There was a wedding in Cana of Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there. Now both Jesus and His disciples were invited to the wedding. And when they ran out of wine, the mother of Jesus said to Him, "They have no wine."
   - John 2:1-3

Wine, in Scripture, where rightly and wisely used, is the symbol of joy. We read of "wine which cheers both God and men" (Judges 9:13). The fact that the wine was giving out at a marriage feast suggests that Israel had so far departed from God that her joy had disappeared in large measure. Nothing much remained but empty forms and ceremonies, as pictured by the large waterpots (John 2:6). But the Christ of God was there, and His mother felt instinctively that He could do something to remedy the situation.

So, we are told she turned to her Son and said, "They have no wine." She did not actually request Him to do something about it. She carried a secret which other people never would have understood. She had been waiting for the time when this wonderful Being, whom she had carried beneath her heart as a babe, should manifest Himself as indeed the Son of God, and it is very likely that she saw here an opportunity for Him to do this.

She turns to the servants and says to them, "Whatever He says to you, do it." Here may I point out to those who pray to the blessed Virgin and ask her to intercede for them, that her own Son did not immediately answer the petition she asked of Him. Mary said to the servants, "Whatever He says to you, do it." In other words, the mother of Jesus turns us away from herself to her blessed Son, Jesus Christ.

We read, "There were set there six waterpots of stone, according to the manner of purification of the Jews, containing twenty or thirty gallons apiece." They had to do with Jewish ceremonial cleansings. They were connected with outward purification. They were all empty, like the forms and ceremonies of the law. But the Lord Jesus turns to the servants and says, "Fill the waterpots with water." In obedience to His word they fill them to the brim.

We can see a picture here of the living water of the truth of the gospel poured into the typical ceremonies of old. Everything is changed when the waterpots were filled with water. Jesus said unto them, "Draw some out now, and take it to the master of the feast." And as they poured the water out, lo and behold, in the very act of pouring it out, it became wine! It was a wonderful miracle, and yet, after all, it was just a duplication of what our Lord Jesus Christ has been doing for millennia on ten thousand hillsides, changing water into wine.

This first miracle shows Him as the Creator, the One who upholds all things through His power, the One who provides for us everything that we need; and the wonderful thing is that this great Creator became our Savior. He was always God from eternity. He, by whom all things came into existence, came down into this world to suffer for our sins, that we might be saved and have everlasting life.

One word could have filled those waterpots if it had been His will. But it took more than a word to save our souls. It took the work of the cross. Yet because of that work, one word, "believe," now brings life and peace.

Henry A. Ironside