Jesus’ first ever public miracle is recorded a little differently in the synoptic Gospels. Mark has Jesus casting out an unclean spirit, thus demonstrating His power over the forces of evil. But Matthew records the healing of the leper as His first miracle. When the leper said, “Lord, if you WILL, you can make me clean,” Jesus immediately stretched out His hand and touched him, uttering those eagerly awaited words, “I WILL, be clean.”
The word WILL in the leper’s request and in Jesus’ reply is the Greek word for WISH and DESIRE. The leper was asking Jesus what His deepest desire would be, and Jesus revealed it by healing him. Matthew, Mark, and Luke recorded Jesus’ first miracle as a compassionate response to human need, pain, and suffering. But John, the beloved disciple, recorded Jesus’ first miracle as the transformation of water into wine at the wedding at Cana.
“This beginning of miracles did Jesus in Cana of Galilee, and manifested forth his glory; and his disciples believed on him.” John 2:11 KJV
Jesus and His mother Mary were at a wedding celebration in Cana when Mary noticed that, on the third day itself, the wine had begun running out. That would have spelled disaster and brought much ridicule to the hosts, so she decided to ask her Son to intervene. Jesus’ response, “Woman, what does your concern have to do with Me? My hour has not yet come,” might sound harsh to our ears, but He was simply stating a fact.
Jesus only said and did what He received from His Father, so He had to inform her that this was not the right time to reveal Himself as a miracle worker. But Mary knew who Jesus really was and what He was capable of doing. After all, she had been pregnant with God’s promises about her Son for 30 years, and one can only keep and ponder things in one’s heart for just so long. So she turned to the servants and told them to do whatever Jesus said, confident in the wisdom of Her Son’s decision.
Jesus, who got all His directives from His Heavenly Father, perceived that this was a good time to save grief and embarrassment to the Master of Ceremonies as well as reveal His glory to His disciples. So He acceded to His mother’s request.
Amazing! The message of this story is that a woman on whom the favour of God rests can succeed in changing God’s timing. But then again, perhaps this was more than just another miracle Jesus did in response to a human need, or a mother’s request, or for the success of a wedding feast.
Perhaps Jesus did all of this because He wanted to bring forth an important spiritual truth and a prophetic sign for the days we’re living in. Like Mary who succeeded in hastening God’s timing for her Son’s ministry, the Last Day Church will be able to pull into our day what’s reserved for the days (age) to come, through our prayers of desperation and desire.
When we pray and declare, “Kingdom Come!”, “Holy Spirit, Come”, “The Spirit and the Bride say ‘Come!’”, surely Jesus will respond to His Bride, “Yes, I am coming soon.” (Revelation 22:20)
It’s also significant that the Master of the Feast remarked as to how the bridegroom had kept the good wine until the end, which was unusual in itself. Normally the host laid out the best wine first, and towards the end of the feast brought out the less expensive wine which was inferior in quality.
This is a type of what God is going to do in our days. Wine speaks of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. The Early Church experienced a tremendous revival, but it’ll be as nothing compared to what the Lord has reserved for the Church in the Last Days. God has reserved His best for the last. There’ll be the greatest outpouring of the Spirit of God – even greater than the outpouring on the Day of Pentecost (Haggai 2:9).
Let us, therefore, become like Mary and plead with the Son, our Great Intercessor, for the more excellent wine to be poured out on us in our day. And may we receive the miracle of desiring God above all else first, and then for whatever other miracles we might need in 2022.
