In conservative circles, the story of Jesus turning the water into wine never fails to raise eyebrows. Since many evangelical Christians completely abstain from alcohol for moral reasons they have trouble reconciling their convictions with Jesus’ miraculous production of about 150 gallons of wine.[1] They cannot quite grasp why Jesus would actually keep the party going – especially by bringing more wine… lots of it! When the story is read, you can almost hear their conscience pleading, “Jesus, please turn it back to water before someone gets hurt. Or, even worse… drunk!”
Jesus the Bartender just doesn’t compute!
But this story is from sacred scripture. Though many evangelicals have done their best to deny that Jesus really did produce this much alcohol, their efforts seem forced and can’t be taken seriously.[2]
The Trouble in Cana
Jesus’ first recorded miracle took place at a wedding in Cana. He and his disciples were invited to a week-long celebration filled with revelry and rejoicing. The wedding took place in a small town in the middle of nowhere. Even today scholars debate where the real town might have been.
During the banquet, the wine gave out. This could ruin the party – in more ways than one. According to the custom of the day, running out of wine was no mere inconvenience; it was a social disaster and could result in public humiliation for the host family and the newly married couple.
Jesus’ mother, Mary, notes the problem and asks Jesus, “Do something for the nice people.”
Jesus offers a curious response, “Woman, what concern is that to you and to me? My hour has not yet come” (John 2:4). In Jesus’ culture, addressing his mother as “woman,” although unusual for a son to say to his mother, is not disrespectful. Though a bit distancing, it still expresses affectionate undertones.[3]
“What concern is that to you and to me” is literally rendered in the Greek: “What to me and to you?” It is a Hebrew idiom used in two ways. Sometimes it conveys rudeness (e.g., “What do you want from me?”). But it can also be a simple statement of fact (e.g., “What do you expect me to do about this – I’m not a liquor store!”). It seems that the best way to read this is as a gentle, distancing rebuke: “Now mother, don’t drag me into this mess. I didn’t have anything to do with it.”
Jesus gives the reason that he wishes to keep his distance: “My hour has not yet come.” The mysterious “hour” is a motif that threads through the entirety of John’s Gospel (7:30; 8:20; 12:23, 27; 13:1; 16:21; 17:1, 14). Jesus’ sense of identity and mission is connected to the fulfillment of this hour. Ultimately, Jesus’ hour corresponds to the hour that the Passover lamb is slain (19:14), revealing the sacrificial nature of his life. Furthermore, Jesus’ reference to his “hour” underscores that he is free from all human control. Not even his mother has a privileged claim on his life. Jesus’ actions are governed by the “hour” set by God. Even before his “official” mission begins, we discover he seeks to do the Father’s will above all things.
Jesus’ mother doesn’t take Jesus’ response as a “no.” Instead, she tells the servants, “Do whatever he tells you” (John 2:11).[4] Mary has confidence in her son. Though she does not know what her son will do, she knows he will do something.
The Miracle
Jesus asks the servants to fill six stone water-jars with water. The servants obey – they fill them to the brim. Each jar holds between 20 or 30 gallons of water. Thus, Jesus turns 120 – 180 gallons of water into wine. That’s about 700 bottles!
Jesus commands the servants to draw some of the water-turned-wine and take it to the chief steward (the person responsible for the party). After tasting it, his response is, “Everyone serves the good wine first, and then the inferior wine after the guests have become drunk. But you have kept the good wine until now” (John 2:10). It is hard to tell: Is he criticizing or complimenting? According to the chief steward, it doesn’t make sense to save the best for last. His surprise registers from the fact that he isn’t “in” on the miracle. Only the servants and Jesus’ disciples are in the secret (John 2:9). The chief steward simply gets to enjoy the fruits of Jesus’ presence. Whether the man realizes it or not, the party is better because of Jesus!
But the point of the miracle is not the miracle itself. According to John, the miracle is a “sign.” A good sign does not draw attention to itself. Instead, it is most effective when it draws our attention to something else, namely, that to which it points! This miracle reveals Jesus’ glory: “Jesus did this, the first of his signs, in Cana of Galilee, and revealed his glory” (John 2:11a). And Jesus’ glory is revealed in order to evoke faith: “and his disciples believed in him” (John 2:11b).[5]
Great Joy in Quantity, Quality, and Timing
Wine is a symbol of carefree joy. It is an element in revelry and rejoicing. An ancient rabbi taught, “Without wine there is no joy.” In this story, the wine represents the joy of Christ’s kingdom – the joy of the gospel! Thus, the “sign” demonstrates the quantity, quality, and timing of God’s glory in Christ.
Quantity. The joy of the kingdom is abundant – excessively abundant! Jesus creates far more wine than what is needed. Cana is a small town. This is a lot of wine: 120 – 180 gallons of wine for one family wedding in one small town. The provision is abundant, and yet, there is more to come (“My hour has not yet come”).
The sacred scriptures prophesied an abundance of wine in the last days – the days of the Messiah. For example: “On this mountain the LORD of hosts will make for all peoples a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wines” (Isaiah 25:6); “The mountains shall drip sweet wine, and all the hills shall flow with it” (Amos 9:13); “In that day the mountains shall drip sweet wine, the hills shall flow with milk” (Joel 3:18). The abundance of wine at the wedding announces that the blessing of “that day” has arrived!
The overwhelming abundance of wine is a sign of something richer – the overwhelming abundance of God’s grace. As John has already stated, Jesus brings “grace upon grace” (John 1:16). Jean Vanier comments: “An incredible amount of wine is presented, an abundance of excellent wine… And people had already drunk quite a bit! Today, we humans would be more prudent … perhaps. However, God does things abundantly. God loves us abundantly and wants to give us more and more life and joy.”[6]
Quality. The joy of the kingdom is the “best wine.” Though most hosts serve the best wine first when people will appreciate the quality, and cheaper wine later when no one can taste the difference, Jesus reversed the pattern by saving the best for last. The sign points to the truth about God: God is a God of lavish liberality, generosity, and extravagance. God gives the best in giving his Son.
Timing. The joy of the kingdom is in its timing. God saves the best for last: “you have kept the best wine until now.” It is not a small matter that the new wine arose from the stone water-pots used for the Jewish rites of ritual purification. “The water-jars, used for Jewish purification rites, are a sign that God is doing a new thing from within the old Jewish system, bringing purification to Israel and the world in a whole new way.”[7] The new arises from the old – the best is saved for last and it proceeds from the foundation of the Jewish tradition. “God has done a very surprising thing. He has saved up till last his very best gift to Israel and the world. His best gift was not in Israel’s past, when he gave Moses the law and Israel the land. He has kept the best wine until the coming of Jesus.”[8]
Put simply, God’s abundant, extravagant, perfectly-timed grace arises from the Jewish religion: “What is the message of this sign of water into wine? The message of the sign is that Jesus took 180 gallons of Jewish laws, the rituals of purification, and transformed them into 180 gallons of grace.”[9]
All this – and Jesus hasn’t even really started yet! His “hour” has not yet come. He hasn’t even got out of the starting gate into his public ministry and the glory is overwhelmingly abundant. What he does here is nothing compared to what he will do in light of his victory to come – the “hour” to which his whole life leads. This backwoods miracle in the middle of nowhere for a small party foreshadows the miracle of forgiveness and grace for the entire world because of Jesus’ sacrificial self-offering.
The Great Wedding Banquet
The joy of Cana’s wedding banquet is a foretaste of the great heavenly feast to come. Throughout the scriptures, God’s kingdom is constantly compared to a wedding.[10] The Bible begins and ends with a wedding (“and the two became one flesh” and “the marriage supper of the Lamb”).[11] The last words of the book of Revelation read, “The Spirit and the Bride say, “Come! Come, Lord Jesus.”[12]
“What is the gospel — the good news – of Jesus about? John’s answer: It’s about a wedding banquet at which the wine never runs out, and where the best is saved for last.”[13] Scot McKnight summarizes well:
The wine miracle, when unfolded by contemplating the biblical images, speaks of joy, it speaks of the final banquet. And it speaks of new life. In addition, this profuse, abundant wine speaks of the transformation of Jewish purity jars into Jesus’ wine of joy and of the old covenant being transformed into the new covenant. But mostly this water-become-wine reveals something about Jesus: that he makes all things abundantly and joyfully new and brimming with life.[14]
Jesus reveals that God’s grace is abundant, extravagant, and surprising. God has kept the “best for last.” Truly, “no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the human heart conceived, what God has prepared for those who love him” (1 Corinthians 2:9).
Contrary to what many people might think (and quite a few Christians, at that) Jesus is not a party-pooper. Jesus could have taken his disciples to many places to begin their spiritual formation – a school, a synagogue, the wilderness, a funeral, etc. – but he choose their first lesson to take place at a wedding party full of great revelry and rejoicing – a joy that was intensified by Jesus’ presence.
This is good news. We in the church have the privilege of intentionally participating in Jesus’ kingdom and nurturing our faith on the great banquet feast spread before us in Christ. Our times of sharing the Eucharist together remind us of this.[15] We imbibe, and invite others: “Come join the party! There is enough for all! The more, the merrier!” The party is better with Jesus!
[1] By the way, there is absolutely nothing wrong with abstaining from alcohol. There is something wrong in assuming it gives you the higher moral ground over those who choose to imbibe. Though drunkenness is prohibited in scripture, the use of alcohol is not. In fact, it is actually encouraged in places (e.g., Deuteronomy 14:26, 1 Timothy 5:23).
[2] Efforts include (1) denying that the wine was non-alcoholic (2) stating that the wine was not real wine, but “celestial juice” or (3) arguing that only the liquid in the ladle was wine – the remainder of the liquid in the jars remained water. Welch’s grape juice was invented by Thomas Welch as an alternative to using wine in communion. In his words, the unfermented grape juice was born “out of a passion to serve God by helping his church to give its communion (as) ‘the fruit of the vine’ instead of the ‘cup of devils.’” Prominent Southern Baptist, W. A. Criswell, believed Jesus made a special “celestial juice.” The reason: He could not possibly have made wine: “Do you think that God made in that cup what it is that makes men stagger, that makes men beasts, that makes men drunk? It is unthinkable. It is unimaginable.” The Puritan Matthew Henry argues that party-goers would have been “so well awed by the presence of Christ, that none of them abused this wine to excess.” These responses are extreme attempts to evade the obvious actions represented in this story. Yes, every good thing can be abused – food, sex, drink, etc. – but that is no reason to completely abstain. Try doing this with food for a month, and you’ll see what I mean!
[3] The identical word is used by Jesus in a deeply caring moment in John 19:26.
[4] Some have argued that Mary must have been involved in catering this event, or related to the host family, because of the power she seems to have over the servants. Of course, she could simply be meddling!
[5] The fact that this miracle is a “sign” answers the accusation that it is an unnecessary “luxury miracle”: “Was it really necessary, [critics] have asked, to supply a wedding party with such and abundance of wine? And, even though the host was helped out of an embarrassing situation, can it honestly be said that the miracle bestowed any lasting benefit on those who were present? But these are the wrong questions to ask; for none of the miracles of Jesus were kind actions to alleviate human distress and nothing more. They were, as this Gospel invariably calls them, signs displaying the glory of Jesus and the wonder of His redeeming love.” R. V. G. Tasker, The Gospel According to St. John (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1975), 55.
[6] Jean Vanier, Drawn into the Mystery of Jesus Through the Gospel of John (Mahwah, New Jersey: Paulist Press, 2004), 55.
[7] Tom Wright, John for Everyone: Volume 1 (London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, 2001), 22.
[8] Richard Bauckman in Roger Van Harn (ed.) The Lectionary Commentary: Theological Exegesis for Sunday's Text. The Third Readings: The Gospels (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2001), 490.
[9] Edward Markquart, http://www.sermonsfromseattle.com/series_c_the_marriage_at_cana_GA.htm
[10] For example, see Isaiah 25:6; 55:1-2; Matthew 5:6, 8:11-12; Mark 2:19; Luke 22:15-18; 29-30a.
[11] Genesis 2:24 and Revelation 19:7, 9.
[12] Revelation 22:17.
[13] Source unknown.
[14] Scot McKnight, The Real Mary: Why Evangelical Christians Can Embrace the Mother of Jesus (Massachusetts: Paraclete Press, 2006), 69-70.
[15] The Cana miracle and the multiplication of the loaves early in church history became symbols for the bread and wine of the Eucharist. Thomas Cahill writes, “Similarly, the Marriage Feast at Cana has Eucharistic significance because it was at Cana that Jesus changed water into wine and because every mass is, to an extent, a marriage feast between Christ and the communicant. Thomas Cahill, Mysteries of the Middle Ages: The Rise of Feminism, Science, and Art from the Cults of Catholic Europe (New York: Doubleday, 2006), 262.
© Richard J. Vincent, 2007
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Posted by: Lauren at January 29, 2007 8:14 PM
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