Reflective Bible Study

As we continue moving into John’s gospel, looking at the events John included, our attention is turned onto the first miracle Jesus did. Many things about this event are fascinating, especially the faith involved in this event, but faith isn’t the only big factor that amazes me. In this miracle are several layers of foreshadowing that I suspect many people miss when they read it.

So with that said, let’s read what happened, and discover some amazing things hidden within Jesus’ first miracle. Our passage is found in John’s gospel, chapter 2, and we will read from the God’s Word translation. Starting in verse 1, John tells us that:

¹ Three days later a wedding took place in the city of Cana in Galilee. Jesus’ mother was there. ² Jesus and his disciples had been invited too.

³ When the wine was gone, Jesus’ mother said to him, “They’re out of wine.”

⁴ Jesus said to her, “Why did you come to me? My time has not yet come.”

⁵ His mother told the servers, “Do whatever he tells you.”

⁶ Six stone water jars were there. They were used for Jewish purification rituals. Each jar held 18 to 27 gallons.

⁷ Jesus told the servers, “Fill the jars with water.” The servers filled the jars to the brim. ⁸ Jesus said to them, “Pour some, and take it to the person in charge.” The servers did as they were told.

⁹ The person in charge tasted the water that had become wine. He didn’t know where it had come from, although the servers who had poured the water knew. The person in charge called the groom ¹⁰ and said to him, “Everyone serves the best wine first. When people are drunk, the host serves cheap wine. But you have saved the best wine for now.”

¹¹ Cana in Galilee was the place where Jesus began to perform miracles. He made his glory public there, and his disciples believed in him.

¹² After this, Jesus, his mother, brothers, and disciples went to the city of Capernaum and stayed there for a few days.

Every time I read this event, I am amazed that the disciples and the servants were the only ones who knew a miracle took place. In other words, Jesus’ mother, who made the request didn’t know what happened, and the host and groom both didn’t know what happened. To the majority of the guests, this event appeared to temporarily run out of wine, but then more wine showed up. There was a problem, and the problem was resolved.

This miracle is prompted because the servants had enough faith to obey Jesus’ ridiculous sounding request to serve the host water. The servants’ faith in Jesus, not knowing who Jesus even was, opened the door for this miracle!

We could also look at the disciples and the servants and picture them as the least important people at this event. Since this was a wedding Jesus’ mother was involved in, it was likely that it was a wedding of one of Jesus’ family members. In this event, we have no idea who the bride or groom was, but they were connected in some way with Jesus’ family. This would make the only people present who were not family members Jesus’ disciples and the servants. Those outside of the family saw the miracle, while those within the family remained somewhat oblivious.

This is interesting to note, because often times we don’t see God working in our hearts or our lives, but other people do. Other people are likely to see a greater change in our lives when we come to God or begin moving towards Him than we do. This isn’t bad, it is just something we should be aware of.

Another thing that stood out to me while reading this event is that the water pots were used for purification rituals. Since John chose to include this detail, I suspect he believed it to be significant for us to know. Part of me wonders if this detail helps draw our attention onto Jesus’ gift purifying us as believers and followers of Him. When Jesus gave Himself for us, His life purifies ours and we are able to stand before God because of what Jesus accomplished for us.

This detail leads us into two amazing layers of foreshadowing I believe this miracle and event includes.

The first layer of foreshadowing is looking forward to what would happen at another significant meal Jesus and His disciples ate together. On the night Jesus was arrested leading up to His crucifixion, Jesus ate what Christians around the world call the Last Supper on Passover weekend. During this Passover meal, Jesus takes bread and wine and connects these things symbolically with His body and His blood.

Jesus’ blood, represented by the wine, represents Jesus’ life. Drawing this connection back to our event for this episode, we see that Jesus supplies His life to solve a problem we are unable to solve. The wine in this event had run out, which symbolically represents that we had done everything we knew to do without being able to solve our big problem (in this context, our biggest problem is sin). To step in with a solution, Jesus provides wine, which represents His life, and it is a wine that is better than either the host or groom had experienced before. Jesus’ life defeated sin, solving the biggest problem we face, and when we accept Jesus’ life in exchange for ours, we get to experience eternal life when we deserved eternal death because of our sin.

The second layer of foreshadowing looks towards the great “wedding” feast we will experience following Jesus’ return. After Jesus returns, we will get to enjoy the wedding supper between Jesus and His bride, which represents His church.

Whenever I see a wedding event in the Bible, I look to see if there is any connection with the wedding feast that all God’s people will experience when Jesus returns to bring us home. In this miracle, I see a profound connection. The only way this future wedding will happen is because of Jesus supplying the wine, which represents His life, for His bride. Without Jesus’ life, there would be no future wedding. The amazing, subtle foreshadowing in this first miracle is that Jesus supplies His life in order for His people to be able to experience the wedding God has been looking forward to since the beginning of time.

Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection solved the sin problem. Jesus supplied His life in exchange for ours. It is now up to us to accept Jesus’ gift and His invitation to substitute His life for ours.

As we come to the end of another podcast episode, here are the challenges I will leave you with:

As I always challenge you to do, continue seeking God first in your life and choose to accept the gift He offers to you through Jesus’ life and sacrifice. Jesus supplied what we need to solve the sin problem in our own lives, and it is up to us to lean on Jesus’ life for strength to overcome sin in this life. We do this best by focusing on Jesus and intentionally growing towards Him.

Also, continue praying and studying the Bible for yourself to learn, grow, and mature towards God. Through prayer and Bible study, discover just how much God loves us through what Jesus did for all of us. Discover how sin is something we never asked for personally, but it is something God was willing to solve for us because He loves us more than we might realize!

And as I end every set of challenges by saying in one way or another, never stop short of, back away from, chicken out of, or give up on where God wants to lead you to in your life with Him!

Continuing moving forward in Mark’s gospel, we come to a miracle Mark includes that probably was the only one like it ever in Jesus’ ministry. One thing I find fascinating about this event is that it didn’t appear as though Jesus was actively healing people, and it is interesting who happens to be inside the home near Jesus when this event takes place.

Let’s continue reading and discover what happened. Our passage is found in Mark’s gospel, chapter 2, and we will read it from the Contemporary English Version. Starting in verse 1, Mark tells us that:

¹ Jesus went back to Capernaum, and a few days later people heard that he was at home. ² Then so many of them came to the house that there wasn’t even standing room left in front of the door.

Jesus was still teaching ³ when four people came up, carrying a crippled man on a mat. ⁴ But because of the crowd, they could not get him to Jesus. So they made a hole in the roof above him and let the man down in front of everyone.

⁵ When Jesus saw how much faith they had, he said to the crippled man, “My friend, your sins are forgiven.”

⁶ Some of the teachers of the Law of Moses were sitting there. They started wondering, ⁷ “Why would he say such a thing? He must think he is God! Only God can forgive sins.”

⁸ Right away, Jesus knew what they were thinking, and he said, “Why are you thinking such things? ⁹ Is it easier for me to tell this crippled man that his sins are forgiven or to tell him to get up and pick up his mat and go on home? ¹⁰ I will show you that the Son of Man has the right to forgive sins here on earth.” So Jesus said to the man, ¹¹ “Get up! Pick up your mat and go on home.”

¹² The man got right up. He picked up his mat and went out while everyone watched in amazement. They praised God and said, “We have never seen anything like this!”

In this passage and event, we find something amazing. While those present watch in amazement as the crippled man gets up and walks out of the house, this detail did not stand out to me when reading this event this time. While this healing was amazing, a different detail in this passage stands out as being very significant.

Also significant in this passage is the faith and determination of this man’s friends. When the friends cannot get the man into the home using normal methods, they resort to something very abnormal, which ultimately was successful. But while this was amazing, it did not stand out to me when reading the passage this time.

In this passage, another detail I notice is that the crowd would not let the man’s friends carry him to Jesus. This is interesting, since the crowd would have probably liked to see Jesus perform a miracle, but they were too preoccupied with what Jesus was saying to realize the opportunity they were turning away. While this is also significant, this isn’t the big detail that stood out to me while reading this passage.

Instead, when reading this passage, I was amazed that those in the home next to Jesus were the religious leaders and teachers of the Law. While these religious teachers criticize Jesus claiming to have the power to forgive sins, the only reason they could have done this is if they were present, within earshot, and within conversational distance from Jesus. This means that some of the first people to come see Jesus when He had returned to Capernaum were the religious leaders living in this city.

While we stereotypically think the religious leaders were opposed to Jesus from the very beginning of His ministry, I think this stereotype is not entirely true. While some of the religious leaders simply disliked Jesus for His popularity because it stole from their own popularity, I believe that early on in Jesus’ ministry, everyone from the most religious and spiritual to the least religious and spiritual person took note of Jesus. With the Holy Spirit filling Jesus’ life, which happened at Jesus’ baptism, Jesus showed God’s love in powerful, miraculous ways.

Stepping back to one of the earlier details we skipped over, while the crowd did not let the crippled man’s friends enter the home with him, this was likely a God directed obstacle because it demonstrated to everyone present that these friends had so much faith in Jesus that they would stop at nothing to get their friend to Him.

I imagine the man’s friends stayed behind to fix the hole they made, but even if they didn’t, a hole in a home is less significant in God’s eyes than a healed person giving God thanks, praise, and glory, and a hole in a home is less significant than a person being forgiven of their sins.

In this event, I am amazed at the faith of the man’s friends. However, nowhere do we see any indication of the crippled man’s faith. Instead, all we see is Jesus proclaiming that the crippled man’s sins are forgiven. While Jesus might have said this because it tied into what He was already speaking about, or because He knew that it would get the religious leaders’ attention, I wonder if Jesus actually said this to the crippled man because that is what this man needed to hear.

Nothing in this event indicates the crippled man had faith in Jesus. Instead, I wonder if the crippled man believed God’s punishment was on Him and that his disability was a punishment from God because of something that he had done, because of a sin he had committed, or because of something that had happened. While being healed is nice, I wonder if the real miracle in this event was the proof that this man’s sins were forgiven, and the healing solidified this truth in this man’s mind.

In this healing, Jesus not only healed this man’s disability, He also gave peace to this man’s soul that God was not angry with Him, God was not mad at Him, and God was not judging Him. While sometimes we have to face the consequences of our own actions and our own sins, God is not mad at us or eagerly waiting to judge and condemn us. Instead, God loves us so much that He let Jesus come and take the punishment we deserved for our sins so that we can have a restored relationship with Him!

As we come to the end of another podcast episode, here are the challenges I will leave you with:

As I always challenge you to do, intentionally seek God first in your life and understand that when we come to God asking for forgiveness, God has already forgiven us. While we might have to live with the natural consequences of our actions, God isn’t interested in punishing us more than our actions require. Instead, God is more interested in saving us for eternity, and bringing us home to a recreated world without sin, pain, or death.

Also, continue praying and studying the Bible for yourself to learn and grow closer to God each and every day. Don’t take my word or any pastor, speaker, author, or podcaster’s word for what the Bible teaches. Instead, study the Bible for yourself to grow your personal relationship with God and to discover God’s truth for yourself.

And as I end every set of challenges by saying in one way or another, never stop short of, back away from, chicken out of, or choose to ignore where God wants to lead you to in your life with Him!