The First Sign

Introduction and Welcome

Good morning everyone! It is my delight and my privilege to be able to bring the Word of God to you all this morning. Today we will be taking a short break from our current series in Exodus and will instead be looking at the gospel of John and the very beginning of the ministry of Jesus. Specifically, we will be focusing on the first “sign” of John’s gospel - the wedding at Cana.

What do you think of when you think of a wedding? I know for me (and I suspect that this is true for almost everyone here who is married) my thoughts immediately go to my own wedding. Hindsight and the years since it happened have somewhat softened the focus of the picture, especially around all the preparation and planning that was required in order to make everything go smoothly, but I do remember that it was a lot of work! When weddings are done right, they are a marvelous time. They mark the formalization of a blossoming relationship, they put Christ at the center and point us to the relationship between Christ and the church, and they tend to just be fun!

Two of those characteristics of a wedding (lots of logistics and a good time) have been true for centuries - even millennia! Today we get to turn our attention to the very first time that Christ was the center of a wedding. History has long forgotten the names of the man and the wife who were joined together that day two thousand years ago, but the pen of John records for us some remarkable truths about who Jesus is and what he has come to do, all through the story of a small-town country wedding where they ran out of wine. So with that in mind, let’s turn our attention to the text at hand, John 2.1-11:

John 2:1–11 ESV

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.

Let’s pray:

Gracious God, we thank you for the gift of your son, Jesus. We thank you that you have given us your Scriptures, and that through the words that were recorded centuries ago we can learn and understand the person and character of your Son. Father, as we take the time this moment to walk through the story of the wedding at Cana, we pray that your Spirit will be leading us and guiding us, that he will be illuminating the truths of Scripture to our hearts and minds, and that was we examine the symbols and the signs that we see in this passage that we would ultimately have a deeper understanding of who Jesus is, what he has come to do, and how we ought to respond to his saving work. Thank you for the opportunity for us to all gather here this morning, and we pray all of these things in Jesus’ name. Amen.

The Symbols

As we walk through our passage today we are going to spend some time focusing on the three main symbols that we see in this little story, looking at them from a different perspective to see how they shed light on the person and work of Jesus. The first symbol is the very event at which the story takes place - a wedding. The second is the ceremonial stone jars that the servants have in the back of the house. The third is the wine that Jesus creates itself. What do these symbols mean? What do they represent? What do they tell us about Jesus and his work? How do they, as the text says, “manifest his glory”? Let’s dig in and find out.

The Wedding

To begin, let’s talk a little bit about what Jewish weddings were like in the time of Jesus. D. A. Carson notes in his commentary that a wedding celebration during that time could last as long as a week, with the family of the groom being responsible for providing everything needed to entertain the guests. Thinking back to the sheer amount of logistics required for my own wedding, where we only had the venue for about 8 hours, I can’t imagine how much work that must have been to get everything organized! A wedding in the town would be a major social event, particularly for those who were not economically well-off. In a small town like Cana, it was very possible that the entire population had been invited to celebrate along with the bride and groom. In fact, it is almost certain that the celebrants of the wedding were personally known to Jesus - the fact that Mary is made aware of the fact that they are running out of wine implies that she at very least has inside knowledge about what is going on - most likely she was actually involved in some capacity in the job of managing the feast. Some commentators have suggested that it was the last minute invitation of Jesus and his disciples that ultimately caused the wine to run out, but given the context and Mary’s apparent role in the wedding planning, that seems unlikely. Jesus and his disciples were likely always on the guest list. This was a long planned event which they had been invited to attend.

There’s something to be said for the Lord’s presence at this wedding. His very presence indicates his approval of the proceedings. It is no accident that he is here and he is present. This should not surprise us. After all, human history began with a wedding! If we look all the way back in Genesis 2.23-24, we read:

Genesis 2:23–24 ESV

Then the man said, “This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.” Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.

We don’t get an elaborate mention of a ceremony or anything quite like that, but the text clearly tells us that Adam and Eve are the model behind marriage. Beyond even that though, the use of marriage as a symbol of the relationships between Yahweh and his people is well established throughout the Old Testament. Yahweh is described as being a husband to his people, such as in Jer 2.32:

Jeremiah 2:32 ESV

Can a virgin forget her ornaments, or a bride her attire? Yet my people have forgotten me days without number.

Unfortunately, as we read here, his people have usually abandoned their marriage vows and have forgotten Yahweh, and are instead seeking after other gods. In the book of Hosea, Yahweh commands the prophet to go out and take a prostitute for a wife, and to love her the way that Yahweh loves his people. Hosea does so, even though he suffers great pain, shame, loss, and embarrassment as his wife returns to her errant ways. Yahweh compares the action of Hosea’s wife to those of the nation of Israel, who he chose to be his people and yet who have abandoned him to worship other gods. Yet after he has pronounced judgment on the people for what they have done, he says this in Hos 2.14-20:

Hosea 2:14–20 ESV

“Therefore, behold, I will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak tenderly to her. And there I will give her her vineyards and make the Valley of Achor a door of hope. And there she shall answer as in the days of her youth, as at the time when she came out of the land of Egypt. “And in that day, declares the Lord, you will call me ‘My Husband,’ and no longer will you call me ‘My Baal.’ For I will remove the names of the Baals from her mouth, and they shall be remembered by name no more. And I will make for them a covenant on that day with the beasts of the field, the birds of the heavens, and the creeping things of the ground. And I will abolish the bow, the sword, and war from the land, and I will make you lie down in safety. And I will betroth you to me forever. I will betroth you to me in righteousness and in justice, in steadfast love and in mercy. I will betroth you to me in faithfulness. And you shall know the Lord.

God has promised that he will betroth himself to his people. And it is at this wedding in Cana that we get the first glimpses of that promise coming to fulfillment. Let’s pick up the narrative in John 2.3-5:

John 2:3–5 ESV

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.”

We talked before about how the groom was responsible for providing all of the food and drink for the wedding feast. To run out of wine would mean more than just embarrassment - it would have been taken as a serious offence, one so serious that the bride’s family could have sued him for damages! In other words, this was not just an inconvenience: it was truly a crisis, especially if the groom was a family member of Mary and Jesus. With that in mind, this interaction between Jesus and Mary is quite puzzling! What does Mary expect Jesus to do about the wine? Does she think that he is going to do something miraculous? That is, of course, possible, but most likely she was just used to relying on Jesus to help her solve her problems. After all, we read later in verse 11 that this was the first of Jesus’ miracles, so it is strange that she would have expected him to do something extraordinary here. Perhaps she thought that he would be able to go to some of their other family in the area to help procure some wine. Regardless, she has clearly turned to Jesus to help solve this problem.

Jesus’ response to Mary has been a source of great debate amongst Christians and scholars. Why does he respond in a way that seems antagonistic? First, we should note that the underlying word used for “Woman” does not carry the same potentially derogatory connotations in the Greek that it does in modern day English. By the same token, it is also not an ancient term of endearment for someone’s mother. It is respectful enough, but it does seem to indicate a certain amount of distance. We are hard pressed to view his next response as anything other than a gentle rebuke: “What does this have to do with me?”

D. A. Carson helps to explain what is going on in these eight simple words:

The Gospel according to John 1. The First Sign: Jesus Changes Water to Wine (2:1–11)

We must not avoid the conclusion that Jesus by rebuking his mother, however courteously, declares, at the beginning of his ministry, his utter freedom from any kind of human advice, agenda or manipulation. He has embarked on his ministry, the purpose of his coming; his only lodestar is his heavenly Father’s will (5:30; 8:29). This must have been extremely difficult for Mary. She had borne him, nursed him, taught his baby fingers elementary skills, watched him fall over as he learned to walk; apparently she had also come to rely on him as the family provider. But now that he had entered into the purpose of his coming, everything, even family ties, had to be subordinated to his divine mission. She could no longer view him as other mothers viewed their sons; she must no longer be allowed the prerogatives of motherhood. It is a remarkable fact that everywhere Mary appears during the course of Jesus’ ministry, Jesus is at pains to establish distance between them (e.g. Mt. 12:46–50). This is not callousness on Jesus’ part: on the cross he makes provision for her future (19:25–27). But she, like every other person, must come to him as to the promised Messiah, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Neither she nor anyone else dare presume to approach him on an ‘inside track’—a lesson even Peter had to learn (Mk. 8:31–33).

Mary could no longer presume that on the basis of her family bond with Jesus that she could cause him to act on her behalf. That was precisely the reason for the rebuke. To Mary, the wine at the wedding is just that - wine. But to Jesus, in light of what he has come to do, the wine at the wedding means something much more. That is why he responds “My hour has not yet come.” The wedding that he is attending is merely a shadow of a greater wedding yet to occur, the wine that is missing is merely a shadow of the endless wine that is promised when the Messianic age is fully consummated in Amos 9.13-14 or Jer 31.12. The bridegroom at this wedding is merely a shadow of the bridegroom at the great wedding that is coming. Jesus himself is that bridegroom - John the Baptist calls this out explicitly in John 3.27-30:

John 3:27–30 ESV

John answered, “A person cannot receive even one thing unless it is given him from heaven. You yourselves bear me witness, that I said, ‘I am not the Christ, but I have been sent before him.’ The one who has the bride is the bridegroom. The friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly at the bridegroom’s voice. Therefore this joy of mine is now complete. He must increase, but I must decrease.”

Jesus is that true bridegroom! This is what he means when he says that his time has not yet come. This is not his wedding. He has not suffered and died and been lifted up on behalf of our sins yet. He has not yet been raised from the dead. He has not yet been glorified at the right hand of the Father. He has not yet united to himself his people.

Friends, I hope you see the wonderful symbolism that we have in our passage here. The story of the first Adam in the garden begins with a wedding. The ministry of the second Adam, the one who comes to make all of the things that are wrong with this world come untrue, that ministry begins at this wedding here in Cana, and it ultimately ends at the great wedding in Revelation 19.6-9:

Revelation 19:6–9 ESV

Then I heard what seemed to be the voice of a great multitude, like the roar of many waters and like the sound of mighty peals of thunder, crying out, “Hallelujah! For the Lord our God the Almighty reigns. Let us rejoice and exult and give him the glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and his Bride has made herself ready; it was granted her to clothe herself with fine linen, bright and pure”— for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints. And the angel said to me, “Write this: Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.” And he said to me, “These are the true words of God.”

Jesus’ ministry of reconciliation, the one where he atones for the sins of his people and unites them to himself, begins and ends with a wedding. This is what he means when he tells us that his time has not yet come.

But church, here is where I want us to take our first application away from this passage. I want us to look at how Mary responds to this rebuke. She could have been resentful - after all, for a son to put distance between himself and his mother at this time in history would have been a scandalous thing! But look at what she does. Instead of getting indignant, instead of rebuking Jesus back, she responds in faith. She tells the servants to: “Do whatever he tells you.”

Friends, when you find yourselves rebuked by the words of Christ or by the words of Scripture, respond like Mary. Respond in faith. Trust that God is going to do something good. This is a pattern that we see repeatedly through the gospels. Someone will come to Jesus with a request that Jesus will refuse to help with at first, but then does so later. Think of Matt 15.21-28, where the Canaanite woman asks Jesus to free her daughter from demon possession. Jesus responds that she has no claim on him, that he has come only to help the lost sheep of Israel. But instead of leaving she responds in faith, begging him to help her and noting that “even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table”. Jesus then commends her for her faith, and heals her daughter. Or think of John 4.47-50, where the official from Capernaum comes to Cana (where we are now!) and asks Jesus to heal his son. Jesus responds by saying that he will no believe unless he sees signs and wonders, but he only asks him again to heal his son. This time, Jesus tells him that his son will live, and the man responds in faith, returning to his house only to be met on the way by his servants who tell him that at the very hour that Jesus said his son would live, his son was healed.

Our Lord knows that we struggle in many ways. We cannot presume upon Jesus. We cannot demand that he do something about our situation. We cannot insist that he act. But the beautiful news is that our Lord is merciful. He knows our needs and delights to meet them. If we come to him in faith, we will not be turned away. So friends, be like Mary. In the moment of crisis, trust Jesus. Do whatever he tells you to do.

The Jars

The story now brings us to the second major symbol in this story - the jars. We read in John 2.6-7:

John 2:6–7 ESV

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.

What is so important about these jars? If you remember your Old Testament, then you will remember that a great deal is made about the distinction between things that are ritually clean and things that are ritually unclean. These jars were used for purification rites, meaning that the water in them could be used to make someone ritually clean if they were ritually unclean. In the time of Jesus, according to the Pharisees, there were a great deal of things that could make someone unclean, so it was necessary to have this water available to perform these purification rites. Elsewhere in the Bible we read about how this was typically done before one ate a meal (Mark 7.3-4). It might seem strange that a house would have a number of these large jars around - after all, a single one would probably provide plenty of water for a typical family to perform these rituals for quite a long time - but it makes a lot of sense in the context of the ongoing wedding. There were many guests who had come to the home and would be dining there at the banquet - surely they would need to have enough water on hand to allow everyone to complete the purification rites before the feast. It seems that they must have used it all as well, because Jesus needs to tell the servants to go and fill the jars with water.

The servants, having been instructed by Mary to do whatever Jesus told them to do, obey. There must have been a spring or a well reasonably close by, because the servants are able to go and fill the jars all the way up, “to the brim”. They were completely full. That is an important detail, because it helps to drive home the nature of the miracle that Jesus is about to perform. No one can say that he simply slipped a little bit of wine into the top of the jars in order to make the water appear to be wine - they were completely full.

At this point, we need to jump ahead a little bit to the symbol of the wine. There are a couple different ways that we can (and I would argue that we ought!) to understand the meaning of the wine. One of them is in the context of abundance, joy, provision, and plenty that we will discuss in more detail in a little bit. But I am sure that you can remember one other very common biblical symbol of wine. Turn with me to Matthew 26.27-29:

Matthew 26:27–29 ESV

And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks he gave it to them, saying, “Drink of it, all of you, for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. I tell you I will not drink again of this fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father’s kingdom.”

Friends, the jars that we read about in this story are not merely convenient water vessels that happen to be standing around in this house in Cana. As stone jars, they had a special quality when it came to ritual purity - the water inside them did not become unclean when something unclean touched the jars. Interestingly, ceramic jars did carry that uncleanliness, so pottery would not have been a suitable material with which to make these purification jars. It needed to be stone - only stone could keep the water inside clean, which could then transfer cleanliness to the person who was washing themselves with it. But herein lies the problem. The water did not in fact truly make one clean. It would not be long before one needed to be purified again. And when the water ran out, you were stuck in a state of ceremonial uncleanliness until you could get more, and then the cycle would repeat itself over and over again.

These stone jars represent the current temple system in Israel. They call to mind what the author of Hebrews says about the temple sacrifices in Hebrews 10.1-4:

Hebrews 10:1–4 ESV

For since the law has but a shadow of the good things to come instead of the true form of these realities, it can never, by the same sacrifices that are continually offered every year, make perfect those who draw near. Otherwise, would they not have ceased to be offered, since the worshipers, having once been cleansed, would no longer have any consciousness of sins? But in these sacrifices there is a reminder of sins every year. For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.

The Law and the rituals fundamentally could not solve the problem of sin. Something more was needed. In this miracle, we see what that something is. The wine here, just as it does in Matthew 26, represents the blood of Jesus. It is only the blood of Jesus that can fill the demands of the Law up to the brim. It is only the blood of Jesus that can atone for our sin once and for all. It is only the blood of Jesus that can do away with the condemnation that comes under the Law and instead replace that with the reconciliation that comes in the confession of our hopelessness and the placing of our trust in the finished work of Jesus on the cross. In this moment, we are getting a glimpse of what is going to come - the ritual purity required by the temple and the Law is going to be replaced with the true and actual purity that is ultimately offered by the blood of Jesus. Behold, the old is gone, and the new has come.

Friends, I’ll point you to another application from our text here. Note again how the jars are filled to the brim. That may seem like an insignificant detail, but it tells us something about the nature of salvation. Our need for purity, our need for cleanliness - it is totally satisfied by the sacrifice of Jesus. There is no more room for the Law when it comes to our salvation. There is nothing that we can do to add to the jar - Christ has filled it up already. In his great love and mercy for his people, he has given us everything that we need. We are unable to save ourselves, the burden of the Law does not rest upon us any longer except to drive us to Jesus. But it also means that no one is ultimately beyond hope. Do you have a friend, a family member, or a loved one that you have been praying for for a long time? Do you know someone for whom salvation seems hopeless? Then rejoice in this miracle, because it reminds us again that the work of salvation is wrought only by our Savior! We can pray for those who seem to be the worst among us, because we know that it does not matter what they have done, if God has purposed to save them then the blood of Christ will fill up the requirements of the Law to the uttermost for them, just as it has for you and I. While they may seem to persist in being far off, the blood of Christ can still bring them near. We cannot pretend to know who will and won’t be saved, but the wonder of salvation is that it is not up to us, we are only called to trust and obey. So we can pray with hope, knowing that even the worst sinner can be saved by the blood of Jesus. And if you are sitting here today and you have never placed your trust in Jesus for the forgiveness of your sins, I urge you to consider him now. Know that no matter what you have done, the blood of Jesus can cover it. No matter how far you feel from God, the blood of Jesus can bring you near. He can take your filthy rags and clothe you with his wonderful righteousness. He stands ready to save, all we need to do is to come to him.

The Wine

And that brings us to the final symbol that we have to consider this morning - the wine. First, let’s examine some of the ways that wine is used in the Old Testament as a symbol. First, we often see it as a symbol for joy - think about Psalm 104.14-15, where the Psalmist says of Yahweh:

Psalm 104:14–15 ESV

You cause the grass to grow for the livestock and plants for man to cultivate, that he may bring forth food from the earth and wine to gladden the heart of man, oil to make his face shine and bread to strengthen man’s heart.

We also see it in the prophets as a symbol of the abundance of God’s provision for his people. For example in Isaiah 55.1 we read:

Isaiah 55:1 ESV

“Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and he who has no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.

Or in Amos 9.13:

Amos 9:13 ESV

“Behold, the days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when the plowman shall overtake the reaper and the treader of grapes him who sows the seed; the mountains shall drip sweet wine, and all the hills shall flow with it.

The rabbis of Jesus time had a saying that encapsulates well the symbolism of wine throughout the Old Testament: “Without wine, there is no joy”. In light of this, if we think back to what Mary originally told Jesus, we could understand her exclamation that the wine was gone to mean “they have no joy”. I think that really serves to underscore the seriousness of the situation at the wedding. At this time of life that was supposed to be full of abundance and joy, the joy had run out.

Thankfully, the ultimate fountain of true joy was a guest at the wedding!

Before we turn to what happens when the new wine is presented to the master of the feast, I want to take a few minutes to linger on verse 6. John says that each of the jars held 20-30 gallons of water. Since God provides abundantly, I’m inclined to go with the larger number, so we’ll go ahead and use that for this little exercise. If each jar held 30 gallons, that equates to 180 gallons in the jars alone. That’s a substantial amount of wine. If you’re having a hard time visualizing that, think of it in terms of 55 gallon oil drums - you’d effective have three big oil drums worth of wine waiting to be served. If you figure a half-pint or so per serving, you’re looking at close to 2,900 individual servings of wine. That would certainly be more than enough to entertain even a rather large wedding party for multiple days. But something to keep in mind is that the Jews of that time did not drink their wine straight. They would typically dilute it with water on at least a 3:1 ratio. So that 180 gallons becomes 540 gallons (10 oil drums) or 8600 servings, far more than the wedding guests could be expected to consume. What could have been a crisis for the groom and his family and become a boon - one where they would have so much wine that they would not have needed to purchase it for their own consumption for weeks or even months to come after the wedding.

That’s a pretty remarkable picture of the magnitude of the blessings of God, isn’t it? Jesus didn’t just make enough wine so that the wedding guests could be served with nothing left over. He made enough wine that there still would have been jars remaining at the end of the feast. We see the same thing with the feeding of the 5000 - it would have been an amazing miracle in itself for the loaves and the fishes to have stretched to feed the entire crowd - but at the end the disciples went around and collected 12 full baskets of leftovers.

Friends, our Lord delights to bless us. That doesn’t mean that we will necessarily be blessed with material provisions in this world (though some of us surely will). But it does mean that we can rest assured that the grace and provision that Jesus provides for us will never run dry. We cannot exhaust the depths of his mercy. We cannot exhaust the depths of his love or the depths of his grace. When you sin, run to Jesus. He will never turn you away. Our first inclination is so often to feel as though we are embarrassing him or presuming upon him, but this miracle ought to give us pause, especially as we consider the wine as the metaphor for his blood. It is sufficient not only to cover the needs of today, but to cover the needs of a lifetime. We must do nothing else but run to Jesus!

So having produced this remarkable volume of wine, the servants scoop out a cup and take it to the master of the feast. We read in John 2.8-10:

John 2:8–10 ESV

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.”

There’s just a couple things that I’d like to point out in this short section. The first is that the bridegroom ultimately receives the credit for the provision of the new wine. I think this was intentional - it points back to Jesus’ initial words in the story where he tells Mary that “my time has not yet come”. There will come a time when Jesus, as the bridegroom, will receive the full credit that he is due for the provision of wine and the provision of joy for his bride, the church at the wedding supper of the Lamb at the end of history. But now is not that time. Now is but a glimpse of what that time will be - a sign of what is to come.

The second thing that I want to point out is the quality of the wine that Jesus made. It’s not the cheap “Two-Buck-Chuck” from the bottom shelf of the grocery store. I love the pragmatism on display in the comments from the master of the feast here. Surely what he is saying makes perfect sense. It would be far more reasonable to bring the good wine out first, and then after everyone has indulged a little bit to switch to cheaper and lower quality wine once their taste buds are dulled. But the water that Jesus turned into wine surpassed even the best wine that had been offered at the beginning of the feast. I think that is instructive for us. The blessings of Jesus are far greater and far more wonderful than we could ever possibly imagine. Think of the sweetest times that you have ever had in prayer, of the greatest heights of worship, the times your heart has been convicted and wrenched by his goodness and his love for you. And consider that even those strongest of emotions are just a glimpse, just a foretaste of what is to come. How much more magnificent will those blessings be when we see him face to face?

Friends, that is the joy and the hope that we have of heaven. We have the hope that even the best things of this life will pale in comparison to being face to face with our Savior. We have the promise that one day we will be united with him. We have seen the heart that he has for his people, wayward though they may be. We have seen how he has fulfilled the Law to the uttermost for us through the shedding of his blood on the cross, and we have seen how he has promised to pour out his blessings upon us when are finally united to him.

It is little wonder that we read in verse 11 that Jesus “manifested his glory. And his disciples believed in him.” It is no mere coincidence that the public ministry of Jesus begins at a wedding and ultimately culminates at a wedding at the end of time. It gives us a beautiful picture of what he has come to do, how he will be, as John the Baptist said: “The lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world!”

So what must we do? We must see. And believe.

Let’s pray.

Closing Prayer

Gracious God, we thank you for Jesus. We thank you that in our passage today we have seen a glimpse of the wonderful plan that you have for your people, how you have longed for them, how you have purposed to reconcile them to yourself, how you have made atonement for their sins through the blood of your Son. We thank you that every time we attend a wedding we get a glimpse of what heaven will be like, a glimpse of what it means to be united with Christ, and we pray that in our own lives and in our own marriages we would do the best that we can to emulate the example that we have been given of Christ and the church. But most of all, Father, we thank you that you have so clearly shown us the power of Jesus. We thank you that we have had a glimpse of his glory in our text today, and we pray that we will continue to grow in our knowledge and our love for him. Thank you, Father, for the opportunity to gather this morning as your church, and thank you for the wonderful things that you have done for us and that you continue to do. In Jesus’ name we pray, amen.