Did you know...
…that Jesus made over 900 bottles of wine for the wedding in Cana. That's a lot of wine. Of course they may have needed all of it, as 1st century Jewish wedding feasts lasted for seven days. Even more interesting is the fact that he made it out of water meant for ritual purification. Remember last week when we talked about baptism as a Jewish purification ritual? Well the river Jordan wasn't the only place you could go if you needed ritual purification. There were pools in the ground outside the temple in Jerusalem, as well as other temples around Judea, plus large jars, like the ones in this story, that would be filled for people to use as they prepared for temple worship or any other event that required ritual purification. These weren't just any jars, either. Just the 30 gallons of water inside these jars would have weighed over 250 lbs., not to mention the weight of the stone jars themselves, which would have been three or four feet tall and weighing hundreds of pounds each. These weren't meant to be moved around! They were there to be filled and emptied when extra purification waters would have been necessary for large crowds entering the temple. So what is the significance of Jesus turning this water meant for purification into wine? The text doesn't say, but maybe you can think about it this week. Or even share your thoughts in the comments below!