John 2:6-11

“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.”

            In the previous passage we saw more of Jesus’ humanity in the way He interacted with his mother, but in this passage Jesus’ divinity is in full display. In chapter 1, John tells us that Jesus was there at the beginning when the world was spoken into existence. Here is an example we can use to see the truth of that when He was on earth. As the gospel goes on, we will see Jesus’ examples of His Godhood get larger. This is one such example moving from the personal—with His disciples—to a more public setting of a wedding.

            After Jesus agreed without explicitly saying so to His mother, He came to these large water Jars. Now these water jars were huge because they held twenty to thirty gallons and there were six of them. Jesus does not do anything halfway—the wedding needed wine and if He was going to rectify that, He would make sure there was enough wine for everyone. John then points out how the servants filled the jars with water which shows that there was not wine in them before Jesus told them to fill the jars. These are all details pointed out by John so that we will know this was not a trick, there were six empty jars then filled with water to the brim. Then, when Jesus told them to, they brought out some and gave it to the master of the feast to taste. This shows the confidence these servants had in Jesus to be able to take out a sample—of water they drew themselves!—and give it right to the man in charge. When the master of the feast tasted it, though, it had turned into wine, and not just any wine, it was the best wine of the night. Jesus did not just do a partial job by giving them normal wine, He gave the best wine.

            There are two statements at the end of this passage to show why this miracle was included. This is the first sign Jesus did that manifested His glory, as we have already seen this is His Godhood and this solidified the disciple’s belief in Jesus. This shows that in some way, after seeing this, the disciples came to a different level of belief, grew more in their belief of Jesus. He went, in their mind, from the man who called them to the God man who can turn water into wine. In this passage His disciples are doing pretty well and don’t need miracles themselves, but God is still causing them to believe more by showing them miracles in the lives of those who did need it.

            As Christians, we can see our own walk with Christ in this story. This was not a miracle for the disciples to benefit physically; it was for their benefit spiritually. We must keep in mind our growth in Christ can come from seeing the miracles Jesus is doing in other people’s lives. We can do this by observing the miracles in God’s Word, too. That is why it is so important to be in His word. Just like the disciples, we pray that we are doing well in our walk with Jesus so we do not need a miracle and can observe God’s greatness in the miracles of others instead. That is also an expression of love, where we rejoice in Christ with those who are rejoicing because of these blessings.

            For non-Christians, life is not about getting or not getting miracles. It is about recognizing the work of God and responding to it. The disciples saw a miracle, and it caused them to believe. As they saw the first demonstration of Jesus’ glory and believed, so you today must take the evidence of His glory and respond to it so you might believe not for Jesus’ benefit but for your own.