Today’s verses come from the Gospel of the disciple John, chapter 2 verses 1-12. On this Valentine’s Day, we focus on the everlasting love of Jesus.
Arguably one of the best-known stories in the Bible, Jesus, His disciples, and His mother attended a wedding in Cana. As the story goes, they ran out of wine at the wedding. You have likely heard the story before where Jesus turned the water into wine, a lot of wine! Some estimates based the description of the “six waterpots of stone, containing twenty or thirty gallons apiece,” would be the equivalent of 600 to 900 bottles of wine today! But I digress.
The question is, why did Jesus choose His first miracle to be turning water into wine?
In ancient Jewish times, the wedding reception was significant as it was the responsibility of the groom. The quality of the wedding reception, which many times was held a year after vows were exchanged, was a direct reflection on the groom. Running out of wine would have looked poorly on the groom. Did Jesus deliver this miracle to show His gift and not take credit for it? How many people at the wedding beyond the disciples and the servants knew that Jesus had “saved the reception” and produced the wine?
Verse 11 tells us “This beginning of signs Jesus did in Cana of Galilee and manifested His glory; and His disciples believed in Him.” I believe Jesus performed this miracle as a demonstration to His disciples that He was Son of God. The disciples saw for the first time, the power and impact Jesus could have. Fast forward to the last supper outlined in Matthew 26:26-30, and Mark 14:22-26, Jesus announced God’s New Covenant with man, symbolizing wine as the shedding of His blood to forgive our sins. I believe another purpose of this miracle was for Jesus to make the connection of wine as a sign of His saving blood, His eventual crucifixion and death on the cross.
The Book of John tells us that after Jesus performed the miracle at the wedding, Jesus went to Jerusalem during Passover. This is another popular story of Jesus clearing the Temple, in John 2:15, “When he had made a whip of cords, He drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and the oxen, and poured out the changers’ money and overturned the tables.” Jesus then goes on in verse 19 to say, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” Jesus was not speaking of the building; He was speaking of His body which would be crucified and raised from dead. I believe John chronicled the miracle of making wine at the beginning of Chapter 2 because he continued at the end of the chapter to provide the example of Jesus “cleansing the temple.”
Jesus came to earth to shed His blood, to cleanse our souls and save us from sin and death. The production of wine at the wedding represented Jesus’ blood and the cleansing of the temple represented the cleansing and forgiveness we receive by accepting Jesus as our Lord and Savior.
Jesus demonstrated the most sacrificial and selfless type of love by dying on the cross for us. Jesus gave us a gift that we did not deserve. He endured criticism, doubt, pain, shame, and ultimately a horrific death to save us. Here’s the catch. The world wants to pull us away from accepting Jesus’ gift. Christianity is portrayed and demeaned as a life of “things we cannot do,” instead of being hallowed as a life of “what we get to do.”
Choosing a life following Jesus is the most satisfying path. We can be content, feel loved, and know we are wanted. Jesus loves us and wants to have a relationship with us, in which we believe and turn our lives over to Him. That is the true message of Jesus dying on the cross.
Following the world’s ways which focuses on possessions, selfish desires, addiction, and lust, will not satisfy our hearts and souls. There will never be enough. We cannot satisfy our desires through the things of this world. The perpetual pursuit of material things will leave us sad and empty.
The pursuit of a trusting and loving relationship with Jesus will provide fulfillment, knowing you are loved no matter what has happened in your life.
My prayer is that by reading this today, you feel, maybe for the first time, that you are loved, no matter how bad you feel, no matter what you have done. Jesus wants you to feel happy and fulfilled with your life on earth and spend eternity in Heaven with Him. All you must do is accept the gift Jesus offered. Pray this prayer. “Jesus, I believe you died on the cross for the forgiveness of my sins. I believe you are the Son of God. I ask you to come into my life. Please forgive me of my sins. Amen.”
If you prayed that prayer, and truly believed it in your heart, scriptures in the Bible tell us you are saved and will spend eternity in Heaven. Your Valentine today and every day is Jesus.
