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Jesus' Power to Transform
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.” And 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 water jars there for the Jewish rites of purification, each holding twenty or thirty 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 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. (John 2:1-11)
This miracle, turning the water into wine, is probably Jesus’ oddest in my opinion. While most of his miracles seem to have some noble purpose, like feeding the hungry or healing the deathly ill, this one simply fixes an entertaining faux pas. Yet the passage says that this sign manifested his glory. How did it do this?
In John’s gospel, maybe more than the other gospels, the fact that miracles have a greater spiritual significance than what they physically accomplish is made clear by the use of the word “signs” instead of miracles or wonders. Signs point to something, and in John’s gospel, they point to who Jesus is.
There are many ways that the sign of turning the water into wine points to the reality of who Jesus is, but there’s one in particular I would like to consider. This first sign demonstrates that Jesus has the power to transform.
If Jesus has the ability to transform something physical like water into wine, what spiritual reality does that point me to? Jesus has the power to transform you and me, to take us from our sinful, purposeless state and change us into holy people who live up to their purpose of glorifying him.
And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit. (2 Corinthians 3:18)
Jesus’ glory is manifested when sinners are transformed into a people who live up to their original purpose — to be in the image of God. Sometimes this spiritual reality can feel unbelievable: how could I ever be anything that shows the glory of Jesus with all of my failures and flaws? The miracle of the wine is a visual reminder of Jesus’ power to perform impossible, unbelievable, and complete transformations.
