[Music]
You’ll turn with me in your Bibles to John Chapter 2. On the third day, there was a wedding at Cana in Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there. Jesus also was invited to the wedding with his disciples. When the wine ran out, the mother of Jesus said to him, “They have no wine.” And Jesus said to her, “Woman, what does this have to do with me? My hour has not yet come.” His mother said to the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.”
Now there were six stone water jars there for the Jewish rites of purification, each holding 20 or 30 gallons. Jesus said to the servants, “Fill the jars with water,” and they filled them up to the brim. He said to them, “Now draw some out and take it to the master of the feast.” So they took it.
When the master of the feast tasted the water now become wine and did not know where it came from, though the servants who had drawn the water knew, the master of the feast called the bridegroom and said to him, “Everyone serves the good wine first, and when people have drunk freely, then the poor wine. But you have kept the good wine until now.”
This, the first of his signs, Jesus did at Cana in Galilee and manifested His glory, and his disciples believed in him. After this, he went down to Capernaum with his mother and his brothers and his disciples, and they stayed there for a few days.
This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. Let us pray:
Lord, you have given us all of these signs with which to help us believe. Help us to hear of them, to understand them. Let them be an encouragement to us and let them build us up in faith. We pray this in Jesus’ name, amen.
Now, the story of the miracle in Cana may well be Jesus’s most popular miracle, or at least it often gets treated that way within American church culture. Sadly, it seems as if this miracle, which many people would most want to see repeated, because who doesn’t want to have their water turned to wine, is thought to have been performed just for our enjoyment.
Yet, while it was performed as a blessing and its purpose was joyful and its results were pleasurable and enjoyable, the spiritual meaning behind it, what it represents and means for us is far more than just merely drinking wine. It is a miracle of God, and as with all such miracles, its purpose is to tell us something about him.
But before we dive into the narrative, let us consider what miracles really are. When we consider the miracles of Jesus as they’re described in the synoptic gospels, most of them seem to be extraordinary good works of mercy and grace: healing the sick, exercising demons, raising the dead, and feeding people when they’re hungry.
However, his works stop seeming so extraordinary if we only consider them as being good examples for Christians to follow, like early 20th century Christian liberalism prominently taught and modern progressive do-goodism teaches, by suggesting alternative natural explanations.
But although their attitude still rightly led faithful Christians to emulate Christ through our good works by inspiring the establishment of hospitals and schools, by promoting our mental health and well-being, and by providing food pantries and serving hot meals, our doing such things was never the primary point, purpose, or goal of Jesus’s ministry.
They made the works themselves to be the point, and the great problem with their attitude is that it tends to ignore the other more supernatural miracles of Jesus, those which cannot be explained or emulated, like his control over the natural elements and walking upon the Galilean waters.
But John describes Jesus’s miraculous works as signs instead. The Greek word for this is semaina, and its use pervades his gospel. So if Jesus’s miracles are actually signs, then what makes them so much more special than just their plain goodness and fact of their effect? What makes them a sign and what do they signify?
Old Webster offers us two relevant definitions concerning what a sign meant to John and means for the church:
1. A token, something by which another thing is shown or represented, any visible thing, an emotion, appearance, or event which indicates the existence or approach of something else, or some visible transaction, event, or appearance intended as proof or evidence of something else.
You see, signs are evidences that point beyond themselves to something, to someone transcendent, something which is not otherwise readily apparent or comprehensible. They are a preview of something coming—something greater than themselves.
We apply this theologically by interpreting the purpose of these signs, miracles, and wonders to be confirmation of a messenger, whether prophet or apostle, and their message of divine revelation because ultimately they all point to Christ.
Remember Moses? God gave Moses signs to perform in Egypt before both Pharaoh and the Hebrews as proof that he was sent by the Lord: the sign of his staff’s transformation and the ability to inflict and heal leprosy, as well as the ten wonders inflicted upon the land and the Egyptians.
Twice Gideon asked God for such a sign upon his fleece to confirm the Lord’s command to lead Israel against the Midianites. Elijah called down fire from heaven to ignite a waterlogged sacrifice during his spiritual battle against Ahab’s prophets of Baal at Mount Carmel, and that confirmed that he was the Lord’s prophet and supported his authority against those wicked idolators.
Isaiah gave King Hezekiah the sign of time turning back as the sun’s shadow moved back along the dial of Ahaz, proving the truth of Isaiah’s prophecy and confirming that Hezekiah would be healed.
So John teaches us by calling them signs that the primary purpose of Jesus’s miracles was to demonstrate that he came from God, that he is God, and that his words carry the full authority of the Divine Sovereign. His signs were also revealing what life in his kingdom will look like: redemptive transformation and restoration to very good through his recreation.
No more death, pain, sorrow, and sickness. Instead, it will be filled with joy, life, and gladness as we dwell within the glory of the Lord. Furthermore, the later miracles of the apostles also confirmed their sent status and the gospel message.
They speaking in tongues on Pentecost was a breaking down of Babel’s curse. Peter’s healing of the beggar outside the temple, the death of Ananias and Sapphira saying that the king will not be mocked. Paul’s raising of Eutychus after he fell from a third story window while he preached, and Paul’s survival and immunity following a deadly snake bite—each of those were signs.
We no longer need nor expect such wonders to happen today because the only further revelation we expect is Jesus Christ himself appearing, his return at the conclusion of the age. Regardless, even though the extraordinary supernatural sign gifts have ceased following the death of the apostles and the close of scripture’s canon, we do still believe in miracles.
We still believe that God will heal the sick and bind up the brokenhearted; that he will rescue us from our trials and troubles; that he will still save the lost and call all of his chosen children to himself.
Unfortunately, we often tend to miss the miraculous because our perspective is skewed. Thinking, what are miracles actually?
Every life is a miracle of God. It is a miracle that we wake up in the morning, a miracle that the world continues turning around its axis, a miracle that you arrived here safely this morning, and it’s a miracle that we have air to breathe and food to eat.
Therefore, if you are a Christian, then you must believe in miracles and the supernatural works of God since your faith in Jesus Christ is a miracle. Your election unto salvation, your regeneration, faith, justification, sanctification, and future glorification is given to you by the Holy Ghost when he performed a heart transplant within you, giving you a new heart of flesh and birthing you anew of his spirit.
So now that we better understand the purpose of miracles, and we can see them around us, let’s look at Jesus’s first sign, the miracle at Cana.
On the third day, there was a wedding at Cana in Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there. Jesus also was invited to the wedding with his disciples. Now you see, John often provides us with rather specific details to ground his narratives in real life, and because these details add important things to the story.
Beginning with: on the third day, there was a wedding does not imply that this event happened only three days after Jesus met Nathaniel, nor is it reasonable to assume that he meant the third day of the week. Since apart from commonly noting the Sabbath and the resurrection, John does not otherwise make a point concerning what day of the week things ordinarily happen.
Instead, this may be better read and understood as being on the third day of a wedding feast in Cana. This is an important distinction in detail because first-century Jewish weddings were ordinarily weeklong affairs, marking this as the middle of the feast. It was neither early nor late—a wedding at Cana in Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there.
Jesus also was invited to the wedding with his disciples. See, not only were wedding feasts lengthy celebrations, they were also community-wide events, and weddings should be joyful. So it was not unusual that everyone would want to participate and offer their blessings for the couple.
But considering that Mary and Jesus were not from Cana, we should not ordinarily expect them to be considered a part of that community. I mean, they’re from Nazareth, a nearby town several hours’ walk away. So why were they invited? They might have been relatives or friends of either party.
Jesus or Joseph, his father, could have been connected to either party through their vocation. I mean, Jesus was not yet known as a famous rabbi, so his personal star power would not have been a reason to invite him. Or most unlikely, it may have been a connection through Nathaniel, who was from Cana.
But while that would explain the presence of Jesus and his disciples, it wouldn’t explain Mary’s invitation. But truly, the why of their presence is not so important for us to speculate about beyond recognizing that there were many good and ordinary reasons for Jesus to be in attendance.
Then three days into the wedding feast, trouble occurs—the wine ran out. Unfortunately, this was not the sort of problem which could be solved by a quick trip to the local grocery store. Getting the needed quantity of wine would have been far more than a local wine merchant could arrange on such short notice, even at an inflated price.
I mean, this was an epic social problem. It was a cultural faux pas, embarrassing to the bridegroom as the host and insulting to his guests. This was a failure to plan and may have been considered symbolic of his inability to provide satisfactorily for his bride.
This was the third day; it was the middle of the feast. But by running out of wine, the party was now over. Or was it? Then the mother of Jesus said to him, “They have no wine.” And Jesus said to her, “Woman, what does this have to do with me? My hour has not yet come.”
See, I really think that this is one of the strangest exchanges of dialogue recorded in scripture. I mean, Mary says, “Jesus, they’re out of wine,” and Jesus replies, “So what?”
When you think about it, he’s not really wrong. Why should this problem have to do with him? What should it have to do with him? Why should it be his concern? And what does his mother expect him to do about it?
Attempts to answer those questions can lead us to make some really crazy assumptions. Some will make up extra relational details, suggesting that Mary and Jesus were probably close relations to the group, and so saving the day was Jesus’s responsibility and family duty.
Others will go even further beyond the text of scripture and assume wrongly that turning water into wine was an ordinary occurrence for Jesus, suggesting that maybe Jesus did it for his mother Mary all the time.
Still others will view this as being about Mary’s kind-heartedness and empathy and a demonstration of her special knowledge about Jesus, and because mother knows best, thus they suggest that Jesus here was only acting according to his mother’s wishes, just like every good Jewish boy should.
An attitude which then builds into the Marian worship and veneration by Roman Catholics, who think that Jesus is more likely to respond favorably because his mother asks him rather than trusting him to hear and answer our petitions and prayers himself.
Yet the narrative ultimately makes it clear that Jesus’s activity is always according to his will and for the Lord’s purposes and not subject to the whims of his mother nor to forced frivolous obligations of social requirement.
Jesus acts because he wills and chooses to act. When Jesus asks Mary, “Woman, what does this have to do with me?” the reason he gives for questioning her motive is, “My hour has not yet come.”
This is something else which will flow throughout John’s gospel—an emphasis upon Jesus’s hour, not being a specific time of a specific day, but his hour as in his kairos, the divinely appointed time for his passion and glorification.
So what Jesus is saying here is that this was not the time for him to reveal himself to Israel in all his glory—that this was not the time for him to put himself on display. The wedding was not about Jesus, and he was not going to make it about him. He was not going to upstage those there to celebrate.
Then what did Mary do? She said to the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.” Not because she expects Jesus to be a good son and do whatever his mother commands, but because she knew her son. She knew that he would either do something or not.
Yet it does read as if she was fully expecting that he would choose to act. Now, there were six stone water jars there for the Jewish rites of purification, each holding 20 or 30 gallons. Jesus said to the servants, “Fill the jars with water.”
Now draw some out and take it to the master of the feast. So they took it. Again, John here gives us plenty of minor but very important details. See, these stone jars were commonplace, holding water for ceremonial washing according to the traditions of the elders.
The water was intended for the ritual purification sense of cleanliness rather than for being used for actual necessary purposes. But these containers were not chosen merely because of their availability. Jesus must have had a reason for using these ordinary special-purpose vessels.
First, Jesus told the servants to fill the jars up with water, and they obediently filled them up to the brim. Next, Jesus told them to draw some and take it to the master of the feast, a first-century equivalent of a Maitre D, a butler, or master of ceremonies.
Then, presto change-o, the water was transformed into wine. And when the master of the feast tasted the water, now become wine, and did not know where it came from, though the servants who had drawn the water knew, the master of the feast called the bridegroom and said to him, “Everyone serves the good wine first, and when people have drunk freely, then the poor wine. But you have kept the good wine until now.”
Think about it. Six 20 to 30 gallon jars—call it an average of six 25 gallon jars—filled to the brim with water became filled with wine, the equivalent of 750, 57 bottles of wine or 63 cases of wine. Such an amazing party trick!
It’s no wonder that many people like or love the idea of this miracle, right? Plus, unlike most of Jesus’s miracles, there was no apparent cost of response for us. There’s no requirement of faith in it. It’s all fun with no repentance, and the only obedience needed is to just drink it and enjoy, right?
Not really, but we will get to that. But first, let’s think about what the master of the feast had to say: “Everyone serves the good wine first, and when people have drunk freely, then the poor wine; but you’ve kept the good wine until now.”
Simply put, he tells the groom, “You save the best for last.” Common convention was to serve the best wine first, but then as the feast drew on and people’s senses became dulled, then the ordinary and common table wine would be served to minimize expense.
So it was very reasonable for the master to be surprised at this show of generosity, of blessing, and of provision by their host. So now instead of being a social embarrassment, he becomes praiseworthy. Jesus certainly saved his day.
However, John’s record of the master of the feast’s remark is more than just a memory of praise. It is the key to unlock the wondrous miracle in this story because his praise directs us towards our eschatological hope. It points us to the wedding supper of the Lamb and the joy of Christ’s eternal kingdom.
This is the reason why John refers to all of Jesus’s miracles as signs because each one points beyond itself through the present into the future reality of life in the new creation. His miracles were far more than mere good works because each one meant more for all of God’s people than their immediate individual benefit suggests.
This really becomes quite apparent when you think about it. His healing miracles demonstrate how there will no longer be any need for healing in the kingdom; then we will all be healthy and whole. There will no longer be any blind, lame, sick, or leprous persons.
His exorcisms demonstrate how he has completely triumphed over Satan. With his kingdom, there will no longer be any more demonic oppression or need for deliverance from the powers of darkness. There will no longer be any captives or prisoners needing release or rescue.
His feedings demonstrate how the Lord will provide for all of our needs in the kingdom. There will no longer be anyone who goes hungry; there will no longer be anyone naked who needs to be clothed and warmed.
But how does this miracle, Jesus turning water into wine, translate into the kingdom life? Does it mean that we will not drink water and that there will be rivers of wine flowing throughout the land? No, of course not. Instead, to better understand this, we must think of two important questions:
What does wine usually represent in scripture, and what role or purpose does it play in the life of God’s people? And what kind of water did Jesus transform?
First, remember that Melchizedek, the king of Salem, brought out bread and wine when he blessed Abraham, celebrating the victory over the invading kings. Jacob’s blessing of Judah declares that he shall bind his fold to the vine and his donkey’s colt to the choice vine. He has washed his garments in wine, and his vesture in the blood of grapes. His eyes are darker than wine, and his teeth whiter than milk, declaring the royalty of the house of Judah, looking forward to the Messiah.
Wine was also given to the Lord as part of the regular drink offerings and sacrifices. And although inebriation and frequent or public drunkenness were considered shameful, the provision of wine and its drinking were a blessing to God’s people. Not only was wine a regular and ordinary part of life, it was especially given for use in celebration and times of joy.
For the prophet Zechariah declared, speaking about the days of Israel’s redemption, “I will strengthen the house of Judah and I will save the house of Joseph. I will bring them back because I have compassion on them, and they shall be as though I had not rejected them, for I am the Lord their God, and I will answer them.”
Then Ephraim shall become like a mighty warrior, and their hearts shall be glad as with wine. Their children shall see it and be glad; their hearts shall rejoice in the Lord.
See, the miracle at Cana was a sign of the Lord’s blessing upon his people, symbolizing his desire for us to be glad and joyful. Truly, there is no scriptural cause for the elect to be severe or dull all the days of our lives. We really should eat, drink, and be merry—not because tomorrow we may die, but because God is good, and he wants his children to be blessed.
Remember, God actually wants us to be happy—both happy in and happy with him.
Secondly, Jesus did not merely transform some ordinary 150-odd gallons of water into wine. He transformed the waters of purification. He transformed water that was meant to be used to remove spiritual impurity and corruption. He transformed water used to restore a person’s personal holiness so that they could safely enter into the divine presence to worship the Lord.
He transformed the waters of obligation into the wine of gladness, transforming an expression of the old covenant regulations—the symbol of our duty to be holy and righteous before God—into a sign of celebration and joy. Because under the new covenant of grace through Jesus Christ, our corruption and spiritual pollution have been removed, and we are cleansed by Jesus’s death upon the cross, declared justified and made holy in God’s sight.
Jesus’s first sign, this miracle, symbolized the change in dispensation from the covenant of law unto the covenant of grace, transitioning from the Old Testament to the new. The waters of ritual purification were no longer necessary because God’s Holy Spirit now works within us, sanctifying us as Jesus justifies us before our hallowed Father in heaven.
So just as Jesus transformed the water, thus he transforms his chosen people. The coming of Jesus and the working of his signs, his miracles, and wonders was God doing something new and wonderful. They foreshadowed the greatness of the good things to come; they whet our appetite for the things of God, like a small taste test which causes us to desire the full meal even more.
Finally, John concludes the story explaining, “This, the first of his signs, Jesus did at Cana in Galilee and manifested His glory.”
Therefore, that is what this sign points us towards—our fullness of hope and joyful expectation in Jesus Christ and his reign. This, like all of his signs, was an expression and a manifestation of Christ’s glory—a display of God’s glory.
Because everything that Jesus ever did, he did for God’s glory. Everything was an act of worship and love for his Father in heaven, and his disciples believed in him. Did they believe in him just because of his miracles? Just because of his glory? Surely not.
But just as surely, witnessing and experiencing these signs undoubtedly built up and encouraged them in their faith, just as our reading and hearing about them encourage us in ours.
Now, a final point of application:
Whenever you feel as if this world is just too much, that all the darkness and evil out in the world is too overwhelming, whenever you wonder how there could be a loving and good God when there is so much hate, pain, and misery in the world—remember the wedding at Cana and encourage yourself with our Christian hope for the future.
Jesus Christ has come, and He is making all things new, but he’s not finished working yet. He is making—he has not yet made. Jesus transforming water into wine gives us hope that he shall transform us and our lives into something more wonderful and blessed.
We have seen and heard from scripture a mere foretaste of what is to come, and it will surely be far greater than we could even imagine.
Remember, even now Christ reigns over all, and someday he shall return and establish his righteous reign upon earth as in heaven. Then he shall restore us to his holy and divine intention, and he shall fill us with joy and gladness as with wine.
Believe in Jesus Christ. Trust in him and be glad because, as with the wine at the wedding, the best is yet to come. Amen.