Lessons from the miracle at Cana: Jesus' Ingenuity & Effectiveness

As we started exploring in a previous post, John 2:1-12 tells us a lot about Jesus’ nature. We’ll continue to dig into that by looking at what it tells us about his ingenuity and effectiveness. 

 

Pray over the text and then consider the points set out below. This is from the New Jerusalem Bible. Other translations can be accessed  here. 

 

On the third day there was a wedding at Cana in Galilee. The mother of Jesus was there,²and Jesus and his disciples had also been invited.³And they ran out of wine, since the wine provided for the feast had all been used, and the mother of Jesus said to him, 'They have no wine.'⁴Jesus said, 'Woman, what do you want from me? My hour has not come yet.'⁵His mother said to the servants, 'Do whatever he tells you.'⁶There were six stone water jars standing there, meant for the ablutions that are customary among the Jews: each could hold twenty or thirty gallons.⁷Jesus said to the servants, 'Fill the jars with water,' and they filled them to the brim.⁸Then he said to them, 'Draw some out now and take it to the president of the feast.'⁹They did this; the president tasted the water, and it had turned into wine. Having no idea where it came from -- though the servants who had drawn the water knew -- the president of the feast called the bridegroom¹⁰and said, 'Everyone serves good wine first and the worse wine when the guests are well wined; but you have kept the best wine till now.'

 

¹¹This was the first of Jesus' signs: it was at Cana in Galilee. He revealed his glory, and his disciples believed in him.¹²After this he went down to Capernaum with his mother and his brothers and his disciples, but they stayed there only a few days.

 

1.   Jesus’ ingenuity is reflected in how he repurposed the water jars, as reflected in verses 6-9. Those jars had another function, but Jesus put them to a different, and far more impactful, use than was ever conceived of.  We see other examples of such repurposing in Matthew 13:1-1 and Luke 5:1-3  (using boats as public address systems);  John 6:5-14 (using a boy’s lunch to feed thousands and demonstrate His power/mercy);  Matthew 21:1-5 (using a colt to fulfill prophecy);  Luke 20:23-26  (using a coin as a teaching tool);  Matthew 21:18-22 (using a fig tree as a teaching tool). 

 

2.  Jesus’ effectiveness is seen in the multiple impacts of this one action. It met an earthly need, saving the host from embarrassment. It gave joy/satiation to the many wedding guests. It built His key disciples’ faith, laying the groundwork for their ministries, ministries that saved thousands in their day and millions/billions since then. It’s description in scripture has blessed millions/billions more. Those last two impacts were worldwide results of this very local event. This is a very powerful example of the dynamic Jesus was illustrating in Matthew 13:31-32  (the parable of the mustard seed). 

 

Five other posts considering the Miracle at Cana are linked at Lessons from the Miracle at Cana: Collected