Creator

John 2:1-12

¹On the third day there was a wedding at Cana in Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there. ²Jesus also was invited to the wedding with his disciples. ³When the wine ran out, the mother of Jesus said to him, “They have no wine.” ⁴And Jesus said to her, “Woman, what does this have to do with me? My hour has not yet come.” ⁵His mother said to the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.” ⁶Now there were six stone water jars there for the Jewish rites of purification, each holding twenty or thirty gallons. ⁷Jesus said to the servants, “Fill the jars with water.” And they filled them up to the brim. ⁸And he said to them, “Now draw some out and take it to the master of the feast.” So they took it. ⁹When 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 ¹⁰and 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.” ¹¹This, the first of his signs, Jesus did at Cana in Galilee, and manifested his glory. And his disciples believed in him. ¹²After this he went down to Capernaum, with his mother and his brothers and his disciples, and they stayed there for a few days.

All of the Gospels are filled with stories of Jesus’ command over sickness, demons, and nature. John is unique in his telling in that he always refers to these events as signs rather than miracles. He sees every miraculous thing as yet another sign-post along the way pointing to Jesus as the Son of God and the One powerful enough to be our Savior. In the very early part of John’s telling of Jesus’ story we find the Wedding at Cana. There are so many different elements found in these 12 verses that one knows by chapter 2 of John that this is a unique story. John is in fact the only Gospel to even share this particular story.

Jesus and his mother have been invited to a wedding. At this point He has acquired at least 6 of His disciples and so they too come along. Weddings were a long affair in Jesus’ day, often lasting 7 days. Imagine having to provide food and drink for a 7 day wedding reception! Well, this groom runs out of wine and apparently Mary is close enough to the family to know about the problem. She, of course, has an easy solution. Make it Jesus’ problem; He will have no trouble solving this dilemma. The brief discourse between Jesus and His mom is incredibly telling. She shares the problem with Him with four words. “They’re out of wine.” Jesus tells her, “Not my problem.” (Translation according to Carolyn – you’ll note I didn’t make the words red.) The most revealing thing happens when Mary simply walks away from Jesus and tells the servant to do as He says. This mom isn’t going to get into it. She has spoken! For me, this speaks volumes about Mary. She isn’t disrespectful but she is insistent. I love that. (Also know that when Jesus addresses her as "woman" there is no disrespect in that either.)

Jesus then turns this into a teachable moment for His disciples. They and the servants are the only ones who witness this first sign. Jesus simply tells the servants to fill the six stone jars (which hold 20-30 gallons each) with water. When that “water” is tasted it has been turned into high quality wine. The One who was there in the very beginning of creation has now revealed Himself to still be the Creator by creating new wine. The disciples see (and taste) that the Lord is good, and powerful, and amazing. Their faith begins to grow. That faith has a long way to go, but this event waters that seed. The Savior is on His way to the cross. No one knows that but Him and this story ignites our imaginations as we follow our Creator to His redeeming work for us.