Here’s John 2:7-8closeJohn 2:7-8
7 Jesus said to the servants, “Fill the jars with water.” And they filled them up to the brim. 8 And he said to them, “Now draw some out and take it to the master of the feast.” So they took it. (ESV)
(NIV):
Jesus said to the servants, “Fill the jars with water”; so they filled them to the brim.
Then he told them, “Now draw some out and take it to the master of the banquet.”
This is one tiny piece of the story told in John 2:1-11closeJohn 2:1-11 2:1 On the third day there was a wedding at Cana in Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there. 2 Jesus also was invited to the wedding with his disciples. 3 When the wine ran out, the mother of Jesus said to him, “They have no wine.” 4 And Jesus said to her, “Woman, what does this have to do with me? My hour has not yet come.” 5 His mother said to the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.” 6 Now there were six stone water jars there for the Jewish rites of purification, each holding twenty or thirty gallons. 7 Jesus said to the servants, “Fill the jars with water.” And they filled them up to the brim. 8 And he said to them, “Now draw some out and take it to the master of the feast.” So they took it. 9 When the master of the feast tasted the water now become wine, and did not know where it came from (though the servants who had drawn the water knew), the master of the feast called the bridegroom 10 and said to him, “Everyone serves the good wine first, and when people have drunk freely, then the poor wine. But you have kept the good wine until now.” 11 This, the first of his signs, Jesus did at Cana in Galilee, and manifested his glory. And his disciples believed in him. (ESV) , where Jesus transforms water into wine for a wedding celebration. It’s the part where the amazing thing happens, where water stops being water and starts being something else, because Jesus needed it to. Part of the amazement for me, maybe the biggest part, is how very tiny this section of the story is.
I find the same thing true for a lot of the stories about miracles: it’s not merely that God demonstrates his power, but it’s how completely unfussy and undemonstrative God’s power is. Jesus completely changes the reality of the water in the jars, and he doesn’t need any preparation, or incantation, or ritual, or prayer, or hand-waving, or even time. He doesn’t fetch the water, touch it, speak any words over it, draw it out — as far as we can tell, he doesn’t even look at it! He doesn’t seem to put any effort at all into the transformation, as if it simply isn’t necessary. It just happens, easy as breathing. The ease, the apparent lack of exertion, makes the miracle all the more astonishing. Jesus does the impossible, and it’s like he doesn’t even have to try.
God is the same now as he was then, and this effortless power, this complete control is also the same. God is more real than reality, and nothing will keep him from doing anything he has in mind to do — the same in my life as in six water jars. Do I give him credit for that? Where in my life am I hanging on to the idea that this thing or that problem, this bad old habit or that situation simply isn’t going to change? What am I not taking to God, not even asking him about, because deep in my heart I’ve written it off as impossible? No reason to even try?
Are you holding on to something “impossible,” something that it’s not even worth bringing up to Jesus, because what could he possibly do? Remember the water in the jars, remember the ease with which Jesus changed reality then, and dare to believe he can do the same for you.
