The miracle of changing water into wine at the wedding in Cana. An very unique story, a very well known story, even for non-Christians. Only John tells this story and only in John’s gospel does Jesus visit the village of Cana, about 9 miles outside of Nazareth.
Fill a jug with water and presto, it’s wine. Seems like magic. It kind of makes Jesus seem a bit like a magician. That’s just one of the many questions this story raises when you start to take it apart and really look at it. And it’s not just a couple of bottles of wines, but six large water jugs, between 120-180 gallons of wine apparently. Which raises another question, why so much? To our ears it seems a bit over the top, rather excessive. Well, my research tells me that in biblical times, wedding feasts could last as long as seven days. And the host was responsible for providing enough wine to last the duration. To run out of wine would be not only an embarrassment but a social faux-pas. Yet still upwards of 180 gallons of wine--that’s a lot of booze, even if this was the third day of a seven day wedding feast. And Jesus’ wine is not just any wine, but good quality wine too, much to the joy of the wedding steward, who is surprised at the quality of it, this far along in the feasting, and he even remarks on it. Everyone knows that a well-lubricated guest really isn’t able to appreciate the true quality of their drink.
And Jesus really didn’t want to do this either, it was Jesus’ mother—who by the way John never calls by name, another interesting tidbit. Mother Mary puts a bug in her son’s ear, ‘Hey son, they’ve run out of wine.” And Jesus knows exactly what she’s wanting him to do, he replies “Woman, it’s none of our business, besides my time hasn’t come yet.” And that sounds a bit harsh to our ears, but my Oxford annotated bible tells me that calling his mother ‘Woman’ was actually a term of respect and affection[1] in those days. Mary knows her boy, and seems to have a better handle on the situation, and instructs the servants to do whatever Jesus tells them to. It seems mother knows best! Jesus, a good son, actually listens to his mother, trusting her instincts and tells the servants to fill six stone water jugs with water, and Jesus changes the water into wine; which really does seem magical somehow.
But John clearly tells us what this is, it’s not magic, it is the first of the signs that Jesus will perform that reveals his glory. By the way, Jesus’ second sign in John’s gospel also happens in Cana, on a return visit to that village, at the behest of a royal official, to heal his deathly ill son. Jesus tells the official to go home; that his son would live and the man believed him and his son was healed of the fever. (John 4. 46-54) John doesn’t call Jesus’ miracles, “miracles” as such, he doesn’t use that term at all, because for John they are not miracles, but signs pointing to just who and what Jesus really is. Without being who he is, without the power that Jesus has inherent in his being—remember John’s opening lines in his gospel: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being 4 in him was life and the life was the light of all people.” (John 1: 1-4) – because without Jesus being who he was, he couldn’t possibly do these amazing things. These were signs that pointed to Jesus’ very being as the Word of God, the Son of God. So why does Jesus do these things, these “signs”? Well, for the water into wine miracle, John tells us why—so “his disciples believed in him.” (John 2.11) And the healing of the official’s son John also tells us, is what prompted the full belief of the official along with his whole household as to who Jesus was. (John 4.54)
So, let’s consider for a minute John’s idea of Jesus’ miracles as signs. What does a sign do, what’s the purpose of a ‘sign’? To direct you to something, to find something, to see something. Signs “point beyond themselves to what is being revealed through them.” [2] rather like “road signs alert us to something that lies ahead of us or before us.” [3]
Ok, good, makes sense and changing water into wine is a very interesting sign to be sure. Never done before, quite miraculous in fact, but wow, so much wine! And at a wedding to boot! To our 21 century Canadian sensibilities it seems like he’s supporting the party-hearty lifestyle, with way too much alcohol. We need to put this into the perspective of the understanding of time.
Here’s an explanation from a New Testament professor that made a lot of sense to me:
The sign of Jesus changing the water into wine at the Cana wedding points us to the source of all life and joy. The image of the wedding banquet is used frequently in Scripture as a picture of the restoration of Israel, and wine is frequently used as a symbol of the joy and celebration associated with salvation. [The Old Testament prophet] Amos speaks of the day when “the mountains shall drip sweet wine, and all the hills shall flow with it,” for example (Amos 9:13). Isaiah speaks of the feast that God will prepare for all peoples, “a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wines … of well-aged wines strained clear” (Isaiah 25:6). The abundance of fine wine is a symbol of the abundance of joy that awaits not only Israel, but all peoples on the day of God’s salvation. Jesus’ extravagant miracle of changing the water into wine is a sign that in him, life, joy, and salvation have arrived.[4]
And of course it could only be top quality wine, as it came from the source, the one from whom all good blessings flow. And for all people—not just the rich and mighty who can afford to purchase the best quality, but for all people. Remember also the people Jesus geared his ministry to, those who were the downtrodden, mostly on the lower socio-economic scale, living a hard-scrabble existence, people who would not have a lot of extras in their lives, unlike most of us, rather comfortably off middle class folk. Also compelling is that Jesus’ first sign in John’s gospel is revealed to the servants and the disciples,--the lowly ones, and is done to avoid the serious embarrassment of the hosts.
And another note of interest. The wine ran out on the third day of the wedding celebration, John tells us. We know that John wrote his gospel in the late first century after the death and resurrection of Jesus. We also know that John’s gospel is full of symbolism. Is this a symbolic precursor of Jesus’ ultimate sign of his resurrection on the third day? We can but speculate.
The wedding banquet is a powerful metaphor in the bible and as I said earlier, was used in the Old Testament as a metaphor for the restoration of Israel. In the New Testament, it’s also used in this way in the book of Revelation. In the other three gospels Jesus makes allusion to weddings and wedding feasts when speaking about himself and God’s kingdom. In Matthew (22.2) Jesus tells the parable of the wedding banquet, where “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who gave a wedding banquet for his son.” At a time and place where the vast majority of people lived a hand to mouth existence and were governed by an oppressive occupying regime, weddings were occasional times of joyful celebrations, where food and drink were readily available, a reprieve from the difficulty of their lives. Being at a wedding was a good place to be, being invited to a wedding was – and still is special. This interesting and incredible miracle of water into an excellent quality wine, Jesus’ first sign of his power and majesty, is a testament to the extravagant abundance of God’s goodness, given to God’s people through Christ. It tells us that the really good stuff of life comes from God.
All of which had lead me to another thought. Do we recognize what the good stuff really is when it comes our way? Or are we like those wedding guests, so sated with other things that when the truly good quality stuff is presented to us, we aren’t even really aware of it, or we don’t recognize it for what it is, a gift from God? How aware are we of the abundant goodness of living in the full presence of God which only God can give us. Living in God’s presence, with Christ guiding our way, with the Holy Spirit strengthening power, opens us up to the incredible abundance of God’s grace. That grace, like the wine at the wedding in Cana, is abundant, it fills us to overflowing with God’s love -- even during the most challenging and difficult times of our lives. That is God’s gift to us, Christ’s love—so much of it, so amazing that it’s hard to contain it all! Amen.
[1] The New Oxford Annotated Bible, Third Edition. (Oxford University Press: Oxford/New York 2001) 150 NT
[2] Ernest Hess in “Homiletical Perspective” for John 2. 1-11 in Feasting on the Word, Year C Vol 1 (WJK Press: Louisville KY, 2001) 265
[3] Elisabeth Johnson in Commentary for John 2: 1-12 https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/second-sunday-after-epiphany-3/commentary-on-john-21-11-8 accessed Jan. 12.22
[4] ibid