Recently, I watched I, Robot starring Will Smith. In an interrogation room an evolving robot noticed Will Smith winking his eye at another human. Viewers today would be able to quickly interpret this gesture as friendly and safe. But the robot didn’t get it; he’d never seen that before. Therefore, the robot asked him, “What does that mean?” Smith states, “It’s a sign of trust.”

Most people are remotely familiar with Jesus’ first miracle of turning water into wine. However, I would say most are like the aforementioned robot and would ask, “But what does it mean?” The answer is rather simple and understood through the old testament foundation of promise. Wine is a picture in the old testament of abundant blessing and thus a symbolic picture of the new age where God’s promises will be fulfilled. For example, Jeremiah (31:12) speaks of people coming and singing in the height of Zion, streaming to Yahweh’s goodness because of the “wheat and new wine and oil.” Jeremiah continues, “Their souls shall be like a well-watered garden, [a]nd they shall sorrow no more at all.”

Joel (3:18) spoke of a day when,

“the mountains shall drip with new wine,
The hills shall flow with milk,
And all the brooks of Judah shall be flooded with water;
A fountain shall flow from the house of the LORD
And water the Valley of Acacias.”

Amos (9:13–14) declared,

¹³“Behold, the days are coming,” says the LORD,
“When the plowman shall overtake the reaper,
And the treader of grapes him who sows seed;
The mountains shall drip with sweet wine,
And all the hills shall flow with it.
¹⁴I will bring back the captives of My people Israel;
They shall build the waste cities and inhabit them;
They shall plant vineyards and drink wine from them;
They shall also make gardens and eat fruit from them.”

Jeremiah, Joel, and Amos, inspired by the Lord, spoke of a day when God’s abundant blessings would become a reality for God’s people. Therefore, when Jesus turned water into wine, He symbolically revealed that He was making the new age blessings/the Kingdom of God a reality. By replacing the old water purification with Kingdom wine Jesus revealed His glory as the long-awaited Messiah who will usher in God’s Kingdom blessings. With the coming of Jesus, it is out with the old age and in with the new age. The age of promise is now the age of fulfillment. And with the age of fulfillment comes the wealth of God’s salvation blessings.

Let us believe in Jesus’ ability to bring about the promises of God’s Kingdom. Let us rest secure that whatever God’s promises are, they are yes in Christ.

Sources

Carson, D. A. The Gospel according to John, The Pillar New Testament Commentary. Leicester, England;

Grand Rapids, MI: Inter-Varsity Press; W.B. Eerdmans, 1991.

Kruse, Colin G. John: An Introduction and Commentary, vol. 4, Tyndale New Testament Commentaries.

Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2003.