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Thursday, December 14, 2017

Christ's first miracle

John 2:His mother said to the servants, “Whatever he says to you, do it.” Now there were six water pots of stone set there after the Jews’ way of purifying, containing two or three metretes* apiece. Jesus said to them, “Fill the water pots with water.” So they filled them up to the brim. He said to them, “Now draw some out, and take it to the ruler of the feast.” So they took it. When the ruler of the feast tasted the water now become wine, and didn’t know where it came from (but the servants who had drawn the water knew), the ruler of the feast called the bridegroom 10 and said to him, “Everyone serves the good wine first, and when the guests have drunk freely, then that which is worse. You have kept the good wine until now!” 11 This beginning of his signs Jesus did in Cana of Galilee, and revealed his glory; and his disciples believed in him. 
*text note:  2 to 3 metretes is about 20 to 30 U. S. Gallons, or 75 to 115 liters.

John tells us that this was Christ's first miracle (not counting those miracles He did before He came to earth as a human.) Some other versions of the Bible use "miracle," rather than "sign." I have used the public domain World English Bible.

Christ’s first miracle wasn’t overthrowing the Romans, or bringing anyone back to life, or forgiving someone’s sins, or feeding lots of people, or healing someone. It was helping someone out of a jam, which was probably their own fault. They should have planned better, or ordered more wine in advance. This doesn't mean that Christ will always get us out of self-inflicted jams, but, sometimes, He surely does! He's our Friend, after all.

How did He do this? We don't know, of course. Perhaps he did it by adjusting the molecules of water, somehow, which isn’t surprising, when we remember that He created water in the first place.

Thanks for reading!

2 comments:

Weekend Fisher said...

I once read a commentary stating that Jesus' first miracle was an open bar at a wedding. RF Capon, maybe?

Take care & God bless
WF

Martin LaBar said...

That's one way to put it!

Thanks.