Jn.2:11 – This beginning of His signs Jesus did in Cana of Galilee, and revealed His glory; and His disciples believed in Him.
I have been reflecting this week on the miracle at the wedding celebration in Cana of Galilee. In today’s verse John declares that this miracle was the first display of the glory of God in the ministry of Jesus. What I have been stunned by recently is the fact that this happened at a wedding. It was intentional!!! It was a prophetic look into why Jesus came. He became a man to gather His bride from the world, wash her in His blood, and prepare her for the greatest display of the glory of God. The great day when His bride is presented in all of His glory, the fruit of His life and death, will be the greatest day in history and the beginning of God’s brand new day. Here is how Bede describes this verse.
“By this sign he made manifest that he was the King of glory, and so the church’s bridegroom. He came to the marriage as a common human being, but as Lord of heaven and earth he could convert the elements as he wished. How beautifully appropriate it is that when he began the signs that he would show to mortals while he was still mortal he turned water into wine. [But] when he had become immortal through his resurrection, he began the signs that he would show only to those who were pursuing the goal of immortal life.… Therefore, let us love with our whole mind, dearly beloved, the marriage of Christ and the church, which was prefigured then in one city and is now celebrated over the whole earth.”
The miracles of Jesus are all prophetic looks into kingdom reality. Healing the blind pictures spiritual awakening. Turning water into wine speaks of the life of the celebration that Christ brings to us. Multiplying fish and bread proclaims Christ as the Bread of Life. Raising Lazarus from the dead speaks of our new birth from the deadness of our sins. This miracle in Cana was a declaration: Jesus was declaring that He came to find His bride and bring her into His supernatural life and display the greatness of His glory. He was determined to show His glory in and through the lives of common people. What I have sensed as I think of this miracle was something the man in charge of the wedding in Cana said, “You have saved the best for last”.
