Sunday we started with a word we use for almost anything: miracle. A field goal at the buzzer. A parking spot by the door. A test you were sure you failed.

John doesn't use that word for what Jesus does. He calls them signs, because every one of them points past itself to one question: Who is this man, and will you believe in Him?

This week's homework: name your "stone jar," the religious effort or goodness you have been relying on to feel right with God. Then set it down and trust Jesus instead.

Every sign points to one question: Who is this man, and will you believe in Him?

Read John 2:1-2. Before Jesus heals anyone, before He preaches a single sermon in this gospel, He goes to a wedding. Not a synagogue. Not the temple. A party in a small village called Cana, a few miles from Nazareth.

A wedding in Jesus' day was the biggest celebration a village would ever see. A year-long betrothal, then a torchlit procession at night as the groom brought his bride home. The whole village turned out with lamps, music, singing, and shouting. And the feast could last up to seven days.

Jesus was invited, and He came. His disciples came with Him. He wasn't off in a corner judging everyone else for enjoying life. He was there with them, talking, laughing, celebrating.

That matters, because a lot of us carry around a picture of Jesus who only shows up for the serious parts of life: church, crisis, confession. John's first sign says otherwise. Jesus walked into everyday life, and He still does.

Jesus didn't keep His distance from ordinary life. He walked right into it.

Don't rush these. Give yourself a few minutes with each one before moving on.

Write your answers down. By Friday you will see where this question leads.

Come back tomorrow - tomorrow the wine runs out, and Mary brings the problem to Jesus.

• John 2:3-5 - Mary brings the problem
• Psalm 31:14-15 - my times are in your hand

Read John 2:3-5. Somewhere in the middle of the celebration, the wine runs out. In a village where everyone knew everyone, that was more than an inconvenience. It was public shame for the family hosting the wedding, the kind of thing people would remember for years.

Mary notices, and she brings it to Jesus: "They have no wine." She probably wasn't expecting a miracle. She had never seen Him do one. She simply brought the need to her Son.

His answer sounds abrupt to us: "Woman, what does this have to do with me? My hour has not yet come." But "woman" is not disrespect. It is the same word He will speak tenderly to her from the cross (John 19:26). Jesus is telling her that their relationship has changed. He is no longer just the son she raised. He is the Messiah, and everything He does is surrendered to the Father's plan. His "hour" points to the cross and the resurrection.

And Mary's response is remarkable. She doesn't fully grasp what He means, but she turns to the servants and says, "Do whatever he tells you." She left the problem, and the timing, with Him.

Bring Jesus the need. Leave Him the timing.

• John 2:6-8 - six stone jars
• Titus 3:4-7 - not because of works

Read John 2:6-8. John slows down here to tell us about the jars. Six of them, made of stone, each holding twenty or thirty gallons. And he tells us what they were for: "the Jewish rites of purification."

These jars held the water for ceremonial washing. Hands, cups, and utensils were washed so people could be clean before God. They were made of stone because stone couldn't become ritually unclean. They stood there as a picture of the old way: people trying, over and over, to make themselves clean.

Jesus tells the servants to fill them. They do, "up to the brim," before they see anything happen. Then He tells them to draw some out and carry it to the master of the feast. They obey again, still not knowing what they are carrying.

Jesus takes the vessels of the old ritual and fills them with something far better. Paul says it plainly in Titus 3: "he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy." The jars could never make anyone clean. Jesus can.

Our best efforts can't make us clean. Jesus can, and He fills us with something far better.

• John 2:9-10 - the good wine until now
• John 1:16-17 - grace upon grace

Read John 2:9-10. The master of the feast tastes the water that has become wine. He has no idea where it came from, but the servants who drew it knew. He calls the bridegroom over, surprised: everyone serves the good wine first and the cheap wine later, "But you have kept the good wine until now."

And there was so much of it. Six jars at twenty or thirty gallons each is 120 to 180 gallons. Jesus didn't just fix the problem. He provided in abundance.

The guests enjoyed the wine without knowing who made it. Only the servants knew. It is possible to enjoy the benefits of being around Jesus, the good people, the good music, the good feelings, without ever knowing Him. The servants knew because they had obeyed.

John told us in his opening chapter what this is about: "For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ" (1:17). Moses' first sign turned water into blood. Jesus' first sign turned water into wine, the gladness and joy of His new work. As one commentary puts it, "God has kept the best gift (His Son) until now."

God kept the best for last, and the best is Jesus Himself.

• John 2:11-12 - the first of his signs
• John 20:30-31 - so that you may believe

Read John 2:11-12, then John 20:30-31. This is our memory verse this week, and it is John telling us exactly why he wrote the story down. "This, the first of his signs." Not a magic trick. Not just a kind favor for a family in trouble. A sign, pointing past itself.

It "manifested his glory." Back in chapter 1, John said, "we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father" (1:14). At Cana, that glory showed up in six stone jars at a village wedding, and the disciples saw it.

"And his disciples believed in him." That is the point of the sign, and the point of the whole book. John says at the end, "these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name" (20:31).

So the week ends where Sunday began. Every sign points to one question: Who is this man, and will you believe in Him? Not in your own effort. Not in your stone jar. In Him.

The sign points to Jesus. The question is whether you will believe in Him.