Jesus’ First Miracle

January 2

John 2 records Jesus’ first miracle: He turned water into wine and not just cheap wine, but fine wine. This was good wine—not grape juice, but fermented, alcoholic wine and lots of it! (120 to 600 gallons, according to John 2:6)

“Why would Jesus do such a thing?” someone might ask. Look at the context of what was going on, where, and when. (These are great questions to ask whenever you read the Bible!)

The context:
Jesus and His disciples attended a wedding celebration in Cana in the Galilee region of modern-day Israel. Jewish weddings were multi-day events where large crowds of families and friends celebrated the covenant marriage of a young man and woman. The concept of Family was a big deal to the culture. So, when a couple got married, everyone came to the party.

Some have insisted that Jesus would never have anything to do with alcohol, and this miracle involved grape juice instead of alcoholic wine. However, there are two things to notice here:

1.) Pasteurization would not arrive until the 1860s. Until then, fermentation naturally occurred because there was no way to preserve grape juice. The mere presence of yeast in the air began the process of fermentation. Fermentation is a chemical reaction, and storing juice/wine resulted in the stretching of the skins that held the wine. You would never want to put new wine in old wine skins because the wine and the skins would be ruined when the skins expanded from the fermentation process. (Luke 5:37–39)

2.) Until Prohibition in twentieth century America, most people never gave drinking alcohol a second thought. Even today, many Christians in the world have no problem with consuming it. The Bible never prohibits drinking wine. Paul even encourages Timothy to drink wine for medicinal purposes. (1 Timothy 5:23) However, the Bible—in many places—warns against intoxication. (Proverbs 20:1; Ephesians 5:18)

Application

We can draw two applications from today’s Bible reading. First, Jesus, as God and Creator, has the authority to alter, accelerate, and suspend natural laws. Time, energy, matter, space… everything is under His dominion.

Second, Jesus blessed the celebration of family. Not only was He present at the wedding, but He actively participated in the joyous celebration of the covenant of marriage.

© Copyright 2026 Craig Beaman