INTRODUCTION:
CANA OF GALILEE
Nathanael, one of Jesus's first disciples is called in John 21:2
"Nathanael from Cana in Galilee." This was his home town and he
no doubt knew many of the people.
This was a very small village about three hours journey from
Nazareth. It is not named in the Old Testament nor in Josephus.
Jesus did his first miracle in a very obscure place.
Jesus's mother was there. There is no reference to Joseph.
Tradition says he died when Jesus was 16 years old. In verse 12 we
read that the brothers of Jesus were there also. This bride and
groom must have been close friends of the family of Jesus. This
means Jesus began the use of His miracle powers for friendship.
Why is John the only one of the Gospel writers to record this first
miracle? It is because John was the only one of the writers who was
there. It was a very secret miracle known only to a few. After the
cross Mary lived with John, her sisters son, and they no doubt
talked of this first miracle often.
MIRACLES
There are 35 miracles in the Gospels. Matthew tells of 20, Mark of
18, Luke of 20, and John of only 7.
This was the first miracle of Jesus. 30 years as the Son of God on
earth and He did not use His supernatural power. Satan tempted
Him to use it before this but He refused. He even starts here very
cautiously and quietly.
A miracle is a manifestation of power that is greater than nature,
indicating a Creator above the creation, and a Law Maker above
the law.
People today have a low view of miracles because the word is used
so loosely. You have miracles everywhere in the grocery store. You
have miracle whip, miracle suds, miracle bandages, and a host of
miracle gadgets. You can buy products that work miracles on your
hair, complexion, grass, or the engine of your car. This word no
longer stands for a direct and visible act of God that cannot be
explained by science or reason. It now means anything that is
amazing or wonderful that can be produced by the intelligence of
man and explained by science.
Even Christians no longer use the word in the proper way. A group
of youth were out in a boat off the coast of Miami when a storm
came up and the engine stopped. The waves were so high they
began to sink the boat. It was miles out of the regular route of the
coast guard but they came that way for the first time and they
rescued the youth. It was called a miracle, but this really fits into
another category. There are three ways that God works in history.
The first is called PROVIDENCE. This is the general guidance that
God gives which is fully in conformity with natural laws. The
second is SPECIAL PROVIDENCE. This is when God works
within law, but with such amazing timing that it is quite awesome.
Life may be spared because of split second timing, or of
circumstances that are out of the ordinary, but which is not
impossible to have happen. The third is MIRACLE. This is when
God goes beyond any law and just breaks into time and does what
cannot be done or explained by any law or knowledge known to
man. It is clearly supernatural. Some object and say God has to
work through law, but this is to make law superior to God. He
made the laws and He can go around them whenever He chooses.
He seldom does, but just because a man has gone through his front
door coming home from work every day for twenty years does not
mean he cannot choose to go through the back door. God can at any
time do what is not according to the laws of nature, for He is the
Lord of nature and not its servant.
An example of these three ways God works would be-
You get in an accident and you are not hurt=Providence.
You get thrown out of your car and land in a haystack=Special
Providence. You get smashed and broken and are nearly dead, but
suddenly you rise up and walk away with no injury whatever=Miracle.
VERSE 1
WEDDING
As marriage was the first institution of God, so marriage became
the scene of Christ's power revealed on earth. This first miracle
brought pleasure and joy to life and this was the purpose in all of
the miracles of Jesus. He came to give life abundant and His
miracles gave life from death and health from sickness and
produced faith to overcome doubt.
By His presence here we see Jesus breaking down the wall between
the sacred and the secular. Whether we eat or drink or whatever we
do we are to do all to the glory of God. Jesus starts His life of
miracles in a secular setting for God is to be glorified there as well
as in the temple-where we see next that He was not.
Wedding: Jesus the Bridegroom of the Church begins his public
ministry at a wedding. He ends history also at the wedding of the
Lamb. The primary focus of the ministry of Jesus is joy. He came to
give life abundant and eternal joy at God's right hand. Victory over
all evil and sorrow is his ultimate goal. Valid pleasure is a vital part
of the Kingdom of God. God wants His children to have pleasure
just as we want that for our children. Gloom is not godliness and
sourness is not saintliness.
Long wrote, "There is a time to laugh as well as a time to weep, and
the Son of Man, who shared our tears on the way to the grave of
Lazarus and the cross of Calvary, shared also our mirth at the feast
of Cana. All the faculties of life are to be, not suspected, but
redeemed from evil by the Christian; and one of the richest and
happiest is the faculty of earth. Our duty is not to check its
brightness, but to keep its innocence; and surely in the laughter
that is like the laughter of the child, of the sunlight and the birds,
God is well pleased."
In the first coming of Jesus He entered into fellowship with men to
redeem all aspects of life. He made birth, marriage, and death all
more sacred and meaningful. In a small town like Cana a wedding
like this could be the social event of the year, and Jesus was glad to
play a major role in making it successful.
Jesus was opposed to asceticism. For Jesus self denial did not mean
isolation, unsociableness, and refraining from the common
pleasures of life. Jesus was going forth to bear the burden of the
world's sin, and he did not want the seriousness of His task to make
men feel He did not approve of the laughter and joy of life. He
begins on a happy note to make this clear.
VERSE2
Jesus never turned down an invitation that we have any record of.
He even accepted the invitation of a Pharisee. Rich or poor,
well-known or obscure, Jesus never refused to eat with anyone. He
even invited himself over to a rejects house-that of Zacchaeus.
VERSE3
Mary was apparently in charge of refreshments, and as sometimes
happens the committee did not anticipate so large a crowd. They
had not prepared enough. This happens to the best of people and
committees. But why tell a guest that a host is caught in an
embarrassing situation? Mary is now on the spot, and she knows
her son has power beyond the ordinary. She has confidence that He
can find a way to solve her problem. We can't assume that she
expected Him to do a miracle. Calvin thought she wanted Jesus to
speak and thus entertain the guests making them forget the lack of
wine. This is not likely. Most see her as the person of faith behind
the miracle. Faith is almost always connected with miracles, and it
is her faith that gets Jesus to do His first one. With Joseph dead
Jesus was the man of the house and she was use to coming to Jesus
for His help. She may not have known He would do a miracle, but
she knew He would do something.
Hospitality was very important and to run out of wine would be
very embarrassing. Mary seeks to prevent this embarrassment
before anyone is aware of the lack of wine. Prevention is wise. To
help people avoid embarrassment is an act of love.
This story is told in the biography of Ralph Waldo Emerson. A
young boy who faced the difficult problem of getting a stubborn
calf into the barn enlisted the aid of Emerson. They tried to figure
a way to persuade the calf to go into the barn. The boy tugged on
rope fastened around the animal's neck. Emerson applied his
shoulders to the rear and shoved, but with all the pushing and
pulling nothing was accomplished, and the calf maintained his
status quo. Then an Irish maidservant came out on a neighboring
porch, and watching the spectacle, laughed loud and long.
Sauntering over, she dipped a finger in a pail of milk, stuck the
finger into the calf's mouth, and without effort, lead the now happy
animal into the barn. Whereupon, we are told, Emerson walked
into the house, wiping the perspiration off his face and thinking
deeply. Then he sat down at his desk and wrote in his immortal
journal: "I love people who can DO things." Mary brought her problem
to Jesus because Jesus was able to do things.
Trench said, "He who made wine out of water might have made
bread out of stones; but he will do nothing at the suggestion of
Satan, though all at the suggestion of love."
WINE =Oinos. It was the ordinary wine of the day common at
weddings. There was no way to refrigerate in that day and so no
way to keep wine from fermenting. Many have tried to argue that
this was not fermented but they have not convinced the majority
who study the subject. It is not a stamp of approval on drinking\
alcohol if Jesus made fermented wine. All forms of drunkenness are
clearly forbidden in the Bible, and there are numerous warnings
about the dangers of drinking. This was an occasion where wine
was a part of the social joy and Jesus entered into that joy.
John Laidlaw wrote " It is an insult to the common sense of any
plain reader of Scripture to ask him to believe that the wines of the
Bible were not intoxicating when used to excess." But it is also
plain to see Jesus did not okay excess by this act any more than He
did by making wine possible in the first place as Creator.
William Barclay writes, "for a Jewish feast wine was essential.
"Without wine," said the Rabbis, "there is no joy." It was not that
people were drunken, but in the East wine was an essential.
Drunkenness was in fact a great disgrace, and they actually drank
their wine in a mixture composed of two parts of wine to three parts
of water. At any time the failure of provisions would have been a
problem, for hospitality in the East is a sacred duty, but for the
provisions to fail at a wedding would be a terrible shame for the
bride and the bridegroom. That indeed would have been a
humiliation."
Charles Spurgeon said on this wine issue, "I do not think that I
should do any good if I were to enter upon the discussion as to what
sort of wine our Lord Jesus made on this occasion. It was wine, and
I am quite sure it was very good wine, for He would produce
nothing but the best. Was it wine such as men understand by that
word now? It was wine, but there are very few people in this
country who ever see, much less drink, any of that beverage. That
which goes under the name wine is not true wine, but a fiery,
brandied concoction of which I feel sure that Jesus would not have
tasted a drop. The fire-waters and blazing spirits of modern wine
manufacturers are very different articles from the juice of the
grape, mildly exhilarating, which was the usual wine of more sober
centuries. As to the wine such as is commonly used in the East, a
person must drink inordinately before he would become
intoxicated with it. It would be possible, for there were cases in
which men were intoxicated with wine, but, as a rule, intoxication
was a rare vice in the Saviors times and in the preceding ages. Had
our great Exemplar lived under our present circumstances,
surrounded by a sea of deadly drink, which is running tens of
thousands, I know how He would have acted. I am sure He would
not have contributed by word or deed to the rivers of poisonous
beverages in which bodies and souls are now being destroyed
wholesale. The kind of wine which He made was such that, if there
had been no stronger drink in the world, nobody would have
thought it necessary to enter any protest against drinking it. It
would have done nobody any hurt, be sure of that, or else Jesus our
loving Savior would not have made it." ......................................." I
abstain myself from alcoholic drink in every form, and I think
others would be wise to do the same; but of this each one must be a
guide unto himself."
J.C. Ryle said, "If our Lord Jesus Christ actually worked a miracle
in order to supply wine at a marriage feast, it seems to me
impossible, by any ingenuity, to prove that drinking wine is sinful."
Most agree that the wine was normal wine which if taken to excess
would be intoxicating. If the wedding took place between June and
September when the grapes were ripening, it would be possible this
was just fresh grape juice, but the fact that the taster says this is the
best wine that is usually given first implies it was not just juice but
fermented wine that could deaden the senses to the lesser fermented
wine to be given later.
Those who accept this as fermented wine do not, however, see it as a
stamp of approval on drinking. Jesus puts his stamp of approval on
marriage but not on the drinking of alcohol which often is a
destroyer of marriage.
VERSE 4
WOMAN The NIV has dear woman to sound less disrespectful, but
all commentators recognize this was a positive way to address your
mother or any woman. The Greeks addressed queens and women of
distinction by this word. William Barclay writes of this word, "in
Homer it is the title by which Odysseus addresses Penelope, his
well-loved wife. It is a title by which Augustus, the Roman Empire,
addressed Cleopatra, the famous Egyptian Queen. So far from
being a rough and discourteous way of address, it was a title of
respect. We have no way of speaking in English which is exactly
renders it; but it is better to translate it lady which gives at least the
courtesy in it."
Some get a kick out of the fact that woman in Greek is gune. I told
a young man this and he used it to tease the girls. He was fortunate
that I did not tell them that the Hebrew for man is ish. Ish and gune
do not sound good to our ears, but they were fine sounding words to
the Greeks and Hebrews.
William Barclay writes, "it means: "don't worry; you don't quite
understand what is going on; leave things to me, and I will settle
them in my own way."
TIME NOT YET COME:
Jesus is saying do not expect me to do a spectacular show here to
please you and all at this party. My hour for public show of power
is not yet. Jesus is only refusing to do a full public miracle like
feeding the five thousand.
TIMING:
Timing was always important to Jesus. His very coming was in the
fullness of time and His death and resurrection were planned
according to precise timing. Jesus did a secret miracle here because
it was not the right timing for a public display of His power. Mary
knew He was the Messiah and must have thought this would be the
perfect occasion to make it public, but she was wrong. Only Jesus
could know what was the right time.
Jesus did not want to get involved in this problem it seems, at least
to the degree that Mary wanted him to. There are good reasons why
people do not want to get involved in problems.
It can be in conflict with goals that are greater and
more significant. It can be an area of life where you are not
qualified to do any good. Nobody can do everything. Even Jesus
had limitations and could not do everything, and so many problems
were all around him which he did not solve. We all have to face our
limitations.
This was not a miracle of necessity but of luxury. It was to meet a
felt need but not a desperate need. It was for the sake of pleasure
and pleasantness, and not for survival. This makes it a very
unusual miracle for Jesus. Most of His miracles were to meet very
serious needs. Jesus was first tempted to use His miracle power to
turn stones into bread to meet a personal necessity. But Jesus did
not start his use of divine power by meeting a self need, but rather
by meeting a luxury need of others. Spurgeon sees this as
significant. He would not meet His own necessity for bread but
would meet others need for luxury. This illustrates that divine
power is primarily for service and not self gain. Most of Jesus
miracles are to add joy to the lives of others. This first one is a key
sign that He is the Joy Bringer. We see here that not all of life is a
battle. There are times to enjoy the victories of battles won. Jesus
starts His ministry on a positive note before He begins His battles
with the leaders of Israel.
Let us keep in mind that not all godly people are like Jesus in every
way. John the Baptist would never be here at a wedding. He was the
funeral type of believer. His focus was on the judgement and not on
the joy of life. It was of God too and he was a great man of God. Not
all believers need to be wedding type people. It is the ideal but the
fact is some are just made for the more solemn realities of life like
John was.
Jesus was not too busy to be at a wedding. He had a short pubic
ministry yet he had time for family and friends and their times of
joy. He was not a workaholic but could get away and enjoy a feast
and time of fellowship. He teaches that the balanced life is the best
life. Some Christians feel guilty if they are not always engaged in
something serious. They need to see Jesus with only three and a half
years to live taking time out to enjoy a feast.
Mine hour is not yet come This expression is used 6 times in John,
and reveals just how important timing was to Jesus. There was a
clear plan and Jesus was going to follow the plan and not blow the
timing of his revelation. Turner says Jesus is saying, "The time of
my self-revelation is in the future; leave this situation to my
judgement."
There is an interpretation that is interesting. Mary could be saying
there is no wine left, you just as well leave, and Jesus is saying it is
not my time to leave yet. I am going to stay and do something about
it. This is not likely but you can see it can seem to fit.
CONTINUED IN PART 2
