John 2

Water into Wine:
I heard that this story has a deeper meaning than the obvious one, that Jesus really knows his wine! What I was told once is that the jars represent us, and the fact that Jesus turns the water in the jars into wine represents his blood purifying our souls. I believe that is how it was told to me. I can see that. Why tell this besides the fact that it was his first miracle? Maybe because the first miracle is meant to be more important than the fact that it happened first. I wish I had the Bible memorized or I would quote the passage of us being "jars of clay." This can easily be linked. Now Jesus is at a wedding when he performs this miracle. Many of the parables and prophecies involve a feast or banquet with a wedding usually being the cause. Now the water into the wine can easily relate to communion when we ingest the "blood of Christ" representing its soul cleansing properties.

Jesus Clears out the Temple:
This is the only time in the NewTestament where violence is condoned. And even then it is only condoned because it is performed by the Son of God. I have heard many preachers and teachers warn about the marketization of the Church. These days the Church can easily become a marketplace where the wares hide behind a mask of Christ. I have helped make cassette tapes of the sermon (wow that was a long time ago) that day at church. The only money we made off of the tapes went to buying more blank cassette tapes. I go to some churches and they have CD's of the sermon and they charge way more than the cost to replace and even make the CD. They sell books in the auditorium that are suggested by the preacher and teachers. The most extreme case I heard was that one church actually had an ATM machine in its auditorium.