John 2:1-11 (New International Version)

Jesus Changes Water to Wine
1On the third day a wedding took place at Cana in Galilee. Jesus' mother was there, 2and Jesus and his disciples had also been invited to the wedding. 3When the wine was gone, Jesus' mother said to him, "They have no more wine."
4"Dear woman, why do you involve me?" Jesus replied, "My time has not yet come."
5His mother said to the servants, "Do whatever he tells you."
6Nearby stood six stone water jars, the kind used by the Jews for ceremonial washing, each holding from twenty to thirty gallons.[a]
7Jesus said to the servants, "Fill the jars with water"; so they filled them to the brim.
8Then he told them, "Now draw some out and take it to the master of the banquet."
They did so, 9and 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 10and 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."
11This, 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.

Let’s start with this observation, we are told in the eleventh verse....

"11This, 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."

There are legends which teach that when Jesus was a little boy living in Egypt he would make little birds out of clay and then would miraculously make the clay figure come to life. This record makes it very clear that He did not perform miracles in His childhood in Egypt; or in His adolescent and adult years in Nazareth — but that His first miracle was at Cana of Galilee.

Verses 1 and 2 tell us that Jesus is invited to a wedding. This is an amazing moment! Here is the Word, the One who is in the beginning with God, and is God. He came out of eternity. He was made flesh and for His first thirty years lived in Nazareth taking care of His widowed mother, scratching out a living as a carpenter in land filled with rocks and stones. Now he is going to walk over a hill to attend a wedding in Cana. In this moment He is going to for the FIRST TIME manifest His Glory.

First occurrences in the Scriptures are of tremendous importance. First things are important. They make big impressions. They inform what follows. IT IS SIGNIFICANT that Jesus chose to begin His ministry on this earth at a wedding. Because He will conclude it, as far as the Church is concerned, with a wedding. At the marriage supper of the Lamb the Church will be presented to Him as a bride. IT IS SIGNIFICANT that Jesus chose to begin His ministry on this earth at a wedding. Because the very context of His first sign / miracle tells us how Jesus viewed the covenant of marriage. Here is the Creator of man and woman (Gen1 / John 1). Here is the One who is the author of the lifelong, monogamous, heterosexual marriage covenant. He has become man and has stepped into human history.

Jesus deliberately chose to begin His public ministry at a feast celebrating the covenant of marriage. Jesus deliberately chose to perform the first sign that would identify Him as God Incarnate at a feast celebrating the covenant of marriage in order to bless, validate and endorse that covenant of marriage.

By the way, when invited, Jesus still comes to weddings. He wants to live in the centre of marriages. IT IS ALSO SIGNIFICANT that Jesus chose to begin His ministry on this earth at a wedding. Because in it we discover that Jesus, God Incarnate, was not a recluse or a killjoy! He accepted invitations to social events. We find later his enemies tried to use this against Him -
Luke 7:34 "The Son of Man has come eating and drinking, and you say, ‘Look at him! A glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’"

God wanted to be with us! (Emmanuel - God With Us). When He became a man he did not hide from us, or retreat from us. He wanted to be with people when they laughed and were glad at a wedding, when they were sorrowful and broken at a funeral, when they were sick and needy. Jesus entered the very Real and Normal Experiences of Life, but Sanctified them by His Presence!

While Jesus wanted to be with lost humanity, many Christians want to isolate themselves from the real world. We are never to imitate this lost world, but we are to permeate it and integrate with it. Bishop J.C. Ryle points out that “A feast is made for laughter, and wine makes merry.” (Eccles. 10:19.) Our Lord, in the passage before us, approves both the feast and the use of wine. Of course this is a difficult and delicate subject. We all have to be on our guard. Each must know his own strength and natural temperament, and act accordingly. One Christian can go without risk where another cannot. Happy is the person who can use his or her Christian liberty without abusing it!

As you know, a wedding feast in the day of Jesus would go on for days. For a Jewish feast wine was essential. We find in the Old Testament that wine is associated with joy and the blessing of God! Because hospitality was so huge in Middle Eastern culture, to run out of food or wine at such an occasion was embarrassing. In fact, a family guilty of such a “Crime” could actually be fined (according to Jewish Law).

William Barclay says “Without wine 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, because hospitality in the East is a sacred duty; so for the provisions to fail at a wedding would be a terrible humiliation for the bride and the bridegroom.

This is a “Jesus moment”. A moment in which we get a tremendous insight into the heart of Jesus. The first sign / miracle in the public ministry of Jesus was not done on a huge public platform. The first time that Jesus exercised His divine power it was out of sympathy, kindness, and understanding for a Galilean family. Jesus — the Lord of all life, and the King of glory — would point to His divine nature by saving a simple Galilean groom and bride from humiliation.
4And Jesus said to her, “Woman, what does this have to do with me? My hour has not yet come.”

The key question here is, why did Mary approach Jesus? She would have had to be very close to the bride or groom to have known this shortcoming before the other guests found out. The answer of Jesus tells us something about Mary‘s request. Remember, Jesus had probably been living with his widowed mother for nearly 30 years. And for those 30 years she had carried the stigma of becoming pregnant with Jesus before she was married. Mary’s request appears to be aimed at Jesus miraculously saving the day for this couple. And in so doing to prove that He really is the Son of God, which would prove that she really was a virgin when she conceived Jesus.

Interesting, after 30 years, Jesus never vindicated His mother. Yet even at this moment Jesus seems to say, “This is not the occasion. I’ll clear your name, but not here.” "My hour has not yet come". In John’s Gospel, Jesus’ “hour” is the time of his crucifixion, at which time his saving work is accomplished in his atoning death . It would not be until after the cross and resurrection that Mary could say to each of those disciples, “I told you that He was the Son of God!” Rom 1:4 “. . . declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead”
5His mother said to the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.” Mary doesn’t have a lot of words recorded in Scripture. Here in John 2:5 are the last words recorded by Mary, and they are great words. The mother of J.Sidlow Baxter wrote on the inside of the Bible she gave to him as a gift on his 16th birthday, “Do whatever He tells you”. What a wonderful life-motto for a teen-ager. What a wonderful life-motto for ALL of us! Mary’s words to the servants show that she was willing to allow her Son to do as He pleased. They show that she trusted Him to do the right thing. In fact, the words of Mary to these men give to us a concise handbook on what our obedience to Jesus should be like.

An interesting way to think about any passage in the Bible is to look for levels of meaning. Wittgenstein used to say that swimming is a useful analogy for the human mind. He said that we are naturally buoyant and therefore we tend to prefer to float at the top. It is very difficult to swim down to the bottom. We have to really fight our way down! So too with thinking deeply about things.

Well, this passage has, I think, much deeper significance than simply the miracle (or sign) the embarrassment of the young couple at the reception, the fact that Jesus was willing to attend a social occasion and questions about the way Jesus spoke to his mother. Of course we have so much to learn from these simple and superficial elements but let's go deeper.

What does the passage say about Jesus? First, Jesus honours marriage. It was the first public thing he did. Of course God made sex and marriage and, even though Jesus probably was not married, he is going to be married to his bride, the Church. At the moment we are engaged to him. That is to say, we have the first fruits of the real thing - the Church, The Holy Spirit, fellowship with one another, the gifts of the Spirit etc. Second, Jesus helps people when they are in trouble. We have all experienced this in our lives from time to time. Third, Jesus rewards obedience. Mary says, "Do whatever he tells you". And it must have been hugely risky for the servants (slaves)! Imagine being a slave who could be killed in a heartbeat and having to take tap water to the guests - not knowing whether it was going to be turned to wine or not. I'm not sure I would have done it. Fourthly, Jesus blesses abundantly. Jesus always spoke of God's blessings like buying corn in the market place where you take your own basin. A good merchant will press down and shake together until it's running over.

Mark