Three men were sitting together bragging about how, on the first day after their honeymoon, they had each sat their wives down and given them the rules on how they were to be a good wife.

The first man married a Baptist girl and he informed her that she was going to do the dishes and clean the house.  The first day he didn’t see any results, the second day things looked better, and on the third day he came home and saw a clean house, with dishes not only washed but put away.

The second had married a Methodist girl.  He informed his wife that she was going to do all the cleaning, all the dishes, and all the cooking. The first day he didn’t see any results, the second day things looked better , and on the third day he came home and saw a house clean, the dishes washed and a huge dinner on the table.

The third man married a Presbyterian girl. He informed her that she was going to keep the house cleaned, the dishes washed, the lawn mowed, the laundry pressed, and hot meals on the table every night at 6:00.  The first day he didn’t see anything, the second day he didn’t see anything, but by the third day he said that some of the swelling had gone down and he could see a little out of his left eye, enough to fix himself a bite to eat and load the dishwasher.

Isn’t marriage grand?  Jesus’ first miracle was performed at a wedding in the city of Cana , in Galilee .  It seems like a frivolous use of Jesus power to turn water into wine. It’s been the subject of a host of low-brow humor. Like the Baptist preacher who was caught with a load of moonshine whiskey. He claimed he was just hauling water. When confronted with the fact that it was whisky rather than water, he exclaimed, “It’s a miracle. Our blessed Lord has done it again.”

And from a superficial stand point, the story deserves such treatment. With a world before him to save, Jesus changed water to wine so that a bridegroom would not be embarrassed.

But if you think about it for a moment you’ll see that this miracle is very much in line with the character of Christ.

First of all, in this miracle we see his concern for the young couple. Or at least for the bridegroom’s parents. Someone on the groom’s side of the family was obviously responsible for the wine. Whoever it was would be deeply humiliated if they ran out. But everyone would be affected.

It is interesting that he was at first reluctant. Miracles were not taken lightly by Jesus. We do. We often take miracles lightly. We use the term quite loosely. A football team pulls out a victory at the last moment. It’s exciting. What do we call it? A miracle as if God really cares who wins a football game.

True miracles, actual Divine intervention in the natural order of things are very, very rare. And they always serve one function: to build faith in Jesus’ followers.

We also see the abundant nature of God’s grace. The master of the banquet tasted the water turned into wine and didn’t know where it had come from.  Jesus had taken what was plain and tasteless and turned it into something extraordinary.

Nearly one hundred years ago, American inventor Louis Enricht announced that he had discovered a cheap additive that would turn tap water into gasoline.  This was during World War I and gasoline was enormously expensive. Enricht claimed that this new additive would bring the per‑gallon cost of gasoline down to a single penny, which certainly got everyone’s attention.

Enricht even gave a demonstration to a crowd of reporters. He had the reporters check that his jug was full of ordinary tap water, then poured in a small amount of greenish liquid, stirred it up, and invited everyone to test this miraculous mixture in their own vehicles. They did and it worked!

Enricht’s demonstrations were so convincing that Henry Ford offered him millions of dollars to buy the rights for his additive. And no wonder. We’re still looking for such a cure to our energy ills today.

Actually, Enricht had merely discovered that if you add a very cheap chemical called acetone to water it will run an engine for a while, then destroy it. But before anyone found that out, Enricht managed to convince Ford and several other businessmen to give him millions of dollars for his worthless invention.  1

Enricht was a scam artist. His invention looked convincing, but ultimately it destroyed the engine it was suppose power. The power of Christ, on the other hand, took that which was inferior - ordinary well water - and made it rich and full and delightful.

Anything Christ touches is going to be improved by that touch. The water was not only going to be transformed to wine. It would be the best wine possible. In this way Christ was reflecting the nature of God. God is a giving God, a loving God, a caring God who has given us unimaginable beautiful and bounty in the world

So, in this miracle we see Christ’s concern for a young couple, and the abundant nature of God’s grace.

Finally, this miracle is a metaphor for what can happen in a person’s life when he or she invites Christ into his or her heart. Christ can take a sin-filled heart and transform it into the glory that God can reveal.

It’s said that Leo Tolstoy experienced that kind of transformation. He talked about it in a book titled, My Conversion:   “[When] faith came to me; I believed in Jesus Christ, and all my life suddenly changed. I ceased to desire that which previously I had desired, and on the other hand, I took to desiring what I had never desired before. That which formerly used to appear good in my eyes appeared evil and that which used to appear evil appeared good.”

Before his conversion, Tolstoy had earned fame and fortune through his great writings. But he was unsatisfied.  “I fought duels,” he wrote. “I gambled, I wasted my substance wrung from the sweat of peasants and deceived men. Lying, robbery, adultery of all kinds, drunkenness was my life.” His conversion, one of the most dramatic of our times, gave his life a new purpose, a new meaning and an abiding satisfaction.  2

A former alcoholic was asked about Jesus’ miracle of turning the water into wine, and said, “I don’t know about that, I wasn’t there.  But I do know that when I accepted Jesus into my house, into my life, into my world, he changed whiskey into furniture.”

Christ can do miracles.  With water, with wine, with you.

1.  Andreas Schroeder, Scams, True Stories from the Edge ( Buffalo . NY: Annick Press Ltd., 2004), p. 1.
2.  William E. Thorn, Catch the Little Foxes That Spoil the Vine (Old Tappan, New Jersey: Fleming H. Revell Co., 1980).