Big Idea - This passage ends with the words "This, the first of his signs, Jesus did at Cana in Galilee, and manifested his glory. And his disciples believed in him." It raises two very important questions that are highly relevant to us. First, how did turning water into wine reveal God's glory in Jesus? And secondly, what does it mean that it resulted in the disciples believing in Him? Didn't they already believe? We often use the term 'believing in Jesus' to mean that we got saved. We describe our conversion as putting our faith in Christ, and so we were saved. This is not wrong, but this is not the way John uses the phrase. His audience is primarily Greek-speaking Jewish Christians who lived throughout the Roman Empire, not in Judea. But John writes, "but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name" (John 20:31). John implies that believing is not just a one-time thing, or only something we do to get saved. Believing in Jesus and having life in His name are both things that Christians need to grow in. But how does this passage help us believe and have life in His name?
In this story, Jesus rescues a wedding on the verge of disaster. To save the wedding, He must sacrifice religious ritual, but Jesus chooses celebration over ceremony, and the bridegroom's honor over tradition. Jesus also performs a miracle similar to Moses turning the Nile into blood. This miracle is spectacular in both quantity and quality. On one level, it was a very kind act to prevent what would have been a shameful and very unpleasant ending to what should have been a joyful event. But it was more than that. John tells us it wasn't just a miracle or a rescue operation, it was a sign. That means that it was more than just an act of kindness to help out a friend. It is a message, a prophetic object lesson to teach reveal to us something about His glory. This sign reveals that 1) The messianic age has arrived, 2) Jesus is replacing the old with the new, 3) The new is essentially the joy of a wedding, 4) God saves the best for last, and 5) The coming hour
