…from the account in John 2
Cana of Galilee–we see Jesus and His disciples attending a wedding there. His mother was also in attendance to celebrate the newly-married pair.
At a certain point, Mary became aware that their friends had run out of wine. Knowing Jesus’ destiny, she was sure that He could provide them with more, as a supernatural sign.
So she came to Him about this problem of lack, which was towards the end of the feast; but Jesus said to her that it wasn’t yet time for His miracle power to be released.
He called her, “Woman,” rather than Mother or Mary, perhaps to remind that He wasn’t just her son, but that He was the devoted Son of God, who needed to follow the things that His Father said should be done.
Yet she said to the servants, “Whatever He tells you, do it,” thereby exemplifying…that she still had faith in Him to help–and faith pleases God–of that, there’s no denying.
Therefore, Jesus must have heard His heavenly Father’s voice on the matter at hand, for the servants soon filled six stone waterpots to the brim upon His command.
The waterpots were there for the Jewish ceremonial washing that was done in that day. So the turning of the water into wine for the wedding brings to mind cleansing through Christ, the new and life-giving way.
He told the servants to draw from the “water” and take it to the head steward to try. Upon tasting it, he found it to suddenly be the best of the wine, and he didn’t know why.
He called the bridegroom to exclaim that the best wine is usually served first. This miracle of Jesus seems also like a prelude to the “living water,” which satisfies our spiritual thirst.
And in these days in which we’re living, we can remember this miracle from the past, which inspires faith that the best is yet to come, for God sometimes saves the best until the last.
P. A. Oltrogge
“And so, dear brothers and sisters, we can boldly enter heaven’s Most Holy Place because of the blood of Jesus. By his death, Jesus opened a new and life-giving way through the curtain into the Most Holy Place. And since we have a great High Priest who rules over God’s house, let us go right into the presence of God with sincere hearts fully trusting him. For our guilty consciences have been sprinkled with Christ’s blood to make us clean, and our bodies have been washed with pure water.” Hebrews 10:19-22 NLT
(other translations call it “a new and living way”)
“Jesus replied, ‘If you only knew the gift God has for you and who you are speaking to, you would ask me, and I would give you living water.'” John 4:10 NLT
