Today I want to look at John chapter 2 at a story about Jesus’ first miracle in his ministry which he performed at a wedding he was attending with his mother, brothers and disciples. It is a most famous miracle! One that I have read many, many times, but this time I slowed down as I sensed there were new insights that the Spirit may reveal to me. Indeed, there was a treasure trove of insight and wisdom I never knew! And I am excited to share it with you today 
First, Jesus had just called several of his disciples. We see in John chapter 1 that Simon Peter and his brother Andrew began following Him, and next we see Phillip and Nathaneal. So at least these four disciples along with some of Jesus’ family set out to attend a wedding in Cana of Galilee. Right at the beginning in verse 2:1 we see it says, “On the third day there was a wedding…” I believe that God’s Word is packed with meaning and symbolism and design. Nothing is accidental. So, I want us to consider the three days are significant. The first “three” to come to my mind was the three days from the cross of Jesus to His resurrection. This is important because, at His resurrection, faith in His sacrifice results in a wedding in the believer’s heart. They are married to their bridegroom, Christ, by faith from this point: this is the first wedding, just like the one in Cana. In this wedding at His resurrection, Christ married His bride, the church.
Several verses point to this reality. Isaiah 61:10-11 talks about how Christ has clothed us with the garments of salvation and the robe of righteousness, as a bride adorns herself with jewels and a bridegroom decks himself with a garland. Ephesians 5:25-27 exhort husbands to love their wives as Christ loves the church, as its head and covering, preparing for Himself a wife that is cleansed by being washed in the water of the Word, to be made radiant and holy and blameless. It is also interesting that this wedding could be said to begin roughly 3 millennia after Adam when the cross and resurrection took place.
The next interesting detail to note comes a little later in the story, so let’s go forward. At this wedding, the host ran out of wine. Apparently, Mary, Jesus’ mother, was possibly involved in hosting the wedding because she approached Jesus seemingly asking Him to help the host avoid shame through a miracle. Jesus warned her, “My hour has not yet come,” likely because it was not time for His power and glory to be made known publicly. In verse 5, she told the attendants, “Whatever He says to you, do it.” Jesus decided to help the host more discreetly and chose to make His glory known only to His disciples and the servants of the host. This is where the next symbolic significance takes place. He instructed the servants to fill 6 waterpots of stone “according to the manner of purification of the Jews” with water. The water in these pots was used to purify the Jew for the purpose of ritual washings or mikva, which is sometimes similar to baptism. They can also be used to cleanse items used in preparing kosher foods.
Next, Jesus told the servants to, “Draw some out now and take it to the master of the feast.” The master then tasted the wine and called the bridegroom, noting with surprise, that everyone usually sets out the best wine at the beginning of the wedding and only brings the inferior wine after the guests had already “well drunk,” but indeed he had saved the best for last!
There is much to unpack in all this, so we will begin with the 6 waterpots of wine. The first thing I thought of with this specific number was that Jesus hung on the cross for 6 hours. The third hour was significant too. Halfway through, the sun was darkened. As was already discussed, three millennia after Adam was the cross. For those 6 hours on the cross was the finality of all the blood Jesus shed for our sins. In those six hours did Jesus turn the water used for our purification—the water of His holy Word He shared in His ministry on earth (which He shared for three years!) to prepare people to receive His blood in faith—into the blood He shed for our salvation, the wine we now can drink in communion for the forgiveness of our sins.
At the cross, the wedding of the Jews to God as His chosen people through the vehicle of salvation, which until then was Judaism, ended. At that point, the vehicle of salvation changed and came through faith in Christ and the receiving of His blood shed for our sins. Thus, Mary said, “they have run out of wine,” meaning, the Jews have run out of wine that can save—the wine of the Passover feast or even the original Passover in which the blood of a lamb without blemish was applied to the doorpost of their homes. This practice and its commemoration since the time of exodus prefigured the Lamb of God, Jesus, being sacrificed and His blood being applied to the doorposts of our hearts.
At this wedding in Cana, Jesus demonstrated that Jews and Gentiles alike must now be saved only through the wine of the miracle Jesus would perform at the cross and the first wedding of the resurrection. Only through holy, sinless blood shed can the miracle of salvation take place. Jesus replaced the old wine of Judaism with the best wine saved for last, His own blood. At this wedding, the Master of the wedding, the Father, presents Jesus’ blood, the best wine, to the bridegroom, Jesus, who submit His will to the Father’s in enduring the cross. This blood and this blood alone can save and was applied to the mercy seat in heaven, where Jesus rules as King and Judge. This blood was shed for the sins of the world throughout time. Interestingly, it was written in verse 6 that each jug held 20-30 gallons of water, which would be 120 gallons at a minimum. AI says there have been around 117 billion people on the earth at this point. That means that all that wine covers about all the people on earth!
After three days, the miracle at the wedding of Cana was the first revelation of Jesus’ glory and the beginning of His ministry on earth. This ministry lasted for three years until His cross. Three days later at the resurrection—the beginning of the wedding of Christ’s Spirit to the believer by faith—we see the beginning of the heavenly ministry of Jesus and the beginning of the earthy ministry of the apostles preaching the gospel of salvation through Christ’s blood. Furthermore, we can’t know for how long this blood will be applied to man’s sins before the end of time when there is no more hope for salvation, but it would be interesting to see if it just might be for three millennia wouldn’t it! That would be 6 millennia total for Christ’s redeeming work. Just a possibility we won’t realize this side of eternity.
After this period of saving grace, there will be a second wedding: the marriage supper of the Lamb. Jesus said at the last supper that He would not drink of the fruit of the vine until this wedding attended by all the saints. Jesus told a parable about this feast in Matthew 22:11-14 where the king came into the wedding hall to see the guests and found a man there “who did not have on a wedding garment.” After confronting him, the guest was speechless. The King then told His servants to bind him and cast him into the outer darkness, saying “many are called, but few are chosen.” This man did not have on the wedding garments described in Isaiah 61 that I mentioned earlier—the robe of righteousness. This righteousness is found in Christ—it is His righteousness that we gain when we repent and follow Him in faith and obedience.
This garment is also described in the book of Revelation 7:14 which speaks of those “arrayed in white robes” saying, “These are the ones who come out of the great tribulation, and washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.” When we repent and ask Jesus to cover our sins with His blood and cleanse us by His forgiveness and gift of the sanctifying Holy Spirit (which we receive by faith), we wash our robes, our festal apparel, to be prepared for His wedding supper at the end of time.
Revelation 19:5-9 speaks to a scene after the blood of the saints being avenged stating, “Then a voice came from the throne, saying, ‘Praise our God, all you His servants and those who fear Him, both small and great… Alleluia! For the Lord God Omnipotent reigns! Let us be glad and rejoice and give Him glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come and His wife has made herself ready.’ And to her it was granted to be arrayed in fine linen, clean and bright, for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints. Then He said to me, ‘Blessed are those who are called to the marriage supper of the Lamb!’”
Indeed! Let us remember the important messages this unique miracle teaches us today and always. Let us fear the Lord and serve Him faithfully. Let us cleanse our robes in the powerful blood of the Lamb, Jesus our Christ, through genuine repentance, faith, and obedience to His will. Let us be washed in the water of His Word and follow His teachings and commands so that that water may be turned in the wine of His salvation and communion. Through the act of faith in His word and blood, when we take communion, indeed He comes to commune with us by His Spirit in our hearts. Let us rejoice in the first wedding we enjoy by faith in His cross and look forward with joy to our final feast at the wedding supper of the Lamb at the end of time! Praise God for His extravagant mercy and generosity in salvation! Praise God for the priceless wisdom in His Word!
Artist: Jen Norton