Transformed

John 2:11 NIV What Jesus did here in Cana of Galilee was the first of the signs through which he revealed his glory.

While many of us have the daily discipline of reading the Bible, are we reading scripture to only find those parts that we agree with, those verses that make us feel good, or are we searching scripture to reveal the glory of Jesus and God the Father? To transform our lives into the image of Christ?

John Chapter 2 portrays possibly the widest diversity of who Jesus is, and it is all to reveal His glory. It is the grand opening of Jesus’s public ministry and a declaration of what his entire ministry will be about…transformation. Many can name the first miracle Jesus performed, turning water into wine at the Cana wedding feast (John 2:1-13), but often can’t recall what happened immediately following that memorable event, which also revealed his glory and heavenly purpose.

While scripture does not tell us, the Cana wedding feast was likely a very close family friend or even a family member because Mary, the mother of Jesus, was not just attending the wedding but overseeing the servants. During this multi-day celebration, they ran out of wine, which threatened to be a major embarrassment to the family. Mary’s response was to tell the servants to do whatever Jesus instructed. Jesus could have made the empty wineskins full again; it would have been an amazing miracle. But he didn’t. He specifically chose to use water and six stone water jars. He takes the very vessels of the old covenant, symbols of purification by works and law, fills them, and transforms what’s inside. Jesus transformed the simplest elements, water in stone jars, into the best wine they had ever tasted.

Soon afterwards, Jesus and his disciples traveled to Jerusalem to celebrate Passover. Upon entering the temple area, he found people selling cattle, sheep, doves and exchanging money. When Jesus ran the merchants and moneychangers out of the temple, he was removing a callousness that had overcome them. What Jesus was addressing was the focus on anything that distracted people and replaced their passion for the Father. Through small choices and habits, a house of prayer had been turned into a house of trade.

But more than “cleansing” the physical temple, Jesus was also showing us what God himself proclaimed in Exodus 34:14, “for you shall not worship any other god, for the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God.” God is not only a jealous God; His very name is Jealous. He burns with a desire to be with you and to love you. He desires to receive your passionate love for Him, to know Him, and “to love him with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength.” Jesus was also demonstrating outwardly what he does when he enters your life. Transforming us into the temple of the Holy Spirit, He will jealously clean out anything that keeps us from His passionate love. “For the Lord your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God.” (Deuteronomy 4:24).

We all love the Jesus of verses 1-11, the Jesus who keeps the party going at the wedding feast by turning water into wine. But it is the same Jesus in verses 13-17 who turned the tables over, disrupting the status quo, and removing everything that keeps us from him. The God of the harvest is also the Lord of plowing and tilling, of turning over the ground and preparing good soil to produce a bountiful harvest.

As God is revealed through the Word and prayer, it is not meant to enlighten you but to transform you. Transform you into a new creation, taking what was ordinary and making it extraordinary.

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Gary and Sandy Anthony

John 1:14 NASB And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.

Romans 12:2 NIV Do not conform to the pattern of this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.

2 Corinthians 5:17 NASB Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.

Colossians 3:10 NLT Put on your new nature and be renewed as you learn to know your Creator and become like him.

2 Corinthians 3:18 NIV And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.

Galatians 2:20 ESV I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

Psalm 51:10-12 NIV Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit to sustain me.

1 John 1:9 NIV If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.

1 John 3:2-3 NIV Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. All who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure.

Ephesians 2:18-19 NASB For through Him we both have our access in one Spirit to the Father. So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints, and are of God’s household.

John 14:6 NASB Jesus said to him, I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.

John 17:22-23 NASB The glory which You have given Me I have given to them, that they may be one, just as We are one; I in them and You in Me, that they may be perfected in unity, so that the world may know that You sent Me, and loved them, even as You have loved Me.

Philippians 1:6 NIV Being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.

Matthew 5:14-16 NIV You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.

Psalm 139:23-24 NLT Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. Point out anything in me that offends you, and lead me along the path of everlasting life.