In every wedding ceremony, there is always at least one mistake. A young couple, very much in love, was getting married. Marilyn, the wife to be, was very nervous about the big occasion and so the pastor chose a Scripture verse that he felt would be a great encouragement to her. The verse was 1 John 4:18, which says: “There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear.” Rather unwisely, the pastor asked the best man to read it during the ceremony. The best man wasn’t very familiar with the Bible and didn’t know the difference between the Gospel of John and First John. The time came for him to read the verse. He introduced his reading by saying that the pastor felt this was a very apt verse for Marilyn. But instead of reading 1 John 4:18, he read John 4:18, which says, “You have had five husbands and the one that you now have is not your husband.”
“On the third day a wedding took place at Cana in Galilee” (v. 1a).
Chapters 1 and 2 recount the first week of Jesus’ public ministry:
• Day 1: John the Baptist testifies concerning Jesus (1:19-28).
• Day 2: John the Baptist’s encounter with Jesus (1:29-34; “the next day”).
• Day 3: John the Baptist refers two of his disciples to Jesus (1:35-39; “the next day”).
• Day 4: Andrew introduces his brother Peter to Jesus (1:40-42).
• Day 5: Philip and Nathanael follow Jesus (1:43-51; “the next day”).
• Day 6: No information is given.
• Day 7: Jesus attends the wedding at Cana (2:1-11; “on the third day”).
Jewish weddings:
• Jewish weddings were important and joyful occasions in the lives of the bride and the groom and their extended families, and the entire community joined in the celebration.
• On the eve of the wedding day, the bride was brought from her father’s home to that of her husband in joyful procession. Veiled by a bridal veil and surrounded by bridesmaids, she was led by “the friends of the bridegroom” and the “children of the bridechamber.”
• Upon arrival, the bride was led to her husband, and the couple was crowned with garlands. This was followed by the signing of the marriage contract.
• After the marriage supper, which could last up to a full day, the “friends of the bridegroom” led the pair to the bridal chamber.
“Jesus’ mother was there, and Jesus and his disciples had also been invited to the wedding” (v. 1b-2).
Why were they there?
• Application: To have a marriage as God intended, Jesus must be present (spiritually).
• That Jesus, his mother, and his disciples were all invited to the same wedding suggests the wedding was for a relative or close family friend. (Cana was a short distance from Nazareth.)
• Perhaps Mary had some responsibility for the organization of the catering. This could explain her attempt to deal with the shortage of wine.
“When the wine was gone, Jesus’ mother said to him, ‘They have no more wine’” (v. 3).
What about wine? Why was running out of wine such a big problem?
• Scripture portrays wine both as a blessing and as a symbol of violence, corruption, or wickedness (cf. Proverbs).
• In Palestine of Jesus’ day, three kinds of wine were in use: fermented wines, which were usually mixed in the proportion of two or three parts of water to one of wine; new wine, made of grape juice (similar to cider, not fermented); and wines in which, by boiling the unfermented grape juice, the process of fermentation had been stopped and the formation of alcohol prevented.
• Undiluted wine, about the strength of wine today, was viewed as “strong drink,” and was viewed with much more disapproval.
• Passages such as Matthew 11:19 clearly suggest that Jesus drank fermented wine; Mark 14:25 implies the same. Moreover, the latter passage intimates that wine will be drunk in heaven.
• It must be remembered that wine was the common beverage at meals in that culture. Drinking water was often impure.
• Neither Christ’s teaching nor His example can be used to advocate total abstinence from alcohol. Rather, proper use of wine must be distinguished from excessive consumption.
• Some may judge total abstinence to be expedient for personal or local reasons (cf. Romans 14:21; 1 Corinthians 6:12), but should not insist that this is the only biblical option.
• In the closely knit communities of Jesus’ day, running out of wine would never be forgotten and would haunt the newly married couple all their lives.
“‘Dear woman, why do you involve me?’ Jesus replied. ‘My time has not yet come.’ His mother said to the servants, ‘Do whatever he tells you’” (vv. 4-5).
Why did Jesus called his mother “woman”?
• The English seems harsh, but it is simply formal—Jesus uses the same form of address (“woman”) for the woman of Samaria (4:21), the woman caught in adultery (8:10), his mother at the cross (19:26), and Mary Magdalene at the tomb (20:15).
• Nevertheless, it is unusual for Him to address His mother this way. “Woman” is too distant; “dear woman” is too sentimental.
• That Jesus calls Mary “woman” and not “mother” probably indicates that there is a new relationship between them as he enters his public ministry.
“Why do you involve me?” / “What have I to do with thee?” (KJV):
• As OT parallels make clear, the phrase always distances two parties and frequently carries a reproachful connotation (Judges 11:12; 2 Samuel 16:10; 1 Kings 17:18; 2 Kings 3:13; 2 Chronicles 35:21).
• Jesus is here issuing a fairly sharp rebuke to Mary, similar to his rebuke of Peter when he fails to understand the nature of Jesus’ calling (cf. Matthew 16:23).
• Jesus has embarked on His ministry; his purpose is to do His heavenly Father’s will (John 5:30; 8:29), not His mother’s will. This must have been extremely difficult Mary. She had borne Him, nursed Him, watched Him fall over as he learned to walk; apparently she had also come to rely on Him as the family provider. But now He had entered into the purpose of His coming, everything, even family ties, had to be subordinated to His divine mission. Mary could no longer view Him as other mothers viewed their sons; she must no longer be allowed the prerogatives of motherhood. It is a remarkable fact that everywhere Mary appears during the course of Jesus’ ministry, Jesus is establishes distance between them (e.g. Matthew 12:46-50). Perhaps that was part of the sword that would pierce her soul (Luke 2:35).
• Jesus may be advising his mother that He has already decided to help and that He will do so when he chooses to rather than in response to her prompting (cf. 2 Kings 3:13).
What did Jesus mean when He said, “My time [hour] has not yet come”?
• The world “hour” refers to His death on the cross (John 7:30; 8:20; 12:23, 27; 13:1; 17:1).
• Possible meaning: The hour to which he looked forward was the time when He would be subject to man’s will. But until then, He was not to be ordered by any man or woman.
“Nearby stood six stone water jars, the kind used by the Jews for ceremonial washing, each holding from twenty to thirty gallons. Jesus said to the servants, ‘Fill the jars with water’; so they filled them to the brim. Then he told them, ‘Now draw some out and take it to the master of the banquet.’ They did so. And the master of the banquet tasted the water that had been turned into wine. He did not realize where it had come from, though the servants who had drawn the water knew. Then he called the bridegroom aside and said, ‘Everyone brings out the choice wine first and then the cheaper wine after the guests have had too much to drink; but you have saved the best till now.’ This, the first of his miraculous signs, Jesus performed at Cana in Galilee. He thus revealed his glory, and his disciples put their faith in him” (vv. 6-11).
“Signs”:
• A sign reveals something from God, something hidden before.
• The purpose of the miracle was to show who Jesus was. “Jesus did many other miraculous signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book. But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name” (John 20:30-31).
Wine is a symbol of JOY (see Psalm 104:15).
1. We have a thirst for real, lasting joy.
a. Some people try to quench their thirst with RELIGION.
We are told that the “six stone water jars” were “the kind used by the Jews for ceremonial washing” (v. 6; see Mark 7:1-4). Those jars were empty (see v. 7). Religion without Jesus is empty.
The guests of the wedding were outwardly cleaned by the water from those jars, but the water (like religion) did not inwardly clean them.
b. Some people try to quench their thirst with PLEASURE, POSSESSIONS, and POWER.
The things of this world don’t bring lasting satisfaction:
• “I have seen all the things that are done under the sun; all of them are meaningless, a chasing after the wind.”—Solomon (Ecclesiastes 1:14)
• “I live in a vacuum that is as lonely as a radio tube when the batteries are dead and there is no current to plug into.”—Ernest Hemingway
• The late comedian Jackie Gleason was described in Reader’s Digest as “a lonely and suffering soul given to late-night drinking sessions, looking for answers to life and death, with a terrible emptiness in him that he couldn’t fill.”
• Tennis star Boris Becker was at the very top of the tennis world—yet he was on the brink of suicide. He said, “I had won Wimbledon twice before, once as the youngest player. I was rich. I had all the material possessions I needed. It’s the old song of movie stars and pop stars who commit suicide. They have everything, and yet they are so unhappy. I had no inner peace. I was a puppet on a string.”
• Edmund Hillary, the first man to climb Mount Everest, was once asked what exactly he felt when he reached the peak. He replied that the first sentiment was one of ecstatic accomplishment. But then there came a sense of desolation. What was there left do do?
• Alexander the Greak conquered the known world in his day. Having done so, he wept in his tent, before he said, “There are no more worlds to conquer.”
c. Sooner or later, the joy will RUN OUT.
The wine at the wedding ran out.
Even the joy that comes from the love between a man and a woman is not enough. We thirst for something more. We are empty without Jesus:
• “Everybody basically has an empty hole inside of them that they try to fill with money, drugs, alcohol, power—and none of the material stuff works.”—Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.
• “America is said to have the highest per capita boredom of any spot on earth! We know that because we have the greatest number of artificial amusements of any country. People have become so empty that they can’t even entertain themselves. They have to pay other people to amuse them, to make them laugh, to try to make them feel warm and happy and comfortable for a few minutes, to try to lose that awful, frightening, hollow feeling—that terrible, dreaded feeling of being lost and alone.”—Billy Graham
• “There is a God-shaped vacuum in the heart of every man, which cannot be filled by any created thing but only by God the Creator, made known through Jesus Christ.”—Pascal
2. Jesus can quench our thirst for real, lasting joy.
a. Jesus provided ABUNDANT wine (vv. 6-7).
The six stone water jars would hold between 500 and 750 litres.
Jesus gives joy that is LIMITLESS in supply.
b. Jesus provided the BEST wine at the END (v. 10).
“Everyone brings out the choice wine first and then the cheapter wine after the guests have too much to drink; but you have saved the best till now” (v. 10).
Jesus saves the best joy for LAST.
Jesus is the BRIDEGROOM; The church is the BRIDE:
• “Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless” (Ephesians 5:25-27).
• “I tell you, I will not drink of this fruit of the vine from now on until that day when I drink it anew with you in my Father’s kingdom” (Matthew 26:29).
• “‘Let us rejoice and be glad and give him glory! For the wedding of the Lamb has come, and his bride has made herself ready. Fine linen, bright and clean, was given her to wear.’ (Fine linen stands for the righteous acts of the saints.) The the angel said to me, ‘Write: “Blessed are those who are invited to the wedding supper of the Lamb!”’” (Revelation 19:9).
“Be joyful in hope” (Romans 12:12).
c. Jesus provided wine for EVERYONE at the wedding.
Jesus offers the joy of salvation to ANYONE who desires it.
“He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty” (John 6:35).
JOURNEY THROUGH JOHN / The First Week
Part 3: The First Miracle (John 2:1-11)
Wine is a symbol of __________ (see Psalm 104:15).
1. We have a thirst for real, lasting joy.
a. Some people try to quench their thirst with ________________.
b. Some people try to quench their thirst with _________________, ____________________, and ______________.
Alexander the Greak conquered the known world in his day. Having done so, he wept in his tent, before he said, “There are no more worlds to conquer.”
c. Sooner or later, the joy will _________________.
The wine at the wedding ran out.
“There is a God-shaped vacuum in the heart of every man, which cannot be filled by any created thing but only by God the Creator, made known through Jesus Christ.”—Pascal
2. Jesus can quench our thirst for real, lasting joy.
a. Jesus provided _________________ wine (vv. 6-7).
Jesus gives joy that is _________________ in supply.
b. Jesus provided the ___________ wine at the _________ (v. 10).
Jesus saves the best joy for ___________.
Jesus is the ___________________; the church is the ____________ (Ephesians 5:25-27; Matthew 26:29; Revelation 19:9).
c. Jesus provided wine for _________________ at the wedding.
Jesus offers the joy of salvation to _______________ who desires it (John 4:13-14; 6:35; Revelation 21:6; 22:17).
