The First Miracle: Jesus at the Wedding Feast

Please turn with me to John 2, and we're going to be reading and reflecting on the story of the wedding feast at Cana and the turning of water into wine. Now, while you do that, let me start by telling you, if you didn't know, that I'm a massive cricket fanatic. I'm so bad, or so good, depending on your perspective, that I love watching even five-day test matches. Five days of six or seven hours of bowling and batting for five days straight. Now, one of the things I love about cricket the most is that there are two innings.

There is a team that bats first, and then they bowl, and then they bat again. Or in one-day cricket, yeah, there's a batting team and a bowling team, and then they swap and they take turns. And what I love seeing in cricket is a good run chase. An incredible, tight finish where a ball or a game is won on the very last ball of the game, or, you know, a fumble or the entire drama of a good run chase. Now, if you are Australia, you have bad memories, and if you're South African, you have good memories of a world record-setting run chase by the South Africans a few years ago where they chased down 438 runs in 50 overs, which is an incredible amount, and it was an incredible game.

Now, what I liked about this whole thing was how the drama of the story unfolded. A victory on the last over. Fantastic. Now, if you're not a cricket lover, that's okay, because we all love good plot twists. We all love how the best in the story is saved till the very last end.

A moment where everything just seemed to be plotting along on an expected course, and then suddenly, right before the predictable result, something happens. And it seems that the best was indeed left till the last. You may have had this in your life. You had a date with a pretty girl, and you stumbled all over your words, and you awkwardly knocked the wine onto her lap, and lo and behold, two years later she marries you. Or you were accepted into a job where you totally messed up the interview, and you got a phone call saying that you got the job.

This morning we come to a point in Jesus' ministry right at the start where the unexpected happens. Now, of course, we're used to hearing stories of Jesus where the unexpected does happen, but we'll see that this is the first miracle that Jesus performs, and because it is his first, no one expected it to happen. So let's have a look at John 2:1-11. John chapter 2, verse 1. On the third day, there was a wedding at Cana in Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there.

Jesus also was invited to the wedding with his disciples. When the wine ran out, the mother of Jesus said to Him, they have no wine. Jesus said to her, woman, what does this have to do with me? My hour has not yet come. His mother said to the servants, do whatever He tells you.

Now there were six stone jars there for the Jewish rites of purification, each holding 20 or 30 gallons. Jesus said to the servants, fill the jars with water, and they filled them up to the brim. And He said to them, now draw some out and take it to the master of the feast. So they took it. 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 and said to him, everyone serves the good wine first.

And when the people have drunk freely, then the poor wine. But you have kept the good wine until now. This, the first of His signs, Jesus did at Cana in Galilee and manifested His glory, and His disciples believed in Him. So far our reading. So let's imagine the setting.

Jesus is sitting at a wedding banquet, at a reception. He's told that there is no more wine left. It's all gone. In a culture of hospitality, food and beverage was a huge aspect, and if you ran out, it was a huge disgrace. Mary, the mother of Jesus, somehow finds out about this, and we don't know if she was a part of the bridal party.

Some commentators and scholars think that she was probably involved in some way. It may have been a family member because, you know, how would she have known something like this that wasn't known to the general public? But she knew about it, and she comes to Jesus with this problem. And Jesus seems perplexed by this, and He asked her, dear woman. It sounds harsh here, woman, what does this have to do with me? But it's a bit softer in the original.

Dear woman, what does this have to do with me? Why do you involve me in this? And this is not a surprising question to ask because Jesus is, as we see in verse 2, also at the wedding banquet with His disciples. He is having a jolly old time enjoying the festivities, but Mary comes to Him with this bit of information. There is no more wine.

Why does He need to know that? But something significant is about to take place. Mary has an unspoken belief that Jesus can do something about this, right? That's why she goes to Him.

Jesus can do something to solve this problem, and that is what He does. Six stone jars containing an estimated 450 litres of water is turned into wine. If you can't imagine those massive stone jars, that equates to about 790 bottles of wine. Have you ever seen that much amount of wine? 790 bottles of wine, and that is a conservative estimate.

The wine is served. The master of the feast tastes the wine, and he says in exasperation, everyone brings out the choice wine first. The best wine comes out first, and then the cheaper wine comes out, but you have saved the best to last. And then at the end of our passage, John writes this: Jesus did this, the first of His miraculous signs. Now this last statement gives the context to this entire occasion, to this entire thing that only John records.

Why is a wine drought and a subsequent solution important? How can it be so important, in fact, to warrant Jesus performing His first miracle, and as John says, revealing His glory, His glory made manifest to His disciples? Why is this the first miracle that Jesus does? Couldn't it have been some disability He healed or some dead person raised back to life? Why save some people from egg on their face?

Well, in the gospel of John, John makes several key moments of his of Jesus' ministry and His miracles signposts. He calls specific miracles signs. Semeion in the Greek, and this is one of them. If you study them, you see that they are proofs pointing towards a spiritual truth. For example, the miracle of the 5,000 in John 6, and the giving of sight to the man born blind, John 9, are explicitly mentioned to be signs. Not simply miracles, but signs.

Now, I hope I'm not blowing your mind by saying this, but signs point to something. I have a degree in stating the obvious. But in these instances, Jesus performed these signs in the gospel of John to point to a truth about Jesus. These miracles were a work of power in the physical realm that illustrated a reality in the spiritual. The feeding of the 5,000, for example, John 6:14, is followed up with Jesus teaching the crowd that He is the bread of life.

Remember that? Jesus breaks these loaves of bread, and then He says, I am the bread of life. In chapter 9, where Jesus heals the sight of a man born blind, Jesus begins with the teaching after that, or before that rather, He says, I am the light of the world. And He gives the man born blind light for his eyes. Or a third sign that Jesus performs in John 11, at the resurrection of Lazarus.

Jesus says, after He raises Lazarus from the dead, I am the resurrection and the life. Signs. More than miracles. More than sideshow alleys. And He points to Himself in John 2 in the same way.

Now, what is He saying here? Well, we see strikingly that everything in the story of the wedding feast here in Cana falls into the background, doesn't it? We don't know who the bride is. We don't know who the groom is. We don't know who the wedding guests are.

In fact, Cana, until very recently, some sceptics believed that Cana was made up. It was so small that we didn't know where it is. Until recently, a very small little village in Galilee was found, and we understood that to be Cana. So small, such an insignificant place. Everything falls into the backdrop.

The spotlight is on Jesus. Even though the wedding has very little to do with Him, the scene is set. The table is decked. The actors are in place. The crisis has been verbalised.

There is no wine. Now, what will Jesus do? And it might seem strange, like I said, that Mary comes to tell Jesus about the problem, and His response is, why do you involve me? My hour has not yet come. Now, perhaps Jesus knows that doing something and showing the power that He has been entrusted by God the Father, it will set into place a series of events that will lead to His death.

He knows that my hour, which in the gospel of John is always to do with the cross, He says it's not time yet. My hour has not yet come. Doing something amazing will draw the attention of the people to Him, but Mary is insistent. Insistent. And it is this little bit of faith seemingly that moves Jesus.

Jesus seems noncommittal. He doesn't seem to say yes or no to this. He just asks the question, and Mary just turns and walks away, and as she walks out the door, I can imagine this, or down the hallway, she just turns to one of the servants and says, whatever He says, do. There is a little whiff of faith here. There is a little indication that whatever the decision is, it is right, and you should do that.

Jesus' response is in the affirmative. He actually does what Mary has asked, and indeed it does set the ball into motion, for His hour of death will come. His glory has been made manifest in this moment, but His hour will not arrive just yet. But you see, from this moment, the big stopwatch in the story starts counting down. Three years from now.

The time will come. But the question that we still ask is what does turning water into wine have anything to do with Jesus and His ministry? Because we know instinctively, don't we, that God never does anything trivial. God never wastes anything or throws anything away. He doesn't do little tricks.

So what is going on here? Well, three aspects that we see, three things we see from this. The first thing is that the miracle of Cana was a testimony that Jesus was doing something wonderfully new, wonderfully different to what anyone had done or heard or thought about before. After everyone had drunk their wine and enjoyed themselves, and after the whole society of that time would have brought out the best wine first, Jesus brings out the best till the end. This is a sign that God wanted people to see.

This was the physical illustration that points to a spiritual reality, and it is this. That although people knew God, although people were satisfied with the understanding of their religion and their relationship with God then, that religion of works that was so bitter at times but just sweet enough to stomach, just enough to be able to swallow down that bitter taste, God sends Jesus, full of grace. John says, full of love. The manifestation of God's grace and glory. And He comes and He brings something new in Jesus, something sweet.

Jesus comes and instead of teaching about regulation and self-righteousness, He talks about love and grace. Instead of eye for an eye, He said prayer would conquer your enemies. Instead of pointing out the splinter of wood in your friend's eye, He says, realise the two by four in your own. Instead of trying harder to please God, He says, you must be born again. Jesus comes with revolutionary teaching and He offers something so brand new.

And this is what the spiritual reality is of what the master of the ceremony says: you have brought the best out now. God has saved the best till this moment. Now Jesus came and He gave us the law of grace. Jesus came to give us life and life to the fullest, John 10:10. When He preached, He preached a new kingdom, a new world order with new laws to treat people different to how we would normally.

He came and He taught that how we treated the poor, how we treated the sick, the outcast, the marginalised. These things reflected on Him. Whatever you have done to the least of these brothers of mine, you have done to me. And Jesus shows that He has come to give new wine. So this morning, if we're sitting here, realise the heart that is beating in you is not what life is.

Blood coursing through your veins is not life. There is more to life than a warm body. Life is more than surviving. Life is more than going through the motions. In Jesus, we thrive.

In Jesus, we receive something new and wonderful. The second thing we see from this is that a heart needs to be ready to receive this newness. What do you do with new wine? Well, Jesus said this in Mark chapter 2, Matthew 9, and Luke 5. He says, new wine deserves new wineskins.

New wine cannot go in old wineskins. He says, why? Because those wineskins will burst. That wine will be wasted. It's a parable, and it means this.

When new wine, newly fermenting wine, is poured into new wineskins, it stretches. The fermentation process stretches it to its maximum capacity, and that wineskin becomes rigid. Now, if you were to try and use an old wineskin with new wine, it can't increase anymore. It can't stretch anymore, and so it bursts. And the point that Jesus is making in this analogy, in this parable, is that with His teaching will come a radical need to have soft, pliable hearts willing to accept Him.

Willing to accept this law of grace, this law of freedom even. Now, that is hard to understand, isn't it, when we think that His law of simple faith and trust in Him and His finished work should be easier than a religion of works, a religion of striving and of self-righteousness, but it is against our hearts to accept it. Our hearts want hard things. Our hearts are rigid, Jesus says. But Jesus, in saying that there is a new wine, there is a new freshness that He is bringing, says that Christians need to be willing to change.

At the heart of Christianity is an openness to change. The call of repentance is a call to change. The call to put your faith, not in yourself anymore, but in Christ for your salvation is a call to change. Jesus' message needs soft hearts, therefore. If our hearts remain hard at the preaching of His word, we find ourselves just going through the motions.

We may just be going through the motions right now this morning. Sunday after Sunday, the same thing. If we resist the moulding and the shaping of the Holy Spirit, we might not have the new wineskin hearts that God and Jesus requires. This excellent, life-giving wine will be spilled, will be wasted on hard hearts. So the question that I think we always have to ask when we come and we worship God like this, when we open His word, when we pray to Him is, Father, give me ears to hear.

Give me a heart and a spirit willing to change. Lord, when I see this change, give me obedience to do it. Have you allowed yourself to truly believe the good news of Jesus, or are you trusting yourself to be right with God, to work hard to look nice enough in front of the other Christians? Jesus' miracle of water into wine was an analogy of the new wine of the kingdom, but it needs hearts that are humble and obedient to accept it.

So how do we ensure that our hearts are humble and obedient? Well, that leads us to the third point rather. By entering into the bittersweet celebration of Jesus' sacrifice. That is how we receive humble hearts, by entering into the bittersweet sacrifice of Jesus. You will remember, I think, the final moment where Jesus talks about wine in the gospel of John.

I'll give you a Mars bar if you can guess what is the last moment that Jesus talks about wine in the gospel of John. The last supper. The last supper. The very last thing that Jesus does in His earthly ministry also involves wine.

The first thing He does in His ministry, the beginning of His ministry involves wine. The end involves wine as well. And remember what He says there. He says, lifting up the cup, this wine represents the blood of the new covenant. This is the new promise that God is making with humanity.

He says, I won't drink of this cup again until I drink it with all my disciples at the heavenly feast when I return. The new promise that God made in that moment represented by the wine of that cup was that Jesus' blood would be shed and that blood would wash us white as snow. The covenant was that whosoever holds onto the promise that God is loving enough, merciful enough to forgive all our sins, all of our sins, that He's gracious enough to offer up His Son, that He's powerful enough to change our hearts from the inside out to make us be born again, whosoever believes in those promises will be sitting with Him at the wedding feast when He returns. As real as that wine was that the disciples drank, as real as the taste of it was on their lips, so real was the promise of God's forgiveness in that moment.

And Jesus' miracle of this day in John 2, of turning water into wine, casts our eyes forward, looking towards that great day when we will be with God, where we will be with Jesus, celebrating and feasting upon His finished work of the cross. With the perspective of the ultimate heavenly feast before us, we have a hope that cannot be taken away from us. Jesus performed a miracle that day at the wedding banquet. The Bible says when Christ returns, He will be like a groom returning for His bride, and it will be glorious. Christians?

Why will we choose to live sacrificially? Why love this church with your time and your money? Why invest it like so many people did yesterday? Why love the needy? Why do hospital visits for our friends in church who are struggling?

Why do these things? Because when eternity's peace and treasure and love is before us, is selfishness or what we can claim now or the bitterness we may hold in our heart or the pain that we will hold against our enemies, is it really worth it? Is it really worth our while if the future is so majestic, so glorious? The short-lived pleasures of living for self today aren't worth the riches that await us when we hear those words: welcome, son, welcome, daughter. I've been expecting you.

Now Jesus announces His arrival with this miracle. He says that the new wine has arrived, and it shows that God has saved the best till last. But it reminds us again this morning that we have to have wineskins that are receptive to this. We have to hear. We have to believe.

We have to act out of that. And so if we hear His voice calling this morning, if we want to be washed by this blood of His, white as snow, then you will have to have supple hearts to receive it. But the promise is that one day you will have this feast with Him, and you will get to taste the wine that is excellent. You'll get to taste the life that was saved and was the best till now. Let's pray.

Lord Jesus, we thank you for this truth that you have given us, a hope that is always before us, a hope that we'll never be frustrated, a hope that will never be taken from us. Lord, help us to have hearts that are moved by this. Lord, help us to understand that our hope and our trust comes from that great sacrifice of that new covenant, the blood poured out for us as a forgiveness of sin. Father, we pray that we will enjoy that.

Lord, we pray that every day you will strengthen us through those things. And as we live our life, Lord, as we move from this place today, even, that your grace, that your love is stamped onto our hearts forever, and that we move and we act and we live from these truths. Thank you, Lord, that you save the best to last. Thank you, Lord, that we can live in light of the cross. Father, we pray that we will never forget it. In Jesus' name. Amen.