New York UBF – NY University Bible Fellowship (NYUBF)

Water to Wine

John 2:1-11

Just a show of hands, how many of you, honestly, are ready to be transformed? You know, a lot of people want to be transformed. Each year on Dec. 31, millions of Americans make their New Year’s resolutions. Some want to transform their body, so they decide to go on a diet or join a gym. Others want to transform their health, so they try to quit smoking, try to reduce the stress in their life or maybe even try go to bed earlier. Some even try to transform their behaviors by making decisions that they will no longer yell at people or they’ll stop swearing. Many people want to be transformed. But let’s be real, these transformations usually last through the end of January. If you make it to March, you are among a very small group of very strong people.

During his ministry, Jesus taught a lot about transformation. In fact, the first miracle that Jesus performed was a transformation: he changed water into wine. Three days after calling Philip and Nathanael to follow him as disciples, Jesus, his mother Mary and the disciples attended a wedding in the village of Cana in the province of Galilee—a village about 8 miles from Jesus’ hometown of Nazareth. In Israel 2,000 years ago, a wedding involved the whole town and then some. The bride would put on her richly embroidered white robes and her jewelry, then cover herself with a veil and put a garland on her head. The groom would dress in his best clothes and wore some sort of funky headdress on his head. The groom would then walk to the bride’s house, followed by an entourage of his family, friends, musicians and singers. Once there the bride’s parents would give away the bride with their blessing. And then everyone involved would walk through the streets to go to a feast at either the groom’s or the groom’s father’s house. As they made their way through the streets, people would literally come out of their houses, follow the crowd and join the party. Everyone was welcome. And then that party—with its feasting, music and dancing—lasted for seven days. A full week of celebration and joy.

But there was a problem at this particular wedding in Cana. Let’s read verse 3. “When the wine was gone, Jesus’ mother said to him, ‘They have no more wine.’” It’s a seven-day party, and they ran out of wine. It might not mean much to us, I mean they can always just drink water, right? But back then it was a big deal. First of all, it made the groom and the family look bad because they couldn’t keep the same standards as their neighbors. They couldn’t even provide wine for their guests. It was embarrassing. People would start talking about how they are poor, not to mention bad hosts. Non top of that when the wine ran out, the party was over. The celebration would have to end a few days early. In their culture, that was unacceptable and frowned upon.

But Mary saw what was going on. Ironically, it wasn’t even her problem. It was the bride and groom’s problem. She could have stepped back, and said, “Let them deal with it. Not my problem.” But with compassion, she accepted the problem as her own.

Now, when we have a problem, we want to solve it. That’s what the millions of Americans do every New Year’s. They see a problem in themselves, and they try to fix it. But Mary didn’t try to fix the problem on her own. Let’s read verse 3 again. “When the wine was gone, Jesus’ mother said to him, ‘They have no more wine.’” She said to him. She took her problem to Jesus. The first thing she did was tell Jesus what was wrong. She did not go to the neighbor’s to find wine. She did not go out to the vineyards to pick grapes. She went straight to him. Did you ever wonder why she went to Jesus? Many times we pray to Jesus when we have problems—essentially taking our problem to him. But we have a whole Bible full of examples of how Jesus solved problems—he healed the sick, drove out demons, raised the dead. But this was Jesus’ first miracle—how did Mary even know that her son could help solve the problem? She had never seen a miracle before. Didn’t even know Jesus could do such things. But she trusted Jesus and brought the problem to him anyway.

And what did Jesus do? Let’s read verse 4. “’Dear woman, why do you involve me?’ Jesus replied. ‘My time has not yet come.’” He dissed her. “Woman, why you involving me? It’s not my time.” How many of you would say that to your mother and not expect some type of punishment? Actually what Jesus said is not as bad as it sounds—it gets lost in translation. Calling your mother “woman” was a nonderogatory, even polite way to refer to your mother in ancient Israel. And the rest of what Jesus said actually has a deep and profound meaning.

The phrase “my time has not yet come” appears five times in the book of John: here, twice when Jesus’ family was going to the Jewish Feast of Tabernacles and Jesus decided not to accompany them, and twice when Jesus escaped from people trying to seize him (2:4; 7:6, 8, 30; 8:20). The phrase “my time has come” appears three times in the book of John—all during the week before Jesus is crucified (12:23; 13:1; 17:1). Jesus didn’t just come to this world to change water to wine at the wedding and help the people whose lives he touched—the lepers, the sick, the blind. He came to this earth to die on a cross to help everyone: past, present and future. Our biggest problem is sin—we disobey God and do things that we should not do. For that, the punishment is death. But when Jesus shed his blood on the cross, he took our sins, he took our punishment—and we were forgiven. That’s what Jesus was waiting for—the time to give up his life so that we may live.

But Mary still believed and trusted that Jesus would help her with the little problem at the wedding feast; she knew he cared about both the big and the small problems. Even though it seemed as if Jesus wouldn’t help, she turned to the servants and said, “Do whatever he tells you.” It was an act of complete submission. She didn’t know what Jesus would do, but she trusted him. She gave the problem to Jesus and decided to just follow whatever he said—even if it seemed crazy. And what Jesus proposed was absolutely crazy.

You see, just outside of the house stood six stone water jars, each holding between 20-30 gallons of water. These jars most likely would have stood by the front door so that people could wash their hands as part of the Jewish purification rites before meals. I once ate dinner at a rabbi’s house, and before we ate we had to “wash our hands.” I was handed a two-handled pitcher and instructed to grab the left handle and pour the water down my right hand while one of the men said a prayer in Hebrew. Then he told me to grab the right handle to pour the water down my left hand—because grabbing the other handle would contaminate my already clean hand—and he again said the prayer. Through that ceremony, I was considered to be clean.

Now you can just imagine the condition of the stone jars outside of the Jews house. The whole village was there. They all washed their hands with the water in those jars. None of them used antibacterial soap. The stone jars were dirty. But Jesus told them to fill the jars with water. Now if the jars were empty, and I hope for the sake of the servants they were not empty, that would be 170-255 pounds of water that needed to be carried from the well to each jar. But the servants didn’t grumble about the task ahead of them, instead they trusted that Jesus had a plan. And they filled all six jars to the brim.

Then Jesus’ instructions got even crazier. Let’s read verse 8. “Then he told them, ‘Now draw some out and take it to the master of the banquet.’” He told the servants to give the water with all the dirt, germs and fingernail fungus to the master of the banquet to drink. Now, it’s one thing to wake up in the morning, saying “Jesus, I trust you. I’ll follow you today”—just like Mary trusted Jesus when she said “do whatever he tells you.” It’s another thing to actually follow through with it and complete a difficult task that Jesus gives us—like filling those stone jars. But now Jesus was asking them to put everything on the line.

He asked them to give their boss dirty water to drink—essentially they risked being fired and not being able to put food on the table for their families. He was also asking them to give up their religious ceremonies. You see the Jews believed that their washing rituals with the stone jars would clean them. However, Jesus changed the water within this ceremonial vessel into wine, which represents something entirely different. In Matthew 26:27-29, Jesus took a cup of wine, gave thanks to God and said “Drink from it, all of you. This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.” By changing the ceremonial water to wine, Jesus was essentially telling them to forget what the six stone jars were supposed to represent, to forget the ceremony, and instead rely on his blood to clean and forgive them. Jesus was now asking the servants to have faith in him, to trust in him, with every aspect of their life.

And the servants did it. They took the water to the master of the banquet and by the time it reached his lips, it had transformed into wine. In fact, it was the best tasting wine at the feast.

But can you imagine what that walk across the room was like? The servants must have been trembling. Step by step getting closer to the master of the banquet. I mean, they had no idea what Jesus was going to do. For all they knew, they were just giving the master some dirty water. But what impresses me the most is what the servants didn’t do. They didn’t complain. They didn’t rebuke Jesus for giving them a plan that breaks their cultural and ceremonial rules. They didn’t tell Jesus that he was crazy for even suggesting this plan. There is also no mention that they hesitated. Their eyes were not darting around the room, and they were not whispering to each other wondering if they should really be doing this. And they didn’t inch across the room, constantly checking the water to see if it’s still dirty. Instead, the Bible tells us that they just did it.

They identified the problem, they took it to Jesus, and they trusted and followed Jesus’ instructions. Then Jesus made the transformation occur. He transformed something dirty into something beautiful. And he can do the same for us. We can be transformed. Now, some people will say that they don’t want to change. Because let’s be real, change can be scary. But let’s look deep into our hearts, do we want to stay the same as we are now? Are we really, truly happy with how we are now? Is this all we are supposed to be? And remember that this transformation is an inward change—Jesus changed the water inside of the stone jar. It’s not about changing our style of dress, talk or walk. It’s not about what we look like or what music we listen to. The transformation is on the inside.

You know, when I first began working on this message, I began to think about how I’ve been transformed. I was happy to realize that I’m not the same person I was 11 years ago when I developed a curiosity about God and began studying the Bible. But day after day what struck me most is how much I still need to be transformed. I looked at my heart, and I didn’t like what I saw—the envy, jealousy, pride, anger, bitterness, selfishness. I don’t want to be like that anymore. On the outside, maybe I’m a messenger and a group Bible study leader. Maybe I go to two worship services each Sunday. But that doesn’t make me better than anyone else, and it does not transform me.

I can’t do be transformed by my own willpower. That’s why New Year’s resolutions fail most of the time—because we only rely on ourselves. Mary didn’t give the instructions, and the servants didn’t change the wine. Jesus is the only one that can truly transform us.

And that transformation will probably take a lifetime. For the servants it probably took a few minutes to navigate among the crowd to get to the other side of the room with the transformed wine. But for me, that journey may take all the days of my life. It’s not as if in a moment my heart will be like Jesus’ and I’ll be completely changed. Instead it is a lifetime of identifying problems, praying, and trusting and following Jesus.

You know that day, at the wedding in Cana in Galilee, the dirty water was not the only thing being transformed. According to verse 11, through this miracle Jesus’ disciples put their faith in him. Because of one transformation, another occurred. The disciples began to believe and trust in Jesus. It was the beginning of a transformation that would change their lives, their behaviors and their attitudes. Thomas the doubter stopped doubting and taught the people in India about Jesus. Andrew the fisherman—best known for finding a boy who had five loaves and two fish—would one day boldly and voluntarily step forward before a Roman governor and demand that he stop persecuting Christians. Peter went from denying that he even knew Jesus to leading the Christian church in Jerusalem and performing miracles.
My prayer is that we can all eagerly await that transformation. That we can look inside our hearts and bring the problems we find to Jesus. That we can make Jesus the center of our lives each day—trusting and following him. So that when we leave this conference, we’re not the same person as when we came. So that next week, next month, next year and next decade we can look at our lives and realize that we may look the same, but something is different in here. We don’t know when it happened or how it happened. But we will all know who did it.

By Teresa Dombach

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