Water into Wine
A minister is driving and he’s stopped for speeding. The state trooper smells alcohol on his breath, and sees an empty wine bottle on the floor, and he says, “Sir, have you been drinking?” And the minister says, “Just water.” The trooper says, “Then why do I smell wine?” And the minister looks down at the bottle and says, “My goodness, he’s done it again!”
We’ve all seen those commercials sponsored by the American Dairy Association that picture famous people with a milk mustache. The caption reads, “Got Milk?” Well, it’s a little known fact that that idea originated in the time of Jesus. The Israeli Wine Association had billboards featuring the caption, “Got Wine?” And that was a question that was being asked in this morning’s Scripture reading about a wedding feast.
Weddings are great opportunities for celebration. Of course, as we’ve seen from those video shows and maybe your own experiences, many things can and do go wrong at weddings today.
The best man faints. The organ doesn’t work. A fight breaks out in the pews between the new in-laws. Someone forgets the rings. A priest’s robe catches fire. Someone forgets to prepare the communion elements.
That happened at our wedding. At the time we didn’t realize it. But the minister’s wife was up front as part of a sextet singing during the ceremony. During a prayer we heard someone leave & go down the back stairs. Then during the next prayer we heard someone come back up those same stairs. We found out later what happened.
We work hard to make our wedding day special. But any of you that have planned a wedding know about all the work involved. The bride spends the whole day getting ready; the groom spends 20 minutes. The hall is rented. The minister is ready.
The rehearsal has helped everyone know exactly where to stand. The beautiful cake has been delivered all in one piece. The practice. The preparation. The planning. And something still gets messed up.
Weddings are supposed to be joyful events. Do you remember your wedding day? Of course you do. Was it joyful? Well now, wait, maybe you shouldn’t answer that. Let me ask this, did everything go as planned? They seldom go off without a hitch.
These things may cause us to get red faces but we usually just laugh a bit and move on - because the really important part of a wedding - the love and the promise that make the covenant - is what’s important.
Weddings were, and still are, a big deal in the Jewish culture. The ceremony would take place late in the evening after a time of feasting. The father of the bride would take his daughter on his arm, and with the wedding party in tow, they would parade through the streets of the village, taking the longest route, so that everyone could come out and congratulate the bride.
Finally the wedding party would arrive at the home of the groom. The wedding actually took place in the front door of the groom’s house. These festivities lasted for days. It was a time of great celebration.
It was on the third day that Jesus and his new disciples were invited to a wedding. Just as they arrive, tragedy strikes! Three days into this week-long party word comes that they’ve run out of wine! This would have been a terrible faux paus and cause great embarrassment to the family.
The bride would have been getting panicking. I can hear her saying to her mother, “My wedding day is ruined! I’m supposed to be filled with joy. But now this happens! All anyone will remember is that we ran out of wine!”
And for whatever reason, Mary got involved in the wine problem. We don’t know why. Maybe it was the wedding of a relative, or even the wedding of one of the younger sisters of Jesus. We don’t know. But Mary knew what to do. She knew where to go. We can almost hear Mary saying, “Don’t worry about it, I’ll talk to my son — he can fix anything.” Now, we all know mothers like that, don’t we?
So, as Jesus and his disciples get to the wedding, his mother comes up and says, “They have no more wine.” Jesus responds, “Woman, what have I to do with this?” It’s like Jesus goes, “What is this, a cash bar? I’m a guest and I have to provide the wine, too?”
I would strongly suggest that none of you men use this response at home with your mother or wife. Take out the trash. Woman, what does that have to do with me? My hour has not come. Sweep the floor. Woman… I’m warning you, but if you do try this, I will pray for your healing, because you may discover that your hour has come sooner than you had expected.
Now this family may not have exhibited a great deal of wisdom in how they planned for the wedding celebration, but the smartest thing that they did was to invite Jesus. The very presence of Jesus at this wedding opened the possibility to a miracle.
Today is cookie Sunday. You need to remember from last week that I’m not Jesus, I’m not even worthy to untie his sandals. So, if we run out of cookies or punch, no miracle will be performed.
So after this little “discussion”, Mary says to the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.” The servants heard Jesus speak, and they responded by beginning the process of filling the stone jars with water. Each of these jars held about 30 gallons of water, and there were 6 jars. That’s 180 gallons of water.
Jesus said to “fill the jars with water” but he never said how full to fill them. I mean full could mean 2/3 or ¾, couldn’t it? Anything over half way is full. At least that’s what potato chip companies seem to think. But when Jesus told these servants to fill the jars, they took him literally, and filled them all the way to the brim.
Then he told them to draw some out and take it to the master of the banquet. He didn’t pour in some wine flavored Gatorade. The water did not just appear to be wine; the water in those pots was transformed into the finest wine these people had ever tasted - better than what they had started the celebration with. Look at verse 10 "Everyone brings out the choice wine first and then the cheaper wine after the guests have had too much to drink; but you have saved the best till now."
Some people have trouble believing this kind of miracle, because they don’t understand the kind of God we have. If you think about it, turning water into wine is something that God does every day. Rain falls on the ground, is drawn up to the branches, and is transformed into the juice of the grape. Water is transformed into wine
Sure that miracle will take longer than just a few minutes or seconds but we need to know that miracles happen when we understand that Jesus abundantly provides for our everyday requests.
“Jesus, we’re out of wine.” Okay. No problem. Fill six 30 gallon jars. 180 gallons of wine. Why did Jesus give so much wine? Because he is an extravagant giver. He never gives just enough; he always gives abundantly. This is the same thing Jesus did when he fed the multitude.
He multiplied five loaves and two fish so that 5,000 men and their families were fed. And when everyone had eaten their fill, there were twelve baskets of bread and fish left over. He gave them more than they could possibly eat. That’s the way God gives - abundantly.
If we look at the first miracle of Jesus we see this truth…Jesus is not just the giver of joy…he is the giver of “abundant” joy. He not only met their immediate need, but he gave abundance. This miracle is a miracle of abundance and extravagance. Jesus turned 180 gallons of water into the best wine.
Now, let’s just think about that quantity of wine for a moment. One- hundred and eighty gallons of wine. That’s 45 quart bottles of table wine, or 2,880 eight-ounce glasses of wine. That’s a lot of wine! That’s abundance and extravagance.
Remember, the wedding was almost half over. There’s no way the guests could have consumed all of that wine in the remaining days of the wedding! This abundance of wine is symbolic of God’s love and grace. There is always enough for everyone and there is always some left over.
As with any story in the Bible, however, we can’t just take them at face value. John’s Gospel is filled with imagery that bears looking at more closely. On one level we have wine for a party. On the next level, a deeper one, we have the abundance and extravagance of changing 180 gallons of water into the best wine. But the deepest level, the heart of the matter, the crux of this miracle is the transformation. More than anything else, this is really a miracle of transformation.
Within this miracle of transformation, we see three separate transformations. First, and most obviously, the water was transformed into wine which we have been concentrating on.
Secondly, the 6 stone jars. It’s interesting that there were 6. Jews regard 7 as a complete or perfect number, so John may be noting that the 6 stone pots stood for the imperfections of the Jewish law. Also, each pot held about 30 gallons of water to be used for purification. Now, 1 cup of water would purify 100 people, so these pots held enough water to purify the whole world, symbolizing the abundant grace for the whole world. But these pots, used to hold water for purification are transformed from ritual washing jars into drinking vessels.
Finally we see that the disciples were transformed. Remember, Jesus has just begun his ministry and just called these four disciples. They felt compelled to follow him, but the jury was still out, They were still not sure, maybe Jesus was sent by God, maybe not.
John tells us the disciples “saw and believed.” They saw Jesus turn water into abundant, fine wine and, in doing so, revealing his glory. They were transformed from a state of unbelief to a state of belief. This is a miracle of transformation. He turned water into wine. He turned grim faces into relieved smiles.
So what does all this mean to us? It means that if Jesus can change water into wine, he can change us, too. He can change despair into hope, bitterness into peace, hatred into love, and sorrow into joy. He turns sin into grace and death into life.
When we decide to follow Jesus, making him our Lord and Savior, we are transformed. Jesus is the “Transformer”, and through his abundant grace we are transformed from plain old water into the finest of wine.
