Water into Wine

WATER INTO WINE 

The first miracle believed to be performed by Jesus is the changing of the water into wine at the wedding at Cana in Galilee. Mary the mother of Jesus is an invited guest, and it is held that Mary and Jesus were actually present as family, along with other relatives and friends and some disciples of Jesus. This is supposed because Mary the mother of Jesus takes a very close familial role of responsibility in noticing that the guests were running out of wine and sees herself as being in the place to give orders to the servants, as it is the place of family to attend to the needs of the guests for the bride and bridegroom and their parents.

John starts his account of the events at the wedding by saying ‘On the third day there was a wedding at Cana in Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there (John2:1), which prompts us to go back and read what had been happening on the first and second day of whatever Jesus had been doing. It states in chapter one that John the Baptist, the cousin of Jesus who had been baptizing people in the Jordan River and telling people that there was One coming that was greater than himself then saw Jesus coming towards him and proclaimed him as ‘The Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world’. 
This was the beginning of the public ministry of Jesus, so this is what happened on the first day. Two of John the Baptist’s disciples asked Jesus on that first day if they could now become his disciples instead of John’s and Jesus tells them to follow him. Andrew is mentioned and he goes to get his brother Simon Peter who also becomes his disciple that day.
We then read in verse 43 ‘The next day Jesus decided to go to Galilee’ and we take this as the second day. He found Philip there and said to him, ‘Follow me.’ Then Philip found Nathanael. That second day was about Jesus gathering disciples.
The next day would have been the third day where the next verse starts in John Chapter two with the story of the wedding feast in Cana where Jesus and his new disciples are guests. 

John 2:1 On the third day there was a wedding at Cana in Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there. Jesus also was invited to the wedding with his disciples. When the wine ran out, the mother of Jesus said to him, “They have no wine.” And Jesus said to her, “Woman, what does this have to do with me? My hour has not yet come.” His mother said to the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.”
Now there were six stone water jars there for the Jewish rites of purification, each holding twenty or thirty gallons. Jesus said to the servants, “Fill the jars with water.” And they filled them up to the brim. And he said to them, “Now draw some out and take it to the master of the feast.” So they took it. When the master of the feast tasted the water now become wine and did not know where it came from (though the servants who had drawn the water knew), the master of the feast called the bridegroom and said to him, “Everyone serves the good wine first, and when people have drunk freely, then the poor wine. But you have kept the good wine until last.” This, the first of his signs, Jesus did at Cana in Galilee, and manifested his glory. And his disciples believed in him. After this he went down to Capernaum, with his mother and his brothers and his disciples, and they stayed there for a few days.
This miracle is the first of what are believed to be the seven ‘signs’ of the coming of the Kingdom of God through Jesus in John’s Gospel. The other six signs are said to include three major healings, the miraculous feeding of the five thousand, Jesus walking on the water, and the raising of Lazarus from the dead. (John 4:54) (John 5:18) (John 6:1-14) (John 6:28) (John 9:16) (John 12:18).

The word for ‘sign’ in the original language is semeion. A sign is a supernatural event just like a miracle (dynamis), but a sign is also a ‘signpost’ pointing to the coming of the Kingdom of God with the mighty and dramatic change that comes to humanity when the divine being of God is joined to his created being of humanity through Jesus. This is the Father’s gift of the Holy Spirit into his Kingdom, through his Son. 
Mary had told Jesus that they had run out of wine for the guests and Jesus was taken aback by her pointed remark which implied that he had the power to miraculously change the situation, and he commented that this didn’t have anything to do with him, because his hour had not yet come. Mary seems to disregard his comment and tells the servants to “Do whatever he tells you.” The Bible then relates how Jesus goes into action and tells the servants to fill six stone jars with water. 
The Master of Ceremonies then tasted the excellent miraculous wine and makes the legendary statement to the bridegroom “Everyone serves the good wine first, and when people have drunk freely, then the poor wine. But you have kept the good wine until last.”
There were six stone jars at the entrance of the house and these were for the religious ritual purification of the washing of each person’s hands and feet as they entered. 
The number six symbolises our fallen human nature - Mankind was created on the sixth day of creation and the water represents the waters of chaos with creation beginning with the Spirit of God hovering above the waters 
Genesis 1:2 The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep (thom - an abyss as a chaos of surging mass of water) and the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. The water speaks of the disorder of our natural human life which waits to be creatively touched by the Spirit of God. The water in the six stone jars being changed into wine symbolises an inner supernatural transformation where we become a New Creation, being made one in spirit with God. The water does not cease to exist but it becomes transformed into a new creation reality.

On this occasion, Jesus did what his mother asked him, but the Bible says that Jesus did nothing unless he was told by his Father to do it. Jesus would have understood  that his mother had been told by his Father what he was to do (Mary had indeed heard from Father God on many occasions before this).
This speaks to us not only of a family occasion at a wedding, but it speaks of Father ‘s family plan for humanity on earth which is that through Jesus, mankind was destined to dwell with the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit for all time. 
The Family in Heaven always was a family that lived with one another and for one another as one. Theirs is the perfect state of relationship and that was forsaken by Adam and Eve for all of humanity when they believed Satan who charged God with being self-interested and not perfectly loving to us. Jesus has reversed this lie into the truth of God’s perfect and inclusive love for us.
1John 5:7 For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit: and these three are one.
We are now part of the three in one God Family and we share their life and being and purpose and meaning. Jesus had explained to his disciples shortly before his death and resurrection that their lives would forever be intermingled with himself and his Father and the Holy Spirit.
John 14:20 In that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you are in Me, and I am in you. 26. And the Comforter, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things.
John has been unfolding the Kingdom truth in this story that Jesus would be the one who contains the Father and the holy Spirit within his earthly being and so he is 
central to our being included in the Trinity because while being fully God, he took upon himself and into himself our human nature with all of its limitations, as we see in the following Scripture
Colossians 2:9 For in Christ the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily, and you have been filled in him, who is the head of all rule and authority.
Jesus is the one who causes us to know that the love the Father has for us is the same as the love that the Father shares fully with Jesus himself. Jesus was also the one through whom he sent the holy Spirit, and it is to Jesus that we continually pray to be filled with his Spirit. John the Baptist had just previously said ‘I baptise with water but he will baptise you with the Holy Spirit’ and this supernatural act of God of the water being transformed into wine within us is the intermingling and the flow of God’s life in us and though us. 

We are fulfilled in our lives when we go with that flow and do not resist it and then we become like it and reflect it and all the while we try to observe what is in us that is resisting it. We can now have faith that this flow of life is acting towards us, and as we yield to this flow of God’s life it empowers and heals wherever it touches us, in spirit soul and body. Belonging to the Heavenly family of God through Jesus becomes the realm or sphere in which we now live towards his human family in the earth. It is Jesus himself, who is the Lord of peace, who is to be present and ruling in our midst.
Ephesians 1:4 This was the way God planned it before he even created the world, choosing the destiny of us as humanity being joined to divinity in Jesus, complete and innocent and unashamed of who we are in our close love and intimacy with him.
The love and joy and peace of Jesus is to hold sway over every aspect of our lives, and instead of pouring out of our own weary humanity we can now invite people into this family by offering the life-giving new wine of His Spirit of grace and love to everybody around us, and always being aware of ourselves as water being mingled into wine.