the Wedding at Cana
Noel K. Anderson
First Presbyterian Church of Upland
Text: John 2: 1-12 New Revised Standard
1 On the third day there was a wedding in Cana of Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there. 2 Jesus and his disciples had also been invited to the wedding. 3 When the wine gave out, the mother of Jesus said to him, “They have no wine.” 4 And Jesus said to her, “Woman, what concern is that to you and to me? My hour has not yet come.” 5 His mother said to the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.” 6 Now standing there were six stone water jars for the Jewish rites of purification, each holding twenty or thirty gallons. 7 Jesus said to them, “Fill the jars with water.” And they filled them up to the brim. 8 He said to them, “Now draw some out, and take it to the chief steward.” So they took it. 9 When the steward tasted the water that had become wine, and did not know where it came from (though the servants who had drawn the water knew), the steward called the bridegroom 10 and said to him, “Everyone serves the good wine first, and then the inferior wine after the guests have become drunk. But you have kept the good wine until now.” 11 Jesus did this, the first of his signs, in Cana of Galilee, and revealed his glory; and his disciples believed in him.
12 After this he went down to Capernaum with his mother, his brothers, and his disciples; and they remained there a few days.†
the wedding
It starts with a wedding
Last week, we finished John chapter one with the mysterious revelation of Christ as the Son of God (according to Nathanael’s proclamation) and the Son of Man, as Jesus reveals of himself. The promise is of the Messianic Age and the full communion of Heaven and Earth.
Three days following Jesus’ promise to Nathanael that he would see the Son of Man revealed, they go to the wedding at Cana. It seems that Mary has something to do with the wedding, and it isn’t unlikely that people from Nazareth would have friends and relatives in Cana, which was just about eight miles away. Jesus and his disciples are invited to attend. Not a prayer camp, not a monastery or spiritual retreat, but a wedding feast.
The Jesus movement is not removed from ordinary life. He doesn’t take his followers away from civilization to meditate in the mountains, but he takes them into society—to a wedding—something associated with families, including women and children.
Honestly, what could be more home-grown than a wedding? In the poorest nations in the world, we still find people saving their pennies and planning for wedding celebrations. And even in the wealthiest countries, a wedding is like a rite of passage to adulthood, for finally, the self-absorbed man commits himself to love another, and the two become one flesh. The neighborhood, the community, and the culture celebrate love and human fruitfulness with weddings.
The old, formal definition of a comedy is a story that ends with a wedding. After much conflict and deception, the boy gets the girl, and their love is consummated in marriage—it is the world’s picture of “and they lived happily ever after.”
Weddings were a big deal in Jesus’ day as well. Jewish weddings lasted six days, with people dropping in, feasting, and dancing to the live music. For poorer families, weddings would be delayed until such a wedding feast could be afforded. For many, weddings were the social highlights of their lives, and they lived from one to the next.
wedding wine
Whose business is it to provide the wine?
The Bible is full of references to the virtue of wine. It gladdens the heart and serves medicinal purposes as well. Wine was a staple, like bread. It was also dangerous, as it led some people to drunkenness. And while drunkenness is condemned by Scripture, wine never is; rather, it is celebrated.
I found an engaging text in the Apocrypha, in 2 Maccabees, which throws some light on how wine was used in ancient Israel:
For just as it is harmful to drink wine alone, or, again, to drink water alone, while wine mixed with water is sweet and delicious and enhances one’s enjoyment, so also the style of the story delights the ears of those who read the work.
—2Maccabees 15:39
People usually mixed their wine and water. Do you see that first phrase, “It is harmful to drink wine alone”? Why? Too strong with too much alcohol, perhaps. And it’s also dangerous to drink water alone? Well, yeah, most of their water wasn’t boiled and sat in cisterns—often for months—before it was used. So water could be lively with amoebas and bacteria. But wine mixed with water creates a kind of win/win—both become safer to drink—“sweet and delicious and enhances one’s enjoyment.”
When I drink a big glass of tap water in hot weather, I like to add a teaspoon of apple cider vinegar. Call me crazy, but something about the acidity is much more quenching than water alone—something satisfying that cuts the thirst.
At ancient weddings, the good wine was served first, and by “good,” we mean pure, potent, and un-watered down. After a while, they would cut the wine with water, then more water, to increase its volume and extend its life. The guests wouldn’t mind; they were just happy for the party and not interested in playing connoisseur anymore.
So the wedding at Cana runs out of wine, and Mary brings this concern to Jesus. “They’ve run out of wine!” she says. This is not an unloaded observation. It implies that perhaps Jesus might do something about it. I think we all know this kind of comment.
“I really wish that garbage would learn to take itself out.”
“Don’t you think the car is due for an oil change?”
“I’d get up, but since you’re in the kitchen. . .”
“They’ve run out of wine!”(hint hint, nudge nudge).
Jesus could have said something like, “Really, am I a wine-maker now? Is that what I’m here to do?”
He says, “My hour has not come,” which means something like it is not yet time to be fully revealed.
Was there more dialogue? When Jesus says, “What are you trying to do with me?” does she answer? If she did, we don’t get it in the text. What she does is turn to the wait staff and says, “Whatever He tells you to do, do it.” She commands the wait staff to obey Jesus. So Jesus is now in charge of the wine as Mary walks off.
The Water jars
Purification jars of stone rather than clay
Why were there six, twenty-five-gallon jars there? Mainly for the same reason any party would have access to at least 150 gallons of water—washing, ritual washing, and mixing into the wine to extend it, among other reasons. The text says the jars for Jewish purification were made of stone, which is odd.
Clay jars were the norm because it was easy for jars to become ritually unclean, and if they were, they had to be broken, and all the water within poured out. The jars and the water within them could be defiled in many ways. For example, if someone touched a dead animal and then touched the water jar, the jar had to be destroyed, and all the water in it—considered unclean—would be poured out.
Stone jars were expensive and very difficult to break, so large, 25-30 gallon stone jars would have been put somewhere isolated and safe from contamination. Like cisterns, they probably resided under the house where it was cool, and there was little likelihood of anyone messing with them.
Jesus tells the wait staff to fill these to the brim with water, and they do so. Mary’s words should ring in our ears even as with the wait staff. “Do whatever he tells you.” Isn’t this a sane prescription for every business, every workplace, every church, every mission? Do whatever Jesus says to do! To obey Christ, to do what He says, is the life of faithfulness. The wait staff simply obey.
Next, Jesus tells them to draw from the water jar and take it to the Chief Steward/sommelier. Again, they obey without question, which is always harder than it sounds.
Consider, how would you have felt after you had poured that last jug of water the brim of the stone jar, and then this mysterious man tells you to dip your ladle into that water and take it to your boss? You make your way from under the house out to the backyard among all the partiers with a ladle of water—you know it’s water—and you are about to hand it to your boss as if it were wine. You’re going to be in big trouble, but you follow through because you were told what to do. Will he smack you for bringing him water when he asked for wine? Will you get fired?
The Sommelier eyes you impatiently as you bring him the ladle. He eyes you suspiciously as he lifts it to his lips. He sips and looks at you with a shocked expression. Is he angry? Is he appalled that you brought him a big ladle of well-water passed off as wine? But no, he goes back for another sip and then drains it.
With a look of near panic, he grabs you by your shoulders and demands of you, “Where did you get this?” You shrug and explain that you just drew it from the stone jar. “Serve it up!” he says, “Serve it up to everyone!” as he turns and heads toward the bridegroom to congratulate him for saving the best for last.
Transformation
Change at the deepest levels
The miracle is more than a party trick; it is a witness to Christ as the world’s agent of transformation. Transformation is more than merely reform or mid-flight adjustment. It is a remaking from the bottom up, a new birth, a total change to the deepest degree.
This isn’t watery wine, but the wine of all wines. It is everything wine is supposed to be: exhilaration, joy, abundance, and a sign of more abundance to come. In turning the water to wine, Jesus reveals himself—albeit subtly and veiled—as the initiator of the Messianic Age. Wine in abundance is a sign of the Age of Salvation—of God’s fulfilled promises, as we heard read from Joel 2. Christ is the satisfaction that poor little Israel has long-awaited and long-prepared to receive.
John is telling us that Judaism had become the fig tree with no fruit; it had become like a peasant wedding in a backwater village that had run out of wine. And Jesus is the Christ, the Messiah, the Son of Man and Son of God come to initiate a new age of redemption for all people. Jesus provides the wine.
And let’s look more closely at this transformation. The waters of purification are transformed. For the ancient Jew, water was chaos, the deep, Sheol. It was from the chaos of water that The Lord created orderly lands. It was the chaos of water that swept over the world in the great flood, water that Moses turned into blood. Water served to purify God’s people, but the purification rites were demanding, and real purity remained elusive to God’s people.
And Jesus changes it all at a qualitative level. The water is changed into wine. Jesus has transformed the need for purification into joy and exhilaration. He changes the world from strict Puritanism to charismatic celebration! He meets the needs of the needy with abundance—150 gallons of the very best. Yes, he is a wine-maker! He is the one the pagans worshipped by the names Dionysus and Bacchus—the deity of wine, festivity, and religious ecstasy.
Pagan followers of the cult of Dionysus believed that as they partook of his mysteries, they could become possessed by the god himself. This terrifies us at face value—the idea of pagans seeking demon possession as part of their religion—but what are we to think of the wine that Christ blesses and gives? Is it not our participation in His shed blood? And don’t we also pray to be possessed by the Holy Spirit of God as a promise? Jesus is our Dionysus, our Bacchus, the giver of wine, abundance, and joy.
And no, it isn’t about the alcohol, which can indeed ruin lives and families; it is about the wine that Christ gives—that only Christ can give—that is a foretaste of another wedding feast yet to come when Christ the bridegroom will finally unite with His Church in glory.
We, the vessels of purification, must be transformed into vessels of joy. In the Old Testament sense, we are not about righteousness and holiness; we’ve learned we cannot contain that holiness without making it unclean. Instead, we contain now the wine of Christ and become vessels of joy. We live by obedience to His word—“Do whatever he tells you,” says Mary. We are right to obey.
the ninth
Beethoven’s divine inspiration
A final illustration of breaking in and God’s transformation from the world of music: Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, particularly the fourth movement.
The fourth movement begins with dour lines that seem to be seeking something—deep and ponderous like a troubled mind in thought. Then comes something unprecedented in a classical symphony: a chorale.
It starts with a solo voice ringing light out of the darker tones:
O friends, no more of these sad serious tones!
Let us sing songs of . . . JOY!
I expect, at the original performances, that people’s jaws would have dropped open. “What is he doing? A chorale? Singers? Really?”
The theme of Joy breaks out from the choir. Joy which transforms the broken and divided into brothers and sisters—Joy by which even the lowly worm can feel contentment in life.
There is another part of the movement I always loved since childhood. The sopranos sing very high and thin like violins high up in the atmosphere. I always wondered what they were saying. When I finally found a translation of the libretto, I found out.
Brothers, above the starry canopy
There must dwell a loving father.
Do you fall in worship, you millions?
World, do you know your creator?
Seek Him in the heavens;
Above the stars must he dwell.
Beethoven was really onto something. The music comes as a question: “Do you know your Maker, world? Surely a loving Father dwells above the starry canopy! Look to the starry canopy—is there a Loving Father? Do you know Him? Do you want to know?” At least that is the feeling I got from the music.
Then comes crashing down the amazing chorus:
I embrace you, you millions!
This kiss is for all the world!
I remember thinking, “What kiss? What is the kiss that comes crashing down from the sky?” It is JOY.
Joy transforms life and joy comes when we know our Lord and Maker.
It also occurred to me that “the kiss” was the music itself—given through a musician who was totally deaf by the time of its completion and performance! The kiss was the birth of the Romantic era of music through a deaf man. It is as close to divine inspiration as music can come.
We need to be transformed by our Loving Father. We need to be the joy and good wine by which we may point the world to the starry canopy above and ask, “Do you know Him, world?” He has a kiss for us all, and by that kiss our world can be permanently and substantially transformed, like changing water into wine. †
Questions
- What might John mean by “on the third day”?
- Why did Jesus’ mother tell Jesus about the wine?
- What might Jesus mean by his reply “my time has not yet come”?
- Why did Mary continue by telling servants to do what Jesus said?
- Why is it significant that “Purification water” was turned into wine?
- What is the significance of Jesus changing water into wine?
- What connection does this “First sign” have with the end of chapter one? [1:51]
- How do we see Jesus today changing or transforming lives?
- Do you have an experience of God’s transforming love in your life that you could share?