THE BEGINNING OF MIRACLES WHICH JESUS DID – Charles Spurgeon
THE BEGINNING OF MIRACLES WHICH JESUS DID
“This beginning of miracles did Jesus in Cana of Galilee, and manifested forth His glory; and His disciples believed on Him.” John 2:11.
Introduction: The Context of the Miracle
At this time I shall not consider the relation of this miracle to total abstinence. The wine which Jesus made was good wine, and it was made from water—we are not likely to meet with anything of the kind in this country, where the wine is seldom made from the pure juice of the grape and where it is not known who made it, or of what it is made. What is now called wine is a very different liquid from that which our Lord Divinely produced. We use our Christian liberty to abstain from wine, and we judge that our Savior would approve of our avoiding that which, in these days, makes our brother to offend. We who quit the intoxicating cup of today have our ways of viewing our Master’s action in this instance and we do not find it difficult to see wisdom and holiness in it. But even if we could not so interpret what He did, we should not dare to question Him. Where others quibble, we adore. Even this is more than I meant to have said, for my object this morning is far removed from this controversy. I pursue a spiritual theme and pray for help from on high to treat it aright.
We find this miracle only in John. Neither Matthew, nor Mark, nor Luke has a word of it. How did John come to know of it? In part it was because of his being present. But the preface in reference to the mother of Jesus came to him in another way, we think. Remember our Lord’s words to John from the Cross and how it is written, “From that hour that disciple took her unto his own home”? I believe that no one heard the words of Jesus to His mother but Mary herself. It was after the manner of His delicacy to utter a reproof to her when she was alone. But when John and the honored mother conversed together, she, in all probability, reminded him of the miracle and told him of her mistake. Saints gain precious things from God’s poor and tried servants—and those who entertain the widow and the fatherless shall not go without reward. If my conjecture is correct, I see the holy modesty of “the mother of Jesus”—that she narrated her own fault and did not forbid John to mention it. The Holy Spirit moved the Evangelist to chronicle not only the miracle, but the error of Mary. It was wise, for it is a conclusive argument against the notion that the mother of Jesus can intercede for us with her Son and use authority with Him. It is evident from this narrative that our Lord would tolerate no such idea, either in her mind or in ours. “Woman, what have I to do with you?” is a sentence which rings the death knell of any idea of our Lord’s being moved by relationships according to the flesh. With all loving respect He yet very decidedly shuts out all interference from Mary—for His kingdom was to be according to the spirit and not after the flesh.
I delight in believing, concerning the mother of Jesus, that though she fell into a natural mistake, yet she did not for an instant persist in it. Neither did she hide it from John, but probably took care to tell it to him that no others should ever fall into similar error by thinking of her in an unfitting manner. Let it never be forgotten that “the mother of Jesus” had a very firm and practical faith in her Son, concerning whom angels and Prophets had borne witness to her. She had seen Him in His infancy and watched Him as a Child—and it could not have been easy to believe in the Divinity of One whom you have held as an Infant to be nourished at your breast. From His marvelous birth she believed in Him and now that she receives a kind of rebuff from Him, her faith does not fail her, but she calmly turns to the servants and bids them stand ready to obey His commands, whatever they might be. She felt that He was quite certain to do the kind and necessary thing. Even from His words, “My hour is not yet come,” she probably gathered that His hour to work would arrive. Her faith was accompanied with imperfection, but yet it was of the right kind. It persevered under difficulty and in the end it was triumphant, for the wine which had failed became plentiful again and that which He provided was of surpassing quality. May we have a faith which will outlive a rebuke! May we, like Mary, sing, “My spirit has rejoiced in God my Savior” and may Jesus be to us, as He was to her—a trusted and beloved One upon whom our soul has learned to wait with confidence.
With that end in view, I have taken this subject for discourse. Oh, that His disciples may trust Him more and more! John said, in another place, concerning the doings of our Lord, “These are written that you might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you might have life through His name.” Truly, I can say this sermon is preached that my beloved hearers may believe on the Lord Jesus and be saved! We shall consider three things in connection with the text. First, the significance of this beginning of miracles. Read “signs” instead of “miracles” and you will be nearer the meaning of the original. This “beginning of miracles” was intended, like all that followed it, to be an instructive sign. Secondly, let us observe its specialty as a manifestation—“And manifested forth His glory.” And then, thirdly, its sufficiency as a confirmation of faith—“And His disciples believed on Him.” It was calculated to establish their faith and it did so.
I. The Significance of This Beginning of Signs
May the Holy Spirit graciously assist our thoughts and warm our hearts! The first sign-wonder that Christ worked was the turning of water into wine at the wedding at Cana of Galilee and as we may often judge of a man’s course by its beginning—and the beginning is often the key of all that follows—so we may learn the whole tenor of our Lord’s miracles from this one. Note, first, that this miracle displayed His self-denial. Our Lord had been a few days before in the wilderness, and after 40 days’ fasting, He was hungry. It was in His power to have commanded the stones to become bread—and had He done so the beginning of signs would have been a miracle worked for His own necessities. But such a beginning would not have been like His life-course and especially would it have been wide apart from the conclusion of His life when it was said of Him, “He saved others; Himself He cannot save.” He would not make bread for Himself, but He will make wine for others. And the fact that it was wine and not bread that He made, makes the miracle all the more remarkable. He did not merely make bread for men, which is a necessity, but He even went further and made wine for them, which is a luxury, though He would not make even bread for Himself. You see the sharp contrast between His refusal to help Himself, even to a crust of bread, and His readiness to give to men not only what might be necessary for life, but that which was only necessary for their joy. When the wine failed, the only danger was that the bride and bridegroom would be pained and the wedding dishonored—and this our Lord prevents. He would not allow the humble festival of two villagers to come to an untimely end when they had so kindly invited Himself and His disciples. He repaid their courtesy by His spontaneous bounty. How greatly is our Divine Lord to be admired and beloved by us! Behold His kindness! He has no selfishness about Him. We can each one cry, “He loved me and gave Himself for me.” He laid down His life for men—He gave His all to others. No selfish aim ever tinctured that consecrated life of His! For Himself He reserved no measure or degree of power—for others He used that power without stint. This beginning of miracles is a display of unselfish working. Thoughtfulness for others shone in that miracle like the sun in the heavens.
Next, observe that this miracle was marked with beneficence. It was “the beginning of miracles” and the first is the keynote for the rest—happy are we that the first miracle is full of blessing! Moses commenced his work in Egypt with a miracle of judgment. He cast down a rod and it became a serpent—and he turned water into blood—but Jesus overcomes the serpent with the rod of Scripture and turns water into wine! He works no plagues but heals our sicknesses. Blessed Master—“Your hand no thunder bears, No terror clothes Your brow, No bolts to drive our guilty souls To fiercer flames below.” The mission of Jesus is a happy one and so it opens at a marriage feast. It is intended to bring joy and gladness to heavy hearts and so it begins with a deed of royal bounty. At the coronation of kings, the conduit in Cheapside has run with wine and here the water pots are filled with it to the brim! The after-miracles were all beneficent. True, He withered a fruitless fig tree, but it was a beneficent act to wither a tree which drew men out of their way by false promises of fruit and so caused bitter pangs of disappointment to hungry and fainting wayfarers. It was a good thing to teach us all a practical lesson of sincerity at so small an expense as the withering of a good-for-nothing tree. All our Lord’s actions towards men are full of royal benevolence and Grace. There will be a day when the Lamb will be angry and, as a Judge, He will condemn the ungodly—but while this dispensation lasts, He is to us all mercy, love, kindness and bounty.
If you, my Hearer, will come to Him, you will find that His heart will go out to you and He will freely bless you with life, rest, peace and joy. The Lord will bless you and remove the curse far from you. This beginning of miracles was worked at a wedding to show great beneficence. Marriage was the last relic of paradise left among men and Jesus hastened to honor it with His first miracle. Marriage is His Father’s ordinance, for He it was that brought Eve to Adam—and our Lord worked in harmony with the Father. He symbolically touched the very springs of manhood and gave His sanction to that ordinance whereby the race is perpetuated. Jesus comes to a marriage and gives His blessing that we may know that our family life is under His care. How much we owe to the joys of our domestic relationships! Thereby life is raised from water into wine. We have sometimes thought it was almost a proof of the Divinity of Christianity that there could be homes so happy as some of our homes have been made by the Presence of our dear Lord whom we invited to our wedding feast—and who has never gone away—but has stayed with us all these happy years! It was a miracle which, by honoring marriage, confirmed an institution fraught with happiness to our race.
II. The Specialty of the Manifestation
Next, it was a miracle most compassionate. Our Lord’s miracles were worked, in each case, to meet a need. The wine had failed at the wedding feast and our Lord had come in at the time of the pinch, when the bridegroom was fearful of being made ashamed. That need was a great blessing. If there had been sufficient wine for the feast, Jesus had not worked this miracle and they had never tasted this purest and best of wine! It is a blessed need which makes room for Jesus to come in with miracles of love. It is good to run short that we may be driven to the Lord by our necessity, for He will more than supply it. My dear Hearer, if you have no need, Christ will not come to you. But if you are in dire necessity, His hands shall be stretched out to you. If your needs stand before you like huge empty water pots, or if your soul is as full of grief as those same pots were filled with water up to the brim, Jesus can, by His sweet will, turn all the water into wine—the sighing into singing! Be glad to be very weak, that the power of God may rest upon you! As for me, I am more and more dependent upon the Lord for every particle of strength. My deacons and elders know how often on a Sunday morning, before coming into the pulpit, I have thanked God that it is so. I am glad to be entirely dependent upon the Lord and to have such a failure as to all my natural wine of ability that there may be occasion for my Lord to come in and supply wine of strength, of another and more Divine quality. We are likely to do our work best when we feel most our insufficiency and are driven to God for help. If we go blundering to our service, we shall fail. But if we go tremblingly as to ourselves, by confidently looking up to the Lord, we shall be more than conquerors! If we have a great need. If something essential has given out. If we are likely to be despised for failure—let us in faith expect the Lord Jesus to come for our deliverance! I gather from this miracle that our Lord looks to man’s necessities and not to his possessions. He has an eye to our failures and needs—and He makes our distress the platform upon which He manifests His Glory by supplying all our needs.
Further, I cannot help noticing how condescending was this miracle! We are told, twice, that it was performed at Cana in Galilee. Twice is this mentioned so that we may observe it well. Our Lord did not choose the high places of Jerusalem, nor any of the notable cities of Palestine as the scene of His first miracle—He went to a quiet village in Galilee, Galilee of the Gentiles, a district much despised—and there He worked His first miracle at the city of rushes and canes, even Cana in Galilee. He worked the sign, not on a spiritual and sacred occasion, nor before ecclesiastics and scientists. Some seem to fancy that all our Lord does must be done in churches or cathedrals. No, no! This miracle was in a private house and that not at a Prayer Meeting or a Bible reading, but at the marriage of a couple of poor peasants, names unknown. See how Jesus condescends to the common places of life and sheds a blessing upon the secular side of our existence! Those who gave that feast were people of slender means. The wine would not have been so soon exhausted if they had been very rich. It is true that seven more came to the wedding than they had expected, but still, if they had been wealthy people they would have had more than enough to satisfy seven extra guests, for Easterns kept open house for almost everybody during the marriage week. They were by no means an aristocratic party, or a set of Israel’s notables. Why did not our Lord begin His miracles before the king, or the governor, or at least in the presence of the high priest and the scribes and doctors of the Law? Our Lord chose not to make His first appeal to the great and dignified. I feel much comfort in this fact—that He comes to commonplace individuals is bliss to me! You and I may, in station and in wealth, be low down in the scale, but Jesus stoops to men of mean estate. To common spots like this Newington, on the south side of the Thames, the Lord has come to visit His people! Here, also, has He worked His transformations and many a watery life has been made rich and full through His Grace! My dear Hearer, Jesus can come to you, though you are only a laborer or a servant, or a poor tradesman, or the wife of an artisan! Our Lord loves the poor! He is a great frequenter of cottages. He stops not for grand occasions, but He makes His abode with the lowly. He is full of condescension. This first of miracles was most munificent. He did not, at the wedding, multiply the bread—He dealt with a luxury and rejoiced their hearts with that which was as the pure blood of the grape. When our Lord fed the multitudes in the wilderness, He might have given them each a bit of bread to keep them from famishing. But He never does things in a beggarly, workhouse style and therefore He added fish to be a relish with their bread. Our Lord not only gives existence, but happy existence which is truly life. He does not give to men just enough for their necessity, but He gives up to the higher degree which we call enjoyment. Here He turns good wholesome water into a sweeter, richer, more nourishing beverage—perhaps we little know how truly good and sustaining that God-made drink was to those who were privileged to taste it. Our dear Master will give to all those who are His followers a joy unspeakable and full of glory. They shall not only have enough Grace to live by so as barely to hope and serve, but they shall drink of “wines on the lees well-refined” and shall have Grace to sing with, Grace to rejoice with, Grace to fill them with assurance and cause them to overflow with delight. Our Beloved has not only brought us to the house of bread, but to the banquet of wine! We have Heaven here below. Jesus does not measure out Grace by the drop, as chemists do their medicines—He gives liberally—His vessels are filled to the brim. And the quality is as notable as the quantity—He gives the best of the best—joys, raptures and ecstasies. O my Soul, at what a royal table do you sit! He daily loads you with benefits.
III. A Reason for the Confirming of Faith
The first miracle was prophetic. At a wedding, our Lord begins His signs. To a marriage feast, He invites us now. At a glorious marriage supper, all will end. The story of our Bible ends like all well-told tales, with—they were married and lived happy ever afterwards—for proof, read the Book of Revelation. Our Lord will come to celebrate a wedding between Himself and His Church and all the wine they will drink at that high festival will be of His own providing and all the joy and bliss will be of His own giving! He is the sun of Heaven’s day! He is the glory of the glorified! He will take care that throughout the millennial age, yes, and throughout eternity, the joy of His chosen shall never fail but they shall joy in God and in Himself without measure and without bound. Our Lord began with this special miracle as if to show us that He had come here to transform and transfigure all things—to fulfill the Law and its types—putting into it substance and reality. He began with this special miracle to take man and lift him up from a fallen creature into a Heaven-born son and heir! Jesus has come to rid this planet of her mists and to array it in garments of glory and beauty. Soon shall we see new heavens and a new earth! The new Jerusalem will come down out of Heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband! Jesus has come to elevate and to fulfill—and He gives the token of this in this beginning of signs.
Conclusion
Jesus does not measure out Grace by the drop—He gives liberally! He is ready to bless you, right now. He can turn your sorrow into joy and will provide for you in ways that you never expected. Come to Him and see what He can do. He is able to raise you from what you now are into something better, fuller, grander, nobler, holier, and more God-like! Believe in Him, believe Him, and believe on Him. Amen.