John 2:2 On Tuesday[the third day] there was a wedding at Kanah in the Galil; and the mother of Yeshua was there. 2 Yeshua too was invited to the wedding, along with his talmidim. 3 The wine ran out, and Yeshua’s mother said to him, “They have no more wine.” 4 Yeshua replied, “Mother, why should that concern me? — or you? My time hasn’t come yet.” 5 His mother said to the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.” 6 Now six stone water-jars were standing there for the Jewish ceremonial washings, each with a capacity of twenty or thirty gallons. 7 Yeshua told them, “Fill the jars with water,” and they filled them to the brim. 8 He said, “Now draw some out, and take it to the man in charge of the banquet”; and they took it. 9 The man in charge tasted the water; it had now turned into wine! He did not know where it had come from, but the servants who had drawn the water knew. So he called the bridegroom 10 and said to him, “Everyone else serves the good wine first and the poorer wine after people have drunk freely. But you have kept the good wine until now!” 11 This, the first of Yeshua’s miraculous signs, he did at Kanah in the Galil; he manifested his glory, and his talmidim came to trust in him.
The first recorded miracle of Yeshua was turning water into wine. Based on John’s words in v11, this must have been the first altogether. To begin, let’s see if we can understand what actually took place.
Water is converted into wine all of the time:
In summary, water grabs nutrients and is pulled by the roots up into the branches where it mixes with sugars in the berry. The pressure builds and expands the berry until it becomes ripe, letting off excess water through the skin of the berry or recycling back through the branch. Once the grape is ripe, it is pulled from the branch and the sugar water (juice) is released through a crushing. Yeast is added and it sits. Then it’s pressed. Sometime later, wine is produced.
On day 3, Abba set in motion the miracle process of plant to fruit to seed to plant etc. Science has mapped this process in detail but it is clear that it takes time for these steps to occur. Science says it takes months or years to go from water to wine. The natural order Abba set in motion during creation week agrees. But the process is the process, no matter how long it takes. Science can’t control time, it can only observe it. Abba on the other hand…
This miracle seems to largely deal with time. The miracle Yeshua performed was not in doing what naturally happens, but in controlling the time it took for that process to occur.
What normally takes months (typically years), Yeshua was able to do almost instantly. He didn’t reinvent the grape-growing or wine-making process. Instead, He used the principles on an accelerated scale -- outside of our understanding of time.
The servants had no idea what was about to happen. But they were told by Yeshua’s mother to “do whatever He tells you” -- and they did.
Now, it’s unlikely they went to the kitchen sink or grabbed a garden hose to fill the vessels. 20-30 gallons…times 6. They had to get 120 to 180 gallons from wherever they harvested water. How many gallons can a person carry? Maybe two 5-gallon pails at a time? It was likely this was a bit of a chore to get those filled -- but the servants did it.
If this weren’t enough, they were then told to draw some out and take it to the man in charge of the banquet. Put yourself in their shoes. You know that it was just water in those vessels. And now YOU have to take some to the man in charge. What’s going through your mind as you are making that dreaded walk?
“I can’t believe I’m delivering water and trying to convince the boss that it’s wine. Is he really that drunk? I sure hope so. Man, this is embarrassing. I’m totally going to get fired.”
Verse 9 makes it seem as if it was only when it was drunk that it had turned into wine. Leading up to that sip, the servants had to walk in extreme faith. Their actual livelihood was on the line. I mean, what argument would they have?
“Hey boss, it was one of the guests that came into the backroom and told us to fill up the pots with water. We did it, not knowing what was going on and he told me to bring it to you. You should be mad at him, right? I’m an innocent victim.”
But they weren’t victims, they were obedient.
Through obedience (actions that make no practical sense), the servants (branches) carried the water into the vessels (fruit) and Yeshua (sun) then provided the sugars in those vessels via a radiation of sorts (spirit). The yeast (teaching/understanding) was added and the fermentation (maturing) produced the wine (blood). Then the people drank the wine (blood) at the wedding ceremony.
Then the bridegroom received all of the credit.
The physical here is teaching us the spiritual.
Abba set in motion the natural order of how things go but He can also accelerate that order. Isn’t this exactly what we hope for in our own lives? An instant rebound from the life we’ve created into the life we desire? We crave an outcome where we can live freely without the burden of our lifestyles breathing down our necks. But we can't break free, can we? We need a miracle.
But what are His miracles designed to do?
They are not there for us to receive, but to believe.
“He manifested his glory, and his talmidim came to trust in him.”
Ah, the punchline. It took His disciples seeing other people be obedient and walk in faith in order for them to come to trust Him. It seems this act had a much broader application than just giving guests more wine (and a possible subsequent hangover) at the wedding feast.
Yeshua needed His new followers to know exactly what they were getting into. Asking them to act this early on would have likely been met with resistance, so easing them into the water by witnessing someone else participate in the miracle process was to build their trust.
But what about your trust?
Our issue as new believers is whether He really is who we think He is. Sometimes we need to watch others step out and potentially make fools of themselves because we’d like to avoid embarrassing ourselves -- just in case He isn’t who we think He is. Seeing the faith of others should not only be an encouragement and inspiration but should also serve to build our own trust.
As we know with our foreknowledge of the disciples, a time is coming where you will have to step up in faith on your own -- or turn away from Him entirely. Living your life as a full-time witness to miracles is not what we’re called to do. It’s ok to use those to build up trust, but only in the beginning. If you think you have matured, it’s time to start walking that water to the man in charge yourself.
Riding the fence is no longer an option.