John 2

²Jesus and His friends, the disciples, were invited to the wedding too.

³During the party, the wine ran out. Mary went quietly to Jesus and said, 'They have no more wine.'

⁴Jesus answered, 'Dear mother, why are you telling Me this? My time has not come yet.' But Mary was not worried.

⁵Mary turned to the servants and said, 'Whatever Jesus tells you to do — do it!' She trusted Him completely.

⁶Nearby stood six big stone jars used for washing — each one could hold a lot of water.

⁷Jesus told the servants, 'Fill the jars with water.' They obeyed and filled every single jar to the very top.

⁸Then Jesus said, 'Now pour some out and take it to the man in charge of the feast.' They did exactly that.

⁹The man in charge of the party tasted it — and it was wine! He did not know where it came from. But the servants who had filled the jars knew. The man called the groom over.

¹⁰He said to the groom, 'People always serve the best wine first. But you saved the best for last!' He did not know it was Jesus' miracle.

¹¹This was the very first miracle Jesus did. It showed who He truly was — and His disciples believed in Him.

¹²After the wedding, Jesus went with His mother, His brothers, and His disciples to a town called Capernaum. They did not stay long.

¹³It was almost time for the Passover — a very special celebration. So Jesus went up to Jerusalem.

¹⁴When Jesus arrived at the temple, He found people selling animals and exchanging money right inside God's house.

¹⁵Jesus made a whip out of cords. He drove out all the animals and the sellers. He flipped over the tables of the money changers and scattered their coins everywhere.

¹⁶Jesus said to the dove sellers, 'Take these things out of here! Do not turn my Father's house into a shop!'

¹⁷Jesus' disciples remembered a verse from the Psalms: 'My love for Your house burns like a fire inside me.' They understood — Jesus cared deeply about God's house.

¹⁸Some of the religious leaders challenged Jesus: 'Show us a sign — prove to us that You have the right to do this!'

¹⁹Jesus answered them with a mystery: 'Tear down this temple, and in three days I will build it back up.'

²⁰The religious leaders scoffed: 'This temple took forty-six years to build — and You think You can raise it up in three days?'

²¹But Jesus was not talking about the stone building. He was talking about His own body — and how He would rise from the dead.

²²Later, after Jesus rose from the dead, His disciples remembered what He had said. Then they understood — and they believed God's Word and Jesus' words even more.

²³While Jesus was in Jerusalem during the Passover feast, many people believed in Him because they saw the miracles He did.

²⁴But Jesus did not fully trust Himself to them. He knew what people are really like inside.

²⁵He did not need anyone to tell Him what people were really like. He already knew what was in every human heart.