Water to Wine

QUESTION: Why did Jesus turn water to wine?

ANSWER:

Jesus turned water into wine to prove that He's the source of life. Changing the water to wine offered a symbol of the new spiritual life Jesus brings from the old mortal in conversion. As Paul said in 2 Corinthians 5:17, "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!" Many people make a mistake here; they want to improve themselves into being worthy of God before they accept Christ. In reality, it's in accepting Jesus as Savior that God counts us worthy of entering his presence (Ephesians 2:8-9).

Jesus turned water into wine because changing one element into another symbolized marriage. It brings new life out of old; first, as the distinctive relationship between two adults; then, eventually in the children who are at once like, yet different from the parents. The miracle particularly represented Israel's relationship with God. He betrothed her to Himself in Egypt, married her to Himself at Sinai and repeatedly called her to be a faithful spiritual spouse. When she proved endlessly faithless, He called her a spiritual harlot. Finally, God divorced His corrupt bride by sending her into exile. Ezekiel's brilliant allegory is but one of many references to that relationship 16:1-63.

Jesus turned water into wine to prove that the old covenant lacked the resources to meet Israel's spiritual needs. Jesus didn't have to reference the stone pots to perform the miracle. Since they were used for ceremonial washing of people and utensils, Jesus had them filled to prove that He fulfilled and overfilled ceremonial cleansing; then had the servants draw water turned into wine from the well to illustrate that God's new life came from a different source - Christ Himself. Wherever the Old Covenant failed to meet the spiritual needs of God's people, Christ's resources flourished energetically, dynamically, and satisfyingly.

Jesus turned water into wine to illustrate the inimitable nature of God's revelation through Christ. Everything God had said through Law, Prophets, and Psalmists proved magnificent. And all who studied regaled themselves with stories of God at Sinai and before Jericho and outside Jerusalem slaying Babylonian soldiers. But God saved the best for Israel till the last revelation of himself in Christ. Indeed, no one before or since Christ bettered Him in any way.

Jesus turned water into wine to prove His real nature to the disciples. The ultimate purpose of the miracle was to reveal His Glory, with the result being faith in Him.

It's interesting that Jesus had no interest in recruiting faith in the members of the wedding party, or the steward of the feast. Even though the servants knew the provenance of the wine, Jesus didn't perform the miracle to convince them. His only interest was to reveal his true, inner being to six men-a glory that would be uncovered completely only one time in His ministry - at His transfiguration. The sign achieved its purpose, for His disciples believed in Him.

Jesus distinguished between His Glory and His hour or time (John 2:4, Matthew 26:18). The glory His disciples saw wasn't the same as the hour His mother wanted Him to reveal. His glory was His inner being revealed in miracles, teachings, claims, and example. His hour or time was His death on Calvary, though it's true that in His hour at Calvary, He revealed His true glory as God in the flesh. Paul delineated that in Colossians 2:15.

No one but He knew what His hour was, but His disciples, and all who came to believe in Him while He preached, understood that glory meant in Christ God had become a mortal. In Christ God put on a human face - a reality His appearance to John in Revelation 1:12-18 verified. The eternal, invisible God will be visible to all the redeemed in the glorified God/Man Jesus Christ. In essence then, this miracle proved more about the Someone He was than the something He did.