Water into Wine (Youth)

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 a proper feast and enough wine, it was extremely shameful, and 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 time/age/era as arrived now, today, in the very present. What do I mean by that?

A great new era has arrived today

Well let’s look through the passage today. If you read through the passage today, the main thing that happens is that Jesus does is that he turns water into wine. This is significant because wine in the Old Testament is symbolic for a time of a great banquet, a time of great celebration. It’s symbolic of a time when the Messiah would come and and save his people and establish his kingdom, and bless them.

And now let’s read John 2:10 together “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 is the master of the feast saying to the the bridegroom, ‘why have you kept this amazing and good wine until now?’. The master of feast says to the bridegroom ‘why have you kept this amazing and good wine until now??’ But who is it that really provided the wine? Jesus! Jesus turned the water into wine, and just as the master of the feast says in this verse, he has kept the good wine until now. The good wine is now truly here, in the present. What was just a promise/prophecy in the Old Testament, the promise of a great time of celebration at the end of time, is now here in the present, Jesus has now fulfilled this promise and given it to us. What was meant to be at the end of time, has invaded into the present.

But in another sense, this prophecy, this promise, doesn’t seem like it’s really here right now. When we look at our own lives and the world around us today, it doesn’t seem like a utopia, a world of celebration. We still see suffering, sadness, evil. We still have difficulties and struggles in our lives. So what Jesus is showing us in this miracle, is that this wine is just a taster of full wine to come. Yes this amazing time of blessing and salvation started 2000 years ago with Jesus Christ, but it is still awaiting its final completion; there is still yet a true final day to come. So this new era, these final days, doesn’t come in one big bang, but it comes like a mustard seed that starts small, but gradually grows over time to become the biggest tree of all.

So that helps us to make sense of the suffering and difficulties in our lives: yes, God began his amazing work of redeeming and renewing all creation 2000 years ago, but the final renewal of this world is still awaiting its final completion. So until then, until God completes this work of the final times that began 2000 years ago, although there is still suffering, it also means God’s final ultimate blessings are accessible to us in the present. We have a final hope at the end of time, but just as Jesus gives us a taster of the final wine, we can already begin enjoying the end-time blessings today.

This new era is a time of celebration and abundance!

So that means this new age that Jesus brought in 2000 years ago is a time of celebration and abundance! And we can clearly see this in the passage today, because there is a clear before and after with Jesus’ miracle.

Before Jesus’ miracle, what is happening? There is no wine. See John 2:3 “When the wine ran out, the mother of Jesus said to him, “They have no wine.” Before Jesus, there is no reason to celebrate because there is no wine left and the wedding is completely ruined. The husband’s family might get sued. These were the things that Jesus’ mum was worried about. But how does Jesus respond? He says in John 2:4 “Woman, what does this have to do with me? My hour has not yet come.” It sounds like a strange response, but Jesus is seeing beyond what is just going on in the wedding. When Jesus talks about the ‘hour’, he is usually referring to the time of his crucifixion and resurrection. So while Mary talks about the lack of wine in the wedding, Jesus sees beyond that and sees the lack of wine in Israel, which he will solve when his hour comes, on the cross. Before Jesus and his work on the cross, there was a lack of wine, a lack of reason to celebrate, and there was a spiritual thirst and barrenness in Israel. And there is a spiritual barrenness because the Jews of Jesus’ time had a Christless religion - it was all external, all about having ritual cleanness like the water that was used in these stone water jars. There was no true inward cleansing or inward transformation of the real person. It was all just an outward show of religion.

But look what happens afterwards, look how abundantly and lavishly Jesus provides, and completely fills and meets that spiritual barrenness. 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.” This is around 750L of wine, around 1000 bottles! All the jars are filled up to the brim. So we can celebrate because we live in an age where Jesus as the Messiah, just like how he provides abundant wine, provides abundantly to meet our spiritual need.

This new era is a time of Christ

And what does Jesus fill that spiritual barrennes with? Himself! Whereas before in Israel they had an external Christ-less religion, with the coming of the Messiah in Jesus, we now have true religion, a religion of the heart, a Christ-full religion. Why do I say this? 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.” Jesus’ miracle manifests his glory. The ultimate purpose of this miracle of Jesus, is not to show Jesus as just some amazing magician, but this miracle points to who Jesus is. Just like how John the Baptist witnesses about Jesus and points to him, the miracles of Jesus tells us more about who Jesus is.

And in this verse we see that through this miracle, Jesus manifested his glory. And when the disciples of Jesus see his glory and see who he is, the divine Son of God, they believe. And what was the purpose of John’s gospel? John 20:31 “these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.” So this new era that Jesus brings in, is a time of celebration, because we now have finally revealed to us, the solution to our greatest problem of sin, who is given to us abundantly - the solution is Jesus Christ, the Son of God, and when we believe in his name, we have eternal life!

Conclusion

So we have this great blessing today! That time of glorious celebration and blessing that was meant to be at the end of human history, actually started 2000 years ago. Yes, there is still a final ultimate hope at the end of time, and until then suffering will still be part of our lives. But Jesus gives us a taster of that final wine today. We can experience his blessings and abundance in our lives today. And the ultimate blessing God has given us is Jesus Christ himself who abundantly gives us true life and rescues us from our problem of sin.

And we can have that when we taste that wine Jesus has given us, by seeing who He is in all his glory, and believing in his name. This is not just knowing who Jesus is in your head, but it is falling in love with Him and being captivated by his beauty, because it is not the husband in the passage today who is the true bridegroom, but it is Jesus Christ who is the true bridegroom. Fall in love with Jesus Christ by reading the Scriptures, praying to him; experience his love and transforming power for you in your life. Taste and see that the Lord is good, and let us celebrate that final wedding feast of the church and Christ that has already begun in our lives today.