Chapter two discusses the first miracle of Jesus, turning water into wine. I have heard many different teachings on this that really make it come full circle in understanding. Many wander why Jesus went to the wedding, why was His first miracle done here? In this time, if one was invited to a wedding they went, if they didn’t go it was a huge sign of disrespect and would spark “bad blood” between the families. Jesus the carpenter was invited to this wedding, along with His mother. He had just started His ministry and its believed that not many people in town knew of Him as a teacher yet, they knew Him as a carpenter. So, had He declined the invitation it would have showed the town distaste and wouldn’t have helped the ministry start on the right foot, God wanted Jesus to lead a walk of love not rejection. Understanding the culture of the times makes a huge difference on what the scripture fully means.

            When the wine ran out, Jesus’ mother told Jesus about it. It was accustomed then that if a friend ran out of needs for a gathering, they would turn to their spouse or son for help to fix the situation. Mary saw her friends run out of wine and knew that could cause them to have a bad reputation amongst the town, back then it wasn’t ok to run out of things for a gathering, it was expected to have enough provisions to entertain your guests. Hospitality was a different thing then to now. Today, if you had a party and ran out of beverages it wouldn’t be a big deal, you wouldn’t get judged or looked down upon because of it. When Mary saw the wine was gone, she went to Jesus for help, which was accustomed in this day and age.

            There were six water pots there that Jesus had turned into wine supernaturally. It is important to note that these jars were used for cleansing, some were for cleaning other dishes and some were for cleansing yourself before eatings (it was accustomed to always wash and cleans the hands before eating). So, these were meant for cleaning purposes. The number six represents man. Jesus first miracle of turning water into wine showed that He was going to make a way to cleanse men of their sins, incredible!

            Also, I would like to add, that even though Jesus turned water into wine, that doesn’t mean He was an advocate for people getting drunk. For starters, we are commanded not to be drunkards. Also, historians have shown that because there wasn’t enough grapes to make wine in the multitudes back then, it was common to dilute the wine. Because of this, there was a common 14:1 part water to wine mix (14 parts water to 1 part wine). Therefore, it wasn’t as normal to see someone being completely “drunk” like you would see people in todays standards. When the disciples were filled in the Spirit in the book of Acts and began praying in tongues, the town accused them of being drunk. To this Peter said that it was impossible to be drunk, it was only 9am. Historians believe that because the wine was so diluted it would take someone a long, full day of drinking to reach the point of being drunk. For one to be drunk at 9am would be incredibly hard unless they didn’t go to sleep the night before and stayed up all night drinking. This would make sense as to why Peter said, ‘how could they be drunk, its only 9am?’

            Also, some believe that the wine He made was a heavenly wine, in heaven there isn’t anything harmful, meaning there wouldn’t be alcohol. A well known prophet/seer shared that there is wine in heaven but it doesn’t contain alcohol in it because there is nothing that damages in heaven. She believes that because of that, the wine Jesus made in this miracle was a heavenly wine that didn’t contain alcohol to get people drunk. However, this isn’t supported nor rebuked in scripture, but I could see how that could have been the case. What we do know though, is that we are told not to be drunkards. We also see, that after Jesus turned water into wine, scripture shows that after He then went to Capernaum. It doesn’t say that He stayed and watched everyone drink the six pots of wine. Its important to see this miracle for what it is and not try to make it as an excuse to be “able to party and get drunk”. Sadly, some believers get confused with his story and see it as a license to party and get drunk. That’s not what this is about, not by a long shot. God of coarse wants us to celebrate when good things happen like weddings or birthdays etc, but there is a secular way to celebrate and then there is a way to celebrate that would make God proud. Common sense and conviction will allow you to discern His form of celebration verses worldly ways. What we are to take out of this is Jesus performed a supernatural sign that showed His power and literally prophesied what was to come, Him washing away mans sins. We should see this testimony and celebrate it for its true purpose, not twist it for sinful desires.

            Now comes Passover, so, Jesus went up to Jerusalem. He went to the temple and this is where He found people selling oxen, sheep and doves for sacrifice and money changers inside the temple. Jesus said that this should be a house of prayer but they had made it into a den of thieves. The peoples heart intents in the temple were obvious and shown through what the inside of the temple had looked like. The disciples remembered that it is written, ‘zeal for Your house has eaten Me up.’ Jesus then began to flip the tables over to show everyone that this wasn’t ok.

            Jesus’ response to this was that the temple would be destroyed and in three days Jesus will rise it up. They were floored, they didn’t understand how Jesus would be able to build this temple that took man 46 years to make, they had no idea He was talking about the temple of His body.