Water to Wine
John 2:1-11
Main Idea: As our true bridegroom, Jesus replaces our emptiness with abundant life and fullness of joy.
I. The Wedding (2:1-5)
Jesus, his disciples, and his mother attend a wedding in Cana on the “third day” (the seventh day in John 1-2). Weddings in this time period lasted as long as a week, involved the whole community, and required great preparation and hospitality. “When the wine ran out,” this was a potential source of great shame and embarrassment to the groom and his family.
As Mary informs Jesus about the situation, his response is very abrupt: “Woman, what does this have to do with me?” This response is not disrespectful (cf. 19:26), but it is a redefinition of their relationship and expectations.
“Now that Jesus had entered into the purpose of his coming, everything, even family ties, had to be subordinated to his divine mission… It is a remarkable fact that everywhere Mary appears during the course of Jesus’ ministry, Jesus is at pains to establish distance between them. This is not callousness on Jesus’ part: on the cross he makes provision for her future (19:25–27). But she, like every other person, must come to him as to the promised Messiah, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Neither she nor anyone else dare presume to approach him on an ‘inside track.’”
~ D.A Carson, The Gospel According to John
II. The Wine (2:6-10)
In the Scriptures, wine is a symbol of joy, abundance, and blessing (Ps. 104:15). Wine was often invoked by the prophets to describe the blessing of the coming messianic age (Amos 9:13-14; Joel 3:18; Isa. 25:6).
Though Jesus’ “hour has not come,” (cf. 7:30; 8:20; 12:23-24, 27; 13:1; 17:1) this miracle is an acted out parable pointing to the greater realities of who he is and what he came to do:
1. Jesus has come to bring a better purification for sins
“The old covenant was a marriage between Yahweh and Israel, and at the wedding on the third day, the wine ran out. John notes these details to signify that the old covenant has been exhausted. Water jars used for the keeping for the regulations of the old covenant are filled, pointing to the fulfillment of the allotted time and intended purpose of the old covenant and its purification rites. Out of the old is drawn something new and better: the best wine… John has carefully selected and framed his presentation to bring out the ways in which Jesus is effecting the shift of the ages, the movement from old covenant to new, from water to wine.”
~ Jim Hamilton, John (ESV Expository Commentary)
1 John 1:7: But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.
Revelation 7:14b: They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.
2. Jesus has come to bring abundant life and fullness of joy: Jesus here produces between 120-180 gallons of the best wine (cf. 10:10; Matt. 16:24-25).
3. Jesus has come to save us from shame: Jesus saves this groom and his family from the shame of running out of wine, and he allows the groom to be credited with saving the festivities.
“It is a blessed need that makes room for Jesus to come in with miracles of love. It is good to run short that we may be driven to the Lord by our necessity, for he will more than supply it. If we have no need, Christ will not come to us. But if we are in dire necessity, his hands will stretch out to us. If our needs stand before us like huge empty water pots, or if our souls are as full of grief as those same pots were filled with water up to the brim, Jesus can, by his sweet will, turn all the water into wine—the sighing into singing. We should be glad to be weak so the power of God may rest on us.”
~ Charles Spurgeon, “The Beginning of Miracles Which Jesus Did”
III. The Wonder (2:11)
John tells us that this was the first of Jesus' “signs” that “manifested his glory” (cf. 1:14). In the gospel of John, all of Jesus’ “signs” point beyond themselves to greater realities, with the same invitation: “that you may believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name” (21:31).
In this “sign,” Jesus takes on the role of the true and ultimate bridegroom, who provides all that is needed for the wedding festivities to continue (cf. Matt. 9:14-17). Jesus looks beyond this wedding to the day of his own wedding to his bride, the church, “which he obtained with his own blood” (Acts 20:28).
Revelation 19:6–9a, 21:2: Then I heard what seemed to be the voice of a great multitude, like the roar of many waters and like the sound of mighty peals of thunder, crying out,
“Hallelujah!
For the Lord our God
the Almighty reigns.
Let us rejoice and exult
and give him the glory,
for the marriage of the Lamb has come,
and his Bride has made herself ready;
it was granted her to clothe herself
with fine linen, bright and pure”—
for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints. And the angel said to me, “Write this: Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb… And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.
