John 2

The wedding at Cana (vs. 1-12)—Cana was a small town about 8 miles north of Nazareth, so it would have taken Jesus about three days to get there from where the events at the end of chapter one had taken place. It was quite a blessing for that couple to have Jesus at their reception. When they ran out of wine, Jesus’ mother, Mary, speaks to Him about it, perhaps implying that He should do something. We don’t know the extent of Mary’s understanding of her son’s abilities. Jesus’ response in verse 4 seems to be a mild rebuke; His mother is not going to control His mission or direct His affairs. “My hour is not yet come” speaks of higher things than the mundane affairs of this world. Mary may have been looking at the immediate; Jesus attempts to direct her mind to something far more significant. Regardless of the exact meaning of their conversation, Mary tells the servants to do whatever Jesus instructs them to do.

The six “waterpots of stone” would have contained between 120 and 150 gallons. Jesus had the servants fill the pots with water and then performed His miracle. The master of the feast recognized the superiority of what Jesus had made and commended the bridegroom for his actions of providing the best drink for the last. The bridegroom, of course, would have no idea what happened. John then tells us that “this [was the] beginning of signs Jesus did in Cana of Galilee”—not necessarily the first miracle He wrought because we saw in chapter one He displayed some miraculous knowledge. But now He’s in Galilee and this is His first miracle there.

A note on the “wine” of this wedding feast. Because most people drink alcoholic wine, it is assumed that the beverage here was also fermented. This is not necessarily so. The Greek word used here, oinos, is a generic term—it can mean either fermented or unfermented juice of the grape. The fact that there was at least 120 gallons of the stuff would seem to point to an unfermented beverage; a lot of people can get awfully drunk on that much alcohol, and to think that Jesus was endorse, or encourage, such drinking by His presence, or even more, my producing that much alcoholic drink, is a bit hard to fathom. The ancients knew several ways to keep grape juice from fermenting, and they would water down both unfermented and fermented drink to make it last longer. Hence, the master of the feast’s comment would not necessarily imply alcohol. Wine was a common drink in the ancient world, just as it is today. But people back then also drank unfermented grape juice—just as many do today. Context, and the whole repercussions of the use of alcohol, would lead me to conclude that Jesus produced an unfermented beverage.

Jesus at the Passover (vs. 13-25)—Jesus then returns to Jerusalem for the Passover. He was upset when He saw people selling sacrifices to the visitors and He drove them out. He did this also later in His ministry, so obviously His actions here didn’t have much effect on the money-grubbers of His day. To His disciples, this called to mind a thought from Psalm 69:9, “Zeal for Your house has eaten Me up.” The Jews questioned Him, asking for a sign (v. 18); He’d give them one: “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up” (v. 19). They misunderstood, not surprisingly, thinking He was talking about the physical temple in Jerusalem (v. 20). But John explains that He was talking about His resurrection (v. 21), and that when He had indeed risen from the dead, they remembered His words here. It’s virtually assured that, when He spoke these words, that they did not understand Him, either. A lot of people “believed in His name” when He worked a number of miracles at the Passover (v. 23), but this “belief” is obviously a very shallow perception of Him, and He did not take the time, at the moment, to explain fully who or what He was, or His mission. That would come in time. He recognized how such a shallow understanding of Him could lead to severe misunderstanding, so He kept His identity unrevealed until a future date. This is reminiscent of cases, recording in the other gospels, where Jesus healed an individual but then told him not to tell anybody. The masses could have created a tremendous uproar and, frankly, kept Him from completing the preaching and teaching that He came to do. He knew men (He had created them) so He didn’t commit His identity to them this early in His ministry.