Purification

Lesson #26

In our lesson today we will consider the containers Jesus used to produce the wine in that are mentioned in John 2:6 - 8. Specifically, verse 6 reads, “Now there were six stone water jars there for the Jewish rites of purification [or ceremonial washing], each holding twenty or thirty gallons.” These jars are used to hold water, not for drinking, but for bathing, for purification to prepare one for offering a sacrifice for their sin. Jesus decides to use this water for a different purpose. He could have used other containers but he chose to use these pots in meeting the need of the bridegroom for more wine. He chose to use these pots for a different purpose to plant the idea that he as the coming bridegroom would one day be the perfect sacrifice that would meet our need for purification from our sin.

Drinking wine from these pots begins the difficult task Jesus has of developing an understanding of how drinking wine from these pots will eventually lead to the meaning of what we read in John 6:53 – 55, where Jesus said to them, “I tell you the solemn truth, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in yourselves. The one who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink” (NET). Like the Jews, we have much to learn to get from these stone water jars to the meaning of drinking his blood.

God had taught the Jews to follow a ritual in sacrificing animals to cover their sin. God now enters human life as Jesus to show the Jews a better way to be cleansed of their sin. It will no longer be a ritual of purification and the sacrifice of animals, but a relationship with Jesus through his blood as the perfect sacrifice. Here at the wedding at Cana Jesus shows that he can perform miracles, but by using those special water pots he points to an event that will involve his death on the cross as the perfect sacrifice for our purification from our sin.

Prayer

Father, it is easy to read our text today and see that Jesus turned 20 to 30 gallons of water into wine for use at a wedding, but to see the significance of using the stone water jars that were part of the Jewish rites of purification is an entirely different matter. Thank you for the mysteries that are tucked away in the Scriptures that are revealed by the Spirit of God to those who believe. Thank you for the excitement and humbling effect understanding these mysteries provide.