Vinegar

Friday May 21, 2021

Vinegar

This was the first of Jesus' miraculous signs at Cana in Galilee. He manifested his glory and his disciples believed in him. John 2:11

Jesus said to her (to the Samaritan woman) : Give me a drink. John 4:7

When Jesus had taken the vinegar, he said : It is finished. John 19:30

The three verses quoted present, among many others, three occasions in the life of Jesus that reveal his glory.

In John 2, the Lord reveals his glory among the Galileans, people despised by the Jews, by performing his first miracle. He wants to publicly accredit that he came from God by turning water into wine. This miracle has spiritual significance. Wine is a symbol of that which produces joy, but in the sad moral state of the Jewish people occupied by the Romans and subjected to religious rites, the joy has disappeared. By manifesting his glory and his power, Jesus reveals to his people that he is the source of all joy and that he wishes to fulfill them.

Tired and thirsty, Jesus sits on the edge of a well and asks a Samaritan woman to give Him a drink. Her goal is to transform the miserable existence of this woman who belongs to a people even more despised of the Jews than the Galileans. His request gives the Lord the opportunity to speak of living water, the symbol of eternal life. He thus leads the Samaritan woman to recognize her sin and to grasp salvation.

On the cross, the thirst that the crucified people felt is not spared the Son of God. But his will, in his death as in all his life, is to fulfill the Scriptures to perfection, not to avoid suffering. When he makes his thirst known, soldiers hand him a sponge soaked in vinegar, that is, sour wine, the drink of the soldiers and the poor. Jesus then knows that all the prophecies are fulfilled and that the work of redemption is finished. He proclaims it and voluntarily enters death by surrendering his spirit to his Father.

Invited among others to a wedding, tired from the walk, crucified like a thief, the Son of God reveals his glory by bringing joy, by giving eternal life and by perfectly accomplishing the work of God (John 4:34 ).

Source (Pleasing the Lord)