When Jesus Turned Water to Wine, It Symbolized His Blood
When Jesus turned water to wine, it was a hidden symbol of how He cleanses us by giving us His blood to drink. His blood then flows in our veins, making us members of His body and transforming our character to be like His character. For illustration, last summer our riding lawn mower broke down. But before we took it to the shop, the remnants of Hurricane Helene blew through, washing away the only bridge to our house. A kind neighbor graded a ford through the river, and we used that access for the next six months. But it was too steep to get a trailer across, so our mower just sat in the yard. By the time the new bridge was built and we finally got the mower to the shop, the gas inside had gone bad. To fix it, the repairman removed the tank and thoroughly cleaned out all the old gas and then filled it with new fuel. After all his repairs and tune-up work, the mower ran even better than when we bought it used some years before.
We are something like that mower. Our natural inclinations are oriented towards bad things. And just like the repairman had to remove all that old gas and fill the mower with good fuel, Jesus removes our old life and give us new life, rich and sweet.
It was to this process that Jesus pointed when, at the wedding feast in Cana, He changed the water to wine. Part way through the festivities, His mother came to Him and said, “They have no more wine.” But Jesus responded in a surprising way, saying, “Woman, what does your concern have to do with Me? My hour has not yet come” (John 2:4, NKJV). At a quick reading it might seem like Jesus was telling His mother that it was not time for Him to do a miracle. But His mother was not asking Him to do a miracle, only to help find some wine. Besides, if it was not his hour to do a miracle, He would not have done one.
The Hour of Jesus’ Death
Every other time in the book of John when Jesus talked about His time or His hour it was in reference to His death. Jesus was preaching in the temple and He rebuked the people and leaders, but although they tried to arrest Him, no one succeeded because, “His hour had not yet come” (John 7:30 NKJV). Later, He was teaching in the treasury, suggesting that God was His Father, and again they sought to lay hands on Him, but failed because “His hour had not yet come” (John 8:20 NKJV). But when the Greeks came to Him in the temple just six days before His death, Jesus explained that unless a seed falls to the ground and dies, it remains just a single seed. But if it dies, then it produces much fruit. Then He declared, “Now My soul is troubled, and what shall I say? 'Father, save Me from this hour'? But for this purpose I came to this hour” (John 12:27, NKJV). This hour that He often spoke of was when He, the single seed, would lay down His life so that He could become many seeds. And he gains these many seeds by giving us His blood, thus making us an extension of His body.
At the wedding feast, it was not time to multiply the members of His body by giving people His blood to drink, but He gave a living parable of what He would later provide. There were six stone water pots sitting there used in the Jewish customs of purification. He told the servants, “Fill them to the brim.”
The Blood that Cleanses
It is fitting that Jesus changed the water to wine using the pots designated for ceremonial washings. That water cleansed the people externally, but Jesus’ blood cleanses us within. Under the Old Covenant, people were strictly prohibited from drinking blood. But there were foreshadowings even then about the reality to come. While wandering in the wilderness the people became thirsty. God then told Moses that He would stand before Him on a certain rock, and Moses was to strike that rock. Therefore, to strike the rock, Moses had to strike God. When he did so, water gushed from the stricken rock, representing blood flowing from the stricken body of God, and that stream saved the people’s lives.
But some theology misstates how Jesus’ blood results in salvation. I am a mechanical engineer by training. Some years ago, our team designed a new spine fusion system, and I had the opportunity to visit Denmark and attend the first-in-human case. Before the surgery, the hospital personnel showed us the changing room. They wanted us to wear the shoes provided to minimize the chance of tracking street grime into the operating room. However, many of the shoes in the locker room were already bloody. When we rummaged through those piles, we did not look for the bloodiest pair. We looked for ones that had no visible signs of blood. The blood from previous surgeries did not cleanse those shoes, but instead polluted them. Blood is not soap. Rather, blood caries life. Likewise, Jesus’ blood only cleanses us when it carries His life inside of us.
Jesus’ Blood in Our Veins
The lyrics of a well-known hymn say, “There is a fountain filled with blood drawn from Emmanuel’s veins; and sinners plunged beneath that flood lose all their guilty stains.” I suspect the hymnwriter was well-intentioned and just got caught by the foibles of expressing thoughts through written words. Nevertheless, these lyrics are emblematic of this critical error. Jesus’ blood applied to the outside of us does no good. His blood must flow in our veins.
The night before Jesus was crucified, He took a cup and passed it to His disciples, saying, “Drink from it, all of you. For this is My blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many for the remission of sins” (Matthew 26:27-28, NKJV). Jesus did not direct His disciples to pour this cup on their skin. He directed them to drink it. We, too, must drink the blood of the new covenant for it to cleanse us. In other words, salvation does not consist of an external transaction that cancels our debt while leaving us unchanged within. Rather, Jesus’ life must become our life, His character our character, His Spirit our Spirit.
God declared, “The life of the flesh is in the blood” (Leviticus 17:11, NASB). We need our old blood drained away and new blood poured in. Such an arrangement cannot fail but to bring a total transformation. Jesus’ blood within us causes an ongoing, ever-increasing cleansing that results in a new way of living. This is what it means for Jesus to give us a new Spirit.
The Blood, The Spirit, and The Word
Jesus declared, “The one who eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life” (John 6:54, NASB). And then He went on to explain, “It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh provides no benefit; the words that I have spoken to you are spirit, and are life” (John 6:63, NASB). Jesus’ physical flesh and blood do not provide life, but the blood of which He speaks is most definitely part of Him – it is His Spirit. And the Spirit is embedded in His teachings. Jesus wants us to internalize Him, the Word, by internalizing those teachings. As we exercise this attitude of continually turning from any sinful inclinations and aligning with God’s will, seeking His strength, He will work in us mightily to reform our lives. This is what it means to believe in Jesus.
Back at the wedding feast, Jesus told the servants, “Draw some out, now, and take it to the headwaiter.” Somewhere in this process, the water was changed to wine. That water represents the Holy Spirit contained in Jesus’ teachings, and it being turned to wine emphasizes how Jesus’ teachings are transformed into His life within us as we receive them.
A Nation-Sized Symbol
Well over a thousand years earlier, God appeared to Moses at the burning bush and gave him three signs with which to convince the Israelites that God sent him to set them free. All three signs were symbols of Christ, but specifically, one of those signs was that Moses was to take water from the Nile, pour it on the dry ground, and it would be turned to blood. Just as Jesus turned the water to wine symbolizing His blood, so Moses turned water to blood. This sign became a nationwide event a few weeks later when Moses and Aaron struck the entire Nile River, the source of life for Egypt, symbolically pouring out the whole river on the dry ground. Of course, it was just a sign and the people could not drink that blood, but in the reality to which it pointed, we are to drink the water of life that turns into Jesus’ blood within our thirsty souls.
Life Through the Vine
Jesus described this union as a vine and branches. Jesus is the vine that provides the life-giving sap to the rest of the plant. This sap is the blood flowing within the vine, so to speak. The branches must abide in the vine, continually receiving this sap. If they do, the result will be luscious clusters of grapes. And the way that we, the branches, abide in Jesus is that we pursue keeping His commandments (John 15:10). Peter expanded this thought, likening this union to a mother providing milk to her baby. He instructed, “Therefore, laying aside all malice, all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and all evil speaking, as newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the word, that you may grow thereby” (1 Peter 2:1-2, NKJV). Through all these symbols of the milk, the sap, the wine, the blood, and the water of life, God is seeking to teach that we must wholly embrace this ongoing practice of internalizing Jesus’ teachings, making them part of who we are.
At the wedding feast in Cana, the servants gave the wine to the headwaiter. He did not know where the wine came from, but when he tasted it, he called the bridegroom and exclaimed, “Every man serves the good wine first, and when the guests are drunk, then he serves the poorer wine; but you have kept the good wine until now” (John 2:10, NASB). In the same manner, all who partake of Jesus’ teachings will be amazed at their quality.
A Spiritual Blood Transfusion
As we have studied in this article, Jesus cleanses us by causing His blood to flow in our veins. In the physical realm, sometimes people develop diseases related to their bone marrow, including certain cancers and genetic conditions. Doctors use chemotherapy or radiation to kill the diseased bone marrow, then perform a bone marrow transplant where they transfuse healthy stem cells into the veins, which then migrate to the bone marrow and begin producing healthy blood. Jesus does something like that for us spiritually, cleansing us by killing off the diseased life within us and filling us with His life. The key to this new life is to drink the blood of Christ – that is to say, to seek to know and do His will, depending on Him for strength.
Take some time today to prayerfully consider your life and make a list of areas that might not yet be in the center of God’s will. Then implement changes to more fully align with what God wants, asking Him for strength to carry them out. This is how we drink Jesus’ blood as symbolized by when Jesus turned water to wine. The outcome of making a habit of internalizing His Word is eternal life.
Check out the "Water to Wine" and "Water to Blood" t-shirts that draws people's attention to Jesus' amazing miracle when He changed the water to wine.
