Jesus’ First Miracle

Grant Montgomery – Grant’s Rants on Jesus’ First Miracle

“On the third day a wedding took place at Cana in Galilee. Jesus’ mother was there,
and Jesus and his disciples had also been invited to the wedding.

“When the wine was gone, Jesus’ mother said to him, ‘They have no more wine.’

“…She turns to the servants and says to them, ‘Do whatever He tells you.’

“Nearby stood six stone water jars, the kind used by the Jews for ceremonial washing, each holding from 20 to 30 gallons. Jesus said to the servants, ‘Fill the jars with water’ so they filled them to the brim.

“Then He told them, ‘Now draw some out and take it to the master of the banquet.’
They did so, and the master of the banquet tasted of the water that had been turned into wine.
He did not realize where it had come from, though the servants who had drawn the water knew.

“Then he called the bridegroom aside and said, ‘Everyone brings out the choice wine first and then the cheaper wine after the guests have had too much to drink; but you have saved the best till now.’

“This, the first of his miraculous signs, Jesus performed at Cana in Galilee.” (John 2:1-11)

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So six stone jars, holding up to 30 gallons each, would be somewhere close to 180 gallons.

[And you’ll note that the Apostle John makes a point of saying the jars were “filled to the brim”.]

180 gallons equals about 682 liters. So that would be 908 bottles of wine!

[If you want to be more conservative, we can use an average of 25 gallons per jar. That’s still 150 gallons, 757 bottles!]

The crowd had already been drinking and it is close to midnight at this point.

With Jesus’ intervention, this party was going to carry-on for hours more!

So according to the Gospel of John, Jesus chose as his first miracle what one might consider a somewhat controversial transformation of water into wine! And lots of it!

Among other things, this gospel account of Jesus being invited to a marriage, attending, and using his divine power to save the celebrations from disaster, are taken as evidence of his approval for marriage and earthly celebrations.

It has also been used as an argument against Christian teetotalism, that is totally abstaining from alcoholic beverages!

And of course, there are Biblical references to Jesus Himself “eating and drinking”, over which Jesus was slandered by the religious of His day: “Behold, a gluttonous man and a heavy drinker”. (Luke 7:34)

[Inspired by “Beautiful Outlaw” by John Eldredge]