New Kind of Purification

As I have been reflecting on the 2nd chapter of John I was struck by the first sign that Jesus performed.  The Holy Spirit caught my eye with one small detail, Jesus turned water into wine in the waterpots that were used for the Jewish custom of purification.  Abba reveals a new way to be pure by drinking the wine (later a symbolic of the blood of Jesus shed for initiating the New Covenant).  Abba chooses to do this for a bunch of people not in a solemn church service but at a party and a wedding.  A sign points towards something, this sign is pointing towards the wedding of the Bridegroom Jesus and the Bride (the Body of Christ).  The amazing thing is that God initiates the purification, chooses the people to be cleaned, and provides the method (the blood of Christ) to be the cleansing.  The people that Jesus turned water into wine did not even know what they were drinking, only the headwater comments on how most people save the cheap wine for the end of the party but this is the best wine.  I believe this points to the superiority of the Covenant in Christ's blood over all the animal sacrafices and previous covenants.  It encourages me to see that the role of purification is not only carried out by God but also initiated by God, not up to me to purify myself to be presentable before God.  This sign also stands in stark contrast to the later part of John 2 when Jesus clears the temple with a whip because the moneychangers were making money off the animal sacrafices.  Here Jesus attacks the hypocricy of religion which is attempting to make a person right before God but is actually perpetuating corruption and wickedness.  This religious system which had twisted the Law of God and they believed was meant to purify them through animal sacrafice was rejected by Jesus because it was man's attempt to reach God rather than accept God's way to have relationship with man.  I see in the heart of our Abba how much He hates religion but desires geniune relationship with us that He would bridge the farthest chasm in history through the death of His Son.  I even see the Father's zeal to be in relationship with us as Jesus clears the temple with a whip, God doesn't honor what man created but what He has made.

Abba's Way,
Bret