“A miracle is God doing what only God can do.”
Ronald Dunn
The first miracle Jesus performed took place at a wedding in Cana (John 2:1-12). Mary approached her son Jesus and informed him that they had run out of wine. She didn’t come right out and ask Jesus to perform a miracle, she simply said to the servants, “Do whatever he tells you” (John 2:5). Fortunately, the servants obeyed Jesus when he told them to fill the six stone water jars with water. After they did that, he told the servants to take some of it to the master of the banquet. Again, the servants obeyed Jesus and the water had not only been turned into wine, but it was the best tasting wine.
Miracles take place when there’s a need, a problem, a difficulty to be solved, such as having the wine run out at a wedding. If there’s no need for a miracle, then there will be no miracle.
Miracles happen when in our need, we turn to Jesus to supply the solution to our problem. Miracles are released when we don’t try to solve the problem in our own strength or with our own wisdom, but lean and depend upon Jesus to come through for us in some kind of supernatural way. The definition of a miracle is “an extraordinary event manifesting divine intervention in human affairs.”
God used ordinary water, what they already had in the natural so He could turn it into the extraordinary wine, the supernatural. Just like when Jesus fed the multitudes, He didn’t just create the loaves of bread and fish out of nothing; He used and multiplied what was in the little boy’s sack lunch that was given to Him.
Miracles require obedience on our part. The servants in this passage needed to believe and trust what Mary said and to do what Jesus told them to do. I love the detail given in verse 7: the servants filled the twenty-to-thirty-gallon six stone water jars “to the brim.” They didn’t fill them part way because they had partial belief, but maximized the potential for a miracle by filling them to the top – full capacity.
The making of a miracle requires: a need, our dependence upon Jesus to supply the solution, using what we already have in the natural, and our obedience to do what Jesus tells us to do. Miracles reveal the glory of God so we can testify to His goodness (John 2:12).
“Miracles are not contrary to nature but only contrary to what we know about nature.”
Saint Augustine
Relevant Reflections:
Where do you need a miracle? What problem or difficulty are you facing today?
Depend on Jesus as you trust and obey Him to turn the natural into the supernatural.
Image by Fathromi Ramdlon from Pixabay