Why was Jesus’ first miracle at a wedding?

In John 2:1-12, Jesus performs His first miracle — turning water into wine at a wedding in Cana. In this study, Dr. Toby Holt shows why this quiet “sign” points all the way to the cross.

When the wine runs out — a deep embarrassment in that culture — Mary brings the problem to Jesus. He tells her, “My hour has not yet come,” a phrase that in John always points to His crucifixion. Then He has servants fill six large stone jars with water, and the water becomes the finest wine. Dr. Holt explains that John calls this a “sign,” not merely a miracle — it reveals Jesus’ glory and points forward to the new covenant and the cup He would pour out at Calvary.

Questions this study answers:

1. Why did Jesus say “My hour has not yet come”? In John, “His hour” always points to the cross. Even at a wedding, Jesus’ eyes were on why He came.

2. Why does John call this a “sign”? Because it points beyond itself — revealing Jesus’ glory and pointing ahead to the new covenant in His blood.

3. What does this first miracle reveal? That Jesus is the Son of God, who brings abundant new life — the best saved for last.

“This beginning of signs Jesus did in Cana of Galilee, and manifested His glory; and His disciples believed in Him.” — John 2:11 (NKJV)

Speaker: Dr. Toby Holt is the President of New Geneva Theological Seminary, a Reformed seminary in Colorado Springs. He is known for clear, down-to-earth Bible teaching, and his sermons have been downloaded more than 1.9 million times on SermonAudio.

Listen and go deeper: This sermon is part of the John Explained study from New Geneva Theological Seminary. Find more verse-by-verse teaching across the Bible at newgeneva.org. To support this teaching ministry, visit newgeneva.org/give.

In today's study of John 2, Jesus will perform his first recorded miracle, turning water into wine at a wedding in Cana. But why did he start his ministry this way? What was this particular miracle all about? Well, verse 11 will say that it wasn't just a miracle, it was actually a sign. Specifically, it was a sign of the new covenant and the coming hour of Christ's glory.

As chapter two opens, Jesus and his disciples have been invited to a wedding. Now, this wedding was in a small village, a hamlet, Cana of Galilee. So he's invited to this wedding in Cana. This is a rural area. This is far from the hustle and bustle of Jerusalem. You would've thought that Jesus, the most important person on the planet, the one that God sent down for this season, for this age, that Jesus would be in a place where there were a lot of people. But instead, we see that at the start of ministry, Jesus is far from where all the people are. He's in a very small, remote, little village town. And as this text opens, we see that he has been invited to a wedding. Now, when you and I think of weddings, we picture weddings through our own lens. Over the years, weddings have become a bigger and bigger and bigger deal. I mean, in fairness, they were still a big deal 20, 30 years ago, but the amount of money that goes into weddings each year, it's fascinating. It's kind of staggering when you look at the trajectory for how much weddings cost in this day and age. They're a really big deal for us. But you know what? They are even a bigger deal in Israel in the first century. You see, when they had a wedding in the first century, when they had a wedding, even in a small village like Cana, when they had a wedding in this context, it could be an all-week affair. At the very least, it was for several days. When there was a wedding and a wedding feast, and it took a number of days for all the celebrating to be done. It was a significant, significant cultural event, and everyone was invited. If you were in the region, then you were part of the community, and therefore, you were invited to this wedding. With that said, in verse three, we see the ultimate party foul. Now, what is that? Well, what happens is they're having this big wedding, this big affair. The whole community has been invited, and they run out of wine. Now, why was that so significant? Why was that so important? And how did it come to be? Was it because of under provision? They just didn't get enough wine prepared? Or was it for overconsumption? We really don't know in either case. We just know that they ran out, but running out was a big deal. For us, we go, "All right. No big deal. Run over to Dollar General or someplace and get some more wine." Here, not so much. This was a scandal. This was a cause of massive embarrassment for all involved, particularly the bridegroom. Running out of wine at your own wedding, this is something that this guy would've been hearing about for years and years and years. On his tombstone, it would've wrote that he ran out of wine at his own wedding. This was that big a deal, that significant a deal for the wine to have run out at this time. With that said, something that's kind of interesting as we consider this text is that in this setting where the wine has run out, Jesus is going to be asked to do a miracle. He's going to be asked by his own mother to fix the situation. His mother's going to get eyes on the situation and say, "We've got to do something. Who can help?" And she knows who can help, and it's her own son. It's her own son, Jesus. With that said, let me stop for a moment and mention something before we really get into how the water got turned into wine and the like. It's interesting when you run into chapter two, that the first of all of Jesus' miracles recorded is this.

At face value, what Jesus does here is he turns one liquid into another liquid. Right? Now, for a guy who was known to raise the dead, for a guy who was known for casting out demons, it's fascinating that John says, "You know where to begin the story of Jesus and his miracles and the things he did? We'll start with that party." That party where he did something that you could think was a parlor trick. You turn one liquid into another liquid. How do you do it? I don't know. This could've been a smaller thing, a very small thing on John's radar. And John omitted a whole lot from his gospel. Later on at the end of the Book of John, you'll see he's going to say, "There's a lot of stuff I didn't put in here." Specifically, he'll say this. He'll say, "There are so many things that Jesus did, if they were all written down, I suppose the world itself could not contain the books that would be written." So John, later in his own gospel, is going to say, "Jesus did so many things, so many amazing things, so many mind-blowing things, that if you tried to write them all down, the world isn't big enough to hold the books to record it." Now, if that's true, and what we see in John's gospel, what he did record is a small, small minority of that which Jesus did, why would you include this? Turning one liquid into another liquid. Why does this rise to the stature that not only does he include it, but he leads with it here? He leads with it at the very start of chapter two. Well, this morning, we're going to discover as we work through the text that this is no mere miracle. In fact, it's something beyond a miracle. It's a sign. If you want to understand today's text properly, and if it's preached in a way that it should be, God willing, we will extract from this text not simply that God did something cool or Jesus did something cool, or he turned one liquid into another liquid. What we'll extract from this text is a deep theological lesson that points to the cross at Calvary. That's where we're going the next 25 minutes. I hope we get there. All right. Let's look at verses one through four. Verse one. "On the third day, 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 them, 'They have no wine.' And Jesus said to her, 'Woman, what does your concern have to do with me? For my hour

has not yet come.'" All right. As we said before, running out of wine is the ultimate party foul in this context. This culture is what you would call an honor and shame culture.

Now, we live in a culture that has no shame. Running out of wine at a wedding, people go, "Eh." You wouldn't even think about it a day later. But this was an honor and shame culture, and this was shameful. You invite guests from around the countryside, you're going to host, you're going to make provision for them. That's your singular job, is to make sure that the people who've been invited have everything they possibly need, and then you ran out.And in honor and shame culture, as we said before, this is significant. It would be etched on the tombstone of this bridegroom some years down the road. With that said, as we said a few moments ago, Mary, the mother, was there. And we believe she was assisting in some capacity in this wedding. And the reason we believe she was assisting in some capacity in this wedding is because she's going to order the servants around in a few verses from now. But Mary, the mother of Jesus, is at this wedding. She surveys what's gone down. They've run out of wine. Oh my goodness, they ran out of wine. What to do? And there had to be several people who are shrugging going, "Oh, no. This is calamity. Absolute calamity." And Mary goes, "I know. I know just the guy. I know who I'll go talk to." So we see there in verse three, she approaches Jesus and she simply says, "They have no wine." She doesn't beseech him. She doesn't say, "Hey, son, could you do this for me?" She just tells him they have no wine. He knew the import of that. He know the significance of that statement. With that said, notice his response to his mother in verse four. His response initially is, "What does this have to do with me?" His initial response is, "What does this have to do with me? Woman, what does your concern have to do with me?" And then he adds this, and he says, "My hour has not yet come." There's a couple observations we can draw from Christ's response to Mary. First of all, the word woman. When you hear that, "Woman, what does this have to do with me?" You hear that and you go, "Wow, that's a fascinating way to talk to your own mother." Culturally, this was reverential. Again, you have to understand all the text in its own culture. This was reverential. In fact, it was one of the most reverential words he could use to refer to his own mother. And we know that because later on when he was on the cross, guess what he says? He's literally on the cross, he sees Mary, his mother there, and John, his own disciple, is right next to her, and what does he say? He says, "Woman, behold your son." At this moment, he was basically conveying his own mother, his dearly beloved mother, into the care of one of his most trusted disciples. "Woman, behold your son." This is not a throwaway term. Reverential. So that's what he's doing here. He says, "Woman, what does your concern have to do with me? My hour has not come." Now notice, he doesn't say he won't assist. One of the chief commandments is this, honor your father and mother. So he never for a moment says, "No, thanks. I'm good." He never says anything like that. But he does imply this. He does imply that what she has asked him to do,

does not necessarily comport with his salvific saving mandate. Thirdly, notice this. Jesus referred to his hour, and that's the most significant part of his statement. He says, "My hour has not yet come." If you were listening to that conversation, what would your takeaway of that be? What hour? [chuckles] What is he talking about? My hour has not yet come. Well, in order to understand what he's talking about, you have to ask yourself, did he ever talk about an hour anywhere else in the text? Is there anywhere else in John where he talks about his hour somewhere later? Because if he did talk about his hour somewhere later, then maybe, just maybe, it has something to do with what he's talking about here. Well, good news. He does talk about his hour later on. In fact, he does it at least six times. And each time when he refers to my hour, the hour that's coming, he's talking about his crucifixion. Talking about his crucifixion and, in a sense, the resurrection that would follow. But he's talking about that. My hour has not yet come. He's looking down at what is yet to be. Now, why offer that here? Well, we'll get there as we work through the rest of these verses. Let's see Mary's response, though, to his statement in verses five through eight. Let's see what she does when he says that my hour has not yet come. In verse five, "Then his mother said to the servants, 'Whatever he says to you, you do it.' Now there are six water pots of stone, according to the manner of purification of the Jews, containing 20 or 30 gallons apiece. And Jesus said to them, 'Fill the water pots with water.' So they filled them up to the brim. And he said to them, 'Now draw some out now, and take it to the master of the feast.' And so they took it." All right. I need to stop there in verse five. You could preach a whole sermon just on verse five. Now, let me explain what I mean. Mary's talking to the servants. Jesus has just talked about his hour. Mary nods and talks to the servants, and she says this. She says, "Whatever he says to you, do it."

Now, as sermons go, that's pure gold. She points to Jesus and tells the servants, "Whatever he says to you, you do it." If you take nothing else out of today's sermon, which you might not, but if you take nothing else, take that out. The mother of Jesus tells the servants, tells us through the channels of time, all these years later, something that remains true now as it did then. Whatever Jesus tells you to do, do it. So that's what she says in verse five. With that said, notice that in verse six, that Jesus gives the servants some marching orders. Verse six said, "There were now six water pots of stone, according to the manner of purification of the Jews, containing 20 or 30 gallons apiece. Jesus said, 'Fill them with water,' and so they filled them up to the brim." And he says, "Draw some out, take it and give it to the master of the feast." All right. Now, there is some symbols in this that we need to focus on. It's not simply a throwaway line talking about some water pots that happen to be sitting over here somewhere. There's two details that he gives us. Number one, we read that these were water pots of stone, not of clay. Almost everything was clay. You go to the Middle East to this day, you go to Jerusalem, you go on tours and the like, you'll see old clay pot sherds everywhere. Almost everything was clay, but not these. Not these things that held the water. They were stone. Now, why was that significant?Well significant because these particular pots which this refers to, these are what was used for purification. If you were going to attend a wedding, you needed to be clean prior. If you're going to attend a wedding, if you're a guest there, you had to kind of wash up before you could enter in. It would be party foul number two to show up all dingy and gross, you're shepherding in the fields, and then you just walk into the wedding. No. There had to be purification that would take place. And so the water that was typically in these stone pots was used for purification, and it was stone, not clay, because they didn't want any mud or anything from the inside of the pot to somehow foul up the water. So it's stone pots filled with purified water that were utilized. With that said, Jesus doesn't talk about just grab any pot you got around. He says, "Take those," the ones used for purification, which is significant. That's what we're going to use to make this wine. Now, how many pots were there?

Six. Now, why is that significant? Numbers are always significant. Whenever you see numbers in scripture, they're always significant. Maybe not for the reason that some modern authors tell you, but the numbers are significant. Now, the number six scripturally speaking, was a number of incompletion. Number six was an incomplete number, and we know that God made the world in six days. On the seventh day, he rested. There's a special seven. With that said here, there's six water pots that are going to be filled to the brim with water that will be turned to wine. Six of them. Where's the seventh? In a few moments, we're going to see this, that Jesus himself is the seventh water pot, and I'll explain what we mean in a few moments. Whatever the case, if you notice the quantity, you'll notice that there's about 150 gallons. He said there it takes six water pots of 20 or 30 gallons a piece. If you take all this water, the 100-plus gallons, and that that's what you're going to provide for the guests. Now, I don't know how many guests they had, but I know this much: 100-plus gallons of wine, that's got to be plenty. What we see here is abundance. This is Christ's overflowing provision. He's asked to do something. He's going to provide new wine, so to speak, which is going to be really significant for reasons we're going to figure out in just a moment. New wine he's going to provide for the people, and he's going to provide it in abundance. I want you to anticipate some of the theological themes that we're going to hit at in just a few moments. All right. Let's look at the balance of this text, and then we'll explain what's going on. Verses nine through 12. "Now when the master of the feast had tasted the water," and by the way, the master of feast, that's got to be a good job. The master of the feast. "When he had tasted the water that was made into wine, he did not know where it had come from. But the servants who had drawn the water, they knew. Then the master of the feast called the bridegroom, and he said to him, 'Every man at the beginning sets out the good wine, and when the guests have well drunk, then the inferior.'" Because they wouldn't know the difference at that point. "But you, you have kept the good wine until now." Now, verse 11, "This beginning of signs," which is important, "This beginning of signs Jesus did in Cana of Galilee and manifested his glory, and his disciples believed in him. And after that went down to Capernaum, he, his mother, his brothers, his disciples, and they did not stay there many days." All right. In verse nine, the master of the feast. I don't know how he got that job, but it's wonderful. The master of the feast discovers that there's more wine. We thought we were out. Oh, happy day. There's more wine. Where did this wine come from? And then he sips it and says, "This is amazing. I have never had wine like this. I've been the master of the feast for some time," you can picture him saying. "I've been the master of the feast. I have never encountered this. In fact, I usually encounter the opposite. When I'm the master of the feast, when I was the master of the feast down at the Jones wedding," you remember the Jones wedding? "When I was the master of feast there, they gave out the terrible wine later." After everyone can't tell the difference. You ever shop for boxes of wine? You know your budget for wine isn't that great when you're buying a box of wine. This is the equivalent of the box of wine. This is like wine spritzers or something like that. And the master of the feast knows it. He says, "You, you have given the very best and the very best last," and that is unusual. It never happens. I've never seen it in all my days. With that said, whenever Jesus brought something, whenever Jesus offered something, it was always the best. Whenever Jesus made provision, the provision always exceeded the expectations of the people approaching him. When he did miracles, the miracles were in abundance over what they expected. When he did healings and the like, people thought to him, "Maybe you could do this and maybe you could do that." And when he would heal them, they'd be dancing around. They were shocked and in awe of what happened when he casted out demons. When he turns a few loaves of bread and fish into feeding thousands, he regularly did that which was in abundance of even the need. Remember the bread and the fish? There was baskets of this stuff left over. This is one of the things that Jesus does. He provides in abundance beyond the needs of those who have approached him. They were used to or desirous of some sort of wine that they were familiar with, and he comes, and he shows up, and he offers them better wine than they had ever had tasted, ever had touched. This is a picture of the new covenant supplanting the old, and the new covenant is oftentimes typified in wine. With that said, before we expand on that, I want to focus on one key word there in verse 11. In verse 11, notice that turning water into wine, it's not simply referred to as the miracle but as a sign. Now, what do signs do? What does a sign do? Well, a sign points to something other than itself. A simple miracle would be a one-off event. Something that was wonderful, amazing, confounded the laws of nature, but didn't necessarily point to something greater beyond. Well, what Jesus frequently did when he did these amazing things is he didn't do it just for that moment in time, just because there was thirsty guests. That's not really the reason that he did it. What he did was a sign that pointed to something more significant down the road, and verse 11 makes it clear. "This beginning of signs, Jesus did in Cana of Galilee." Remember beginning, because this is going to be a bookend, and we're going to talk about the other bookend in just a moment, but this is a sign. So what is it a sign of? What is it a sign of? If this water into wine is a sign, what is it a sign of?Well, in order to answer that, I want to look at a text briefly that's at the far, far end of the book of John. Towards the end of the book of John, Jesus is on the cross. Now, what's going to go down there? Well, listen, I'm going to read this text. I want you to listen, and I want you to listen for these words: water, wine, vessel, and woman. All right, listen to these verses towards the end of John. John says this: "When Jesus therefore saw his mother," this is on the cross, "and he saw John, the disciple he loved, standing by, he said to his mother, 'Woman, behold your son.' After this, Jesus, knowing that all things were now accomplished that the Scripture might be fulfilled, said, 'I thirst.' Now, a vessel full of sour wine was sitting there, and they filled a sponge with sour wine and put it to his mouth. Now, when Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, 'It is finished.' And bowing his head, he gave up his spirit. Then the soldiers came and broke the legs of the first, and then the other who was crucified with him. But when they came to Jesus and saw that he was already dead, they did not break his legs. But one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and immediately blood and water

came out." You see, in a sense, this passage is an absolute bookend to what happened in John 2, and it's meant to be seen that way. What happens at the end, "Woman, behold your son," even the phraseology that's used, the nature of water and wine and wine and water and the like, which occurs there towards the end of the Book of John, is meant to be seen as a bookend. What happened in the wedding supper at Cana is meant to be understood with what went down on Calvary. When Jesus saw his mother and his disciple standing by, he said to his mother, "Woman, behold your son." And he said, "I'm thirsty. I thirst." Have you ever wondered why he says that? What's up with that? "I thirst." And what do they give him? Well, they give him wine. Not just good wine, they just give him the sour wine. He drinks it, he dies. He says, "It's finished. I am finished. It's all done." And then he passes at this time. And then moments later,

they stab his side with a spear. What comes out? Water mixed with blood. In John 19, Jesus addressed his mother one last time with the same reverential word, woman, as he did in Cana. And once again, a vastly inferior wine is offered at first, sour wine, which was lifted up to Christ's mouth. However, at that moment, the hour had come. At that moment, the hour was here. At that moment, the hour that Jesus had been anticipating way, way, way back, when he said, "Woman, my hour has not yet come," it came, and she was there to see it. And I guarantee you that she had thought back at some point with what happened at Cana. At that moment, the hour that Christ had spoken of had finally arrived. At that moment, the new wine of Christ's blood was poured out at the foot of Calvary. Today's passage in Cana, in this hamlet, it's a sign, and here it is. Jesus came to offer a wine that no man has ever drank, and it's a wine that's typified whenever we offer communion. Remember when we offer communion, we have the bread, the body that was broken, and we also have the wine. It's the cup of the new covenant, the cup of Jesus' blood, which is shed for thee. That's the finest wine imaginable. That's the greatest wine that you could ever hope to drink, spiritually speaking. With that said, this is what happened. In chapter two, he's anticipating what's going to happen at the end of the book. He anticipates what's going to go on on Calvary. On Calvary, his body's going to be broken, his blood is going to be shed, his blood is going to be poured out in offering, in substitution for the blood of the saints, for the blood of the whole rest of us. In chapter 19, we see the culmination of the entirety of the gospel. This morning before I wrap up, let me just remind us what that gospel is. Two components to this. Number one is that we have a problem. The problem is that we're sinners. The wages of sin is death. You've sinned more times than you can possibly count. There's no way you can atone for that on your own. If a man has sinned, a man must die. Are you a sinner? Yes, you are. What are you going to do about it? That's the problem. However, the second part of the gospel is this, that while we're yet sinners, Christ died for us. That although we'd broken the laws of his Father time and time and time and time again, more times than we could possibly count, although the wages of sin is death, and although we're sinners, God looked down upon us. He saw us in our fallen state. He saw the problem that awaited us, which was the curse coming down upon us. He saw our problem, and he determined to send his Son. This is the solution. The solution to our problem is that in due time, God sent one to die in our place. On Calvary, that's exactly what happened. When Jesus was on the cross, your sin, my sin, our sin, if we're believers, was placed upon him, credited to him as if he's the one who did it. And at that moment, another cup was poured out. Do you know what was in that cup that was poured out upon Christ? The wrath of God. The cup that Jesus drank was the wrath of God due to you and I. He drank down every drop to the fullness. Every drop of the wrath of God came down upon Christ. Everything that you've ever done wrong was paid for in that moment. And when he said, "It is finished," he said the payment is complete. The payment is complete. At that moment, he's saying atonement, the satisfaction, the substitution has occurred. I have died in the place of my beloved. And then, the moment after his death, his side is pierced, and his blood spills out. A picture of the finest spiritual wine anyone could ever hope to drink. This morning, my question is, do you believe? Do you trust in this one? And if you don't trust in him to have atoned for your sins, then who's going to do it? On the day yet to come, you don't want to presume that you can walk into God's presence, clad in the stains of your own scarlet sins, and assume that he's going to judge you by the curve of all the rest of humanity, and against the backdrop of all the rest of humanity, he's going to find you pretty good and let you in. That's not the gospel. The gospel is this, that the wages of sin, singular, is death, and on Calvary, Jesus paid it all. Let's pray.

[gentle instrumental music] To search through an archive of Dr. Holt's previous sermons, please visit us at fpcgolfport.org, or you can look us up at sermonaudio.com. [music fades out]