Welcome to The MHB Podcast. This is Michael Baun. And welcome to my 204th episode. In this episode we’re going to take a detour from our study in Matthew and turn to John chapter 2. We will return to our study in Matthew but I’ve been working in John’s gospel recently as well and I want to share some of it with you. I think you’ll find this study as productive as I have. This chapter gives us a look into the very first miracle Jesus performed — turning water into wine in the wedding at Cana. We’ll see His appearance at Capernaum as well as the account of the first passover He kept at Jerusalem after He began His public ministry. This chapter shows Jesus driving the buyers and sellers out of the temple and includes a foreshadowing of the Resurrection. In the final verses of chapter 2 we’re given a glimpse of Christ’s omniscience through His insight into the depraved hearts of men — even in the unreliability of those who might call themselves His followers. Let’s begin with verses 1-11:
Jhn 2:1 On the third day there was a wedding in Cana of Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there;
Jhn 2:2 and both Jesus and His disciples were invited to the wedding.
Jhn 2:3 When the wine ran out, the mother of Jesus *said to Him, “They have no wine.”
Jhn 2:4 And Jesus *said to her, “Woman, what does that have to do with us? My hour has not yet come.”
Jhn 2:5 His mother *said to the servants, “Whatever He says to you, do it.”
Jhn 2:6 Now there were six stone waterpots set there for the Jewish custom of purification, containing twenty or thirty gallons each.
Jhn 2:7 Jesus *said to them, “Fill the waterpots with water.” So they filled them up to the brim.
Jhn 2:8 And He *said to them, “Draw some out now and take it to the headwaiter.” So they took it to him.
Jhn 2:9 When the headwaiter tasted the water which had become wine, and did not know where it came from (but the servants who had drawn the water knew), the headwaiter *called the bridegroom,
Jhn 2:10 and *said to him, “Every man serves the good wine first, and when the people have drunk freely, then he serves the poorer wine; but you have kept the good wine until now.”
Jhn 2:11 This beginning of His signs Jesus did in Cana of Galilee, and manifested His glory, and His disciples believed in Him.
Not everyone who followed Jesus did so because they witnessed His miracles. Some had faith enough to follow Him without miraculous confirmation of His divine nature. But for many Christians even today it’s miracles which serve to affirm their confidence in Christ. It’s better to have faith without seeing, but it’s not a bad thing to point to some miracle as a turning point in your faith. In fact, the underlying purpose of miracles to begin with is to authorize doctrine with a seal of divinity. That’s why Jesus didn’t perform His first miracle until He began His public preaching ministry.
As Moses was leading Israel through the wilderness God did signs and miracles through him. These were always accomplished at points of necessity — the Israelites needed food and so there was manna. They were thirsty and so there was water from the rock. The miracles were never wasteful displays meant only to garner the vain adoration of men. The same is true of Christ’s miracles and we can see this parallel as we unpack the nature of His work at Cana.
First we see that it happened on the third day after He came to Galilee. Jesus always gave each day proper attention and diligence. He told His disciples, “Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.” He also said, “I must work the works of him that sent me, while it is day: the night cometh, when no man can work.” So there was always a sense of seriousness and urgency as Christ walked the earth. Jesus didn’t waste days. That’s not to say He didn’t spend days resting or devoting Himself to prayer, but that those pursuits themselves are not at all wasteful.
We know this miracle took place in Cana of Galilee, which was probably within the tribal territory of Naphtali but not far from Asher. It was an obscure part of the nation of Israel — a place much less cared about than the holy city Jerusalem. Jesus did not use His miracles to purchase the applause of men or else this one would have been much better suited for Jerusalem. He graced the lowly with a view of the supernatural because of their honesty and humility. These kinds of people were much less likely to oppose the truth of the gospel than were the proud Jewish teachers of religious law.
It’s also important to note the occasion for this miracle was a wedding. The marriage was likely a family-friend of Jesus because we see His mother was already there and both He and His disciples were invited. Marriage is a blessed institution given by God for both the reproduction of humanity as well as to represent the divine union between Christ and His Church. So it’s no coincidence Jesus chose a wedding to be the venue of His first miracle. His presence at the wedding in Cana as well as His miracle there both work to confirm the solemnity of the institution of marriage. Today we have wedding ceremonies often followed by wedding receptions to function as a celebration of the newly married couple. It would not have been much different during the time of Jesus, marriages were often followed by some kind of feast or festival.
Jesus, His mother, and His disciples were probably dignified guests at this wedding. Maybe not quite “in the wedding” as today’s standards would have it, but certainly not unknown to the couple being celebrated. In this passage scripture addresses Mary by her most honorable title, the mother of Jesus, rather than using her name. Joseph is not pictured in this scene so it’s likely he had already passed away by this time. Jesus accepting His invitation to the wedding shows us His commitment to respecting His relationships and stewarding His social life properly.
Many times in life we are invited to events and celebrations by people we don’t really enjoy being around. While we must steer clear of sinful tempters, we should put our best effort into honoring the invitations given by friends and family for us to attend important gatherings. Sacrificing your own preferences to respect a familial celebration is a God-honoring thing to do.
In every domain of your life you should study to improve the quality of your conversations. Many times you can infer the spiritual condition of a person based on the quality of their conversations. If their speech is loaded with profanity and expressions of cynicism or bitterness — that’s a good indication something is wrong. Instead let your conversations be seasoned with love and predicated on the truth including the most sober, erudite expression of it. Take these high-quality conversations into social arenas, even those you may feel hesitant to participate in, and you’ll see meaningful relationships grow in ways you never thought possible.
Earlier we noted how Jesus attending the wedding and working His miracle there was a reflection of His blessing the institution of marriage. It’s important to remember the sacred institution of marriage comes from God and so it cannot be separated from Him or else it ceases to be a marriage. Every proper wedding should have Jesus Christ present at it. The ceremony should be predicated on the true principles of holy scripture, and Jesus Christ should be petitioned in prayer. There are few plights which cause more damage to our society than broken homes and violated marriages, so this lifetime commitment must be undertaken with all seriousness and with a recognition of your desperate dependence on God.
There were five disciples with Jesus at the wedding because these were the only ones He had so far called. The disciples stuck so close to Jesus they were considered His family and invited to the wedding alongside Him. When building your circle of friends you should not limit your consideration of value to a person’s material wealth. Jesus had no money, but as His disciples discovered at the wedding, He was well-connected to good friends.
The value of networking is very difficult to overstate here. I would be so bold as to argue that nearly every opportunity you’ll have in life will come through your connections to another person. Your quality of life largely depends on your relationships to other people. You might think you can isolate yourself with enough financial margin to be protected, but the reasons most of us desire wealth to begin with are inextricably associated with its ability to generate and foster these relationships. We want people to respect us. We want to be loved. We want to be able to provide. All of these things require other people to function. There’s a reason solitary confinement is used as an especially terrible punishment.
The invitation of the disciples also shows us the biblical principle that love to Christ is testified by a love to those who belong to Him. The host of the wedding probably didn’t know the disciples, but he knew Jesus and he honored the disciples’ relationship to Jesus. The measure with which we love Jesus is reflected by our compassion for those whom Jesus is compassionate towards. If you say you love Jesus but then you abuse the cause of widows and orphans then it’s likely you don’t actually love Jesus. The host of the wedding demonstrated his love for Christ through generosity to the five disciples even though the host himself was not wealthy. These were five additional guests to an event with an already limited supply, but he was generous to them nonetheless. Such is often the case with the Christ-loving, faithful poor — they give up more of themselves than would an arrogant person of higher status. It’s better to be poor and surrounded by authentic friends who love you than it is to be rich and surrounded by softly-speaking enemies.
In verse 3 we see the wedding had run out of wine. We don’t know exactly if this was a failure to prepare on the part of those who organized the wedding, or if (like with the five disciples) there were other guests invited beyond the number suited to the supplies. There is wisdom in patiently counting the cost as you continue to spend. It’s important to maintain awareness of your margins because if you look away then you might run out of the thing you are spending. When Jesus was teaching His disciples about counting the cost of following Him He said this, “For which of you, intending to build a tower, sitteth not down first, and counteth the cost, whether he have sufficient to finish it? Lest haply, after he hath laid the foundation, and is not able to finish it, all that behold it begin to mock him, Saying, This man began to build, and was not able to finish.”
Another important consideration about the depleted wine is that it would have certainly resulted in disappointment had Christ not intervened. While it seems a bit trite since we’re talking about wine at a wedding feast, this actually is a microcosm of how our relationship with Jesus interfaces with the broken world we inhabit. Jesus said, “These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.” The idea here is that the world is poised to bring you trouble and disappointment — and without Jesus you’ll just end up staying in that disappointment. If Jesus had not been at the wedding, the guests would have been stuck with the disappointment of empty wine jars.
Jesus doesn’t prevent you from facing tribulation or tragedy any more than He prevented the wedding organizers or the guests from facing the prospect of depleted wine. In fact one might argue followers of Christ face more tragedy than the godless here in this world. But what He will do is help you get through it and what He will do is redeem you from it. So much of proper navigation in life is not about which decisions to make to bring yourself positive outcomes. Many times there is no positive outcome — there is no good choice to make. But there is always a least bad choice. In every circumstance, in every place and at every time, no matter who you are, you can always make things worse than they need to be. There is always an evil choice on offer even if there is no good choice available.
That’s the feature difference between Christ-followers and the wicked — the wicked make life in a tragic world worse than it needs to be. That’s the defining characteristic of Hell: a tragic space separated from God which is made worse than it needs to be by its occupants. The wicked expend their energy to make things worse. Christ-followers do everything they can to help redeem bad situations and make things better. There is a universe of difference between enduring a properly-handled tragedy over against living in a Hell of your own making.
Next we see the mother of Jesus turning to Him for help with the problem of the depleted wine. Scholars are indecisive as to whether Mary was expecting Jesus to perform a miracle here. He hadn’t performed any public miracle up to this point — but it’s certainly probable He had given provision for Mary and her husband privately. They weren’t wealthy people and so it’s reasonable to suggest they had faced supply problems themselves for which Jesus miraculously intervened. That’s where I fall on the issue — I think she knew Jesus could do something powerful to alter the course of the situation.
It’s good practice for Christians to pay attention to the wants and needs of others rather than merely thinking about themselves. When you see someone else in need, you should do whatever is within your power to help relieve that need. A priority in these kinds of situations is to petition God in prayer on their behalf. The way you do this is not by making demands of God or pretending to know the right prescription for His action — but instead your prayer must present the person’s case in full-detail then have the faith required to accept whatever God pleases to do about it.
Even Mary the mother of God must maintain such humility when asking Jesus to do something about the wine. It’s possible she approached Him with a bit of presumption here because He rebuked her when she asked. Part of His rebuke is to call her woman instead of mother. This is a reminder to her that she is but a mortal human being: frail, foolish, and corrupt. This was not a mean-spirited or disrespectful rebuke of His mother, indeed it was a reminder that while His incarnate form is the son of David and her son, His eternal triumvirate in the Godhead meant He is also Lord of both David and her. We must not allow our familiarity with Jesus tempt us into becoming irreverent with Him. Just because He is God our Father does not mean He stops being God our Lord.
This rebuke serves also as a check against nepotism. Calling Mary “woman” instead of “mother” reveals she will not receive exceptional treatment because of her relationship to Him. When we’re doing ministerial or benevolence work for the kingdom of God it’s important we avoid treating others preferentially based on such things. We must start from a position of seeing all people as having been made in the image of God and then allow revelation of a person’s character determine whether we change our conduct towards them.
The subject of Mary has been a hotly debated issue for many generations in the Church. The Catholic Church would never admit to worshipping Mary in the same way they worship Christ. But the Roman church has used descriptors of divinity in reference to Mary across time. She has been inappropriately called the queen of heaven, the salvation of the world, the mediatrix, the life and the hope. These are all characteristics of deity which should be reserved exclusively for Jesus. Mary was a fallen person just like the rest of us, her merit and her intercession are unable to purchase atonement for our sins any more than anyone else can. Believing such things about Mary makes you an idolater. Jesus the Son of God is appointed our Advocate with the Father, but Mary was never designed to accomplish this kind of work.
Another reason for His rebuke of Mary was that His hour had not yet come. Every part of Christ’s work on earth was intentional and foreordained. The inflection points of His ministry each had a specific, fixed point in time for which they would occur. Christ’s timing was always punctually observed and while He did attach a great deal of urgency and importance to the advancement of God’s kingdom — He never seemed to be in a hurry. The wedding at Cana is actually one of the few examples of Jesus altering His appointed time. He told Mary His hour had not yet come, possibly meaning His hour for working miracles. But He changed the water to wine anyway because He saw the value such a miracle would have in bolstering the faith of His spiritually infantile disciples.
The miracles of Christ, and indeed all miracles in scripture, are purposed to exhort, encourage and edify the faith of those who witness them. Miracles point us to God and encourage us to glorify Him. Turning water to wine was just the first of many miracles Christ would perform throughout His ministry. Not everyone believes the apostolic gifts are for today, but most mainline Christians (including cessationists) believe the Spirit of God can and will perform miracles today.
When Jesus said His hour had not yet come it’s also possible He was referring to the supply of the wine itself. Mary may have first sought His help when the wine began to fail, but had not yet gone completely dry. In this case waiting until it was fully exhausted would have alleviated any suspicion of mixing in water to feign a miracle.
Jesus waiting until the wine ran out teaches us how human privation and desperate circumstances are God’s opportunity to work miraculous forms of relief in our hour of need. You may have heard the saying, “There are no atheists in foxholes.” The idea is that human beings reactively turn to God when all else is lost. It’s better to depend on God before you encounter such dire straits, but being late to your trust in Jesus is better than never trusting in Him at all. Observing Christ delay His action for the appointed time should also encourage us if we’re waiting on a miracle. You might be going through something and it seems like God doesn’t notice or is refusing to act. You should be encouraged that the day of His mercy is coming and present inaction should not be misconstrued as a denial of prayer.
Despite His rebuke Mary seems not to flinch in her confidence that Jesus will step in and help. She instructed the wedding servants to do whatever He says. We can learn something from Mary in the way she received reproof from Christ in this interaction. Obviously it’s best to conduct yourself in such a way that you don’t need reproof at all — but none of us are perfect and we’re going to make mistakes. She received His reproof with a kind of submissive meekness. She was quiet and she didn’t reactively retort with excuses or explanations to justify her cause. She considered a correction from Christ as a kindness from Him.
This quietness in the face of correction is really difficult to do especially for high-performance people. We don’t want to be viewed as the kinds of people who make a lot of mistakes or fail to give our best effort. Often we can see our mistake even before we’re corrected for it or in the midst of correction. Once we see it we want to either explain why we fell into it or give unnecessary affirmative feedback to the corrector so he or she knows we understand the mistake. Mary’s showing us that often it’s best to simply remain silent, accept the correction with humility, and make an internal commitment to do better in the future.
This kind of humble meekness is also important to maintain in your own prayer life. We should take our needs to God, we should seek the mercy of Jesus, but never in a demanding way. It’s common for people to be discouraged from prayer by the fear that our own sins and infirmities will result in God rejecting us. We’re afraid the lack of a prompt response from God will reveal something negative about His disposition towards us. If I’m in the middle of an affliction and I pray to God to be released from it — if the affliction continues and no relief comes I may be tempted to think God is angry with me.
I don’t think we can ever alleviate that tension and I don’t know that we should expect to. God’s people are called Israel and the name Israel means to wrestle with God. Wrestling with God by faith is sometimes the best we’re able to do as we walk through the often tragic circumstances of life. Maintaining a fervency in prayer even when it feels like God is moving contrary to you is instrumental in encouraging yourself for the hope of His predestined mercy. Romans 4 describes this fervency as an Abrahamic quality when it reminds us, “In hope against hope he believed, so that he might become a father to many nations according to that which had been spoken.”
Up to this moment it’s likely the wedding servants had been making their applications to Mary instead of directly to Jesus. Another important characteristic of Mary’s interaction is how she removed herself as a middle-person between Christ and the wedding servants. She made no presumptions to be an influence on Jesus. She didn’t act as an intercessor between the servants and Christ. Psalm 62:5 reads, “My soul, wait in silence for God only, For my hope is from Him.” Mary told the servants to punctually observe His orders without asking questions to making disputes. She didn’t want them to make the same mistake of trying to tell Jesus what to do. Their job was to obey Jesus on His time and in the manner He prescribed.
Notice Mary doesn’t presume to know what Jesus is going to order the servants to do. She just tells them to do whatever He says. Even if He chose to give the guests water when they called for wine, the servants should do it. If He asked them to dispense with what little wine they had left, the servants should do it. The point is you shouldn’t expect God’s favor without dutifully obeying His orders. The road of faithful duty is the same road of divine mercy. Yes God’s grace is sufficient and we didn’t earn the saving work of Jesus Christ, but defiance against God and objection to His methods indicates you never belonged to God to begin with.
Eventually Jesus did come through with His miracle. We must remember that while God often exceeds His word, He never falls short of it. In the wedding at Cana Jesus literally transformed water into wine. If we were to analyze the molecular structure of the substance in the water pots we would find that substance to be wine. This miracle was not metaphorical. The actual substantive change with this miracle makes it distinct from something like transubstantiation which we observe in some churches today.
The Catholic Church holds doctrine claiming the Eucharist, or Holy Communion, involves wine that is transformed into the blood of Christ and bread that is transformed into the body of Christ. The doctrine of transubstantiation teaches His body and blood are actually in the substance of the wine and bread. The Eucharist is notably different from Christ’s miracle in the wedding at Cana because the wine fails to turn into blood and the bread fails to turn into flesh. It is not a real substantive change like the one we saw at Cana.
The rarity of an actual substantive change is the feature which makes it miraculous. Creating wine from water implies creating matter from nothing — a phenomenon which shatters the fundamental laws of nature as we know them. The change in substance at Cana is the part of the miracle which points to Jesus as the Creator God who is superordinate to the laws of nature. Having said this, we should pay respect to the awe-inspiring work of power which is the natural process of turning grapes into wine. Wine (but not drunkenness) is presented in Scripture as given by God to gladden the hearts of men. The Lord may provide wine by supernatural miracle or by common natural process, but in both cases the Lord is the One providing it.
Something else to observe about the miracle at Cana is how it compares to other substantive transformations found in Scripture — notably Moses turning water to blood in the book of Exodus. Water to wine was the first miracle of Christ’s ministry, and water to blood was the first miracle of Moses’s ministry. Some theologians suggest these two miracles highlight the distinction between the law of Moses and the gospel of Christ.
The law of Moses reveals our sins and causes us to stand convicted without the saving grace of Jesus Christ. So the curse of the law turns water to blood — which may indicate common comforts are turned into bitterness and terror. This is certainly common among people who are burdened by the shame of unrepentant sin. Enjoyable luxuries are no longer able to relieve the pain of meaninglessness. Peace, stability, and nourishment are fleeting — and even when they are available they aren’t durable enough to withstand the chaotic dysfunction associated with sin.
This is the kind of misery which follows a revelation of your own depravity held up against the perfect standard of a holy God. Contrast this misery with the joy and gratitude characteristic of someone who receives the gospel of Christ. The gospel of Christ, here represented as water to wine instead of the Mosaic water to blood, illuminates the grace and the mercy of God. To be justified with God by the righteousness of Jesus Christ is a kind of beauty which unlocks the true value of creature-comforts in this life. Peaceful is the rest of a forgiven man who sleeps at home with his duties taken care of and his family provisioned. There is no need to drown out your conscience with hedonism when your conscience is clear of guilt or shame. A heart that is aligned with God’s grants a peaceful and well-rested spirit.
We know it’s in God’s character to use circumstances and symbolism in order to convey the glory of Himself to humanity. For example, God used uneducated men to preach the gospel which undermined the false message of the well-educated religious elite. He could have chosen men of the highest scholastic pedigree — but He chose to use working-class fishermen. Using uneducated fishermen served to highlight the truth that the gospel receives its life-changing power from God, not from human preachers. God’s miraculous works often tell a story framed in by the circumstances in which He performs them.
This same use of circumstances can be seen when Jesus turns the water to wine. First we see that He chose to use the water pots as vessels for the wine. These water pots were present for the express purpose of Jewish purification customs. In observation of Mosaic law as well as traditions of elders, Jews would not eat unless they carefully washed their hands first. This kind of ritual cleansing used up a lot of water. A colloquialism among the Jews said, “He who uses much water in washing will gain much wealth in this world.”
Transforming the cleansing water into miraculous wine is symbolic of the gospel itself. The gospel is analogous to wine in this context because the gospel gladdens the heart of man. It replaces the purification water because the purification rituals were never sufficient to sanctify our spirits and transform us into the image of Christ. Only the gospel has this power and the power of the gospel is sourced in Jesus Christ Himself. Filling the six stone water pots undoubtedly produced far more wine than was needed at the wedding. We see examples in scripture of God going above and beyond in His provision for us. God multiplied the oil for the poor widow in 2 Kings so that she might pay her debt and have some leftover for her and her son to live on.
Jesus provides for us abundantly according to the riches of His glory. If we want to enjoy the benefits of God’s abundant provision, it’s important that we trust Him enough to do what He commands. Jesus commanded the servants to fill the water pots with water. In all their lives the servants had never witnessed someone turn water into wine. Such a miracle would have been so improbable that filling the pots with water made no sense — but they did it anyway without questioning Jesus. The same was true of Moses when he drew water from the rock. Water doesn’t come from rocks. It has never come from rocks. Yet Moses complied with God’s command and because of that God delivered water from the rock.
Another interesting feature of this miracle at Cana, which I think magnifies the glory of it, is the fact that Jesus performs it instantly and nonchalantly. The moment the servants finished filling the pots Christ commanded them to draw some out and take it to the headwaiter. There was no grandstanding or elaborate ceremony to mark the moment of the miracle. There was no incantation or dramatic calling on the Father in Heaven. Jesus didn’t even get up from His chair. He just willed it to happen and it happened.
As Christians we want to resist what might well be considered the sin of Naaman. Naaman was a well-respected commander of the army of Aram. He was successful in his military pursuits and delivered victory to his country. One day he became afflicted with leprosy, and when he traveled to Elisha the prophet to be healed, he did so with great pomp and circumstance. He was expecting the prophet to heal him in a great spectacle of God’s power. So when the prophet told him to go wash in the Jordan river seven times, Naaman was furious. It didn’t matter that this remedy was given by God through the prophet — Naaman wanted to see something more supernatural. Naaman was fortunate enough to heed the advice of the prophet and do it anyway, after which his leprosy was healed and he realized his own error.
But some of us might not be so fortunate if we refuse to accept God’s work in the ordinary things of life. The depth psychologist Carl Jung said, “Man doesn’t see God because he won’t look low enough.” If you had been at the wedding at Cana expecting to see torrents of light fall down from Heaven then you likely would have missed the miracle completely. How many miracles in your own life are you forgetting about or missing completely because they aren’t rending the earth and splitting open the skies above?
Yes we see God in scripture perform miracles which were magnificent to behold, but these miracles were always exceptional and the majesty of them always had a specific purpose in directing the witnesses’ attention toward God. It’s much more common for Jesus Christ to do wonderful things without noise and in a hidden way. You have to look for the grace of God in the mundane.
What also makes this miracle so impressive is the certainty of Jesus while He performed it. He didn’t ask the servants to bring Him some of the wine so that He might taste it. Instead He recommended it to the master of the feast because He was already certain it was good. Remember this was the first miracle of Christ’s public ministry. A mere human might want to test their work before staking their reputation on it. But just like with the creation of the universe, Jesus knew His work was very good from the beginning.
Jesus wasted no time in commanding the servant to draw out some wine and put it to use. The works of God are not meant to be put in a display case for viewing purposes only. They are practical and actionable. The gifts given to you by God, much like those in the parable of the talents, are not meant to be buried but are meant to be put to use.
Don’t allow the grace and knowledge of God to lay dormant inside you when the harvest is ripe but the workers are few. The existential situation we all face is urgent enough that your talents should be drawn out and deployed right now much the same as the wine at the wedding. Most of your influence as a Christian isn’t going to come from impressive accomplishments anyway — it’s going to come from faithful obedience to God through ordinary means like being kind to your neighbor. These aren’t areas which take advanced training, they simply require humble obedience because the capacity to do them is sourced in the goodness of God. The goodness of God is laid up for all that fear Him and is wrought for those who take refuge in Him.
The person whom Jesus recommended the first tasting of the wine was the headwaiter or governor of the feast. A governor of the feast might have been an inspector or monitor whose job it was to make sure everyone had enough and no one was overindulging or devolving into disorder. It’s also possible the governor of the feast was actually the chaplain. He may have been some priest or Levite. In this case Jesus would have had the cup taken to him so that he might bless God for it. In this instance Jesus was not one to disrupt standard decorum even though His power and His presence supersede such matters.
Before we say anything else we must establish the context that Jesus Christ, while perhaps not clear to some, was undoubtedly the guest of honor at this wedding. So if the governor of the feast was seated in the place of honor he was positioned there improperly. Jesus admonishes us not to seek out the positions of honor at a table because we never know when one more honorable may be present and cause us to move. Following His own admonition and demonstrating godly humility, Jesus often chose the lowest seat.
Part of Christian humility means maintaining good will for others even when they give you low positions. Jesus chose a low position at the wedding and yet He remained the wedding’s most prominent benefactor. Contrast this with someone who might become bitter and resentful of his low position and eventually seek to undermine the quality of the event.
Not only did Jesus turn the water to wine, but He turned it into wine of the finest quality. It was the best and richest kind of wine which the headwaiter acknowledged. The headwaiter could not have been saying this simply to curry favor with Jesus, because the headwaiter didn’t know where the wine came from. The servants knew the wine was given by Jesus but the servants hadn’t tasted it yet. The wine’s chain of custody effectively turned this passage into a blind taste test. What we learn is that the works of God are excellent even for those who don’t realize the works are from God. When Jesus performs miracles the outcomes are always excellent and complete.
The headwaiter was pleased but also perplexed because he thought the bridegroom withheld the best wine until the wedding was well-underway. It was customary to serve the best wine at the beginning when guests had fresh appetites and sober sensibilities. Good wine would be wasted on drunk guests who no longer cared about the quality. This fact is also representative of the vanity of worldly pleasures. Good things like fine wine only satisfy us temporarily and too much of a good thing becomes less enjoyable the more you have it.
Many readers look at the wedding at Cana with a sort of confusion about whether alcohol is good or bad. If Jesus Himself supplied it then how can the substance be inherently bad? Yet the scriptures are unambiguous about the dangers and sinfulness of drunkenness. I think the simple answer to this issue is the biblical perspective that wine is good but too much wine is bad. We readily acknowledge these kinds of nuances when it comes to something like fire. Fire in your fireplace is cheerful and provides warmth, but too much fire or fire in the wrong place like in your attic is devastating. God provides wine and even encourages us to drink it during times of rejoicing — but even during times of rejoicing, drunkenness is strictly prohibited.
You could also think of Jesus supplying wine as an invitation to the wedding guests to exercise godly temperance. It shows nothing of a person’s spiritual maturity if temptations are forcefully withheld from them. Giving the guests wine — excellent wine — was also giving them the opportunity to practice restraint as they enjoyed the wine without descending into intoxication. That kind of self-denial is noble and praiseworthy. It’s akin to keeping yourself away from fornication and waiting for a proper marriage to enjoy sexual relationship.
The wine given at Cana was a good thing and given for good purposes. It was meant to confirm the faith of those who experienced it and understood it was a miracle. Good gifts given by God are meant for good purposes. The problem occurs when we forget God is the One who gave us the gifts. We begin to deceive ourselves into thinking the gifts belong to us and we have a right to use them how we see fit. This is what leads to the abuse of gifts like wine, sex, positions of honor, financial resources, and the rest of it. Our liberty in using these things as well as our comfort in using them should always remain subordinate to the mediation of Jesus Christ because He is the source of the gifts.
Another lesson taught to us at Cana is that Jesus is watching us wherever we go. We should not eat our meals or enjoy our celebrations without a respectful fear of the Lord. He reserved the best wine for last at the wedding feast, and this reservation is a microcosm of how Jesus intends to serve the end of history. The pleasures of sin in this world provide immediate, temporary gratification. The full extent of the pleasures of God are withheld for the eternal life to come. Trusting Jesus means believing He is going to deliver on His promises and acting accordingly in the present moment. A major motivator for people to taste and indulge the pleasures of sin is a lack of certainty that the goodness of God is waiting for them. Sacrifice in the present moment requires faith in the future God has for you, and sacrifice in the present moment is the only pathway to anything real and permanent.
Turning water to wine at the wedding at Cana was the first documented miracle performed by Jesus in His public ministry. It’s true that His life up to this moment, including the virgin birth and His baptism, was nothing short of miraculous. No doubt there were moments in His earthly life leading up to this point where miraculous intervention would have been personally advantageous, but His time for revealing His glory had not yet come. Most of Christ’s ministry can be characterized by restrained power.
Jesus could have blinked us all out of existence with a spoken whisper — but instead He went to the cross to die a criminal’s death. He took our sins upon Himself so that we might have a chance at reconciliation with God. His disciples left their lives to follow Him before they had witnessed any of His miracles. The wedding at Cana served to confirm their faith and reveal His glory as the only begotten Son of God. This miracle also began to open their eyes to the reality that Jesus was the long-expected Messiah. The wedding at Cana proved Jesus is Commander of nature and Savior of man.
The everlasting grace of God is such that He knows even genuine faith is weak at the beginning. Even the strongest men were once infants who could not stand on their own. The same is true of the faith of the strongest Christians. Life is difficult, life is often tragic, and there will be many moments where your faith will feel unstable like it might collapse into disbelief or cynicism. But take heart, because Jesus has overcome the world and if you continue to search for Him in all areas of your life — I believe He will strengthen your faith as well.
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