Wedding Miracle

The Crisis

Jesus is at a Wedding in Galilee. This is perhaps one of the most important personal events in this time. Weddings were usually a week long and people would travel long distances to be a part of the wedding. It was the grooms family responsibility to provide for the needs of the wedding party. They would have to provide shelter, food, and wine.

There are indicators that Mary had some responsibility in the provision at this wedding. She was aware that the wine was running low, she had authority over the servants at the wedding. She bore some responsibility for the provision of the wedding party.

To run out of wine would be a disgrace to the family because it was a staple in that day. There was no such thing as clean drinking water, so they would mix water with fermented wine. Some historians say that running out of wine was so disgraceful that a member of the wedding party could sue the host family for running out. Whether or not this was the case here, running out of wine would have been a life long disgrace on the family.

When Mary recognizes this she turns to her Son Jesus to fix the problem. It is unclear if Mary is asking for a miracle or just leaning on Jesus as her eldest son. There is no mention of Joseph at this wedding so we can presume that he is dead. If that is the case the mom would naturally depend on the eldest son to handle issues for the family.

On the other hand, Mary knew who Jesus was and His capabilities as the Son of God. She could have easily told Jesus to use His divine power to come up with some wine. We also see indicators for this as well based on Jesus response. He told her that running out of wine was not God’s business. He would not do anything about the situation unless the Father told Him.

Jesus said that His time had no come. He was not going to use this crisis to reveal who He was. He knew that the crucifixion and resurrection would reveal who He was.

Personal Crisis

At some point in your life you will experience a crisis that you cannot fix. It may be regarding your health, finances, relationship, or any other situation. At some point in your life you will find yourself in a crisis. It is in times like these that believers turn to Christ for the solution to the crisis. This is exactly what we should do.

However, when we take our crisis to the Lord and ask Him to fix it, we tell Him how to fix it and when to fix it. When we do this, we will get the same answer Jesus gave Mary.

Contrary to popular belief God allows crisis to come into our lives for a purpose. That purpose is often not recognized until we have come through the crisis. We are typically blinded from the God intended purpose by the pain of the situation. We just want God to take the pain away and we want Him to do it now. James tells us how to handle times of crisis in our lives:

2 Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various [c]trials, 3 knowing that the testing of your faith produces [d]endurance. 4 And let [e]endurance have its perfect [f]result, so that you may be [g]perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.

5 But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all generously and [h]without reproach, and it will be given to him. 6 But he must ask in faith without any doubting, for the one who doubts is like the surf of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind. 7 For that man ought not to expect that he will receive anything from the Lord, 8 being a [i]double-minded man, unstable in all his ways. James 1:2-8

The first thing we must do is turn our crisis into joy. The way you do this is to see the end result. That is that we will develop our faith, make us stronger, and become complete, lacking nothing.

Crisis always tests our faith. Will we try to fix it our-self or will we turn to Christ in the time of Crisis. When we try to fix it our self we will where out and come to a point of hopelessness. When we turn to Christ, He gives us the endurance necessary to make it through the crisis. As Christ grants the endurance, we deepen our relationship with the Lord. It is in that deepening of the relationship of the Lord that makes us perfect and lacking in nothing!

The Miracle

Jesus used the crisis to bring glory to God and convey an important message. Jesus told the servants to fill the waterpots to the brim with water. That was about 180 gallons of water. The fact that it was filled to the brim was to demonstrate the true power of what He was about to do. It showed that He didn’t add anything to the water to make it consumable wine. Jesus did a miracle by turning the water into wine.

The Gospel of John, Volume 1 The New Exhilaration (John 2:1–11 Contd)

There were six stone water pots; and at the command of Jesus, the water in them turned to wine. According to the Jews, seven is the number which is complete and perfect; and six is the number which is unfinished and imperfect. The six stone water pots stand for all the imperfections of the Jewish law. Jesus came to do away with the imperfections of the law and to put in their place the new wine of the gospel of his grace. Jesus turned the imperfection of the law into the perfection of grace.

There is another thing to note in this connection. There were six water pots; each held between twenty and thirty gallons of water; Jesus turned the water into wine. That would give anything up to 180 gallons of wine. Simply to state that fact is to show that John did not mean the story to be taken with crude literalness. What John did mean to say is that when the grace of Jesus comes to men and women there is enough and to spare for all. No wedding party on earth could drink 180 gallons of wine. No need on earth can exhaust the grace of Christ; there is a glorious superabundance in it.

John is telling us that in Jesus the imperfections have become perfection, and the grace has become illimitable, sufficient and more than sufficient for every need

We had a scare when Tucker broke his arm as a kid. The orthopedic notice a hollowness in his upper arm that could be n indicator of bone cancer. He sent us to children’s hospital to a specialist. Our first visit was inconclusive and we could not get any answers for about 3 months. This was a time of crisis and uncertainty for our family. We were living in the “what if’s”. This is not a good place to be because it creates a tremendous amount of stress. The Lord taught us through that process not to live in the “what if’s” but by faith in His healing power.

As it would turn out, it was not cancer and his arm healed perfectly. The orthopedic told us that not only did the bone heal perfectly, but the bone would be stronger because of the way the bone heals. Jesus turned our situation from one of impending death to one of life and strength.

I always go back to this event in my life when I find myself living in the “what if”. God is faithful and chose to heal in that situation. But more importantly than that, God brought me to a point in my life that if God chose not to heal that I would be alright because He would be with me. I would certainly be devastated, but would make it through because of what God spoke to me as I studied in my quiet time. I remember reading John 11:4

4 But when Jesus heard this, He said, “This sickness is not to end in death, but for the glory of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified by it.”

Jesus said this regarding Lazarus death. As you know Lazarus did die, but Jesus brought him back to life. Jesus used this to comfort me regarding Tucker. Either Jesus was going to heal him, or not and if he didn’t He would be okay on the other side. What glory their is in knowing that we will never die! This is a miracle!

The Outcome

The outcome of what Jesus did, caused the disciples to believe in Him. They had heard the testimony of John the Baptist about Him, they heard His teachings, and now they saw His miracle. The mix of all three of these things led the disciples to believe in Jesus.

Jesus will do miracles in our lives for the purpose of us believing or others believing.

THE REAL MIRACLE

Several years ago, a very peculiar sight could be seen at a large downtown church in England. On the first Sunday of the New Year, an ex-convict knelt to receive communion beside the judge who had sentenced him to seven years in prison. After being sentenced, the young convict was lead to Christ through the church’s prison ministry. After his release he became an active member of the church. After church, the judge was walking home with the pastor and said to him, "What a miracle of grace."

"You mean the former thief who knelt beside you today?" the pastor asked.

"No. I was thinking of myself," the judge said. "That young man had nothing but a history of crime behind him, and when he saw Jesus as his Savior he knew there was salvation and hope and joy for him. And he knew how much he needed that help. But look at me. I was taught from earliest infancy to live as a gentleman; that my word was to be my bond; that I was to say my prayers, go to church, take communion and so on. I went to Oxford, earned my degrees, was called to the bar and eventually became a judge. Pastor, nothing but the grace of God could have caused me to admit that I was a sinner in need of a Savior."