On the third day a wedding took place at Cana in Galilee. Jesus' mother was there, and Jesus and his disciples had also been invited to the wedding. When the wine was gone, Jesus' mother said to him, "They have no more wine." "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." 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 in Cana of Galilee. He thus revealed his glory, and his disciples put their faith in him.  John 2: 1-11

The passage just above is one of my true favorites –it has some drama and some humor and it tells us something about Jesus early in his ministry – his compassion for the bride and groom and host of this wedding comes through loud and clear. Here’s the story in a nutshell: Jesus and his mom are invited to a wedding in Cana, not far from Nazareth where he grew up so we can extrapolate that the couple might have been related in some way, at least good friends. Jewish weddings at that time went on for several days, they were real life-events so a well-to-do family member would often host the wedding for younger couples. A good Jewish wedding was costly and put an expectation on the family to provide well. Typically, the host would serve wine to the guests through the duration of the party but, understandably, served the better quality wine at the start of the festivities. This story starts when the host has run out of wine – a point of great personal embarrassment for the family, really a faux pas in the community.

At that point, Jesus’ mother tells Jesus that “they have no more wine” evidently expecting him to respond. The Aramaic word written here as “woman” or “dear woman” does not translate easily into English – it really is an endearing term of personal respect. Jesus says his “time has not yet come,” probably meaning he is not ready to perform public miracles since he is still becoming known for his ministry and his teaching. Miracles can, in some way, complicate Jesus’ presence – teaching stimulates thought and consideration, miracles can produce faith but they can also create a desire for personal healing or personal gain – think about that for a minute.
      

There’s also an allusion to Jesus’ relationship to his mom in this passage: a lot of affection and trust but also just a hint of Jewish mom stuff, she has an inclination to tell people what to do and try to take charge, Jesus lovingly dispels her from her responsibility but she proceeds to direct the servants to do what Jesus tells them. Gotta love the Jewish moms, whether or not they’re Jewish!
Despite all of this, Jesus has real compassion on the host and on the bridegroom whose good names could be hurt by the shortfall in the wine. So he tells them to fill six stone water jars with water, each one holding 30 gallons. To get the picture, those Arrowhead water jugs on top of dispensers that you see all the time are five gallon containers – these carry six times more. And there are six of them so Jesus gets them to fill jars to the tune of 180 gallons, we have no idea how many people were at this wedding but Cana was a small town. A few of the servants take some of the wine to the host of the wedding who had no idea where it had come from and he tells the bridegroom, in his surprise, that this wine was great – at this point in a wedding when many of the guests are already sated, or drunk, most families serve cheap wine – they’ve saved the best till last.

This is a stunning, “personal” miracle, the first of Jesus’ recorded miracles. Probably most of the guests had no idea where the wine came from, we have no idea if the host ever knew. By “personal” I mean that Jesus did this out of love, affection for this groom and his family and the host. By this act, Jesus had saved their reputations in the town and in their families – a very big thing in first century Israel. As is always the case with Jesus’ miracles, there’s a reason for the deed, as we’ve seen – Jesus’ miracles are never random or capricious.

But there is a humorous undercurrent to this story: Jesus creates really great wine and saves the day but he also creates a lot of it, think how many bottles you could fill with 180 gallons of wine. Jesus generosity is immense, his affection for his people is boundless, his creative ability to change a circumstance that looks like it’s going south is unlimited.

John, the author, does not say so directly but slightly insinuates that he was one of the disciples who was at that wedding – I think he saw this first hand and was beginning to realize then that Jesus was the Messiah, the God-man who would change everything. This is a creation miracle, a miracle is something outside of possible normal experience. Wine does not ever turn into water. The same creative power that breathed life into our species also turned water into wine. At some point, the guests left that party happy and rejoicing. A stunning miracle had just taken place and some of them probably did not know it. It wasn’t Jesus wish to draw attention to himself, rather to avoid derision for the young couple and the host. In this we learn much about Jesus’ power but also his character. This was the beginning, the knowledge of his greatness would spread. It’s still spreading.

Rich blessings,

Nick