Everybody loves weddings, don’t they? Weddings in Jesus’ day were a whole lot different than they are today. Many times today, marriage is looked at as optional or temporary or even a big joke. People meet over a weekend in the Smokies or Vegas and get married in a chapel the same weekend. At the same time more and more people are just living together instead of getting married. It certainly wasn’t that way in Jesus’ day. The first thing that was different, was that many of the marriages were arranged. The older I get, the more I think that wasn’t necessarily a bad idea. The fact that the marriages were arranged didn’t mean that the couple didn’t love each other. It meant that they grew to love each other. Just like couples learn to love each other today. Warm fuzzy feelings and sweaty palms isn’t love—it’s hormones. But sometimes, love can grow out of that. The problem comes when the hormones take over the relationship and are called love. Arranged marriages helped to prevent that. But it wasn’t like the couple was thrown in together as complete strangers. If they agreed with the arrangement, when they reached a certain age, they were betrothed to one another. Betrothal was like the opposite of shacking up. Today, couples live together so they can be sexually intimate with each other without having any of the responsibilities or commitments that go along with marriage. Betrothal meant that the couple had all of the responsibilities and commitments associated with marriage without the sexual intimacy. Sounds like a whole lot better test of true love than today’s way, doesn’t it? And betrothal was serious. It lasted for an entire year and the only way out of it was a divorce. But the fact is that most betrothals were successful. Just like most marriages were. We certainly can’t say that today. For the happy couple in our passage this morning, the time of betrothal was over. Now it was time to get on with the wedding. Most weddings today are over in a few hours, even if you include the reception. Weddings back then lasted up to seven days. The relatives and close friends of the bride and groom would have everything planned out. Either the parents of the bride or the groom or very close friends would act as the host. The reason that Mary is so concerned about the wine in this passage is that she was probably acting as one of the hosts. As such, she was one of the people responsible for all the details of the party, including the food and drinks. Sometime after all the plans were made and everything was in place, it was the time for the groom to make his move. Fully dressed in his finest robes and jewels, in the dark of night he would emerge from his home to go claim his bride. When he arrived at her house, the friend of the bridegroom would announce his presence and call the bride out. Then she would emerge from her house veiled and adorned like a queen. Although she didn’t know the exact time of her groom’s arrival, she was ready when he called. And when he called, she emerged. At that point, they were surrounded by friends, vows were exchanged, a formal document was signed, and they were officially married. But the party was just getting started. After a ritual washing of hands, the wedding feast began. A procession of family and friends would light the way with oil lamps and fill the air with music and singing and dancing. They escorted the bride and groom back to a canopy outside of his parent’s house. There, they presided over the feast which could last up to seven days. That’s when our passage happened—when the party was in full swing. That meant that it would have been a terrible time to run out of food and drinks. Today, if you run out of punch at a wedding reception, it’s really no big deal. Just pour some extra Sprite in the punch bowl and nobody really cares. But back then, it was a big deal. The best case scenario would be that the host would be scandalized forever by the people of the community. They might not even remember who the wedding was for, but they’d remember that Mary let the wine run out. And that was the best case scenario. The worst case would be that the wedding guests could sue the happy couple. There was a law that if the feast was a failure in any way, the guests could sue the groom for up to half the value of all the wedding presents. So this wasn’t a trivial thing. It was a big deal.
Now, before we go on, I think I need to address something. Because when some people see this passage, all they can see is wine. If that’s the case, that’s a shame. It’s a shame to get hung up on something trivial and miss the whole point of the passage. Yes, Jesus did turn water into wine. I have heard some people try to twist the original language to say that Jesus turned the water into grape juice. It’s not true. There is no linguistic or textual basis for making such a claim. We have to face the fact that Jesus turned water into an alcoholic beverage. As is the case in many places around the world, the water was not drinkable in Jesus’ day. In order to kill the bacteria and parasites in the water, something has to be added to it. In many places around the world today and in Jesus’ day, that something was alcohol. And the alcohol was wine. It wasn’t beer. It wasn’t liquor. It was a low alcohol content wine—much lower than the alcohol content in wine today. And even then, it was mixed with three parts water to one part wine. The wine in our passage hadn’t been diluted yet, but it clearly wasn’t for the purpose of intoxication. Drunkenness was strictly forbidden by the Jewish law and was not tolerated in their society. Not just sloppy drunkenness either—even slight impairment was strictly forbidden. So, while it is not OK to deny that this was real wine… by the same token, it isn’t OK to use the excuse that if Jesus turned water into wine, it’s OK to drink. Even one drink of today’s alcoholic beverages produces a level of impairment that is forbidden by the Law of God. If you don’t believe me that even one drink produces impairment, just look at the drinking and driving laws. In every state including WV, .08 BAC will get you arrested for DUI. That is one glass of today’s wine or one beer. A person could have consumed several glasses of diluted wine in Jesus’ day without even registering. But once again, that’s not the point of the passage. John tells us the point of the passage in verse 11. The point of the passage is that this miracle manifested the glory of Jesus Christ. And because of the manifest glory of Jesus Christ, people believed. So, that brings us to two questions. How did this miracle make manifest the glory of Christ? And why did His disciples believe on Him?
First, let’s look at how the miracle made manifest the glory of Christ. It made manifest the glory of Christ because of four things that happened as the change was made from water into wine. The first thing was that the change from water to wine was unseen. Imagine if you had been one of the servants standing there that day. I’m sure Mary was almost in a panic. If you were a servant standing there, you would have fully expected to be running all over the tiny town of Cana buying up every bit of wine they had. And it still wouldn’t have been enough. But Mary didn’t send them out. Instead, she told them to do whatever Jesus asked them to do. And what a wild goose chase He sent them on! He sent them to fill up the water jugs that everybody used to wash their hands in. How crazy is that? But they were good servants, so they did what they were told, no matter how crazy it sounded. Just to make a point, they filled them up to the very top. Then Jesus told them to do something even crazier. He told them to dip out a ladle full of the hand-washing water and take it to the head man. He was going to get them beaten for sure. But, Mary was in charge and she said to do whatever Jesus said, so they were obedient. They carried the ladle over to the head man fully expecting him to spit it out—maybe even spit it out in their faces. But he didn’t. He tasted it with delight. The look on his face told how good it tasted. And then he bragged on it. Not just to the servants. It was so good that he called the bridegroom away from his bride and commended him. This was the best wine he’d ever tasted! But when did it happen? When did the miracle occur? Did it happen in the jugs? Did it happen as it was being scooped up in the ladle? Did it happen as it was poured from the ladle into the head man’s cup? We don’t know. All we know is that it did happen. The change was unseen. It happened at an elemental level where no one could watch what was taking place. There weren’t any bubbles in the water pots. There wasn’t any Hollywood smoke. No shaking. There was no evidence that a fundamental change was taking place. But it did. There was no mistaking the fact that what was, was no more. And what it became was something totally, completely, fundamentally different. The change was unseen. It was also unspectacular.
This certainly wasn’t something Hollywood would have put on. It wasn’t surrounded by hype and pomp and circumstance. This was Jesus’ first miracle! You would have thought there would have been something spectacular about it. Fireworks, shooting stars, angels—something. He didn’t even make an announcement. If there was ever any such thing as a discreet miracle, this was it. He didn’t even touch it Himself! He had the servants fill the pots with water. And then He had them draw out the wine. He didn’t even tell them that the change had taken place. But what a change had taken place. The change was unspectacular. It was also unprecedented.
Nothing like this had ever happened before or since. As the wine ran out, it wasn’t like Mary had any experience to draw from. I don’t believe that she was looking to Jesus to perform a miracle. He certainly never had before. For thirty years, when emergencies happened, Mary had to deal with them just like anybody else. I’m sure that when this emergency happened, that’s what she was expecting to do. Most scholars believe that Joseph had died by this time, so Jesus was the man of the house. She would have naturally looked to Him to do something to fix the problem. Who knows what she was expecting. Maybe she wanted Him to round up His disciples and head into town to buy some more. I’m sure that Mary had sent Jesus on errands before. But not this time. Now was the time for something unprecedented to happen. Now was the time for Jesus to make an unprecedented change to actually create a new wonderful thing out of something ordinary and old. The change was unprecedented. The change was unseen, it was unspectacular, and it was unprecedented. It was also unmistakable.
The people surely would have noticed if they were drinking dirty handwashing water. They didn’t drink water at all, much less at a wedding feast. So, it was obvious to everyone that they were drinking the wine. And, just like the governor of the feast, they knew it was very good wine. The result of the change was obvious to everyone. There was no hiding the fact that this was wine. The taste, the aroma, the color—the fact that this liquid was wine was unmistakable. A change had taken place. A miracle had happened that clearly made manifest the glory of Jesus. Jesus took plain, flavorless, dirty water and changed it into wonderful wine. The change was unseen. It was unspectacular. It was unprecedented. And it was unmistakable. It was a miracle. A miracle that manifest the glory of Christ. But the question goes back to verse 11. Why did that cause the disciples to believe on Him? It caused them to believe on Jesus, because that wasn’t the only miracle that took place that day. Jesus changing the water into wine was just the first miracle. But Jesus changing the hearts of the disciples was the greatest miracle.
The disciples had been following Jesus for a little while. They were curious and were learning from Him. But the true miracle of salvation hadn’t taken place yet. But as that water became wine, their hearts of stone were made flesh. They were brought to new life in Christ. Old things passed away and all things became new.
The change in their lives was unseen. It was a miracle that happened on the inside. You can’t see when Jesus saves a soul. Every individual reacts differently on the outside. Some people cry. Some people shout. Some people don’t do either. But the true change happens on the inside. It is as unseen as when that water turned to wine.
The change in their lives was unseen and it was unspectacular. There aren’t any fireworks that go off when a person gets saved. There are no halos or lights or angel’s wings. Just like there were none of those things when the water became wine. Bells and whistles and spectacular events don’t usually accompany salvation. Because salvation is an inward change. It’s an inward change that is unseen and unspectacular. The change in the disciples’ lives was also unprecedented.
It had never happened before. They had no experience to build on. They didn’t have anything to rehearse or practice. This was brand new. It was brand new, because salvation is brand new. There are those who think you can be saved and lose your salvation and be saved again. That is no more true than if the wine could have gone back to being water. The change had never happened before. And it could never happen again because it was permanent. Just like the change in the disciples’ lives was. Those whom Jesus saved that day were saved for good. They were fundamentally, permanently, eternally saved. They had never been saved before and would never need to be saved again. The change in their lives was unprecedented. It was unprecedented and it was unmistakable.
When Jesus saved those disciples that day, they were unmistakably different. They didn’t act the same. They didn’t talk the same. They didn’t live the same. Did they make mistakes? Did they fall back into sin sometimes? Yes, but they were a completely new creation. They couldn’t live in perpetual disobedience. They couldn’t live in continual rebellion. In other words, they couldn’t go back to tasting like dirty old hand washing water. They were now in Christ and He was in them. They had a new name written in heaven and a new life to live here on earth. The change was unmistakable.
Have you had that kind of change in your life? I’m not asking if you’ve ever walked an aisle. I’m not even asking if you’ve ever been baptized. I’m asking if you’ve ever been changed. Have you ever seen the glory of Christ manifest by His Spirit through His Word? Have you ever seen the glory of Christ and believed in Him? One day before too long, Jesus will return as a bridegroom returning for His bride. The question is, will you be ready when He calls for you? The only way that you will be ready is if He has miraculously changed you from the sinner you were born as to the saint He’s called you to be. Will you allow Him to make that change in you today?
