Did you ever wonder why Jesus turned water into wine? The Bible directly states that "wine is treacherous" and that you should stay away from it or you are not wise (Hab. 2:5, Pro. 20:1). On the other hand, God said, "Behold, I am sending to you grain, wine, and oil, and you will be satisfied" (Joel 2:19), and at the marriage in Cana, Jesus turned six stone jars full of water into wine (Jn. 2).
Does it seem to you that God can't make up His mind? Well, you'll understand God's purpose for wine better when you see the figurative meaning behind it. In fact, God has a plan to work through you to make wine for others, when you're in fellowship with Him and each other (as you probably are if you're a lamb). There are no direct statements in the Bible that tell us this meaning, but through John 2 you can come to understand what it is.
Just as you can't live physically without drinking water, you can't be alive spiritually either unless you have the spiritual water, God's Word, inside of you. Men, however, don't want to drink the water. They have no interest in God's Word, and you've certainly noticed that to the unsaved, reading the Bible and serving Jesus are things looked down on and laughed about. (And didn't you once think that way yourself?)
Since men won't willingly do what's best for them and take the Word, many never come to know God's will. They would much rather drink something that gives joy and is motivating (like wine), rather than dull water. So men end up pursuing things in life that seem exciting and interesting and they drift further away from God's purpose for them. But in His mercy, God has provided a way to give us what we need in the form of what we want.
God sent Jesus to turn the water into wine for us, which Jesus did in the opening of the gospel of John at the marriage in Cana of Galilee (Jn. 2). This chapter is the key to understanding the figurative meaning of wine, because it describes what happens when we get saved, or when Jesus turns the water inside of us into wine.
Imagine you are one of the six stone jars standing there. God fills you up with water--you hear the gospel message and have some knowledge of the Bible. But when you get saved, He turns the water inside you into wine. It's "quickened" or made alive, like bubbly new wine. The wine makes severing Jesus motivating and joyful. And that's how you can get excited about the Bible which only a short time ago was dull and drab to you. God fills you to the brim with water so "your joy may be full" (Jn. 15:11).
What Jesus is also doing in this chapter is introducing salvation by faith. In the Old Testament, the Jews were saved by doing certain works as the Law of Moses directed, but they failed to obtain salvation that way. But now under the new covenant, God makes it easier and more personal for your sake, by giving you faith. God already counts you as righteous because you have faith in His Son. Son now our salvation no longer depends on works of the law (the water), but on faith (the wine). (Rom. 4:16; Gal. 3: Gal. 2:20, 21)
In turning your water into wine, Jesus is turning your belief into faith. You can know about Jesus all your life and believe in Him (have the water), but never come to be saved unless He turns the water into wine, or your belief into faith. The faith Jesus gives you motivates you to do something, to act upon your belief, and that is what pleases Him.
Faith motivates us to give the wine to others, and in this way we are like the servants in John 2. After we get saved, we work to provide wine for others. We draw up the water and give the wine to the guests at the marriage feast.
When you were first thinking about getting saved, you were like the guests at the marriage feast. You received the wine seeing the joy of others at being saved, but you didn't know where it came from.
Now that you are saved, you know that the wine comes from Jesus. If you are honestly looking to Jesus, and you read the Bible and rightly understand it (Jn. 15:5), then you have joy (Ecc. 8:1). That is the wine in which other people, especially young people, are interested. The guests want to know where the wine comes from, and as one of the servants you can direct them to the source. The unsaved at first are led by curiosity, then through you Jesus can also give them faith.
Another figure which shows how Jesus wants to work through you is the vine (Jn. 15). The vine turns water into wine through natural processes; Jesus did it miraculously in John 2. The branches, like the servants, draw up the water through their roots, and it's changed within them into wine. You are like one of the individual branches, and when you're working in unity with your brothers and sisters (the other branches), Jesus makes wine through you. Just as the wine at the marriage feast was for the guests, a vine produces wine so that others may drink it.
The grape harvest, called the vintage, took place each year in late summer and fall. In Jesus' time, it was common to see men, women and children gathering grapes and carrying them to the winepress in carts and baskets. Usually inside or nearby the vineyard, the winepress consisted of two vats of differing height, often cut out of solid rock. Jesus spoke of the winepress in a parable (Mt. 21:33).
During the vintage and on into the winter months, the watchtower was occupied by a sentry to protect the vineyard from intruders and wild animals (Is. 5:2). It was a leaf-covered wooden booth built on a high spot overlooking the vineyard.
The vintage was a joyful season. After the grapes were put into the wine-press, the people would sing and shout (Is. 16:10), and tread on the grapes in their bare feet (Jer. 25:30; 48:33). The juice from the crushed grapes would run through an opening in the top vat into the lower one (Joel 3:13), where it would start to ferment almost immediately.
When the lower vat was full the juice would be put into stone or clay jars, or fresh goatskin bags, called wineskins. This was necessary because the fermentation became so active that it would burst an old wineskin.
After about 40 days of fermentation, the juice was considered wine. Sometimes the jars were put in winecellars to age (I Chron. 27:27). The longer the wine was aged, the more "mellow" it would become and the better it would be to drink.
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