1 On the third day a wedding took place at Cana in Galilee. Jesus’ mother was there, 2 and Jesus and his disciples had also been invited to the wedding. 3 When the wine was gone, Jesus’ mother said to him, “They have no more wine.”
4 “Woman, why do you involve me?” Jesus replied. “My hour has not yet come.”
5 His mother said to the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.”
6 Nearby stood six stone water jars, the kind used by the Jews for ceremonial washing, each holding from twenty to thirty gallons.
7 Jesus said to the servants, “Fill the jars with water”; so they filled them to the brim.
8 Then he told them, “Now draw some out and take it to the master of the banquet.”
They did so, 9 and 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 10 and 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.”
11 What Jesus did here in Cana of Galilee was the first of the signs through which he revealed his glory; and his disciples believed in him.
Revelation of glory episode 1: Jesus turns water in to wine. We’ve already magic school bused ourselves into this first century wedding at Cana of Galilee, a major community event worthy of celebration, providing laughter and joy during a time of severe theological/economic/historical drought. But the world is a vampire. It respects no-thing, not even the sacred, not even the temporal and fleeting world the sacred will at times provide. And so the wine runs out. Sucked. Dry.
Mary is the first to notice and acts as quickly as possible, hurrying to the only person who can do something to alleviate? fix? replenish? the joy. She lays the need at his feet. Like any good son who’s partying is interrupted by his mother who presents him with a problem that is not his responsibility, Jesus says, “This is not my responsibility”. He also adds “My hour hasn’t come”. So not only like a good son but a clever son as well, Jesus responds with a combination of logic and theology. My mom would go crazy if I talked to her this way. But of course I am not Jesus, and I am not on a mission to literally save the world. Nevertheless Mary persists. Actually, she ignores his deflection of her request, but it’s not that she hasn’t heard what Jesus has said. Quite the opposite, Mary knows full well what he said, who he is, and what he’s about (at least she knows enough to know, to intuit, the meaning of the mystery of his person). Mary’s actions speak for themselves, “I know you have a plan but I also know that you’re able and willing, so can’t your hour come sooner than it would have?” Of course Mary has no power over Jesus. She has not threatened, coerced, or manipulated Jesus. Jesus does not need to do anything. He does not need to tell the servants what he does. But he does. He loves Mary’s request, her persistence, her ability and willingness to know him. And so he honors her.
Jesus instructs the servants. This will become the paradigm for church history, but lets keep that rabbit in the hat until later. For now it’s what Jesus instructs them that requires our attention. He tells the servants to fill all six of those massive stone jars with water. A seemingly normal request, (especially for the 21st century believer who has read this story 23-58 times) because, after all, Jesus does need to make a lot of wine right? At this point we need to back up. We have already missed what Jesus is doing. We have let that little title at the top of the story determine what we read. John includes a couple of details that profoundly affect the story. 1) These jars were used by Jews for ceremonial washing. Ceremonial washing was necessary for Jews to remain ceremonially clean, that is, clean so they could worship. All sorts of things could make a Jew unclean, or unfit for worship, like eating non-kosher food, coming in to contact with gentiles, or dead animals, humans, et cetera. They would also wash, or clean themselves, before eating, and it was primarily for this purpose that these jars would have been used. Before eating water would be taken from these jars and poured down the hand of the person, who arm would be bent at the elbow, so that the water would flow down the forearm and off the elbow. This would have been performed on every person at the party, on both arms. 2) Each jar could hold 20 to 30 gallons. That’s very big, and there were 6 of these jars. If we take the conservative road, then it would take 120 gallons to fill them. That’s a lot of potatoes. In fact, that is more potatoes than this wedding party could possibly need, than they could possibly exhaust in a week of partying. Now think about the servants entrusted with the task of filling them. The party has already started, people have already been washed and are eating, and they’re instructed to re-fill these massive jars. Yet John gives us no sign of their complaining. They seem to follow the instructions of this semi-popular Galilean dutifully.
Thus the dual significance of the jars: their representation of the Jewish ceremonial system and their ridiculous size. The servants faithfully carry out Jesus’ troublesome instructions and the result of their faithfulness is literally miraculous. Having filled each jar to the brim they draw water out and take it to the master of the banquet. He would either have been a servant or member of the family, but either way he was in charge of the party and would have been responsible for the premature depletion of the wine stores. Part of his job was to control the distribution and dilution of the wine so as to make it last for the length of the party. When he tastes the water the servants brought to him it has changed in to wine, and not just any wine, but wine of a quality greater than the best wine available for this party. This is what is implied in v. 10. And John adds, in v. 11, that through this sign Jesus revealed his glory and his disciples believed in him.
But remember where we started. The problem was not that they had merely run out of a drink. They had run out of that which symbolized joy and life at a community-affecting/defining event, during a period of history lacking greatly in literal joy and life. But Jesus has not only given them lots of really good wine. The real significance of the story lies in what the wine has replaced- the water reserved for ceremonial washing. They have incredible wine in ridiculous abundance but this incredible blessing is literally taking up the space traditionally reserved for purification water. Obviously the implication is that they can no longer cleanse themselves, for pouring wine over one’s body was not exactly prescribed in the Old Testament. What does this mean? How can Jesus do this? Doesn’t he know the inconvenience he has caused, virtually guaranteeing their perpetual uncleanliness for an indefinite period of time?
It means just that. The blessing Jesus gives means, according to their old way of thinking, that they will be ritually unclean. And it is their old way of thinking that is required to end. He has new wine for them that will not be held by old wineskins. The blessing he is transcended the system through which they interacted with God. His presence is the reason why the Sabbath can be defied, why his disciples do not need to fast, and why the distinction between clean and unclean no longer exists. John 1:1-18 is here. “For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ” (1:17). Grace and truth have arrived at a wedding in Cana. What exactly is this grace and truth? This the reader won’t begin to know until the third day.
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