Wedding at Cana for July 13th

Wedding at Cana

(Spark pp. 410-415)

Have you ever been to a party where they ran out of cake?  Or punch?  People aren’t very happy, are they, when there’s nothing to celebrate with!  Well, our story today is about how Jesus helped save a HUGE party from this kind of trouble. In fact, this is the first miracle Jesus does!

Like I said, our story starts at a party (play music in the background).  Jesus is there with his family and his friends—and it’s a wedding!  Friends are getting married, it’s a beautiful day and the food is great! They’re having a good time, dancing and singing, and saying to each other “this is the best party ever!” and then…

Then they run out of wine.  Oh NO!  You see, in bible times, you couldn’t drink water.  It was dirty and there wasn’t a good way to make it safe to drink.  They didn’t have a safe way to make juice unless they let it  ferment (sit there and wait for the germs to die off) and when that happens—volia!  Wine! BUT they’d run out.  No safe water or juice to drink, and it takes awhile to make wine so they were in trouble!

The servants are shaking every jar, hoping to find a little and whispering, when Jesus’ mom, Mary, over hears them.  And SHE knows what Jesus can do!  She knows he can help!

Mary: “Jesus, they have run out of wine—there is nothing to drink and people will start to get very thirsty very soon from all this singing and dancing.  Can’t you do something?”

Jesus: “What could I do?”

Mary shakes her head and sighs, and then says to the servants:

Mary: “Do whatever my son, Jesus, tells you to do.  I think he can help you.”

Jesus looked around and saw 6 very, very large stone jars sitting near the table.  They were usually used for washing, but sat empty near the table. 

Jesus:  “See these 6 stone jars?  Take them and fill them with cold water, up to the brim.”

The servants picked them up—they took 2 or 3 people to carry each one!  They went as fast as they could to the water pool.  Slosh, slosh, slosh!  They filled them with water. GRUNT. GRUNT.  They carried them back. They said, “We’ve done as you asked.  They’re full of water.”

What Jesus said next amazed them:

Jesus:  GOOD.  Now put some in a cup and give it to the person in charge of this party!”

WAIT—that’s water!  It’s not good or safe to drink—give it to the party guy?  Mary said to trust Jesus, let's say it together "Trust Jesus."  That's what we should do! so…slosh, slosh, slosh!  They filled a cup from the stone jars, and took it to the person in charge. 

When he tasted it, he smiled!  It was a miracle—they noticed it didn’t look like water or smell like water.  It had turned to wine!  In fact, the person in charge of the party took a glass to the groom, and congratulated him:

“My friend, taste this!  You have kept the BEST wine until now.  Most people serve the best wine first, but you have saved the best for last!”

Everyone started talking excitedly as the servants handed everyone a glass full of the new wine.  The music played, and everyone kept singing and dancing—it was a GREAT party, and stayed great, thanks to Jesus’ first miracle!

What did you learn?  Jesus took water (which they couldn’t drink) and made it into something wonderful to help fix their thirst—Jesus can transform us as well.