18 Mar Another Look at Water to Wine

My wife Ramona subscribes to an excellent podcast called “Trent Tribe,” which features the teachings of Senior Pastor Brian Trent of the Lighthouse Church. In a recent edition, Pastor Trent had a very new take on the story of Jesus transforming water to wine at the wedding at Cana.

Pastor Trent pointed out that Jesus asks workers at the wedding to fill the containers with water that He would transform into wine. Trent then asked why Jesus did that. Couldn’t He have filled the vessels with water Himself? Heck, couldn’t He have just caused new vessels filled with wine to materialize out of thin air? Of course He could. Yet He didn’t. Why not?

Pastor Trent points out that Jesus blessed the workers by allowing them to be part of the miracle. Jesus doesn’t need our help with anything. When He calls us to do something it’s the blessing of being part of whatever He is accomplishing. I am blessed when I accept such an invitation. The Spirit used Pastor Trent’s observations to  show me something I had never seen before about this miracle.

6 Nearby stood six stone water jars, the kind used by the Jews for ceremonial washing, each holding from twenty to thirty gallons. Jesus said to the servants, “Fill the jars with water”; so they filled them to the brim. 8 Then he told them, “Now draw some out and take it to the master of the banquet. John 2:6-8 (NIV)

Compare this with the promise Jesus made to the Samaritan woman He met at Jacob’s well:

10 Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.” 11 “Sir,” the woman said, “you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? 12 Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his livestock?” 13 Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, 14 but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life. John 4:10-14 (NIV)

Once the jars were filled with water, they produced the fruit of the vine, through the miraculous power of Jesus. When we drink the living water Jesus offers us,  we become “a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” And that spring flows to others, making the presence of Christ in us visible to them.

Just as Jesus allowed the workers to be part of the miracle at Cana, so He allows us to participate in the miraculous work He accomplishes through us when we surrender to Him. When we surrender to Jesus, we can rest assured that He will let us be part of the amazing things He is doing by working through us!

Pastor Jerry Bader