John 2: 9-11 “Then he (the master of the banquet) called the bridegroom aside and said, ‘Everyone brings out the choice wine first and the cheaper wine after the guests have had too much to drink; but you have saved the best till now.’ This, the first of his miraculous signs, Jesus performed at Cana in Galilee. He thus revealed his glory, and his disciples put their faith in him.”

I can relate to people who have experienced the same things I do, and who aren’t too high and mighty to walk a mile in my shoes. I appreciate a friend who cares enough to go out of his way to help when things aren’t going right. Those are kindnesses. They help win my trust. They aren’t necessarily the reasons for trusting someone with our eternal destiny.

Obviously, there was more to Jesus’ help than this. Turning water into wine is a miracle. It was a generous miracle with so much wine. It was wine of a miraculous excellence. Most wine gets better with age. This wine surpassed them all the at ripe old age of less than a minute.

But Jesus’ feat was more than mere miracle. John calls it the first of his “miraculous signs.” Sometimes miracles are identified in the Bible with a word that calls attention to their wonder, the supernatural element of the event. You can’t figure out how this was done. There is mystery here, something out of the ordinary. Sometimes the gospel writers call them acts of power, reminding us that Jesus has within him the ability to do what no one else can.

A sign points to something beyond itself. It delivers a message. It says, “Don’t just look at me. Look at this. Look at him. I am telling you something about Jesus of great importance.”

The message of the sign was this: “He thus revealed his glory.” Jesus was no ordinary man, not even an extra special man. Understand a miracle like this, and understand that you are looking at your God.

Perhaps a sick person’s immune system can naturally kick into gear, and the disease disappears in an incredibly short period of time. But plain H2O does not evolve sugars, acids, alcohol and pigments and naturally transform itself into wine. You could set out jar after jar of water for thousands or millions of years, and it would never happen once. God must intervene with his creative powers. In performing the miracle, Jesus was giving us a glimpse of his true identity.

There was just one way for those who followed him to react: “His disciples put their faith in him.” So should we.