1. Imagine you are Mary. What is going through your mind when you tell Jesus the problem? What do you really know about your son? What do you expect or hope that he will do in this situation?
   
   
2. What do you make of Jesus’ response to his mother in v4?
   Jesus didn’t have to exercise his power in this situation; his “hour” had not yet come, but he does. He deliberately chooses the first sign through which he reveals his glory (v11), to be one where he produces an abundance of high-quality wine to save a party.
   
   
3. How do you think this “sign” reveals Jesus’ glory?
   Jesus’ miracle is a gift to the bride and bridegroom and their guests, who physically experience the joy of good wine in abundance, but it is a small experience of what he has ultimately come to do. Jesus wants to bring joy and celebration now, but more importantly, he has come to put our broken world right. The Great Bridegroom is looking forward to a time when heaven will come down to renew the world, and everything sad will become untrue.
   
   
4. What will that wedding feast be like? See Revelation 19:9 and 21:2. If Jesus is the Great Bridegroom, who are we and how does he see us?
   We can’t know the full extent of the joy Jesus will bring without understanding the shame and guilt that we have been saved from. This young couple and their family were facing certain shame and guilt for a celebration gone wrong, but the way Jesus deals with the shame and guilt has implications for us.
   
   
5. What is the significance of Jesus dealing with the problem using the stone water jars for ceremonial washing (v6)? What does the wine represent?
   In a sermon by Edmund Clowney on this passage, he reflects that while everyone was enjoying the best wine at the wedding feast, Jesus was thinking about his death. He said: “Jesus sat amidst all the joy of the wedding feast sipping the coming sorrow so that today you and I who believe in him can sit amidst all this world’s sorrow sipping the coming joy.”
   
   
6. What is your current sorrow? How can Jesus help you sip the coming joy?
    

“Do Whatever He Tells You” © Nicole Davenport 2020 used with permission from artist.