Forget the Old, See the New
By Robin Jones
“Fill the jars with water”; so they filled them to the brim. John 2:7 NIV
John Piper once said,
God is always doing 10,000 things in your life, and you may be aware of 3 of them.
On an ordinary day, in an ordinary place called Cana, Jesus was attending a wedding when he did something extraordinary.
He turned water into wine.
He transformed one substance into a completely different substance. I am no chemist, but there is definitely a difference in the chemical makeup between water and wine.
The only people who witnessed the first miracle of Jesus’ earthly ministry were Mary and the servants who filled the jars with water.
Honestly, the text doesn’t say that the bride and groom even noticed. They were completely unaware of God’s handprints on the smallest details of their wedding day.
What was God Incarnate doing there unnoticed? What was He quietly announcing with this miracle?
God was saying,
Forget the former things, do not dwell on the past! See! I am doing a new thing! Do you not perceive it?... Isaiah 43:18-19 NIV
He used water and wine to illustrate a physical example of a spiritual truth.
He was saying look! The old covenant would be fulfilled by the new, and the new covenant would bring us joy and eternal life.
Let me connect the dots…
The stone jars symbolically represented the old covenant, the old requirements. God wrote the old covenant on stone tablets. (Deut 5:22, Exodus 24:21)
Wine, on the other hand, symbolized joy and eternal life. According to Jewish tradition, it represented a completed, perfected human life.
The jars that held the water were used for ceremonial washing (v 6). They held water used to cleanse the external parts of the man so that he could fellowship with God. The old covenant put the requirements on man to be clean and to do mitzvahs (good deeds) to join himself to God and bring about the Messiah.
Jesus changed things up… just like the water.
Instead of man having to fulfill the covenant, He did it for us.
Jesus did for us that which we could not do.
Instead of washing away the dirt on the outside with water, Jesus filled us with the best wine which would reside on the inside—Eternal Joy.
That joy had a name. Its name was—Jesus!
Listen to this spoken word poem by Pastor Isaac Wimberly, “Jesus is Forever”. Meditate on the joy of Jesus our Savior who is always doing something new!
Lord, thank You for doing a new thing! Thank You for fulfilling the covenant that we could never keep. Thank You for taking our place. We love You and praise You. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.
© 2021 by Robin Jones. All rights reserved.
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