What about the underlying meaning?  What did this strange first miracle signify?  In a departure from custom, John fails to interpret for us the miraculous" sign," which for him almost always means a symbol, a kind of acted parable.  Some commentators see in it a preview of the last Supper, when Jesus transforms not water into wind but wine into blood, his blood shed for all humanity. Maybe. But, I think not.

I prefer a more whimsical interpretation. Tellingly, John notes that the wine came from huge thirty-gallon jugs that stood full of water at the front of the house, vessels that were used by observant Jews to fulfill the rules on ceremonial washing. Even a wedding feast had to honor the burdensome rituals of cleansing.  Jesus, perhaps with a twinkle in his eye, transformed those jugs, ponderous symbols of the old way, into wineskins, harbingers of the new.  From purified water of the Pharisees came the choice new wine of a whole new era.  The time for ritual cleansing had passed; the time for celebration had begun.

Prophets like John the Baptist preached judgment. Jesus' first miracle, though, was one of tender mercy.  The lesson was not lost on the disciples who joined him at the wedding that night in Cana. Don't let it be lost on you!