Turning Water Into…

There is so much rich symbolism in the Scripture, that we sometimes fail to see the depth to which the Holy Spirit will bring us if seek prayerfully and diligently enough. One such example is found in the first miracle of our Lord Jesus Christ at the wedding in Cana of Galilee. The shallow man might read this portion of Scripture and conclude that Jesus turned water into wine because He wanted to do something nice for the bride and groom; but Jesus is not interested in shallow interpretations of His word. No, there is rich symbolism here–first rooted in the Old Testament revelation, then realized in the New Covenant era. Sinclair Ferguson notes:

On the one hand, He was showing the inadequacy of the provisions of the old order. The sacrificial system could not bring the joy He offered. The old water gave only ceremonial forgiveness, and therefore short-lived and fading joy. But on the other hand, the Lord was demonstrating that in the gospel there is new wine that offers lasting joy (Isa. 55:1–3). Jesus Himself gives that wine (129).

It is certainly significant that John notes, “Now there were six stone water pots set there for the Jewish custom of  purification, containing twenty or thirty gallons each.” This was a Jewish wedding, at the point of the expectation of the coming One that John the Baptist had been preparing the way for through his own ritual custom of purification. Now, the coming One was present at this wedding. The water in the pots was intended for Jewish purification. It was a mark of the Old Covenant economy, with its typical, preparatory, and earthly representations and rituals. The Old Covenant era was ending and the New was being ushered in by Jesus Christ. Jesus was certainly doing something that was prophesied by the Old Testament prophets Amos and Isaiah. The very last words of the prophecy of Amos, looking forward to the fulfillment of the promises of God in the New Covenant, alluded to this very thing. Amos wrote, “‘Behold, the days are coming,’ says the LORD, ‘when the plowman shall overtake the reaper, and the treader of grapes him who sows seed; The mountains shall drip with sweet wine, And all the hills shall flow with it. I will bring back the captives of My people Israel; They shall build the waste cities and inhabit them; They shall plant vineyards and drink wine from them; They shall also make gardens and eat fruit from them. I will plant them in their land, And no longer shall they be pulled up. From the land I have given them,’ Says the LORD your God (Amos 9:13-15).” This is the reason why He turned water into the best wine. The New Covenant is the time of the rich fulfillment of all the promises of God in Christ.

The Old Dispensation was represented by Moses, he mediator of the Old Covenant and the typical redeemer of the people of God. The New was represented by Jesus, the Mediator of the New Covenant and the only redeemer of God’s elect. There is, in the first miracle at the wedding in Cana, a contrast between the first miracle of Moses and the first miracle of Christ.

In the Old Testament Scriptures we read of “water turned into blood”–a deed of vengeance and of wrath; a judicial punishment upon a wicked king and a disobedient nation; a specimen too of the general character of the miracles of the old dispensation.

In the New Testament, however, we read of “water turned into wine;” the genial, generous, refreshing fruit of the vine;–emblem of the fullness, and blessing and peace which were to characterize the New Dispensation.

Moses’ miracles were the beginning of the plagues of Egypt; this miracle of Jesus was the beginning of the deeds of mercy which characterized the Son of Man. The one was transacted in blood; the sign of wrath even to death–the first Plague, a type and shadow of the last great Plague–the death of the firstborn. The other was transacted in the fruit of the vine; the sign of joy and gladness, and of nature’s fullness, and a type of the last great feast of the Passover, when Jesus did eat and drink with His disciples, and under the emblem of the fruit of the vine, “did institute and in His Gospel did command us to continue, the perpetual memory of His precious death, until His coming again.”2

It is on account of this period of fruitfulness that our minds are to be drawn as we see our Savior “manifest His glory,” so that His disciples, and we, would believe.

1. Sinclair Ferguson In Christ Alone (Orlando: Reformation Trust, 2007) p. 129

2. Robert Maguire The Miracles of Christ (London: Weeks and Co., 1863) p. 24