Water & Wine John 2:1-12
We just celebrated the birth of Jesus and we are now entering that part of the Christian calendar where we traditionally look at events from Jesus life so for the next several weeks we’ll be looking at Jesus life. Occasionally we may veer into other areas of the Bible besides the Gospels.
Today I want to look at one of the earliest events from Jesus adult life, the wedding at Cana and the turning of water into wine.
First, today no one is sure of exactly where Cana was at the time but it’s believed to be a village about nine miles north of Jesus home town of Nazareth. Jesus, his disciples and family are all invited so we can reason Jesus knows the couple and they are friends if not extended family.
Weddings today can last several hours and can be quite expensive depending on the number of guests. Weddings then could include not only family and friends of the couple but may have included the entire village. And they didn’t go on for several hours; they could go on for several days and include lots of food and wine. Running out of wine during this celebration would defiantly bring shame, disgrace and loss of honor on the couple and their families. So there is a little background on this situation.
Two other things I want to mention before we pick these lines apart; one, even though it’s not spelled out in scripture tradition says that Mary was related to the groom and as such the lack of wine could have affected her honor. It also explains how Mary knew the family had run out of wine.
Second; why is Mary’s husband Joseph not mentioned? Again it’s not spelled out in scripture but tradition holds that Joseph was older than Mary when they married. This event happens about thirty years after they married so it is believed Joseph had already died and Jesus was now the head of the family.
Verse 1, “On the third day…” John’s Gospel is written to show the divinity of Jesus and it does this in two ways here. First, the number three represents the triune God. John is explaining Jesus divinity by saying he is God. In a different way he is saying what he did in John 1:1, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”
Second, this opening looks forward to Jesus resurrection three days after his crucifixion. By opening this account in this manor John is telling his readers that what happens next is important and it’s full of theology.
Jesus is invited to a wedding, to the creation of a new family. When we accept Christ, when we invite him into our lives, We become part of a new family; God’s family. Ephesians 2:19, “…you are no longer foreigners and strangers but fellow citizens with God’s people and also members of his household.”
So here we are at this wedding and they run out of wine. And Mary without hesitation approaches Jesus with the problem. Notice that she didn’t ask him if he would consider helping, she presented the issue and expected him to intervene.
Jesus starts his response to her in verse 4 with “Woman…” I looked at this and it seems a harsh and disrespectful way for him to address his mother. As you read John’s Gospel you will see he uses this term often, and probably the most well known is at the well in Samaria. Jesus addresses the woman who had five husbands by saying in John 4:21, “Woman…believe me…” “Woman” is used by John simply as an informal way of greeting someone.
So Jesus responds to his mother’s request with, “Woman…My hour has not yet come.” And yet Mary without waiting to see if he will actually do something turns to the servants in verse 5, “Do whatever he tells you.” Again Mary is approaching Jesus with the expectation that he will help her no matter what other circumstances may be involved.
This is how we should approach Jesus also, not with a “Jesus, will you think about it” attitude but with an expectation that Jesus will help us.
Now we have Jesus telling the servants to fill six stone jars with water. Each of the jars holds about thirty gallons, 180 gallons in total, and all they had was a bucket at the well in which to collect the water. The servants had to work before the miracle occurred.
This concept has two levels of interpretation. We are servants of Christ and our miracle is our salvation. But it doesn’t just come to us, we have to do our part which is to believe and accept Christ. It also shows us that Jesus will answer our prayers but sometimes it’s not just an immediate miracle, sometimes he puts in place things we have to do in order for the miracle to happen.
I’ve had back and leg pain for years and I prayed for God to remove it. I had to have surgery. This doesn’t mean God didn’t answer my prayers, it means he put competent and skillful people in place to help me. Instead of filling pots I had to have surgery for my miracle to happen.
Verse 8, “Then he told them, ‘Now draw out some and take it to the master of the banquet.’” Can you imagine being one of those servants? “We’re bringing our master water; this isn’t going to end well.” Yet when they did the water turned into wine. The miracle happened.
I’m a sinner. On the day I approach God’s throne I can hear myself saying, “With what I’ve done, this is not going to be good.” And then God welcomes me to heaven, the miracle of my salvation already happened.
In verse 9 it says the master of the banquet didn’t know where the wine came from. Jesus does this often during his ministry. He tells demons to keep still about who he is, he tells some of those he heals not to say anything, especially early in his ministry. He does this because his work is for the Kingdom of God, not for personal accolades. John 6:38, “For I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me.”
In verse 10 the head of the banquet says to the bridegroom, “Everyone brings out the choice wine first and then the cheaper wine…but you have saved the best till now.”
Throughout scripture Jesus is illustrated as a bridegroom coming for his bride. And what does Jesus bring to us? He brings the best, he brings heaven.
Notice the wine, the first wine was good the second was best.
We have two covenants with God; the covenant of law and the covenant of grace. The first; the law is based on what we do; based on us keeping all the rules, “you shall not,” “you shall not,” “you shall not.”
The law was given by God and therefore it is perfect. So if the law is perfect then the problem must be elsewhere or else it would not have needed to be replaced. Romans 8:3,“For what the law was powerless to do because it was weakened by the flesh, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh to be a sin offering.”
The first covenant was good, it was God’s perfect law but it relied on us. The second covenant, the covenant of grace, is best because it relies on what God did; Jesus perfect life sacrificed for us on the cross.
Verse 11 tells us this is the first of what Jesus does to reveal his glory. What it tells us is Jesus reveals his glory by taking something ordinary; in this case water, and making it extraordinary, the best wine. He wants to do that in our lives too.
Jesus wants our lives to have meaning. He wants our lives to have a meaning that makes a difference in the world. He wants to give us a life free from sin, free from shame, free from the chains that bind us to the world’s way of thinking.
As we look at Jesus life we start here with his first recorded miracle, the changing of water into wine. What a way for John to start his Gospel, a simple account revolving around a wedding that tells us so much about Jesus, and about theology.
When we accept Christ we become part of God’s family. And as part of God’s family Jesus is the head of our family. He’s the one who protects us, and loves us; he’s the one we look to for guidance.
Like Mary approached Jesus for help, he wants us to approach and ask, only then will he act in our lives. And when we do ask, ask like Mary. Ask with a full expectancy that he will act.
God the Father offers us salvation through Jesus at the cross but we need to understand that for God to gift us his grace and mercy we need to do our part. We need to believe and have faith and trust in Jesus.
We also need to understand that like the filling of the water jugs, sometimes God doesn’t just hand us our miracle, and sometimes he puts in our lives those things we need to do in order to make our miracle happen.
We need to see that as Mary could have been shamed by the lack of wine, we are shamed by our sin. At the wedding Jesus spared his mother shame and he wants to spare us also. Believe in him and your shame before God went to the cross and is removed from you.
Jesus wants to reveal his glory in you by taking you from someone who is ordinary and making you someone who is extraordinary; by taking you from a sinner to someone who is glorified, redeemed, sanctified and saved.
Praise God, praise the Holy Spirit and praise our Lord and Savior Christ Jesus.
God bless all of you.