Miracle at Cana

There is so much to learn from the Miracle at Cana where Jesus turns water into wine
(John 2:1-13). In today’s post I will only focus on two things that stood out to me the most as I dug into this passage of the first miracle that Jesus performed

1. Mary, the mother of Jesus and
   
2. The wedding guests.
   

Jesus was at a wedding in Cana, His mother Mary, his brothers and some of His disciples were there too. The wedding celebrations of that time went on for nearly a week.

As the festivities go on, at one point they run out of wine. It was a social embarrassment for the groom’s family and they might have been subject to ridicule to serve only water.

Mary goes to Jesus for help and seeks to find a solution to the problem.

There are a few things that we can learn from Mary in this story:

1. She goes straight to Jesus – likewise, for us may we always go straight to Jesus when we face a problem rather than flounder on our own strength at first and then cry out to Him.
   
2. She knows His character – one of compassion and giving and is very much aware of His identity as the Son of God.
   

   Being Jesus’s mother, she got to spent a lot of time with Him and being in a close relationship with Him allows her to see and know Him on a deeper level. We know that even for a parent unless you purposefully spend time with your child you are not going to have that close bond with them or get to know who they really are as a person.
   

   Likewise, for us, unless we purposefully spend time with the Lord and maintain a close relationship with Jesus, how are we to get to know more of Him and His character.
   

3. She trusts that He will help – Mary did not have a solution but she trusted Jesus for a solution. And so should we, place our trust in Him rather than in our own strength or someone else’s.
   
4. She does not tell Him what to do – she simply states her need and trusts Him for the rest. Often, we want to tell God exactly what to do or how to go about providing for our need. We stress or fret and expect God to answer our prayers a certain way.
   

   Likewise, for us, we need to come to God just to present our need with a trust that He will meet them.
   

5. Whatever He says to you, do it – Even though Jesus did not verbally acknowledge at that point that He was going to sort this issue out, Mary goes ahead and instructs the servants “Whatever He says to you, do it”.
   

   Firstly, that is so much trust there. She was not hesitant to take that first step in faith without yet knowing or seeing whether Jesus was going to intervene.
   

   Secondly, it may not always make sense – the servants had to fill up water in the ceremonial stone jars, a lot of water had to be poured in, approximately 75-115 litres in each jar, there were six in total. The process involved a lot of work, carrying smaller jars of water to pour into these huge jars.
   

   They were for ceremonial washing, so clearly not fit for drinking. I can only imagine the servants thinking what a ridiculous thing He is asking us to do.
   

   What God asks you to do may not seem all that sensible at that moment, but if you know that with much prayer there is that certainty to go ahead, then we must not hesitate.
   

   Mary knew Jesus and with that came the assurance and surety of what HE can do and hence she gave those instruction to the servants. And we do not read of her questioning Jesus about His instructions.
   

   As we walk closely with our saviour, along with the knowledge of who He is there comes a growing obedience to do what He asks of you. There comes an understanding that even though it does not make sense to me now, I am trusting in Him and that He can see the big picture and He is putting the pieces into place and there also comes a peace to wait in the meantime.
   

The other thing that stood out to me was that most of the people did not know this miracle took place.

When this wine was served to the master of the banquet, he questioned why the wine was not brought out earlier, clearly indicating he did not know what transpired. And it appears that so did many of the other guests, most probably, Mary, the disciples and the servants only knew what happened (v11 ‘..was the first of the signs through which he revealed His glory; and his disciples believed in Him.”)

God reveals His glory so that we can grow in our faith, have greater confidence in Him and know more of His character. Only those who were close and attentive to Jesus got to experience this miracle and this revelation of His glory.

For us, if we are too busy with the world and the things in it, not walking closely with Him or giving our attention to Jesus, we will miss out on the wondrous things God does and reveals to us and we would really lose out.

We see God’s glory in our everyday life, it does not have to be in some dramatic display. Jesus performed this supernatural feat in a very understated way. Let us remember that the glory of God is not necessarily to be manifested in a visible or spectacular way but all too often we look for only that and not recognise His glory in all the multitude of ways he reveals it to us.

May our eyes be open to all the things that may seem like coincidence but know that it is providence.

God Bless.