1 On the third day there was a wedding in Cana of Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there; 2 and both Jesus and His disciples were invited to the wedding.
It is very easy to get distracted by this passage into all sorts of traps. The biggest trap is to try to make something spiritual out of things that were simply narrative to describe the event and put it in the proper setting. While preachers can often make a sermon out of a single verse or even just a couple of words, we must be careful to exegete the passage rather than eisegete it.
We get the setting from verses 1 and 2. While commentaries attribute several things to these verse even an allusion to Jesus’ resurrection, there is nothing in the context to justify any more than this.
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 that have to do with us? My hour has not yet come." 5 His mother said to the servants, "Whatever He says to you, do it."
The wine ran out. Same as before. This is not a parable that Jesus is teaching with kingdom meaning. It is a fact of the circumstances. However when we come to the point where Mary tells Jesus about it, we can see that something is happening between them that we should examine.
Clearly, Mary is not asking Jesus to do anything. She is simply informing him of the facts. Now I’ll be like a preacher and apply this to our prayer life. Generally, we don’t need to tell God anything. He already knows it. But we do tell him things and it is more for us than for him. Usually, we follow up with a request, which makes sense. Did Mary know that his human nature needed to be informed but his divine nature didn’t. speculation! We don’t know what she knew, only what she did.
Jesus’ response is kindly as commentaries explain. Addressing her as “woman” isn’t harsh but was the polite way to address her. Yet, he didn’t say, “Mother.” This signifies that he is an adult and has his independence from her. He isn’t the son that must do whatever she asks.
His response can only be interpreted in explaining to her that this is not his problem to solve. Jesus is a guest. Note that he was invited, he wasn’t there as Mary’s + one or son. This is all to show that Jesus is being treated as an adult male in the community. Some say that this narrative is placed here to show that Jesus’ ministry is now separated from his family ties.
Mary’s response isn’t even directed to Jesus. While we still can’t speculate as to what Mary expected Jesus to do, she did expect him to do something. Sometimes we just need to tell God what is going on to ease our own minds and leave the request up to him. We don’t need to tell him what to do or when to do it. Though we are always at liberty to tell him what we would like. Maybe he gets a good laugh out of some of our requests.
While his brothers were outwardly skeptical and even hostile (John 7:3-5) we can’t be sure how much Mary held on to the things she pondered in her heart from the words spoken by Gabriel (Luke 1:26-37) and her own prayer of praise as well as Elizabeth’s comments (Luke 1:39-55), and the shepherd’s visit (Luke 2:15-20). She also had Simeon’s and Anna’s prophecies to consider (Luke 2:25-38). We know that at one point, her other kids must have convinced her that Jesus was crazy (Mark 3:21).
We don’t want to idolize Mary and make her out to be more of a saint than any other person. There was 30 years between all the event of Jesus’ birth and this wedding. She saw him grow up and yet she must have had some faith that he could rescue this wedding from embarrassment.
We can vacillate in our faith just as it appears that Mary apparently did. She didn’t have the New Testament, only those precious moments that may not have been as clear as they were when she heard them. We have no excuses to vacillate in our faith. We have the Word preserved for us and we have solid teachers as well as community of believers. If we start to doubt our faith we should talk to a strong biblical believer. Usually, trials and a lack of prayer, Bible study, and communion with other saints is the cause. The trials come to get us back on the right path.
6 Now there were six stone waterpots set there for the Jewish custom of purification, containing twenty or thirty gallons each. 7 Jesus said to them, "Fill the waterpots with water." So they filled them up to the brim. 8 And He said to them, "Draw some out now and take it to the headwaiter." So they took it to him.
Some jars were 20 gallons and some were 30. The average amount would be 25 so gallons. Jesus turns approximately 150 gallons of water into wine. Did the party need this much wine? Wow! This is impressive. One commentary said Mary and family were poor, so this was probably a small wedding (I see no reason why this wasn’t a big bash – they had servants – plural – they had a master of the feast. It doesn’t sound small to me). Why 150 gallons more after all the rest had been drunk? When Jesus answers prayers, he doesn’t come up with halfway solutions. He does it right. He lavishes his grace upon us (Eph 1:7-8).
9 When the headwaiter tasted the water which had become wine, and did not know where it came from (but the servants who had drawn the water knew), the headwaiter called the bridegroom, 10 and said to him, "Every man serves the good wine first, and when the people have drunk freely, then he serves the poorer wine; but you have kept the good wine until now."
It was the best wine. Jesus made the best fermented alcoholic beverage with a miracle. We can’t use this to justify the abuse of alcohol or condone alcoholic consumption. It is a statement of fact that Jesus did this for the occasion in a culture where wine was consumed most likely daily. I heard one preacher say he believed it was grape juice because Jesus wouldn’t defile himself with alcohol. This is not what the word says. Some say it was diluted with water, if so, this would not have been the best wine. This was a party not a normal dinner where they would do that. People were drinking enough to not notice if poor wine was brought in. This shows again that Jesus doesn’t provide second best solutions. It may point out that we don’t always recognize Jesus’ miracles in our lives. We become to accustomed to his provision that we don’t realize when he has provided us with the best. Think about this in terms of our salvation. The best is yet to come.
11 This beginning of His signs Jesus did in Cana of Galilee, and manifested His glory, and His disciples believed in Him.
The first sign Jesus did. He did it for two primary reasons other than bailing out the family of the groom. It was to bring glory to himself and to help the disciples believe. This is only the beginning of believing. John 10:37-38 “If I am not doing the works of my Father, then do not believe me; but if I do them, even though you do not believe me, believe the works, that you may know and understand that the Father is in me and I am in the Father” (ESV).
This is the bottom line of why the narrative is included. So that we may believe.
12 After this He went down to Capernaum, He and His mother and His brothers and His disciples; and they stayed there a few days.
Here is another small detail that wasn’t provided earlier. Jesus’ brothers were also at the wedding. Did they see the miracle? What was their reactions? It is interesting that their reaction was not recorded. Yet we know they did not have faith in him as was pointed out before. This shows that two different groups of people can see the same thing and believe or not. It isn’t until the Lord opens our eyes that we can believe.
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