The Wedding

Today we move on to chapter 2 as we enter the period of time where Jesus begins his public ministry with a miracle.  In this account is the first sign performed by Jesus (turning water into wine).  There are various and differing interpretations about the meaning or symbolism behind the miracle itself as some believe it to be allegorical and some as speculative.  I am not going to go too much into the actual meaning of the miracle as I am going to look at the significance behind what happens.  We do know the purpose in giving the account of Jesus’ miracles was to convince the people that He was/is the Messiah (John 20:30-31).

Read John 2:1 – 12

Before we jump into this passage I think a little background about weddings in the near east is appropriate to help us understand what is going on.  A wedding celebration in Jesus’ time could last as long as a week.  It was truly a festive celebration.  From what we gather there was no religious ceremony that precedes the celebration.  We do know the groom would get dressed up in his best outerwear and go to the brides parent’s home.  He would be accompanied by friends, musicians and torch bearers (if it was night time).  The groom received his bride from the parents and a celebration followed (where a signing of a contract or document of sorts would occur).  In the evening the bride was escorted to the nuptial chamber by her parents, and the groom by his companions or the bride’s parents. On the next day the festivities were resumed, continuing for seven days.[1] It was a festive time and the whole community celebrated it.  The groom was the one who footed the bill and was expected to provide enough food and drinks for the whole party.  To run out of supplies would be a huge embarrassment to the groom.  It was possible for legal action to be taken against a family if they failed to provide enough food and drink for their guests.

The Wedding
Three days after the last written account Jesus and his disciples attended a wedding in Cana.  This was probably a wedding for a relative of Jesus or a close friend since Mary was there and Jesus and his disciples were invited as well.  The disciples who attended with Jesus were probably the five Jesus had with him Andrew, Philip, Peter, Nathaneal and the unnamed disciple (John?).  It is very plausible that Mary could have been in charge of some organizational aspect of the wedding since she was concerned about the wine running out.  This may have been her responsibility or she could have just been concerned about the bridegroom and did not want to see him embarrassed or worse yet humiliated.  Whatever the reason she went to Jesus with her concern and let him know the wine was gone.

“Wine in the ancient world was diluted with water to between one third and one tenth of its fermented strength, i.e. something less strong than American beer.  Undiluted wine, about the strength of wine today, was viewed as ‘strong drink’, and earned much more disapprobation (disapproved)”. [2]

Mary comes to Jesus with her concern for the wine shortage and there are a number of possible reasons why she went to him.  First, her husband (Joseph) was possibly dead by this time (since we don’t hear anything from him after the time Jesus taught in the temple at age 12) so Jesus was essentially the head of the household and was the one making the money in the family as a carpenter.  She may have figured he would go out use his resources and get more.  Second, she knew Jesus was who he claimed to be and she was asking him to do something supernatural.  I mean she was his mother.  Third, she was worried that this was going to come back on her and she was only complaining to Jesus, she was just passing on the sad news that she didn’t do her job right.  Out of these three possibilities number two would probably be the most plausible.  Mary knew her son was a special son and that God was going to do great things through Him.  She was the chosen virgin to give birth to the Savior of the world.  He was the Messiah; certainly He could do something about the wine shortage.

At first glance Jesus’ response to his mother seems a bit harsh and disrespectful “Woman, what does this have to do with me?”  However the word “woman” is a form of address, in Koine Greek is a way of speaking politely to a female person: In Jn 2.4 Jesus uses this word to address his mother courteously.[3]  In some ways it could be synonymous to the word “Ma’am”.  When he says, “what does this have to do with me?”  or “What business is this of mine?” or “Why are you involving me?” is a minor rebuke.  In some ways Jesus, lovingly, is declaring to his mother that he is not under human authority (including his mother), any person’s agenda or is not going to be manipulated into doing something (being a Genie of sorts).  This isn’t a form of rebellion against his mother he is only stating a very important thing, His only bidding is to do the will of the Father.  From this point on as a son and a mother Jesus had to start distancing himself from her.  I can’t believe how difficult that would have been for Him or for her to accept.  However Jesus couldn’t allow himself to be so closely attached to his human mother because his bidding was to do all the Father had told him.  From a human standpoint it is hard to imagine but from an eternal perspective it was necessary.  She like anyone else needed to come to him for salvation (believe he is the Messiah).  She had no special privileges and Jesus certainly wasn’t distancing himself out of callousness, in a way his distancing was for her own good.  In the light of the cross this distancing was necessary.  As a mother she was obedient and trusting of her son as she says to the servants to do what he says.  This shows that her gentle rebuke was taken and she trusted Jesus was going to take care of things.  D.A. Carson writes of this encounter “In short, in 2:3 Mary approaches Jesus as his mother, and is reproached; in 2:5 she responds as a believer, and her faith is honored.  She still does not know what he would do; but she has committed the matter to him, and trusts him.”[4] 

The end result with Jesus performing this miracle of turning water to wine has a significant truth about God.  So many commentators, theologians, preachers and Christians in general focus so muck on the symbolism of the water and the wine and I believe they miss the true point to this miracle.  Not only does Jesus provide wine for the wedding guests, he supplies them with the finest of wine (the best) and gives it in abundance.  Here we see God’s grace in action.  Did Jesus do this for Mary?  Did he do it for the guests?  or did he do it for the groom?  I don’t think he did this miracle for any of these people.  The purpose of this miracle was to reveal his glory so the disciples would believe in him and glorify God.  It wasn’t about taking care of the guests, it wasn’t about being obedient to his mother, it was about showing a little of His glory so his followers would believe and testify of who He really is.  It’s ultimately about God’s glory and grace.  We see so much grace in this account as Jesus essentially says, “I am not under any human authority nor will I be used as a Genie to give you what you want.  But because God ultimately wants to be the source of all of your joy and because of my Father’s great love for humanity I will do as you ask.”


As I was looking over this passage and praying about it two points of application came to me and I would like to share them with you.

1. Jesus’ mother was a special woman.  According to the angel who informed her she was giving birth to the Messiah she was blessed among all women.  She was the mother of God in human flesh.  As special and blessed as she was however she still needed to have a faith of her own.  Jesus was not going to give her special privileges.  She like everyone else needed to put her faith in Jesus.  This brings us to the point… Everyone needs to have a faith of their own.  Each person has to place their own faith in Jesus and trust him personally to be his/her Lord and Savior.  There are no exceptions.  God does not honor or show favorites, you are responsible for your own faith… the faith of your parents, church or other relatives will not save you.  If Mary is not an exception then you certainly will not be.
2. Everything Jesus did was to show the glory of the Father.  God delights in giving us good things, but he doesn’t give them to us for our benefit… He gives good things for His glory.  In this wedding account we see Mary was concerned that the wine had run out.  The groom will be embarrassed, the people will be angry, and Mary may ultimately look bad because this was her responsibility (if not her, someone was going to be blamed for the shortage).  Jesus ultimately said, “Humans cannot tell me what to do because I am doing the will of the Father.  However because the Father has great love for you and wants to be the source of joy in every persons life I will take care of the issue… ONLY so I/God can be glorified and people will believe.”  If Jesus’ sole purpose in life was to show the glory of God and draw others into his presence… How much more so with us.

[1]Youngblood, R. F., Bruce, F. F., Harrison, R. K., & Thomas Nelson Publishers. (1995). Nelson's new illustrated Bible dictionary. Rev. ed. of: Nelson's illustrated Bible dictionary.; Includes index. Nashville: T. Nelson.


[2] Carson, D.A. (1991) The Gospel According to John p. 169 Grand Rapids, MI: William B Eerdman’s Publishing Co.


[3]Louw, J. P., & Nida, E. A. (1996, c1989). Greek-English lexicon of the New Testament : Based on semantic domains (electronic ed. of the 2nd edition.) (1:107-108). New York: United Bible societies.


[4] Carson, D.A. (1991) The Gospel According to John p. 169 Grand Rapids, MI: William B Eerdman’s Publishing Co.