IT'S DONE

January 28, 2025



John 2:5-10

“Do whatever he tells you.”

6 Nearby stood six stone water jars, the kind used by the Jews for ceremonial washing, each holding from twenty to thirty gallons.
7 Jesus said to the servants, “Fill the jars with water”; so they filled them to the brim.
8 Then he told them, “Now draw some out and take it to the master of the banquet.”
They did so, 9 and the master of the banquet tasted the water that had been turned into wine. He did not realize where it had come from, though the servants who had drawn the water knew. Then he called the bridegroom aside 10 and said, “Everyone brings out the choice wine first and then the cheaper wine after the guests have had too much to drink; but you have saved the best till now.”




So we are considering the question in light of Jesus turning "water into wine", how does this sign or miracle show God’s glory? Yesterday we suggested that one way to answer that question was to see Glory in the Ordinary.


Today lets reflect on perhaps the most obvious theme GLORY IN THE TRANSFORMATION. Jesus transformed water into wine. It was a “creative act". Think about it, the whole process of wine making (planting, growing, ripening, harvesting, pressing) was squeezed  into a moment. In my view that is the ultimate picture of transformation! It is not the work of a magician, but the work of our Creator God. 

But that’s just surface meaning. (Remember “Signs’ point to a deeper meaning!) John says the transformation took place within pots used for ceremonial cleaning. The Jews were always washing hands, before a meal and between each course. They washed with their hands down, then with their hands up! Their religion demanded outward rituals which were onerous and tedious, and Jesus, and later on Paul, would called them empty practices, but not meaningless, as this pointed ahead to the coming of the Messiah when "newness" would be ushered in and the cleansing work would be completed.

So Jesus gives a sign of the transformation his ministry will bring. Some things will be made obsolete, some things will be made new. After all, the stone jars can no longer be used for ritual cleaning! They are filled with wine and useless for washing. The wine was God’s amazing gift of grace, and it has nothing to do with human effort or ritual. It is sign of the kingdom and its newness. Jesus was  demonstrating his glory in this transformation reality. 

We don’t have to “DO” rituals to be Right with God. He does it all for us, it is a gift, just as this wine was a gift. All this hints at what God is going to do through Jesus. Through Jesus’ work on the cross we are accepted as righteous. Jesus has done it all for us. 

Sometimes you will hear that there are two approaches to religion: It is either “Do” or “Done”! Someone reading this will be thinking of all the things they must DO to make themselves right with God. But this miracle is a sign that shows God’s glory, of transforming religion from Do… to Done. 

So think about that the next time you take communion. As you hold the bread and the wine say to yourself “It’s Done”! Jesus has taken my sin and has given me new life as a gift,  like that wine in our Gospel today!