Water Into Wine
Angle 1:
Angle 2:
Needed:
- Red food coloring OR red colored powered drink mix (such as Kool-aid or Welch’s)
- 2 clear glasses
- Pitcher of water
Lesson:
PREP: You need to do one of the following before class starts
- If you use food coloring, just put a couple of drops in the very bottom of one of the glasses and allow it to dry
- If you use the drink mix, pour some of it into the bottom of one of the glasses
- Put the glasses on a darkish tray of some kind, preferably one with a small lip that hides the very bottom of the glasses. This will hide the fact that there is something at the bottom of one of the glasses.
Obviously there will be a LOT of variation in how you actually teach this lesson but below you will see one version that works fairly well.
Tell the story of the first Miracle of Jesus:
I try to find time to read the newspaper every day. It is a good way to keep up with what is happening in the world around us. Have you ever thought about being a newspaper reporter when you grow up?
If you were a news reporter, you could just walk around town and see what was going on, then you would write a news story about it.
I thought it would be fun to take our Bible lesson today and re-write it as if I were a reporter writing an article in a daily newspaper. The story is actually from the gospel of John, but the word gospel means “good news,” so let’s imagine that we are reading an article from the “Daily Galilean” or perhaps “The Jerusalem Times.”
Wow! Listen to this headline! “Wedding guest turns water into wine.”
Hmmm…That sounds interesting. Let’s read the rest of the story!
On Tuesday, a woman named Mary was in Cana to attend a wedding. A large number of guests, including her son, a man named Jesus, also attended the wedding. Guests at the wedding were reportedly having a good time until the host ran out of wine. At that point, it seemed that the happy celebration might turn into a disaster.
Some of the wedding guests thought that perhaps Jesus might have a solution to the problem, so they reported to him that they were out of wine. When told about the problem, Jesus at first seemed unwilling to do anything, but after some encouragement from his mother, he finally agreed to help.
Eye witnesses at the wedding reported that Jesus noticed several large water jars nearby and instructed some servants to fill them with water.
POUR THE PITCHER OF WATER INTO THE GLASS THAT DOES NOT HAVE ANYTHING AT THE BOTTOM. THIS WILL SHOW THE KIDS THAT THERE ISN’T ANYTHING ODD GOING ON WITH THE WATER AND IT WILL SEEM THE CUPS ARE ALSO ON THE LEVEL.
After the jars had been filled with water, he told them to dip some of the water out of the jars and take it to the man who was in charge of serving the wine. When the wine steward tasted the water…
POUR THE CONTENTS OF THE CLEAR GLASS OF WATER VERY SLOWLY INTO THE RIGGED CUP
He discovered that the water had been turned into wine!!!!!
Wedding guests were amazed at the turn of events and said that the wine was the best that they had ever tasted.
As a result of this miraculous event, many people are following Jesus everywhere he goes, and many believe that he might even be the long-awaited Messiah.
Well, that made a pretty good news story, didn’t it? Do you know what is really great about this story? Just as Jesus performed a miracle by changing the water into wine at the wedding celebration two thousand years ago, he is still working miracles in the hearts and lives of people today. If you will let him, He will work a miracle in you.
