to fill the water jars with water or to be the one that took the ladle full of water to the person in charge of the wedding celebration. You may delight in how the master of the feast was impressed that the better wine had been reserved for later in the celebration when people ordinarily brought out the cheap stuff after the guests had had plenty to drink. But have you ever thought about why Jesus choose this particular setting and action for His first miracle?

Like most of our questions about why God does what He does, the answer to why Jesus chose to perform a miracle at the wedding in Cana is first and foremost to demonstrate His glory. Indeed, the purpose of all of Jesus' miracles was to demonstrate the glory of the God who had come to dwell with us in human flesh so that we would "believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God" (John 20:31) The miracle at Cana was, like all of His other miracles, a sign that God had kept His promise to redeem His people by sending His Son into our world. His plan and purpose were working themselves out in strict accordance with His will. We shouldn't think for a moment that the first sign of our long awaited redemption took place at a wedding and involved changing water into wine by accident or by circumstance. Jesus' response to Mary's prompting clearly shows us that He was acting with great intention in every detail of this miracle.

So, why wine and why a wedding feast? In the first place, wine was a staple in the lives of the people of ancient Israel. Theirs was a place and time when few other beverages could be preserved. The shortage of wine marked a time of hardship (like our "economic downturn"). Accordingly, running out of wine at a wedding feast was more than a social blunder, it was a sign of scarcity and of going without. On the other hand, the abundance of wine was associated with God's favor and with enjoying the plenty of His blessings. Jesus created a very large amount of wine not to keep the party going nor to inebriate the wedding guests, but to show the favor of God to His people as prophesied by Amos (Amos 9:13). A wedding feast was a fitting occasion for the fulfillment of what God had promised through Amos because of the joy that is associated with weddings. The rejoicing of a bridegroom over his bride is a picture of God's joy over His people. Marriage itself is a reflection of the relationship that Jesus has with His Church (Ephesians 5:31-32). The wedding feast that Jesus attended in Cana was the perfect setting for Him to perform His first miracle, a miracle that was meant to demonstrate His greatest miracle: "as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so shall your God rejoice over you" (Isaiah 62:5).