Episode 22 - The Word Spoke and the Water Became Wine
John 2:1-11
On the third day there was a wedding at Cana in Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there. 2 Jesus also was invited to the wedding with his disciples. 3 When the wine ran out, the mother of Jesus said to him, “They have no wine.” 4 And Jesus said to her, “Woman, what does this have to do with me? My hour has not yet come.” 5 His mother said to the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.”
John 2:6 Now there were six stone water jars there for the Jewish rites of purification, each holding twenty or thirty gallons. 7 Jesus said to the servants, “Fill the jars with water.” And they filled them up to the brim. 8 And he said to them, “Now draw some out and take it to the master of the feast.” So they took it. 9 When the master of the feast tasted the water now become wine, and did not know where it came from (though the servants who had drawn the water knew), the master of the feast called the bridegroom 10 and said to him, “Everyone serves the good wine first, and when people have drunk freely, then the poor wine. But you have kept the good wine until now.” 11 This, the first of his signs, Jesus did at Cana in Galilee, and manifested his glory. And his disciples believed in him.
In this episode, the author presents to us the first of seven “signs” or miracles that he will record in the first half of this book. In fact, some scholars like to refer to the first half of John as “The Book of Signs.” There is so much in this one sign that could be written about. But, my objective is not for you to see every little thing in this book. My desire, first of all, is that people will attain the objective clearly stated by the author in John 20:31. Secondly, I hope that I can guide you through some practices such as identifying key terms and ideas through literary repetition so that you might discover things that I haven’t seen yet. Finally, I hope that through this exercise, you will see the richness of this book and the Scriptures as a whole so that it will encourage your faith. With that said, let me break down this story into the sequence of events so that you can see something that I think is very exciting.
Background: In John’s prologue, I directed your attention to the theme of Creation, right? Not only did the author begin his book with the words “In the beginning . . .”, which begin the Creation account in Genesis 1, he also employs the Greek word for “to become or to be created” nine times in John’s prologue alone. In John 1:3 he is speaking about “the Word” which was with God and was God and he says, “Not one thing that has been created has been created apart from him.” There should be no question in the reader’s mind that the author wants to tell us about someone who is “the Word” and that the Word was involved in every part of Creation.
Setting for this “sign” - Jesus, the person John finally told us is the Word, is at a wedding celebration with some of his disciples. His mother also is there and has some measure of responsibility or concern for the hospitality at this celebration because they’ve run out of wine before the celebration is over. This would be like my family inviting people over for a party and us not having enough food for everyone. We would be embarrassed. Jesus’ mother is concerned and expects Jesus to do something about it. Jesus’ response is not disrespectful to her. Its purpose is to help us understand that Jesus has a higher purpose and that his duty is to One higher than even his own mother.
The “Sign” - The key moment is when she says to the workers, “Do whatever he tells you!” Who is he? He is the Word of God. Whatever the Word says, they are to obey. So, what happens?
The Word spoke, “Fill the jars with water!”
Side note: John mentions there were six jars used for cleansing. How many days did God take to create the world according to Genesis? Coincidence?
The workers responded by filling them to the brim.
What did the Word do next? He spoke again. “Now draw some out and take it to the master of the feast.” The workers complied.
John mentions in verse 9 that the master of the feast had tasted the water that had “become” wine. Why is this important? The verb translated “become” is from the Greek word transliterated “ginomai;” meaning “to become or be created.” Coincidence?
What happens next? Look at verse 10. The master of the feast proclaims that this wine which has just been created is “good.”
Summarizing this, we have:
The Word spoke
The wine was created
The wine was pronounced “good.”
John is showing us evidence that Jesus had the same authority and power exhibited by God in the Creation account of Genesis. Each day of creation God spoke, it was created, and He pronounced it good.
Coincidence? In verse 11 John tells us that this sign was when Jesus first manifested his glory.
The point that John wants us to understand is that Jesus, even having “become flesh,” still had his power and glory. He was never less God.