I don’t know many people who wouldn’t have loved to be on-site for the first miracle that Jesus performed while He was on earth. From the reaction of those there that day, we see that it was such an incredible experience that many put their faith in Him as the Messiah.
So, what was Jesus' first miracle and why was the timing of it important? And what about this miracle was so significant to Jesus’ ministry?
According to the Gospel of John, soon after His baptism–when Jesus was declared by John the Baptist to be the “Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29)–Jesus chose His first disciples. His first miracle follows directly after. John recorded that Jesus and His disciples had been invited to a wedding in a city called Cana in Galilee. Jesus’ mother was present, likely because she knew one of the wedding families. His mother learned that the hosting family had run out of wine and told Jesus. One gets the impression that she is concerned, not critical. But why mention it to Jesus? What would He do about it?
Jesus said to her, “Dear woman, why do you involve me?...My time has not yet come” (John 2:4). Perhaps Mary understood this statement, but likely the new disciples did not. Despite this response, Mary told the servants to do whatever Jesus ordered. He then told them to fill ceremonial washing jars with water to the brim. Next he instructed them to draw some out and give it to the master of the banquet. Upon tasting this wine, the master lauded the family for saving the best wine for last. John called this miracle–turning water into wine–the first of the “signs” performed by Jesus pointing toward the Kingdom of God.
We don’t truly learn how significant this miracle was until the end of Jesus' earthly life. All we know at this point in His life is that this first miracle launched His public ministry. It's significant that some of the first people to see this miracle were servants. It brings to mind the humble shepherds who were the first to hear of Jesus’ birth and is a reminder that our God cared about revealing who He was to people who were often considered "less than" by the religious elite of the time.
As we take a closer look at this miracle we will learn that it was more than just changing one liquid into another (though He was the only One who could ever do that as well).
Why Did Jesus Perform This Miracle?
In Jesus’ day, a wedding was a social occasion that may have included many in the community. Hospitality was so highly valued that to run out of anything at the wedding would have been an affront to the socially required standard. That’s why Mary pulled Jesus aside and told Him of the problem. She obviously cared about this family and knew that Jesus could help. But how? It's likely not because she had seen Him do something like this before, but likely because she was thinking of his miraculous birth.
When the angel Gabriel visited a young Mary and said that she was going to give birth to the Son of God, she willingly believed. Since she was a virgin, and the Holy Spirit was going to “come upon her,” Mary was personally familiar with God’s miracles. From the point of Jesus’ conception until His ascension, Mary always knew that Jesus was the Son of God, and therefore there was nothing He couldn’t do. It seemed natural for her to turn to Jesus when there was a problem at the wedding. However, she didn’t know that in her request, the timing was off.
Though Jesus said His time had not yet come (in other words, it wasn’t time for everyone to know His identity and purpose), He still respected His mother and likely had compassion on the family enough to help them. In the process of performing the miracle, He had an opportunity to begin showing His disciples that He was more than just their Rabbi. Although, as Bethany Verrett writes in her article, “What Was Jesus’ First Miracle?”, Jesus did not openly declare He was the Son of God for a while during His ministry, “waiting till the twelve disciples closest to him realized He was the Messiah on their own...This [first] miracle would have been key in the development of His relationship with the disciples.”
What Is the Deeper Meaning Behind the Water Turning into Wine?
Jesus could have just made wine appear out of thin air, but He didn’t. He also didn’t ask the servants to grab the empty wine vessels to fill them up with water. Instead, He had them take the empty stone jars that were used for ritual purification and fill them to the brim with water. Why? First of all, this would have made a lot of wine since each of the six jars could hold 20-30 gallons. Was that much needed, or was Jesus showing that He loves abundantly and His miracles often went above and beyond (consider the miracle of the loaves and fish [Matt. 14:13-21])?
Secondly, these were unclean jars because they had been used by people coming into the wedding to wash their hands–a customary practice before a meal in Jewish tradition. Jesus made the miracle more miraculous by using dirty water and turning it into the most perfect wine ever made. This would act as a foretaste of how Jesus would take what was filthy (our sins) and make us pure (by His own life’s blood). Of course, no one but Jesus knew this at this point.
Why is This Miracle Important in Understanding Jesus’ Ministry?
When John wrote of the miracles Jesus performed, he called them “signs." Signs always point to something or someone. When Jesus acted in authority over creation (changing water into wine, calming storms, walking on water, etc.) these were all signs pointing to His legitimate claim as the Messiah, the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. Jesus didn’t want people to only come to Him for a miracle, He wanted them to repent of their sins and believe in Him for eternal life. He wanted to show them the Father and change their hearts.
At the Passover meal, perhaps the disciples thought back to Jesus’ first miracle when dirty water was turned into wine. Now wine was being changed again, a sign of the New Covenant. Any who would drink this “blood” would be included in the covenant that Jesus was initiating by His bodily sacrifice. While they were certainly confused at this point about what Jesus meant, the greatest sign was to come, when Jesus gave up His life and was tortured and crucified for the sins of the world. It would come when He rose from the dead on the third day, showing He had conquered our greatest enemies: evil and death.
What Role Did Faith Play in Jesus’ First Miracle?
Mary knew Jesus better than anyone on earth. She knew that He had the ability to do anything as the Son of God. When she asked Him to do something about the fact that the wine ran out, she had no idea if He would act and what He would do. But she had faith enough in Him to believe that not only could He make a difference, His compassion for people who would be humiliated likely meant He would do something. In either case, she had faith that He would make the right decision, even though He said His time had “not yet come."
Imagine being one of the servants in attendance. You feel the pressure of providing more wine, even if it’s not your fault that the amount is short. You likely have not heard of Jesus to this point and don’t know why His mother Mary was telling them to follow His instructions. Perhaps they hoped whoever He was, He could make something happen. And when they did follow his orders, they were witnesses to something they never could have imagined they would see. The Scripture doesn't say, but it's likely this miracle caused these servants to put their faith in Jesus. Jesus allowed them to be part of a miracle, and it seems like Jesus didn’t do anything to take credit for it happening, so perhaps they received some benefits as well for serving the best wine last.
What Can Christians Learn from This Miracle Today?
What this miracle teaches us about Jesus is that He is always compassionate. Even though it may not have been His “time," He had care for His mother and the people who would have been affected by the lack of wine. The fact that He didn’t take the credit for the miracle or allow anyone to announce it was a beautiful lesson in humility as well.
We can learn that Jesus is worthy of our faith, not necessarily from this miracle alone, but from His entire life, death, and resurrection. In our lives, we may be in a situation in which we can’t imagine how God is going to make something happen, much like those at the wedding. When we fix our eyes on the fact that God is sovereign over every aspect of our lives and that sovereignty is interwoven with His great love for us, we see all the more that He is worthy of our trust.
We also learn obedience, even when we don’t understand what God’s plan is for a particular situation in our lives. Even though they didn’t know Jesus and didn’t work for Him, the servants involved in this first miracle were inspired by Him to obey. And because they did, they were able to be a part of the miracle He was creating. It reminds me of the famous quote attributed to the late Charles Stanley: “Obey God and leave all the consequences to Him.” The “consequences” of this miracle would set the stage for Jesus’ ministry to save the world.
Why Did John Include This Miracle in His Gospel?
It’s interesting that John was the only gospel writer to include the story of the Wedding at Cana. It was the first of the seven signs performed by Jesus in the gospel of John. The others include:
- Healing the Roman official’s son
- Healing the paralytic
- Feeding the 5,000
- Walking on water
- Healing the man born blind
- Raising Lazarus from the dead
It must have had such an impact on him that he wanted the readers of his gospel to know about it. He must have believed it would help lead others to faith in Christ. The gospels were written to convince others to believe in Jesus, and including this miracle would have resonated with John’s audience. They would have understood the social faux pas of running out of wine at a wedding, and how amazing it would be that Jesus created wine from water.
Though John wrote about many signs and sayings of Jesus, at the end of his gospel, he said there was no way that his words were complete. He knew that Jesus was so much more than what he could include in one book written by one apostle. But regardless, his purpose was that people would come to know Him. In his final words, John wrote, “Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in his name” (John 20:30-31).
Further Reading
Jesus Turns Water into Wine - Bible Story
What Was Jesus' First Miracle?
3 Overlooked but Significant Details from Jesus Turning Water into Wine
Photo credit: ©Getty Images/camaralenta
Mary Oelerich-Meyer is a Chicago-area freelance writer and copy editor who prayed for years for a way to write about and for the Lord. She spent 20 years writing for area healthcare organizations, interviewing doctors and clinical professionals and writing more than 1,500 articles in addition to marketing collateral materials. Important work, but not what she felt called to do. She is grateful for any opportunity to share the Lord in her writing and editing, believing that life is too short to write about anything else. Previously she served as Marketing Communications Director for a large healthcare system. She holds a B.A. in International Business and Marketing from Cornell College (the original Cornell!) When not researching or writing, she loves to spend time with her writer daughter, granddaughter, rescue doggie and husband (not always in that order).
