January 23rd, 2026

23rd January 2026


Pray (ACts)


Read (John 2:1-11 focus v6-11)


Message (Alan Burke)


When I grew up there were things that when it came to a wedding had to be done, you could call them traditions. One of the most important was of course the ‘doin’. Now I’ve only seen it once since I came up this part of the world probably because it’s very nice Co Down and we’re all too polite and sophisticated for that. If you don’t know what a doin is, it is when in effect the couple getting married are kidnapped, tied to the back of a trailer, taken round the country side so that people can douse them in all kind of lovelies and publicly humiliate them. Now that I’ve just put that on the page I can understand why they aren’t really a thing up here, if the peelers got involved I’d say there could be lots of people being brought before a court. 


As we are told of the six stone water jars these weren’t so much of a tradition but part and parcel of the culture, something that would have been done at every wedding not simply because of tradition but it was ceremonial and symbolically used to ensure ritual purity. Not only were the pots and pans that would have been used for cooking washed using this water but the guests hands and feet (see Mk 7:2-5). In total these jars held when filled with water between 120-180 gallons and Jesus tells the servants to fill them with water, they filled them to the brim. The servants would have had no idea what was about to take place, the fact that they were filled to the brim removes any possibility of deception, anything being added and as they are told to draw the water the language that is used of drawing intentionally speaks to what has been put in the jars. 


Somewhere though between the filling of the jars and the drawing of what was in them by the master of the banquet the water has been turned into wine. The master of the banquet what he remarks tells us that what Jesus has done is turn water into wine, the best wine. It was customary to serve the best wine first when it would be enjoyed most intently by the guests then when they had eaten and drank the cheaper plonk would have been brought out. The master of the banquet acts as a witness to the miracle that Jesus has preformed in their midst and it is an abundant provision.


Yet there is a wonder of what takes place here that can easily lost on us is how it points to how the old has gone and the new has come. This was the first sign, the first miracle of Jesus and it is pointing to what Jesus had come to do, for the old order that here in this passage is symbolised by the sone water jars, that were used for ceremonial washing (v6) that people had to symbolically wash their hands and feat as they entered, well he transformed what they contained into new wine that is symbolic for eternal life in God through Jesus Christ. 


This was the first of the miraculous signs, this was the first miracle that is recorded in the gospels. It revealed, manifested his glory. The disciples we are told put their faith him or they believed in him, their faith was superficial, they had believed yes, because they had seen the miraculous sign, they had known and tasted, but not because they had come to saving faith, they had put their faith in him in what lay ahead. Their understanding was still limited, they accept them as one from God, they continue and they follow him. It would not be until after the hour that Jesus had come that they would understand why he had come. 


And all that goes on here do not miss that this account is revealing the glory of Jesus, that he indeed is the Messiah, the Christ, the one who has come for he can only do what God can do. The wonder of the one who has come, his supernatural power, the one that the prologue had been preparing us for, chapter 1 verse 14, his glory is not only evident in how he is able to make the water into wine, he does it in abundance, graciously not calling in the question the bridegroom, his failure. Instead we see this extra extravagant outpouring, this generosity, and his gracious provision for all who will believe in him.


Pray (acTS)


Sing


WSC
Q79 Which is the tenth commandment?
A. The tenth commandment is, Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s wife, nor his man-servant, nor his maid-servant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor anything that is thy neighbor’s.