Turning something into something else

John 2:1-12 

Turning one thing into another


Toilet Paper Skit. (To see the skit you'll need to watch the video. I've posted it at the end of the notes.)



Well, Ok. I hope you got a little chuckle out of that. A merry heart does good like medicine. We’ve all tried turning one thing into another depending on our circumstances. Tonight, we look at how Jesus does it.

2 On the third day there was a wedding in Cana of Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there. ² Now both Jesus and His disciples were invited to the wedding. ³ And when they ran out of wine, the mother of Jesus said to Him, “They have no wine.”

We now start chapter 2 of John’s Gospel. Chapter 1 was largely the prologue. It gave verbal testimony to Christ. Setting the tone, the scene and some of the main characters. Now we transition from verbal testimony of Jesus to the works of Jesus. John is going to alternate as we go through the gospel, between the words of Christ and the works of Christ. He’s going to have us look at the statements Jesus made that indicate His deity and the works He did that demonstrate and prove His deity. He will do what no one but God can do.

In seminary the teach you that John’s Gospel give us eight signs/miracles that Jesus did that point specifically to his deity. He turns water into wine in chapter 2. He heals a dying man in chapter 4. He cures a paralyzed man in chapter 5. He creates food for thousands of people in chapter 6. He walks on water at the end of chapter 6. He gives sight to the blind in chapter 9. He raises a man dead for days in chapter 11. He creates a meal in chapter 21, breakfast for His disciples.

And then the grand finale beyond the eight, is his death, burial and resurrection. John writes in chapter 20, verse 30,: “Therefore many other signs Jesus also performed in the presence of the disciples which are not written in this book.” That’s a fascinating concept isn’t it? These aren’t the only miracles Jesus did, this might not have been the first one, in fact it’s likely that it isn’t. There are many others. It’s entirely possible that miracles became commonplace to the disciples. I know some of you think that’s ridiculous but think of all the commonplace things you took for granted on March 1^st compared to now. However, that’s a sermon for later in John.

So what’s going on here? On the third day? Third day of what? Third day of the week? Third day of the wedding? Maybe both! There’s a wedding going on in Cana of Galilee! Jesus, His mom and his disciples were all there. Let me clear up some erroneous things first. This is not Jesus wedding, nor is this John the Gospel Writers wedding as some will go way out of the way to say. This is likely a close friend or family member. Which is why Mary is there helping with the wedding.

Jesus grew up in the small town of Nazareth, this wedding was in Cana an even smaller town a little way down the road. If Nazareth is Roxboro, then Cana is Timberlake. Now one of the mistakes we make is when we overlay life in 2020 with life 2000 years ago. Yes, the general concept of the wedding was the same. A man and woman united before God in Holy matrimony. Yet, instead of a grand one day production this was more along the lines of a week long feast. Engagements during this time was for wedding planning and married life preparing. The groom spent the year long engagement building a house and saving for the wedding feast. It was to show that he had the maturity and work ethic required to provide for a family.

To run out of something at a wedding was a grievous issue! It ultimately reflected upon the groom and his inability to properly plan and provide for his guests and implied that maybe he wasn’t fit to be a husband after all. The groom would never hear the end of this! The rest of his life he’s the guy that ran out of wine halfway through the wedding feast! We had to drink water the rest of the week. I was on the toilet for a week after that! Remember, it wasn’t safe to drink water back then.

When I’ve been overseas on mission trips I’ve been warned repeatedly “Don’t drink the water”. It’s the same here. They made wine, a fermented drink. Again, some people go out of there way to say it was grape juice, it wasn’t. I’ll address that a bit later. They often diluted it though with 2 to 10 parts water.

This is a weeklong feast. It’s been getting planned for 1 year minimum. Then they run out of something midway through it. Did they underestimate the number of guests? We’ve had that happen with kids’ birthday parties. Did they underestimate the amount each guest would consume? We’ve had that happen with cookouts. However, in both instances we just went to Food Lion and were back in roughly 30 minutes tops. You can’t do that here. It’s not an option. There’s no wine dealer down the road. Even if they did everyone would know. They have a major problem. What do they do? What all of us should do. They go to Jesus.

⁴ Jesus said to her, “Woman, what does your concern have to do with Me? My hour has not yet come.”

⁵ His mother said to the servants, “Whatever He says to you, do it.”

Why does Mary to go to Jesus? I’m not even going to get into some of the far out there responses here. Let’s just think about this for a moment. Joseph, Mary’s husband, passed away sometime before now. Jesus is now roughly 30 and has been the head of the household since his father’s passing. He’s been in charge, He’s made the decisions, He’s given the advice, He’s ran the family business and taking care of everyone. He never gave bad advice, He never made a bad business decision, He’s always been patient, levelheaded and calm. He’s had a solution to every problem they have faced, and I assure they faced just as many, if not more than us. Has He done private miracles before this? My personal opinion? I don’t know. If He did though it wasn’t for selfish gain, it was to glorify God.

He addresses her as “woman.” Nowhere in the gospels does He ever call her “mother”; only “woman.” The expression conveys no disrespect. But it does underscore the fact that Christ was much more to Mary than a Son. He was her Savior, too (cf. Luke 1:47). Mary was no sinless co-redemptrix. She was as dependent on divine grace as the lowliest of sinners, and after Christ reached adulthood, her relationship to Him was the same as that of any obedient believer to the Lord. She was a disciple; He was the Master.

Woman, what does your concern have to do with me? I realize your own personal life story greatly changes how you view this. One of the problems with text is that there’s no tone, no body language, no volume.

I submit to you that this is a joke. God invented Jokes. God invented Irony. Jesus has a sense of humor. I realize most of the pictures/paintings you’ve ever seen of Jesus he looks serious, but He also smiled. I’m willing to bet he had a contagious laugh as well. He’s at a wedding feast. Everyone is having a good time. He knew all this was going to happen. He takes a moment to pick at his mom. If He was serious and/or Mary took Him seriously she wouldn’t have given the servants the following command “Whatever He says to you, do it.”

That’s also the best advice anyone ever gave anyone. Whatever Jesus says to you, do it! Are you wondering what Jesus says to you? Open this book and read! You’ve got the time.

⁶ Now there were set there six waterpots of stone, according to the manner of purification of the Jews, containing twenty or thirty gallons apiece. ⁷ Jesus said to them, “Fill the waterpots with water.” And they filled them up to the brim. ⁸ And He said to them, “Draw some out now, and take it to the master of the feast.” And they took it. ⁹ When the master of the feast had tasted the water that was made wine, and did not know where it came from (but the servants who had drawn the water knew), the master of the feast called the bridegroom. ¹⁰ And he said to him, “Every man at the beginning sets out the good wine, and when the guests have well drunk, then the inferior. You have kept the good wine until now!”

¹¹ This beginning of signs Jesus did in Cana of Galilee, and ^[a]manifested His glory; and His disciples believed in Him.

¹² After this He went down to Capernaum, He, His mother, His brothers, and His disciples; and they did not stay there many days.

At a gathering like this there would have been purification water pots. Now I realize most of you just thought “purification water pot? That’s weird.” Modern day that would be, There were 6 handwashing stations. You read Leviticus and see all this ceremonial washing stuff and think it’s weird. It was the ancient version of washing your hands. A lot of the Levitical law was very practical concerning hygiene, hand washing and proper food preparation. An ancient CDC/FDA.

He tells the servants fill those pots to the brim! 6 pots 20-30 gallons per pot somewhere around 120-180 gallons of water. That’s roughly 4 bathtubs full of water. Jesus then tells them, ok draw some out and take it to the master of the feast. Who was the master of the feast? He was the person in charge of making sure everyone had a good time. He was also likely one of the highest-ranking guests. The master of the feast tastes the water that had been turned into wine and goes Wow! That’s some good wine. Of course it is! It’s the best wine he ever had. Jesus made it! Note he didn’t say “Hey that’s water! Or Hey that’s some good grape juice.” I assure you they knew the difference between grape juice and wine.

Question? When did the water turn into wine? The servant drew water and brought water to the master of the feast. However, when he drinks it, it is wine. Kudos to the servant for following orders. It’s not like Jesus told him “Hey, I’m going to turn that water into wine.” He just told him take that the Master of the Feast some water.” The servant obeyed, everyone rejoiced. It’s telling that His first public ministry is for family. A reminder that our first and most important ministry will always be family.

How did Jesus actually do miracles? He did them in many different ways. Here, Jesus did not say a word or blink an eye. He merely exercised His will and the miracle was done.

Moses, giver of the law,  turned water into blood. We know that the Law results in death (Exodus 7:17-21). But Jesus’ first miracle turned water into wine, showing the gladness and joy of His new work. This acts out what John said in John 1:17: For the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. Grace and Truth to us all, place your faith in the one that will turn bad things into blessings.