A reminder for
today
And when they wanted
wine, the mother of Jesus saith unto him, they have no wine. (John 2:3)
The first miracle recorded in John by Jesus was where He
turned water into wine. This amazing miracle had many sceptics full of ideas of
why Jesus did it. So today we will try and bury some of those misbeliefs and focus
a little on the why and how Jesus did it. I looked at what Sherrie Mills Johnson
teaches around the subject.
Weddings like this took more than a week in those days so it
is important that we place ourselves in the middle of the time and look at the
customs of that time. The story in John 2:1-11 is familiar to readers of the
New Testament. Mary, the mother of Jesus, tells him the wedding feast is out of
wine. Jesus asks servants to fill some pots with water, and then miraculously
the water is transformed into wine. But there is more going on here than first
meets the eye. The people that were observing (Jesus') miracles were trained in
symbolism.
The word translated as "miracle" in John gives
clues to the symbolic purpose of the story. The original Greek word used to
describe Jesus' miracles is semeion. Semeion means "sign or
indication." This demonstrates that the important thing about miracles is
their symbolic teachings. There are messages in these miracles.
Some messages can also become obscured if we don't
understand the culture. In John's story of this miracle, after Mary tells her
son there is no wine, Jesus responds: "Woman, what have I to do with thee?
mine hour is not yet come" (John 2:4).
In today’s world it would be very rude to talk to your mother
like that. But in the culture of the time, what Jesus is saying there is
'Woman' meaning 'Of all the women in the world, you are THE woman to me. In the
culture Jesus is coming from, this is an incredible show of reverence.
What he is saying there is, 'It's not time for my mission to
begin yet. My Father in Heaven is not instructing me what to do yet, but you
are my mother, and so whatever you want I'll do. So, in that one verse, we have
an amazing amount of love and reverence and honour that the Saviour is showing
for his mother.
Likewise, Mary shows deep reverence for her son when she
turns to the servants and says, "Whatsoever he saith unto you, do it"
(John 2:5). "She knows something. She's seen him do these kinds of things
before.
The next verse is about water pots and is naturally
overlooked. It is an incredible verse full of meaning: "And there were set
there six water pots of stone, after the manner of the purifying of the Jews,
containing two or three firkins apiece" (John 2:6).
They've been there for some time, long enough to run out of
wine. There must have been plenty of empty wine pots and jugs available. But
Jesus didn't ask the servants to fill the smaller empty vessels, instead, he
told them to use the water pots.
These water pots were used for the "purifying of the
Jews." They were used for ceremonial washing whenever someone came into a
home. They could not be made of clay, which was considered ritually impure.
Instead, these stone water pots were chiselled out of boulders. They were big
and heavy (two to three firkins is 18 to 27 gallons) and were consecrated for
holy purposes.
These (water pots) are symbolic of you and me. Remember
throughout the scriptures we are taught that we are the vessels of the Lord.
Because the stone water pots were too heavy to bring to a
water source, it would take many trips to fill them.
All through the scriptures the Lord tells us that he is the
fountain of living waters. All through the scriptures, the servants of the Lord
are prophets, they're teachers, they're parents, they're anyone who teaches us.
The spiritual teachers in our lives bring us living waters from the source
Jesus Christ and fill us up to the brim. This detail of "to the brim"
is also important. It means nothing more can be added. Nothing more can be
done. But then the miracle. But then the sign.
You must do as much as you can do, be as full as you can go
and then Jesus Christ changes you into something better. He makes water into
wine. And he makes you and me … into Celestial beings. He changes us.
Lord, thank you for giving us a glimpse of how amazing you
are how a something like turning water into wine has a deeper impact on us and
how you fill us with your glory. Lord, you are my God and you are my all. In
Jesus name.
Have an awesome day dear friend of Jesus.
Cheers