John 2:1-12--The First of the Seven SignS

John 2:1-12
English Standard Version

The Wedding at Cana
2 On the third day there was a wedding at Cana in Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there. 2 Jesus also was invited to the wedding with his disciples. 3 When the wine ran out, the mother of Jesus said to him, “They have no wine.” 4 And Jesus said to her, “Woman, what does this have to do with me? My hour has not yet come.” 5 His mother said to the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.”
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6 Now there were six stone water jars there for the Jewish rites of purification, each holding twenty or thirty gallons. 7 Jesus said to the servants, “Fill the jars with water.” And they filled them up to the brim. 8 And he said to them, “Now draw some out and take it to the master of the feast.” So they took it. 9 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 10 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.” 11 This, the first of his signs, Jesus did at Cana in Galilee, and manifested his glory. And his disciples believed in him.

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This first sign introduces the first major "theme" in the book of John that connects John 2:1 through John 4:45.  I wish there were a format where we could spend some time connecting the dots between all the individual passages in those area, but this part of the book of John establishes Jesus' power to make all things new and in so doing, change their identity and nature.

It will start with changing water into wine, it has the conversation with Nicodemus in the middle of it where Jesus tells him, "You must be born again," and it ends with a conversation with the woman at the well where Jesus talks about a new kind of worshiper and a new kind of worship that is coming where it will no longer be able temples, nationality, ethnicity gender or even being "clean" or "unclean" like we studied in the Law, but that God was going to make a new group of worshipers that would worship Him in spirit and in truth in all places at all times.

Another big idea of this large portion of Scripture is the introduction of the idea of Jesus as the Temple, and the one with the authority to define true worship and true worshipers, though that's not the key part of our passage today, so we'll come back to that theme over the next several days.

Back to today's passage.  Many of you may be very familiar with this passage--in fact I know it's the favorite Bible story of some of you that read this blog because I've talked to you about it, usually because of the interaction between Jesus and His mother in this story.  The central point of this story is not about Mary though--remember, John tells us that he's telling us this story as a "sign" to tell us something special about Jesus--something that John wants to get across specifically that wasn't conveyed by the other gospel writers as John wrote his gospel after theirs.  John tells us the purpose of the signs that he records in his book--we don't have to guess (and I'll come back to these verses A LOT as I think this is the key passage in the Gospel of John)

John 20:30-31
English Standard Version
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​The Purpose of This Book
30 Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; 31 but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.

So then, there is something about this passage that tells us that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God.  It may not yet be to the point in the book where it's evident that we need to believe on His name for eternal life (we'll get there quickly as that's going to be made abundantly clear in John 3 and John 4).  This is no mere story about a wedding or wine.  This is a story about Jesus, the Son of God.

So then, what's so amazing about what Jesus, the Son of God, did here in this story?  Most of us probably know the story.  He was there at the wedding and we know that His mother and His disciples (the same disciples that we just talked about Him calling to Himself--Peter, John, and Andrew for sure and maybe Philip, James, and Nathanael as well.  Jesus probably would have been notice with an entourage like this following Him wherever He went, though it's clear from this passage that He wasn't quite ready to start revealing Himself yet, but something about this event tipped the scales and kicked off a series of events that Jesus knew would ultimately lead to His crucifixion.  To this point Jesus was probably just seen as just another Rabbi and someone who was closely associated with the ministry of John the Baptist (see our blogs on the book of Matthew for how similar the early ministry of Jesus was to that of John), but all that is about to change now--Jesus is about to do something that is going to make Him stand out--something that John the Baptist never would do.  He is about to perform a miracle by changing water (probably dirty water since we're told that it was the canisters there were used for ceremonial hand washing) into wine--and REALLY good wine at that, and He didn't even have to touch it or wave His hands over it or even be present in the same room where the water was!  He just willed it to happen, and the water changed it's nature and identity (kind of like us when we become saved)!

This is symbolic of the bigger picture that's happening here where Jesus is going to take the old "water" that is dirty and corrupt (the Law and Judaism) and make it something new and not just good, but the best that there has ever been--the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Church, and what we know today as Christianity.  He's going to make all things new, and just like in Genesis 1, they are going to be "very good"!  The statement from the master of ceremonies that says, "You saved the best for last" is pointing to Jesus being the fulfillment of the Law and the Old Covenant that was "more excellent" than anything or anyone that proceeded Him--the Better Adam, the Better Mediator, the Great High Priest, the Lamb of God that Takes Away the Sin of the World, the Name that is above every Name that at the name of Jesus, every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that "Jesus Christ is Lord" to the glory of God the Father.  Do you see it?  It's not about water and wine--it's about changed hearts and changed lives and Jesus willing it into existence.

There's a huge step of faith here on the part of the servants because they can't see the miracle happening.  They just have to obey when Jesus tells them to draw out some of the wine that was water and take it to the master of ceremonies.  They had to have faith that Jesus could and did already change the nature of the thing--even though they knew what it's original nature was.  They knew because they were the ones that put the water into the jars to begin with.  This is where the conversation with Mary is important, because she knew and seemed to understand at this point her life that there was something very special about Jesus and that all they needed to do was obey everything that He commanded and leave the results to Him and His Father.  We'll see that there are moments where Mary seems to forget exactly who Jesus is as she may simply think about Him as one of her sons (at this point she would have had several others), but then something happens that reminds her that He is the Son of God.  I don't blame her for losing sight of this fact from time to time as we do the same, but it appears at this moment in time she at least had that fact partially in focus as this was all about "listen to and obey Him"--this is not about so much about Jesus listening to and obeying His mother (though it's important that He did obey and honor His mother because He was sinless and never broke the fifth commandment.)  Again, that's not the "sign" that's the "main thing" here though.

It is challenging in the Gospel of John to pluck out passages in isolation and it really would be best to read everything surrounding the first sign together.  There will also be some overlap in what the signs tell us but together (especially along with the seven "I AM" statements) to tell us exactly who Jesus is.