You are sitting at the table during the wedding reception looking at your cup of wine. It is good wine, some of the best you have ever tasted. Then the person sitting next to you asks, “Where did this wine come from? I thought they ran out of wine.”

Wine, creation, God’s power

The answer seems so obvious, doesn’t it? Like all wine it must have a vineyard and grapes in its past. Then there must have been a skilled winemaker who made it into such good wine. Why are those the correct answers to where this wine came from? Simple. That is how wine comes into being.

And did they run out of wine? Well, you just don’t have enough information to answer. Maybe the host didn’t really run out of wine. Or maybe somebody delivered more while nobody was paying attention, and suddenly there was wine to be served. Something like that has to be the right answer. That’s the only way wine can get to a wedding reception.

These are all good answers to your neighbor’s inquiry, but they are all wrong. The only thing in this wine’s history is water poured into large jars and the amazing divine power of Jesus of Nazareth. There is no vineyard, no grapes, no winemaker, no wine distributor in Cana of Galilee—just Jesus. Now there is nothing distinctive about the wine, except that it is of the highest quality. If you could put it under the microscope and study it scientifically, you no doubt would notice nothing unusual. So how can you possibly know the true answer to a question about this wine’s origin? The answer is: you can’t. There is no way of knowing unless somebody saw what happened, and that witness told you, “Jesus turned this water into wine. I saw it happen.”

I have always thought that it is interesting that John ends this account in the second chapter of his gospel with the words, “. . . his disciples put their faith in him.” Isn’t that strange? Word must have gotten around to everybody at the wedding about what happened, but only his disciples, those who already followed him in faith, put their faith in him. Other guests at the wedding must have looked for natural explanations of what took place. They would have speculated. Whatever it was, there had to be a rational explanation. Only the disciples believed that Jesus had made wine with his miraculous power.

Impossible questions asked