Unsung Heroes: The Servants At The Wedding In Cana

Introduction: Wedding feasts were happy times, especially in the days of the Bible. This story describes how a handful of people kept a disaster from taking place!

Text (John 2:1-11, KJV): 1 And the third day there was a marriage in Cana of Galilee; and the mother of Jesus was there: 2 And both Jesus was called, and his disciples, to the marriage. 3 And when they wanted wine, the mother of Jesus saith unto him, They have no wine. 4 Jesus saith unto her, Woman, what have I to do with thee? mine hour is not yet come. 5 His mother saith unto the servants, Whatsoever he saith unto you, do it. 6 And there were set there six waterpots of stone, after the manner of the purifying of the Jews, containing two or three firkins apiece. 7 Jesus saith unto them, Fill the waterpots with water. And they filled them up to the brim. 8 And he saith unto them, Draw out now, and bear unto the governor of the feast. And they bare it. 9 When the ruler of the feast had tasted the water that was made wine, and knew not whence it was: (but the servants which drew the water knew;) the governor of the feast called the bridegroom, 10 And saith unto him, Every man at the beginning doth set forth good wine; and when men have well drunk, then that which is worse: but thou hast kept the good wine until now. 11 This beginning of miracles did Jesus in Cana of Galilee, and manifested forth his glory; and his disciples believed on him.

Thoughts: weddings are usually happy occasions. Staying true to the Biblical definition and standard of marriage being a union of one man and one woman, those of us who are genuine believers in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior can rejoice when our Lord brings two people together. I’ve had the privilege of officiating at a few weddings and it’s always been a blessing for me, too!

In Biblical times, marriages and wedding feasts sometimes lasted for a long time. In the Old Testament, Jacob wanted to marry a young lady and the father said fine—but gave Jacob the older sister first! When he complained to his father-in-law what had happened, he was told, “We marry the older one first, but finish off this week (of feasting or celebration?) and you can then marry the younger one too (Genesis 29)”. Years later, Samson married a woman who was a Philistine—one of his biggest mistakes—and they celebrated a week-long feast as well (Judges 14). To be sure, refreshments were in order during these feasts and if anything gave out, that would be a disaster for the parties involved.

That’s just what happened here. They ran out of wine, and apparently there was still some feasting to do! What was going to happen next?

Mary, the mother of Jesus, asked Him to perform a miracle. She dropped a hint to Him and said, “They have no wine.” The reply of Jesus to Mary seems almost rude to us today but it wasn’t. He actually used a term of respect, “Woman” meaning “Ma’am” or something like that. Remember that even though Jesus had been baptized before this time (compare this passage with Luke 3), He had not entered into a public ministry as of yet. He simply told her, “It isn’t time yet for Me to perform miracles” implying that the Father had not given Jesus the go-ahead on this matter.

At a moment shortly after this, it seems the Father did give Jesus the go-ahead to perform His first miracle. There were some servants (there usually were, in those days) and some jars or jugs made of stone close by. When John mentioned these jugs or jars contained “two or three firkins apiece (verse 6)”, he probably meant some held 20 gallons and some 30, allowing a “firkin” to mean ten standard gallons of liquid in capacity.

Mary had instructed the servants, “Do whatever He tells you”—and leaves! Perhaps she was convinced that her Son would perform a miracle and “save the day” for this wedding party. Oddly enough, some have observed that these are the last recorded words of Mary, the mother of Jesus, in all of the Bible.

Now Jesus gives two brief commands. He tells the servants, “Fill the pots (jars) with water” and this is a testament to His care for these servants. Water has a weight of around 8 pounds per gallon, so multiplying this by 20 or 30, plus the weight of the stone “pot” or jar, would have made this nearly impossible to make happen! The servants would have had to be extremely strong or else had some strong ropes to let down a jar into the well and pull it up full of water! But Jesus had compassion on them, and simply said, “Fill the pots with water”. And they did.

They filled them up to the brim.

Now what?

Jesus then gave His second command: “Take some to the governor of the feast.” Again they did so. And to their surprise, the governor said, “Everybody gives the good stuff first and then gets rid of the not-so-good stuff as the feast goes on. You saved the best for the last!”

We can guess the rest of the wedding feast went on without another problem. Credit of course goes to Jesus Himself for performing this first miracle. But credit also should be given to these servants, unsung heroes, who obeyed the Lord’s requests, carried the sample of water-made-wine to the “governor”, and yet didn’t say a word about their part in this miracle. I can’t help but feel that these unsung heroes, who answered when Jesus spoke to them, will be rewarded for their faithfulness some day. May we, too, be faithful and serve the Lord where we can, for as long as we can do so.

Scripture quotations taken from the King James Version of the Bible (KJV).