Water into Wine

Introduction

So there was a time when I wanted to go hiking with my friends. And we had this great idea eating 라면 after the hike, at the top of the mountain in the cool breeze. So we packed and we went to the mountain, and we went up this beautiful hike, and we got to the top. We got the ramen, we got the bowels, chopsticks, gas stove, kimchi - but then my heart just sank because I realised I forgot to pack a crucial item: a pot. There was no way we could cook the ramen in the bush without a pot. And then I was so desperate that we went back down the mountain, we went to a local restaurant, and I actaully begged the restaurant waiter if we could borrow a pot - and as you might have expected, they just looked at me funny and refused to give me a pot. You can imagine my disappointment, but imagine how annoyed my friends were!

Well in the passage today, there is something similar that happens. Just like my pot, something crucial is missing in the wedding that we see in the passage. Jesus, and his disciples, and mother are invited to a wedding. Weddings were a big deal 2000 years ago, just as it is today. The bridegroom was expected to provide a feast and wine for the wedding, and it was expected to really impress the guests! If the husbands side did not provide the feast and wine for the wedding adequately, it brought a lot of shame on the families, which was a big deal because there was a huge shame culture during that time. And not only that, the husband’s family was actually liable to be sued by the wife’s family! So imagine what a disaster it is if there is no wine left in the wedding! But then in the passage, we see that Jesus comes to the rescue, miraculously turns the water in the jars into wine, and then the wedding is saved.

But what does all this actually mean? Well, the main message of this passage today is that through this miracle, Jesus is boldly declaring that, in him, a great new age/era as arrived now, today, in the very present. What do I mean by that?

A great new era has arrived today

One of the key expectations of the Jews of Jesus’ day was the last days or the end-times, when God would come and bring an end to human history. I’m sure some of us have seen those movies where all of a sudden, beams of light shine from the sky and people are taken up into heaven. Well, the Bible’s understanding of the last days is not quite like what’s shown in the movies. For the Bible, the last day is a day of both celebration and judgement. For those who are God’s people, it is a day of salvation, because they are freed from their enemies, they live in prosperous abundant conditions, and they now live eternally in the presence of God. It is also a day of judgement when God will destroy his enemies for their sin. One example of this idea of the end-times is found the repeated phrase the ‘Day of the LORD’ in the Old Testament - this motif appears in multiple books of the OT, but a classic example of this is in the book of Joel - see Joel 2:28–32 ““And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, and your young men shall see visions. Even on the male and female servants in those days I will pour out my Spirit. “And I will show wonders in the heavens and on the earth, blood and fire and columns of smoke. The sun shall be turned to darkness, and the moon to blood, before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes. And it shall come to pass that everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.” For those who have been in Korean church for a while, these verses will sound very familiar when you read it in korean, because they are the verses of the Korean 찬양 마지막 날에.

Now when you read something as apocalyptic as this in Joel, you would assume that this ‘Day of the LORD’ would come at the very end of time, at the very end of human history. And that’s certainly what the Jews expected at the time. And many people today as well have this same expectations, so what they do is they try to read the times. They watch the news and current affairs of the day and try to correlate that with various prophecies in the Bible. They read books like Revelation and try align and match its various prophecies with what’s going on in the world. Wars, the COVID19 pandemic, earthquakes, bushfires.

In one sense, they are not wrong. Even looking at our own lives, we are all still here, living in the mess of our everyday lives. Life can be good at times, but at other times life is heavy, and sometimes it feels like there is nothing to celebrate. We worry about so many things, our finances, careers, families. And beyond our individual lives, look the world, with all its injustice, evil, and sadness. No wonder so many Christians are desperately waiting for the final days to come, and they try to read the times and predict when it will arrive.

But if you look at John 2:4, Jesus says ‘My hour has not yet come.’ When Jesus talks about the ‘hour’, he truly is talking about an end times which has not happened yet when God wraps up human history - see John 5:28–29 “...for an hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear his voice and come out, those who have done good to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgment.” But in another sense, Jesus talks about a time that has already happened 2000 years ago when He died on the cross for us and was resurrected and ascended into heaven.

So that final day that we are all desperately waiting for, yearning for, and trying to predict, is already here. We don’t need to wait for it. The end-time has invaded into the present. But what does that actually mean for us?

This new era is characterised by true life

This new end-time era, which has now invaded into the present, is marked by true life. Look at John 2:6–7: “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.” If you recall the Old Testament, there was a lot of laws given by Moses regarding cleanness. The Jews of Jesus’ time added additional rules to that, and one of those things was this ceremonial water which they washed their hands with to make sure they were ritually clean before the wedding.

And why were they so obsessed with being ‘clean’? Because in the OT, the Israelites wanted to be in the presence of God, the true source of life. What happened in the Old Testament when unclean people saw the glory of God? They instantly died. God’s glory was extremely dangerous to us because of our sin. But look at John 2:11, where it says Jesus ‘manifested his glory’, and his disciples witness it right in front of them. Jesus’ disciples witness the very glory of God in Jesus Christ who is dwelling right in front of them (cf. 1:14)! And they are not destroyed by His glory. And this is only possible because Jesus brings in this end-time era into the very present -> he changes the water into wine -> he brings in something way better than the old system of just ceremonial water, he brings in his very own wine that we can drink which makes us clean not just on the outside, but perfectly clean from the inside out. That wine, is the very blood of Jesus Christ that was shed for us on the cross, for the complete forgiveness of our sins.

And look how Jesus’ blood is described:

John 2:6–7 “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.” Look how abundantly Jesus provides! All stone water jars was filled up to the brim, they were about to overflow, and if you do the maths, it was a huge amount of wine, around 750L!

John 2:10 “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.”” The wine that Jesus provides is described as good.

So all of us are living in the end-times today, which is not a time when people are transported to heaven in a beam of light, but is a time when just like the disciples, we can live in the very presence of God, by the blood of Jesus Christ which makes us perfectly clean. And if we look at John 6:56 “Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him”, it says that not only live in the presence of God, but God, Jesus Christ, lives in us. Just like how husband and wife become united in one flesh, Jesus is the true bridegroom who provides the good wine, and we the church are the bride, so we are united to Jesus. What an amazing time we live in! God, who deeply desires to love you, bless you, comfort you, lives in us. I think sometimes we don’t appreciate this enough - Jesus, who created the heavens and the earth, who loved us so much that he sacrificed himself on the cross, He lives in us and is united to us. And as Paul says, ‘If God is for us, who can be against us?’. So in those moments in your life when you might feel alone, scared, anxious, remember this remarkable truth: Jesus provides us with the good wine abundantly, so that we might have true life, which is a life where Jesus lives in us, giving us his blessings, love, and joy. It is a life where Christ shows us his power not only to change water into wine, but the power to change our lives into a joyous celebration like that of a wedding.

This new era is accessed by faith

But how do we drink this new wine of Jesus? Let’s look at John 2:11 “This, the first of his signs, Jesus did at Cana in Galilee, and manifested his glory. And his disciples believed in him.” The verse says Jesus turns the water into wine, and by doing this miracle, Jesus manifests his glory which the disciples see, and then the disciples believe. So it is by faith we access this new wine of Jesus, this wine that gives us His true life of the end times today. It is because the disciples believed in Jesus that they witness Jesus’ glory, and rather than being destroyed, they are actually able to dwell with him. And this faith came about by the miracle that pointed to Jesus. So this is why reading the Bible, the word of God, is important, because this is a record of the testimony concerning Jesus Christ, it points to Christ, and through it the Holy Spirit gives us faith.

And this is also the reason why it’s important to tell others about Jesus. So we are called to be like the waiters at this wedding feast in Cana: we are to pour the water for those around us in our lives by sharing God’s word, and Jesus will take our mere humble water, and turn it into wine, so that Jesus also dwell inside them, and bring true life and celebration into their lives too.

Conclusion

So we don’t need to read the times. The last day has already arrived! It arrived 2000 years ago by the blood of Jesus Christ. And this blood Jesus gives us abundantly, so that we may be completely clean, by having our sins forgiven. And what does that allow? We can be in relationship with Jesus: He dwells in us and we dwell in him. He is always with us, every moment of our lives. Remember this in times of sadness, in times of joy, in times when we feel thirsty and dry, in times we feel alone. Because only by remaining in Him, do we have true life.