John 2
John 2:1 On the
third day there was a wedding in Cana of Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was
there. 2 Now both Jesus and
His disciples were invited to the wedding.
“On the third day” refers to the 3rd day after
Jesus met Nathaniel. Seven days have passed since John 1:19. Only the Gospel of
John mentions this place called
John 2:3 And
when they ran out of wine, the mother of Jesus said to Him, "They have no
wine." 4 Jesus said to
her, "Woman, what does your concern have to do with Me? My hour has not
yet come."
To run out of wine would
have been an embarrassing moment for this family and especially for the host of
the wedding. It was the host’s job to make sure everything was taken care of,
and that there was plenty of wine and food. Mary was concerned when the wine ran
out, so she told Jesus about it knowing He would be able to help. Since Mary
was concerned about this, it gives us another hint that this family was her
friend or relative. It is believed that Mary’s husband was dead now, and she
was used to relying on Jesus. We need to remember that Mary has not seen Jesus
perform a miracle yet, but she knows who He is. So, we should not assume that
Mary thought Jesus was going to fix this problem by a miracle.
When Jesus responds to
her as “woman,” some have thought Jesus was being rude to His mother. However,
this was a common expression that they used, which was not rude at all (Jn.
19:26). Others view Jesus’ answer as a mild rebuke. When Jesus said, “My hour
has not yet come,” there are two possibilities of what He meant. First, He
could be saying, it is not time for me to work a miracle right now to fix this
problem. Second, He could be referring to His death in the sense that when He
works His first miracle, it would set into motion the events that would
eventually lead to His death on the cross. The expression “My hour has not yet
come,” is used to describe His death as it is many other passages (John 7:30;
8:20; 12:23, 27; 13:1; 17:1).
John 2:5 His
mother said to the servants, "Whatever He says to you, do it." 6 Now there were set there six
waterpots of stone, according to the manner of purification of the Jews,
containing twenty or thirty gallons apiece.
7 Jesus said to them, "Fill the waterpots with
water." And they filled them up to the brim. 8 And He said to them, "Draw some
out now, and take it to the master of the feast." And they took
it.
Mary
had complete confidence in Jesus’ ability to fix this problem with the wine.
These water pots varied in size because they were made by hand. This is why it
says they would hold 20 to 30 gallons a piece. Next, Jesus has them fill these
water pots to the brim. Notice, He did not touch the water pot and by having
them filled to the brim, it would make it impossible to pour something in. This
was done to show that a real miracle was taking place. Then the servants took
some of this liquid from the water pot and gave it to the master of the feast.
John 2:9 When
the master of the feast had tasted the water that was made wine, and did not
know where it came from (but the servants who had drawn the water knew), the
master of the feast called the bridegroom.
10 And he said to him, "Every man at the beginning sets
out the good wine, and when the guests have well drunk, then the inferior.
You have kept the good wine until now!"
11 This beginning of signs Jesus did in Cana of
The master of the feast would
taste the new wine before it was served to the guests. He did this to make sure
the wine tasted good. When He tasted this water that was turned to wine, He was
impressed with the quality of its taste. We can imagine how shocked these
servants were who saw this miracle take place and then saw how much the master
of the feast liked the wine. He calls for the bridegroom to find out why he has
provided the best wine toward the end of the wedding feast. The custom was to
bring out the best wine in the beginning and then the inferior wine after
everyone had already had their fill. Of course the bridegroom would have been
speechless because he knew he had not provided this wine. This first miracle
was just the beginning of miracles that Jesus would perform that would reveal
His glory as the Son of God. This miracle also caused His disciples to believe
in Him.
We cannot leave this
section of Scripture without discussing the question, did Jesus turn the water
into fermented wine? The obvious answer is no, but those who want to find
justification for social drinking will say, “Yes He did.” There was fermented
wine available during that time period, but when people drank the fermented
wine, they rarely drank it as it was. Plato said, “Wine was always drunk
diluted, and to drink it unmixed was looked on as barbarism” (Living Soberly,
Righteously And Godly p. 20). Other sources suggest that they would mix six
part water with one part wine. It was not uncommon for people to mix their wine
with water or milk.
In the current English dictionaries
the word “wine” is usually defined as fermented juice. However, if we look in
older dictionaries, they will also show that it can mean unfermented juice as
well. In the Bible, the word “wine” can mean fermented (Gen. 9:20-26, 19:30-38)
or unfermented (Isa. 16:10, 65:8; Joel 2:24). We have to consider the context
to decide if the wine is fermented or unfermented.
Those who argue this was
fermented wine at the wedding, suggest the ruler of the feast was saying the
tradition was to get the people drunk on the most intoxicating wine first. Then
the water downed wine should be brought out because the guest will be too drunk
to notice. However, that is not what is meant by the phrase “well drunk”. It
simply means the guests were full of the good wine, so it is acceptable to
bring out the inferior. Now, if we say that these guests were already drunk,
and that Jesus made the strongest wine yet; then we have Jesus providing a way
for these people to become more drunk with the 120 to 180 gallons of wine He
made.
When you think about this,
it becomes obvious that Jesus did not make fermented wine that would cause
these people to become more drunk. The reason we know this is because there are
many Scriptures that warn against the use of strong drink (Prov. 20:1, 21:17,
23:21, 31-35; 1 Cor. 6:10; Eph. 5:18). These few verses are enough to show that
Jesus would not have made fermented wine. However, I want to make one last
point that will prove this beyond a shadow of a doubt.
Everyone agrees that
Jesus was a man without sin (Heb. 4:15). If Jesus turned the water into
fermented wine that would make people drunk, then He would have been guilty of
sin.
Habakkuk 2:15 “Woe to him who gives drink to his
neighbor, Pressing him to your bottle, Even to make him drunk,
That you may look on his nakedness!
So, when the master of
the feast said it was the best wine, he did not mean the most intoxicating, he meant
it was the best tasting. The first juice that comes out the grapes is the
sweetest and best tasting, which is what Jesus had created with His miracle.
Others have suggested the
first century people did not have a way of preserving the grape juice without
it fermenting. However, this is not true. There were at least three different
ways they could do this.
The first method was to
boil the grapes down to a thick mixture called defrutum. They would use this to
put on their bread and they would add water to it for a drink.
The second method was to
use wool or a similar material to filter the particles including the yeast from
the grape juice (Isa. 25:6). This would prevent it from fermenting. Pliny said,
“For all the sick, the wine is most useful when its forces have been broken by
the strainer.” Pliny teaches us that they used this filtered juice for those
who were sick, which means that Paul was most likely recommending unfermented
wine for Timothy’s sickness (1 Tim. 5:23).
The third method was to
put the wine in a sealed container and put into a pond or a well which would
keep it from fermenting. The Zondervan Pictorial Bible Dictionary describes it
this way, “If you wish to have grape juice all year, put grape juice in an
amphora and seal the cork with pith; sink it in a fishpond. After 30 days, take
it out. It will be grape juice for a whole year.”
All this evidence proves
that they were able to preserve their grape juice in the first century. I have
also shown from the Scriptures that Jesus did not create fermented wine with
His miracle.
John 2:12 After
this He went down to Capernaum, He, His mother, His brothers, and His
disciples; and they did not stay there many days.
This is the first time
the Gospel of John mentions Jesus’ brothers. We see that all of them went to
For instance:
This is not a complete list of what Jesus did in this area,
but we can see that Jesus was very active in this area. One would think the
people there would believe in Him after hearing Him speak and seeing all that
He did, but this was not the case. Notice what Jesus says about
Matthew 11:23
"And you, Capernaum, who are exalted to heaven, will be brought down to
Hades; for if the mighty works which were done in you had been done in Sodom,
it would have remained until this day. 24
"But I say to you that it shall be more tolerable for the
It is so sad that these
people saw all that Jesus did and yet they did not believe. We know how wicked
This city teaches us some
things about evangelism. Sometimes we get frustrated because people will not
look at the Scriptures for what they say because they are only interested in
what they feel or think. We have just learned about how Jesus spent most of His
ministry in and around
John 2:13 Now the
Passover of the Jews was at hand, and Jesus went up to
Jesus always kept the Passover, and this was the first one He would observe since He began His public ministry. There was nothing in the Law of Moses forbidding the sale of animals and it was convenient for those who had to travel a great distance. Once they bought an animal without blemish, it would be considered as a part of their flock. There were also money changers there as well. The temple tax was half a shekel, but Jews could not use foreign money with images that were considered idolatry. So, the money changers would exchange their foreign money for acceptable money for the temple. Again, there was nothing wrong with these practices.
So, why did Jesus make
a whip of cords, turn over their tables, and run them out? I believe the answer
is found in Jesus statement, “Do not make My Father's house a house of merchandise!”
The problem was that these merchants were taking advantage of the people and
charging them outlandish prices making the temple area into a place of profit.
We can also see this idea when Jesus comes back to this area a second time at
the end of ministry when He runs them out again. Jesus said, "It is
written, 'My house shall be called a house of prayer,' but you have made it a
'den of thieves.'” (Mat. 21:13).
This
event shows that Jesus did not ignore their sin or the injustice that was being
done. Instead, He took matters into His own hands and stood up for
righteousness. This event also shows that Jesus is the Messiah because He
called the temple, “My Father’s house.” When Jesus said this, He was clearly
saying that He is the Son of God. Jesus’ actions that day reminded His
disciples of Psalm 69:9, which was a prophecy of Jesus’ zeal to keep the house
of God pure and holy.
John 2:18 So the
Jews answered and said to Him, "What sign do You show to us, since You do
these things?"
The Jews had just witnessed what Jesus had done, and they wanted Him to provide some proof of His authority for doing what He did.
John 2:19 Jesus
answered and said to them, "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will
raise it up." 20 Then
the Jews said, "It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and
will You raise it up in three days?"
21 But He was speaking of the temple of His body. 22 Therefore, when He had risen
from the dead, His disciples remembered that He had said this to them; and they
believed the Scripture and the word which Jesus had said.
The answer Jesus gave was
not understood by the Jews or by His own disciples. In fact, it was not until
Jesus was raised from the dead that His disciples understood what Jesus had
meant (John 20:9). When we think about it, we can understand why they were
confused because Jesus was standing in the temple when He said this. However,
we have the advantage of knowing what He was talking about because we have the
fully revealed Word of God. So, Jesus was talking about His body and how it
would be raised up on the third day. This would be the greatest sign that would
prove that Jesus is the Son of God (
John 2:23 Now
when He was in Jerusalem at the Passover, during the feast, many believed in
His name when they saw the signs which He did.
24 But Jesus did not commit Himself to them, because He knew
all men, 25 and had no
need that anyone should testify of man, for He knew what was in man.
There are many signs and
miracles that Jesus did that were not recorded for us, but the ones we have are
enough for us to believe (John 20:30-31). Jesus had the ability to know the
hearts of the people, and He knew they were not ready to fully embrace that He
was the Son of God. Sure, some believed in His authority, but as they would
soon find out it takes more than just belief. A person must be willing to
follow Jesus all the way by obeying Him and remaining faithful (Rev. 2:10).
Most likely, some of these same people who believed in Him are some of the same
people who said, “Crucify Him! Crucify Him!” (Luke 23:21).