Introduction
My daughter Meagan
was home for most of last month in part to spend some time with us but largely
because she was a guest at the wedding of one of her college classmates and the
maid-of-honor in the wedding of her high school church youth group leader.
During the time she was home, her college roommates also flew into town and
stayed with us for a number of days. It was a blast to have them all here.
Considering so much of Meagan’s visit home involved weddings and with a house
full of girls, there was lots of talk about weddings, wedding arrangements, and
what they believed was the ideal wedding. As a guy, I’ve spent lots of time
around other guys and I’m going to let you in on a little secret—we never, ever
talked about weddings, wedding arrangements, or what we believed would be the
ideal wedding (one of those stupid guy things I guess). But for these girls,
and probably for many other girls as well, a wedding is an event unlike any
other and you know what? It should be an event unlike any other! There are many
things we celebrate every year—birthdays, holidays, anniversaries, etc. But a
wedding, except in rare cases, should only be something we celebrate once. It’s
special in a way that no other event is special. Jesus said that when a man and
woman marry that it was “For this reason a man will leave his father and mother
and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh. So they are no
longer two, but one. Therefore what God has joined together, let man not
separate (Mt 19:5-6).” I don’t know about you but that sounds pretty special to
me. It makes me sad when a man and woman exclude God from their wedding
ceremony and marriage when He should be the most honored Guest at both.
However, when God is the central figure of the ceremony something special can
become something miraculous. It is the power of the Divine that makes the event
special—it’s not the pretty dresses, elegant cakes, celebratory music, or
joyous dancing. These things make it fun and maybe even memorable but only God
can make it truly special. You might think you’re wedding without God couldn’t
get any better and you wouldn’t change a thing. But I promise you that when God
shows up at a wedding, everything changes—even Water Into Wine. That’s what happened when Jesus showed up at a
wedding in Cana.
Subject Text
John 2:1-11
1On
the third day a wedding took place at Cana in Galilee. Jesus’
mother was there, 2and Jesus and his disciples
had also been invited to the wedding. 3When the wine was gone,
Jesus’ mother said to him, “They have no more wine.” 4“Dear woman, why do you involve me?” Jesus replied. “My time has not yet come.” 5His mother said to the
servants, “Do whatever he tells you.” 6Nearby stood
six stone water jars, the kind used by the Jews for ceremonial washing, each holding from twenty to thirty gallons. 7Jesus
said to the servants, “Fill the jars with water”; so they filled them to the
brim. 8Then he told them, “Now draw some out and take it to the
master of the banquet.” They did so, 9and the master of the banquet
tasted the water that had been turned into wine. He did not
realize where it had come from, though the servants who had drawn the water
knew. Then he called the bridegroom aside 10and said, “Everyone
brings out the choice wine first and then the cheaper wine after the guests
have had too much to drink; but you have saved the best till now.” 11This,
the first of his miraculous signs, Jesus performed at Cana in
Galilee. He thus revealed his glory, and his disciples put their
faith in him.
Context
Our
Subject Text takes place very early
in Jesus’ ministry. John pulls back the curtain on Jesus’ identity in the very
first verse of his gospel when he identifies Jesus as the Word who was not only
with God from the very beginning but the Word who is God. But Jesus didn’t
begin his ministry to the sound of cheering and a marching band. Instead, He
was introduced by John the Baptist who had a simple message for the people:
“Make straight the way for the Lord.” When John the Baptist finally came face
to face with Jesus, he formally introduced Jesus to the religious leaders and
the people as: “The Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” Jesus’
ministry began after he was baptized by John. The next day, Jesus began selecting
His disciples. In chapter one we learn that after Jesus’ baptism, it only took
two followers to get everything started. The text tells us that one of them was
Andrew, Peter’s brother, who spent the day with Jesus. The text doesn’t tell us
what Jesus said during the day the spent together but it’s definitely one of
the things on my list to ask Jesus when I see him because the first thing
Andrew does is to track down his brother Peter to tell them, “We have found the
Messiah!” Look, I really have no idea what Jesus said to Andrew and the other
disciple (probably John) that was with him during the day they spent with Jesus
but I’m pretty sure they weren’t discussing the weather! In any event, Jesus
left for Galilee the next day with the unnamed disciple, Andrew, and Peter in
tow. When they arrived in Galilee, Jesus finds Philip and tells him to follow
Him. Like Andrew, Philip runs off to find Nathanael to tell him that they had
found the one foretold by the Law and the Prophets. Let me try and sketch a
rough picture of this particular scene: Philip leaves Jesus and the other
disciples to find Nathanael. When he find’s Nathanael to tell him about Jesus,
Nathanael is under a fig tree. It’s a strange detail but it’ll be important
shortly. Nathanael goes with Philip to find Jesus and while they were still a
way off, Jesus greets Nathanael as though He knows exactly who he is. However,
Jesus is a complete stranger to Nathanael at this point but Nathanael is not a
stranger to Jesus. So Nathanael says pretty much exactly what any of us would
say in the same circumstances: “How do you know me?” And this is where Jesus
blows Nathanael’s mind when He says, and I’ll paraphrase, “Yeah I saw you
sitting under the fig tree earlier.” You can almost hear the wheels of
Nathanael’s mind spinning and grinding as he replays the events of the day in
his mind but no matter how many times he replays the scene of the day, only
Philip was there when he was under the fig tree so how could Jesus have known
that? He plays if over and over and over in his mind until suddenly it dawns on
him and he says out loud, “You are the Son of God; you are the King of Israel.”
But Jesus lets him in on a little secret when He tells Nathanael that the only
reason he believes now is because Jesus knew something about him that He
shouldn’t have known. Jesus tells Nathanael and those listening that they will
be witnesses to even greater events in the future and that’s where we pick up
our Subject Text.
Text Analysis
We
don’t have to go far before we run into something odd in our Subject Text in v. 1. In fact, it’s
right at the beginning when John writes, “On the third day…”. On the third day
of what? If we track the days going back to chapter one and try to follow the
number of days, we quickly find that we are well beyond the third day of Jesus’
ministry inauguration so it can’t be a reference to that. So what “third day”
is John referring to? We tend to read right over this part of the text without
thinking much about it but I contend it is very important and far from
insignificant. Let’s walk through it together and I’ll show you. “The third day is to be counted from the
last event narrated, the exchange between Jesus and Nathanael…Some interpreters
see no significance in the sequence, partly because they count only six days.
Beginning on the day a delegation is sent to interrogate the Baptist (1:19-28),
the second day finds the Baptist announcing Jesus as the Lamb of God (1:29),
the third day brings two disciples to Jesus’ residence (1:35-42), and the
fourth day witnesses the incident with Nathanael. The wedding of 2:1-11 takes
place ‘the third day’ after that, which, by inclusive reckoning, means two days
later. This total of six days does not seem very significant. [However,]
another day should be added. This is achieved…by observing that when the
Baptist’s two disciples attach themselves to Jesus it is already 4:00 p.m. [“the
tenth hour”] on the third day—and they spent the rest of the day with him. That
means Andrew’s introduction of Simon Peter to Jesus takes place on the next
day, the fourth; the Nathanael exchange occurs on the fifth; the changing of
the water into wine on the seventh…For a writer as subtle as John to set out a
week of activity, culminating in the miracle of new wine on the seventh day,
may reflect more than antiquarian precision. John has already drawn attention
to creation: the good news he proclaims in in this Gospel reflects a new creation.
The week of days climaxing in the miracle at Cana may provide an echo of
creation-week. That means the miracle itself takes place on the seventh day,
the Sabbath. Jesus’ performance of redemptive work on the Sabbath is later in
this Gospel given the most suggestive theological treatment in the New
Testament.”[1]
I don’t believe for a minute that John included the detail of days in the early
account of Jesus’ ministry by accident. Beginning with the pronouncement of
Jesus’ divine identity in chapter one, John is leading us by the hand one step
at a time into the presence of Jesus and who He really is.
Jesus’
mother was already at the wedding and v. 2 tells us that Jesus and His
disciples had also been invited. Before we get into the next oddity of our text
of how it was that Jesus and his disciples came to be invited to this
particular wedding, it will be helpful to understand Jewish wedding customs of
antiquity. Traditionally, weddings lasted anywhere from seven to fourteen days
and were not insignificant events. Invited guests specifically included family
and friends of the wedding party and prominent people of the town who resided
there or may have been visiting there. More generally, however, entire villages
were sometimes invited and most did their best to attend. It was considered an
insult to refuse the invitation even though attendance wasn’t specifically
mandatory. Jesus’ family were either related to or friends of the bride and/or
groom. The disciples were included in the invitation after the fact because
they were close followers of Jesus. In our modern vernacular, they were now
part of His official entourage—where Jesus was invited, they were now included.
For
those of you who have been involved in making wedding plans and arrangements, you
know what a monumental task it can be—and that’s just making arrangements for a
one day or one half day ceremony. Imagine planning and arranging a wedding
ceremony that lasts at least one week and maybe even two weeks! And don’t think
for a minute that they used professional wedding planners that are so popular
today. Yes the wedding ceremony was about the bride and the groom but how the
event was experienced by those in attendance was also very important. When we
get to v. 3, we find that our ceremony has encountered a serious
problem—they’ve run out of wine. As usual, we read these words in the context
of our own present day culture and just can’t really understand what the big
deal is. What would we do at a wedding or some other event if the wine or something
else ran out? Probably nothing. In fact, how many ceremonies have you attended
when running out of liquor signified the end of the ceremony? Well that was not
an option during Jesus’ time. Running out of wine during a wedding ceremony was
a spectacular embarrassment for the wedding party. “The week-long weddings in
Jesus’ time must have had about the same impact on family budgets as weddings
do today. Banquets were prepared for many guests, and everyone spent several
days celebrating the new life of the married couple. To accommodate the guests,
careful planning was needed. Running out of wine meant more than embarrassment;
it broke the strong unwritten laws of hospitality.”[2]
Recognizing the imminent embarrassment, Mary turns to her son, Jesus, for help.
Jesus,
however, will not be manipulated—even by his mother in v. 4. Mary knows who
Jesus is and the disciple knew who Jesus was but no one else really knew who
Jesus was. Ultimately, Jesus was always concerned that once the people found
out who he was, they would want to make him their king by force. The idea of a
Messiah King wasn’t invented when Jesus arrived. The arrival of the Messiah was
long foretold in the writings of the Law and the Prophets. However, Jesus’
messianic mission wasn’t to be the kind of King the people expected—not yet
anyway. So Jesus was very careful about advertising his divinity to the general
public. Nevertheless, Jesus’ actions tell us something very important about the
way he interacts with humanity. Jesus is not merely interested in our eternal
well-being, He is just as interested in our earthly lives. Jesus’ response to
His mother was not intended to be rude but instead attempts to establish an
appropriate distance. Even Mary doesn’t know Jesus’ ultimate mission even though
she might have an idea of His divinity. “Because Jesus’ ‘hour’ in John refers
especially to the cross, here Jesus is saying, ‘Once I begin doing miracles, I
begin the road to the cross.’”[3]
Nevertheless, something happens in the exchange between Jesus and His mother
because according to v. 5 Jesus seems to agree to help because His mother
instructs the servants to follow Jesus’ instructions.
It
is not unusual to learn in v. 6 that there were a number of large water jars at
the wedding venue for the purpose of ceremonial cleansing. The jars were stone
for a few possible reasons: 1) Stone was believed to repel uncleanness; and 2)
Stone helped to keep the water cool. John is sure to include the detail that
the vessels were there for the purpose of ceremonial cleansing which would have
included the washing of hands and various utensils throughout the festivities.
But remember we’re talking about John as the author so it wouldn’t be a stretch
to wonder if John wanted to illustrate something with deeper meaning. Perhaps
“John sees this as representative of the broader question of the place of all
ceremonial washings. Their purpose provides a clue to one of the meanings of
the story: the water represents the old order of Jewish law and custom, which
Jesus was to replace with something better.”[4]
Considering
the length of wedding ceremonies and the number of guests that would have been
there at various points of the celebration, it’s not surprising that the water
jars weren’t full since they would have been in constant use. Therefore, we
learn in v. 7 that Jesus instructs the servants to fill, or more likely refill,
the jars with water. John tells us that the jars were filled to the brim. It
seems like a minor detail but when you think about it, now that the jars are
filled to the brim, whether on purpose or not, there can no longer be a claim
of deception—that the jars were later filled to the brim with something else.
The
next thing we learn in vv. 8-10 is that the water has somehow been turned into
wine. It just happened—according to the text, Jesus didn’t say anything or do
anything. The servants filled the jars with water and then immediately scooped
some out to find that it had been changed into wine. I’ve spent lots of time
meditating on these verses and the more time I spend on them, the more in awe I
am at what most people see as just a basic miracle. I mean it’s not like He
healed some sickness or raised someone from the dead. No he didn’t do either of
those things, instead, He transformed one chemical element into a completely
different chemical element! He didn’t change the water into ice or into steam,
He changed it into wine which is derived from grapes and has to first go
through a fermentation process before it can be considered wine. Here we
started with jars newly refilled with water that have immediately become wine
without grapes or fermentation! Can you explain that? Me either! But Jesus
doesn’t turn the water into just any wine. No! Jesus instructs the servants to
take some of the wine to the master of the banquet and let him try it. The
servants know what Jesus has done but the master of the banquet obviously
doesn’t. When the master of the banquet tastes the wine he immediate goes to
talk to the bridegroom and comments that it is customary for the host to serve
the good wine at the beginning of a ceremony when people are still sober enough
to discern the difference between good wine and bad wine. It makes me laugh
whenever I read this because some things never change. Come on! Don’t feign
shock that someone would substitute the cheap stuff for the good stuff after
the guests are too drunk to be able to tell the difference. But Jesus
demonstrates something in this event that is very important in understanding
the way God interacts with humanity: 1) God is very interested in even the
smallest details that affect our lives; and 2) God gives us the very best all
the time. We never get the “cheaper” stuff regardless of who we are. God
doesn’t give the “good stuff” to the people He likes best and the “cheap” stuff
to people like me or maybe to someone like you if you feel like you’re not one
of His favorites. God doesn’t operate this way—there aren’t those who deserve
His best and those who deserve something less than His best. Think about it for
just a minute, do you think it is even possible for God to give us something that
is less than His best; something that is less than everything? It’s not
possible and He will prove it to everyone once and for all at the cross.
John
tells us in v. 11 that this was the first miracle Jesus would perform and he
reiterates that it was performed in the small town of Cana in Galilee. It is
interesting to note that John says that this was the place where Jesus revealed
his glory that led to the faith of the disciples. It seemed strange to me since
the previous chapter made it sound like the disciples already believed in Jesus
since they were following Him. Did something change? I think something did
change. I seems clear that they gave intellectual assent to who Jesus was—they
“believed” he was the Messiah. However, John tells us that they have moved
beyond believing that Jesus is the Messiah to putting their faith in Him. It’s
subtle I know but I think there is a difference. Let me see if I can add some
clarity to the distinction. Suppose you have a child who falls ill and you take
him to the doctor who tells you that your child has a serious heart defect that
requires open-heart surgery to correct. The doctor tells you that she can
perform the surgery and you believe her because you’ve checked out her
credentials before you took your child to see her in the first place. You might
believe her when she says she can perform the surgery but it takes more than
belief when it comes to cutting open your child’s chest to perform open-hear
surgery. At some point, intellectual assent must give way to the faith that the
doctor can actually do what she says she can do. It is like this with Jesus as
well. We can believe He is the Lord
but we have faith in Him when He
becomes the Lord over our lives. “A sign is thus properly understood when it is
seen as pointing to God’s work through the person of Jesus to effect salvation.
To have grasped this truth is to have come to faith.”[5]
Application
One
evening when we were having dinner with the house full of girls staying with us,
one of the girls asked me and my wife what we thought about getting married
young. It was a very good question and I really wish there was a right answer
to that question. But there wasn’t. I told them our story of getting married in
our early twenties and how hard marriage can be. We tried to tell them that
getting married early or waiting until later both had advantages and
disadvantages. What I did tell them was that marriage was something that could
really only be properly done in the context of a vibrant relationship with God.
I told them that the most important thing they could do is wait to marry a man
who was committed to running after God and leading his wife and eventually his
children to do the same. You see, the wedding will end eventually even if it
last 1-2 weeks. The champagne will stop flowing, the food will run out, the
music will stop playing and all the partiers will go home. All that will be
left is you and your spouse and Jesus if you let Him into your lives and your
marriage. Jesus’ mission has always been the restoration of relationships and
one of His specialties is marriage relationships.
If
you look deeply into this lesson you realize that there is something more
important going on here than a wedding ceremony. Jesus’ ministry has begun and
he has stepped into the lives of humanity with both feet. We have a choice at
this point—we can either accept that Jesus is who He says He is or close our
eyes and pretend that nothing happened. Either way though, He’s not going away
and we shouldn’t want Him to go away. We need Jesus in our lives—every part of
our lives, more than we realize. Look beyond the wedding of our Subject Text and see the deeper meaning
behind this miracle. After this festive night, Jesus would go on to perform
many other miracles that all had something very important in common—He gave the
object of each miracle exactly what they needed in this life. To the blind man
He gave the gift of sight; To the woman who suffered from a bleeding disorder
He gave healing and opportunity to once again be ritually clean; To the man who
was lame He gave back his legs; To the man driven mad by demons He gave back
his sanity; To the mother whose child died He gave the gift of a resurrected
life; To the woman caught in adultery He gave the gift of forgiveness; To all of
us who reach out to Him when it feels like this world is crushing the life out
of us He gives us the strength and grace to hold on. But most of all, to those
who have sinned and have been separated from God, Jesus has given us the means
to be reconciled to God by His death on the cross and resurrection from the
dead. Jesus has a purpose in everything He does and that purpose is always to establish
a relationship with us, to nurture a growing relationship with us, or to
re-kindle a relationship with us that has grown cold. And He’ll do whatever it
takes to accomplish that—even change a little Water Into Wine if necessary.
[1]
D. A. Carson, The Gospel According To
John—The Pillar New Testament Commentary, (Grand Rapids, MI: William B.
Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1991), pp. 167-168.
[2]
Bruce Barton, Philip Comfort, Grant Osborne, Linda K. Taylor, Dave Veerman, Life Application New Testament Commentary,
(Wheaton, IL: Tyndale House Publishers, 2001), p. 379.
[3]
Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background
Commentary: New Testament, (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1993),
p. 268.
[4]
Carson, The Gospel According To John—PNTC,
p. 173.
[5]
Joel B. Green, Scot McKnight, and I. Howard Marshall, eds., Dictionary of Jesus and the Gospels,
(Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1992), p. 379.
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