For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith – and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God – not by works, so that no one can boast.
Ephesians 2:8-9 NIVUK
The miracle at the wedding in Cana is a beautiful reminder that Jesus is in the habit of turning my simplicity into his mastery. After all, my life is designed to be a testimony of his goodness and transformation.
So what was Jesus opening miracle I hear you ask. Well, simply put. There was a party and they ran out of wine. While this may not be seem a major deal today where we can just pop to the supermarket for a couple of extra ottles, back then it was considered rather a big deal. Running out of wine at your wedding was a major social disgrace. It was not something anyone every wanted to happen to them.
So what does Jesus do with this social faux pas? Well, he have some very simple instructions to the servants.
He instructed them to fill 6 stone ceremonial washing water jars… with water. He then instructed them to draw out the water they had poured into them and give it to the master of ceremonies…to drink…
What? Foot washing water for party drinks? This was either a major joke or something profound was about to happen. I can’t imagine what the servants thought as they carried out these instructions, but they did as they were told. Somewhere between the pouring in and the drawing out, the miracle occurred. Simple water was turned into the best vintage wine.
In the book of Exodus, God gave clear instructions to the people through Moses on the correct construction of altars. The rules may have seemed complex but if you whittle it down to the basics, you can see that God was after raw and real expressions of sacrifice from his people. The whole purpose of sacrifice was to make atonement for our own sin – and God knew even then that whatever we could offer would never be enough to cover all our mess. And that was why he built Jesus, himself, into our redemption plan.
His instructions on building altars relied on using plain old dirt and if dirt was not available, then simple undressed stone. No fuss. No pretence. Just the basic materials of the earth. I believe this altar building was a representation of our lives. Back at the beginning, God made Adam from the dust of the earth and it was only the hand and breath of God that turned that dust into man. As sacrifice was an integral part of worship, and the altar building was a reminder to the people that our lives are a created to worship him.
Back in John we see Jesus right at the start of his ministry setting the groundwork for his message. This wonderful miracle sends a clear reminder to us of the sheer beauty of undeserved and unearned grace.
Today, Jesus asks us to come to him simply as we are and worship. No dressing up to prove we are good enough because under the surface, all we are is dust and stone.
Take courage dear friends you are good enough as you are to come to him. You can’t get simpler that water. You can’t
get more profound than the transformative mastery of a life saved by grace.
