Water into Wine: The First Sign

I envy artists. Real artists. Not “I’ve got some paint and canvas and I’m gonna have a good time” type artist. People who can see something in their minds and then make that image in their heads appear before us in real life. The ability to form something from an idea into a reality astounds me.

I have a friend named Goose. We lived together for a whole year and I never learned his real name beyond calling him Goose. I swear to you Goose may have actually been his government name. But Goose was a sculptor; and his favorite medium to work with was scrap metal and a welder. I have some of his other work. I have hanging on my living room wall a mixed media, wax and ink abstract work that I’m a big fan of and Ashleigh deeply hates.

But Goose is a great artist and the most incredible work I’ve ever seen him do was his senior project in college, which I sold for him at auction for about $5,000. It was a deers head. An enormous scrap metal Elks head. We did an art auction every year to raise money for college students to spend their summers in the mission field. When Goose told me he was willing to donate that piece if we could start the bidding at the cost of materials, I immediately started calling the elk lodge, the carribou association, several hunting clubs, advertising that this was going up for a charity auction and it was incredible the turnout we had.

Artists amaze me by their ability to take something so simple and turn it into something amazing. Can you see from where you are, some of the stuff that went into this sculture? There’s a nut as the eye...

but this isn’t even his best work in my opinion, I liked this one a lot better.

What is is? It’s a duck.

The ability that artist have to take one thing and make something else out of it, astounds me.

Here’s the thing about Goose’s work though. He had to have all those other things to begin with. He did not produce any of this scrap metal out of the ether. He did not create this, he simply formed it out of other things.

Tonight we’re starting a new sermon series from the book of John, and the topic is Christology. Any guesses as to what Christology means? Ology is the study of. Biology is the study of life. Anthropology is the study of human cultures. Theology is the study of God. Herbology is study of magical plants and herbs.

Christology is the study of the person and work of…Christ. What is it that makes Jesus Jesus as opposed to being just like everyone else.

Let me say it this way, there are things that Jesus can do, that if you did them would totally disrupt our understanding of who and what you are. But when Jesus does them, it helps us form our understanding of who He is.

When you make a dumb joke, or sleep too late, or get food all over your shirt while eating, That’s not surprising. That’s just Slade being Slade. Doing normal every day Slade things. When Jesus does some of the things we see in the book of John, we shouldn’t be surprised. That’s just Jesus doing normal every day Jesus things. That’s just Jesus Being Jesus.

Tonight we will be in John chapter 2. We’re going to look at the story of Jesus turning water into wine.

This is Jesus first public miracle. and of all of Jesus miracles, this one is probably the most confusing, especially for us baptists in America, at least this side of the 1920s.

I want to make sure that we’re on the same page about this before we go any further.

Why does Jesus do miracles? Why does Jesus heal sick people? Why does Jesus feed the hungry? When the disciples are scared that their boat will sink in the storm, why does Jesus calm the seas? Jesus doesn’t do miracles for the sake of doing miracles. He’s not a genie in a lamp. He doesn’t grant wishes. While Jesus certainly cares about the sick and the hungry and the dying, the fact that sick and hungry and dying people still exist means that Jesus goal was not to heal people, feed people, and keep people from dying. Jesus does miracles for one reason and one reason only. Jesus does Miracles to teach us that He is God, mostly to teach us that He is God.

Let’s read this story and you’ll see what I mean.

John 2:1–3 CSB

1 On the third day a wedding took place in Cana of Galilee. Jesus’s mother was there, 2 and Jesus and his disciples were invited to the wedding as well. 3 When the wine ran out, Jesus’s mother told him, “They don’t have any wine.”

Now, I don’t do this often, but I’m going to complain about the translation here. The translation committee has an idea of how this story goes and they wrote that. But the literal translation here. is that the “mother of Jesus spoke up and said, ‘there is no wine’”. The word they is assumed by the translators, but it’s not actually there. Here’s why that matters.

John 2:3–5 CSB

3 When the wine ran out, Jesus’s mother told him, “They don’t have any wine.” 4 “What has this concern of yours to do with me, woman?” Jesus asked. “My hour has not yet come.” 5 “Do whatever he tells you,” his mother told the servants.

Jesus mother has command of the servants here at this wedding. The only person at a wedding who has command of the servants is the host. The person who is paying the bill. And in the instance of a Jewish wedding at this point in the 1st century, that is the parents of the groom.

So most people read this and argue that this is a weird situation and this must be a cousin or a close family friend, and maybe, but I’m sorry, if at my wedding Cheryll had gone and told the caterer to stop what they were doing an do whatever Jose told them, that would not have been ok.

Jesus and His mother Mary here are filling the role of the hosts. Mary the mother of the groom, and Jesus the head of household of the groom. The simplest possible explanation here is that this is the wedding of one of Jesus brothers. He had 3 of them. James, Jude, and Joseph jr. Everything about this situation sounds like Jesus is filling the role that His father Joseph would have, but since Joseph is dead now, the job falls to the eldest Son to act as head of the household.

That’s my rabbit trail. I think this is the wedding of one of Jesus little brothers. But it really doesn’t matter because it doesn’t change the meaning of the story.

As a side note, I want to look at verse 4 real quick.

John 2:4 CSB

4 “What has this concern of yours to do with me, woman?” Jesus asked. “My hour has not yet come.”

It sounds like Jesus is being disrespectful to His mama here. I don’t think that’s it. I think Jesus is making a joke. His mom is stressed, and He makes an ill timed joke that only He would get and His mama brushes it off.

See, Jesus had a sense of humor. He made a couple jokes in scripture and I think this is one of them. But I think Jesus sense of humor, is very much like mine.

I make a ton of jokes, but you don’t laugh at most of them, and I don’t mind. Here’s why. I don’t care if I make you laugh. My goal is only to make myself laugh, and if you think it’s funny that’s a solid byproduct. I mostly make jokes and references to books and movies and songs that only I’m familiar with. and I think I’m hilarious. That’s the secret to enjoying life and getting a lot more laughs along the way. Stop worrying about making others laugh, just worry about what you think is funny. You’ll enjoy life a lot more.

I think Jesus here is making a joke that only He gets, just to make Himself laugh. I think He’s making a communion joke. A Lord’s Supper joke.

When Christian’s take communion, we drink wine and eat bread, and the wine symbolizes Jesus blood which has been poured out for our sins.

I think Mary comes to Jesus and says “there’s no more wine.” and Jesus says “my hour has not yet come.” We don’t have a lot of good reasons to think that Jesus is referring to the start of His public miracles. Nowhere else does He use “my hour” to refer to His whole ministry. When Jesus says “my hour” He is always talking about the cross. every time. That’s not different here.

So here’s the way this joke plays out. Mary says there’s no wine, and Jesus, still dancing, still having a good time at His brothers wedding, jokingly says “that really seems like a ‘you’ problem. We’re a long way from the cross and you’re not tapping my veins for barefoot cabernet just yet.”

Mary doesn’t get the joke. Ignores Him. and says

John 2:5–7 CSB

5 “Do whatever he tells you,” his mother told the servants. 6 Now six stone water jars had been set there for Jewish purification. Each contained twenty or thirty gallons. 7 “Fill the jars with water,” Jesus told them. So they filled them to the brim.

So they get these massive, stone jars. Think 55 gallon oil drums. Barrels not jars. That get these big stone jars of water and they consolidate them. If there’s 8 jars, 3/4 full, He says pour them all together, 8 jars 3/4 full, how many full jars is that?

6. If you don’t know how we go that, you really need to pay better attention in math class.

So they start pouring. Adding water to water.

When you add water to water what do you get?

Ashleigh, I fixed your cup before you left the house this morning. What went into it? Water and different water.

What did we get as a result? Still just water. no change.

Let’s see what happens when Jesus does it.

John 2:8–10 CSB

8 Then he said to them, “Now draw some out and take it to the headwaiter.” And they did. 9 When the headwaiter tasted the water (after it had become wine), he did not know where it came from—though the servants who had drawn the water knew. He called the groom 10 and told him, “Everyone sets out the fine wine first, then, after people are drunk, the inferior. But you have kept the fine wine until now.”

Ok. so we can agree that this is a miracle. We all agree that Jesus only does miracles to prove that He is God and to teach us something about God.

Some people argue that the lesson here is about what the waiter says, saving the better wine for last is about how God has gave the ok covenant in the old testament but saved the good covenant for the new testament.

Some people argue that this is about the jars and the fact that they were used for ritual cleansing. So Jesus turns ritual water into covenant wine.

And both of those things might be true. But I don’t think those are the main point. I think the main thing is the fact that Jesus added water to water and got out wine.

I’ve been reading this book for a while now. It has recipes for a lot of different kinds of wine. They all call for fruit of some kind. This one calls for rose petals. Some of these you have to leave the skin on the grapes, some you take them off.

None of them though seem to match what is described in John 2 here. None of these go, start with water, add more water. Bottle and serve with cheese.

That’s not how wine is made.

There are other things that go into water to make wine. and whats even more strange, every single recipe for wine, involves waiting at least a couple weeks. None of this happens in an instant. Even if one of the jars secretly had all the things that you need to add to water to make wine, that still doesn’t explain how it happened in an instant.

Here’s what that means. Jesus, created wine here. He, by His own power caused tannins, alcohol, sugars, yeast a living creature yeast, fruit, and about a dozen other chemicals to come into existence inside these jars in this moment. What amazes me most here, is that someone like this headwaiter, who knows wine very well, could taste it and recognize that it is high quality.

In the same way that I can taste the difference between coke and pepsi. This guy could taste this wine and know that it high quality as opposed to the cheap stuff.

Now, wine is varietal. People who know wine can taste it and know what kind of grapes, that region of the world, what kind of soil it was grown in, how much rain they got that year, and how long it has been aging. That’s what makes wine good as opposed to cheap.

So that means that this wine that Jesus made, had all of those qualities in an instant. Technically here, Jesus made something that was already old. So if you are a person who believes the world is only about 10,000 years old but scientists keep saying that the world is 2 billion years old. This is your absolute haymaker argument. This proves that God can create something that is already old. Mind Blown.

regardless of that. It’s clear that Jesus creates here. There are things that existed in that wine glass that were not there before. and please don’t let the scale of the creation confuse you about the significance. Jesus only creates a few hundred gallons of wine. but this is every bit as big of a miracle as when God said let there be light and there was light.

It doesnt matter that Genesis 1 God creates the whole world and in John 2 Jesus just creates a few hundred gallons of wine. The miracle is the same.

See, unlike an artist. Unlike my friend Goose. Jesus can really create something.

Goose made this, but he had to find other things and put them together and rearrange them. Goose can’t create a metal deer out of thin air.

Jesus is not like an artist. Jesus can take an image in His mind and cause it to appear before Him by His own power without ever having to combine or rearrange other things.

and there is only one person who can do that and that’s God.

Listen to this form the book of Colossians.

Colossians 1:15–17 CSB

15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. 16 For everything was created by him, in heaven and on earth, the visible and the invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities— all things have been created through him and for him. 17 He is before all things, and by him all things hold together.

So the claim of the New Testament and the lesson of John 2 is clear.

Jesus has the power to create, therefore Jesus is God

and that’s not weird. That’s not crazy. Jesus creates here because He is the one and only creator of the universe. This isn’t anything surprising. This is just....Jesus

Being Jesus

So what do we do with this...

Know that Jesus is fully God, not the diet version of God

Stop treating Jesus like a genie, His miracles are not about you

Give your life to Jesus, creator of the universe.

Maybe you think of Jesus as like a lesser version of God, God jr, diet God now with half the calories and half the authority. If that’s you, stop. That is a trick of the devil. If he can make you believe that Jesus is less than God then he can make yo beleive that Jesus commands are less than important.

Maybe you think that Jesus does miracles to solve people’s problems, so you expect Him to perform miracles to make your day better. Get over yourself. Jesus miracles are about proving that He is God and teaching us about who God is. Sometimes those miracles benefit you, but they're not about you. They may be for you, but they were never about you. The miracles of God are not about you.

Maybe you’ve been confronted with a Jesus that you’re unfamiliar with. and you’re now coming to the conlusion that He is, very god of Very God. Give your life to Him tonight.