Jesus, His mother and His disciples had all been invited as guests to a wedding at Cana (John 2:1-2).  This village was about eight miles north of Nazareth, and the place where the disciple Nathanael came from (John 21:2).  They had no official role; it was not their responsibility to do anything except to enjoy the celebration.  But the wedding feast had run into a crisis.  All the wine had been drunk and the feast was still going on.  It would have been shameful for the host to be so rude to his guests.  Jesus’ mother told Him of the problem, also telling the servants to do whatever Jesus instructed (John 2:3-5).  

Seeing six stone water jars, Jesus told the servants to fill them with water – perhaps 700 litres in total (enough liquid to fill about 900 modern wine bottles).  But when it was drawn out, the Master of Ceremonies realised that it was wine of a very high quality, and not water at all!  It was a wonderful creation miracle, affirming that Jesus had the power of the Creator – as indeed He was (Hebrews 1:2) – the Son of God who had come from the glory of heaven.  When Jesus called the disciples to follow Him, they obeyed; but now they believed in Him (John 2:11).

This miracle has invited many explanations.  Some are not true to the text, such as: the wine was not real, they just thought it was wine … the water jars already contained the wine, but the host had forgotten about it … because there was so much wine, Jesus obviously approved of people getting drunk!  None of those views are supported by the text.  John, who was present, gave a first-hand report: the wine had run out … the water jars were full to the top with water … the Master of Ceremonies did not know where the wine had come from but pronounced it to be a high quality and expensive vintage.  In other words, Jesus did what was impossible - but He was the person ‘through whom all things were made’ (John 1:3).  The Creator made the wine and made it very well!

The key message is that God does everything excellently, much more and much better than ever we can imagine, and He does it when it is the right time in order that we put our trust in Him (Ephesians 3:20-21).  In other words, when there is an impossible situation and we care about it, we should present the problem to Jesus; trusting Him to meet that need in such a way that He gets the glory and we learn to trust Him more.  That is why you need to enter a dialogue with Him about the issues which are concerning you at work or at home today.  Tell Him about them and let Him produce the solution; but do not think His answer is merely to satisfy your need.  Its larger purpose is to display His glory, encourage your faith and stimulate faith in those around you.  It is an exciting adventure to follow Jesus!