March 18,2012
Lesson Focus:
Jesus reveals His
glory to inspire faith.
Lesson Scripture:
John 2:1-12
Introduction:
This week we learn how God’s creative Word was the source of meeting the needs of a group of people who were celebrating a wedding in the village of Cana in Galilee. When Jesus meets our needs today, it should be motivation enough for us to fully trust Him. John tells us that this miracle was to reveal Jesus' glory.The revelation of His glory would inspire people to have faith in Him.
and manifested forth his glory; and his disciples believed on him.
1And the third day there was a marriage in Cana of Galilee; and the mother of Jesus was there:
2And both Jesus was called, and his disciples, to the marriage.
3And when they wanted wine, the mother of Jesus saith unto him, They have no wine.
4Jesus saith unto her, Woman, what have I to do with thee? mine hour is not yet come.
5His mother saith unto the servants, Whatsoever he saith unto you, do it.
6And there were set there six waterpots of stone, after the manner of the purifying of the Jews, containing two or three firkins apiece.
7Jesus saith unto them, Fill the waterpots with water. And they filled them up to the brim.
8And he saith unto them, Draw out now, and bear unto the governor of the feast. And they bare it.
9When the ruler of the feast had tasted the water that was made wine, and knew not whence it was: (but the servants which drew the water knew;) the governor of the feast called the bridegroom,
10And saith unto him, Every man at the beginning doth set forth good wine; and when men have well drunk, then that which is worse: but thou hast kept the good wine until now.
11This beginning of miracles did Jesus in Cana of Galilee, and manifested forth his glory; and his disciples believed on him.
12After this he went down to Capernaum, he, and his mother, and his brethren, and his disciples: and they continued there not many days.
Scripture footnotes:
(vs. 1). John chapter 1 ends with Jesus calling Philip and Nathanael to follow Him (see John 1:43-51). Then John says “And the third day there was a marriage in Cana of Galilee; and the mother of Jesus was there.” The phrase “And the third day” refers to the third day after Jesus called both Philip and his friend Nathanael to follow Him. John also tells us that on that third day “there was a marriage in Cana of Galilee.” The exact site of the Galilean town of Cana is not known but it apparently was north of Nazareth. It was also the hometown of Nathanael (see John 21:2). Note: According to Jewish marriage customs, a prior betrothal or engagement bound the couple to each other as man and wife, but they did not immediately live together. After an appropriate amount of time went by, as much as a year, the groom came to the bride’s house and took her to his home without any further ceremonies. However, a seven day feast (see Judges 14:12), called the “marriage” began and was accompanied with great rejoicing (see John 3:29). John also adds that “the mother of Jesus was there.” Since Mary, Jesus’ mother was there, those who were married may have been relatives or close friends.
(vs. 2). In addition, John says “And both Jesus was called, and his disciples, to the marriage.” Jesus and His disciples were also “called” or invited to the wedding. Note: At this time, according to John’s Gospel, Jesus apparently had only called six disciples, John and his brother James (probably the two men mentioned in John 1:37; see also 4:21-22), Andrew, Peter, Philip and Nathanael (see John 1:37-51). By attending this festive occasion Jesus placed His approval on joyous celebration and did not foster the mistaken notion that godly people must live ascetic, or self-denying lives. B. The wine (John 2:3). In the course of the festivities a social disaster was about to happen. Here John wrote, “And when they wanted wine, the mother of Jesus saith unto him, they wanted wine.” If you’ve ever been to a wedding or at least heard about one, you know they never go as planned.Someone is running late, the food is not ready, somehow the appropriate music is forgotten, or any number of things can go wrong and usually do. Well, it was no different at this wedding. John said “they wanted wine.” The word “wanted” means “lacked” indicating that they had run out of wine. Seeing this potentially embarrassing situation, Mary pulled Jesus aside and simply said “they have no wine.” Note: Running out of wine in Jesus’ day was like running out of food in our time. To us this problem seems easily fixed by just going to buy more wine. But in the first century, people didn’t live this way. Getting more wine was not the simple. To the bride and groom running out of wine would be more than an embarrassment; it would be disgraceful and humiliating. It was much more of a disaster than it would be in our culture. It is difficult to know just what Mary wanted Jesus to do. She knew that her Son was the Messiah (see Luke 1:26-35) so she may have wanted Him to use His messianic powers to solve the problem. But at the very least she trusted Jesus to do what was right. Those of us who believe in Jesus but run into situations we can’t handle must continue to trust that He will work in the best way .
(vs. 4). Jesus gave a rather surprising response to His mother. He said “Woman, what have I to do with thee? mine hour is not yet come.” In Jesus’ culture, to address a female as “woman” was a normal polite way to speak as can be seen by the several times Jesus Himself used it (see Matthew 15:28; Luke 13:12; John 4:21; 8:10). In fact, in John 19:26 Jesus again addressed His mother as “woman” when He committed her future care to the Apostle John and He was not being disrespectful. Even though “woman” was not a derogatory term, the rest of Jesus’ question seems to be a rebuke. Jesus asked her, “what have I to do with thee?” He was probably saying, “what do we have in common in this matter?” In other words, Jesus wanted her to know that even though she was His mother, He would not help just because she asked. She didn’t have that kind of claim on Him. His first duty was to His Father which is seen in His next statement to Mary, “mine hour is not yet come.” It appears that He is saying that it was not the time to reveal Himself as Messiah by performing a miracle. In light of other Scripture however, when Jesus said “mine hour is not yet come” He was referring to the time when He fulfilled His purpose of going to the cross to save His people from their sins (see Matthew 1:21). In every instance where Scripture spoke of “His hour had not come” the reference is to His crucifixion (see Matthew 26:45; Mark 14:35; 14:41; John 7:30; 8:20; 12:23, 27; 13:1; 17:1). This case should be no different. But even though Mary would not understand what Jesus meant, she still trusted Him to help in some way.
(vs. 5). Mary apparently caught the significance of Jesus’s words and was not offended at His mild rebuke because she “saith unto the servants, Whatsoever he saith unto you, do it.” She didn’t know how or when Jesus would act, but she was confident that He would do something. She therefore prepared the servants by telling them to do whatever Jesus tells you to do. Note: The lesson Mary learned was one we need to learn as well. We often think that because Jesus is our Saviour we can call on Him to do our bidding at any time. We impatiently expect Him to answer our prayers immediately and in just the way we want. But He will not be hurried. He does care about our needs and promises to meet them. Knowing what is best for us, He follows His own schedule when supplying our needs.
1. (vs. 6). Now John tells us that “there were set there six waterpots of stone, after the manner of the purifying of the Jews, containing two or three firkins apiece.” There were six water pots present that were used for purification. Note: By this time the Jews had developed extended ritual cleansing far beyond what the law required. Not only did they wash their hands carefully before eating, they also purified the utensils they used (see Mark 7:3-4). So the water pots at this feast had undoubtedly been used already. We are told that there were “six waterpots” and each “containing two or three firkins apiece.” A “firkin” was a liquid measure equal to about 9-10 gallons. So we could estimate that each pot held between 20 and 30 gallons of water. If all the water was turned into wine and not just what was drawn out, there would be between 120 and 180 gallons of new wine available for the guests.
(vs. 7). Next we are told that “Jesus saith unto them, Fill the waterpots with water. And they filled them up to the brim.” Jesus made use of vessels that were already present. He also made use of the servants in working the miracle. He told them to “Fill the waterpots with water.” Here, as in certain later miracles, Jesus could have worked without human instruments, but He chose to include them. There may be several reasons why:
a. First, Jesus always allowed humans to do whatever they were capable of, and He supplied only the additional power that they lacked (see Matthew 14:13-21).
b. Second, Jesus included humans in His working of miracles so that they could verify the genuineness of the works He performed.His miracles were designed to prove that He was the Son of God, and whether men accepted Him as such. He desired to leave indisputable proof that His claims were valid (see John 5:36).
c. Third, Jesus involved humans in His works so they might see and believe. He performed the signs recorded in this gospel so that men might believe His claims and have life through Him (see John 20:30-31).When Jesus told the servants to fill the jars with water, they followed His instructions completely, and filled the waterpots to the brim. There was no way even a small amount of wine could have been added to the water in an attempt to disprove the miracle. At the time of the miracle, the jars contained nothing but water.
(vs.8) After the servants had filled the pots with water, Jesus “saith unto them, Draw out now, and bear unto the governor of the feast. And they bare it.” If the servants were not curious about what Jesus was doing, they certainly had to be when He told them to “Draw out now, and bear unto the governor of the feast.” They were told to take some of the water from the pots and give it to the “governor of the feast.” The “governor” and the “ruler” in the next verse are the same person. He oversaw and managed the whole affair. But as for the servants, when they were told to give some to the manager of the feast they must’ve been wondering what would happen? Was this not just water? The moment of truth had come. John tells us that the servants obeyed Jesus and “they bare it.” In other words they took water from the pots and gave it to the manager of the feast.
Note: We are not told the exact moment that the water became wine. If the servants suddenly served the “governor of the feast” water in front of all the guests, he would be terribly embarrassed, and they would be humiliated. Therefore following Jesus’ directions required some faith. It’s true that human nature often accepts with great reluctance what it can’t understand. We tend to lean toward the familiar, the credible, and the proven. We do this in order to protect ourselves against making a mistake. But those who wish to grow in faith must often obey Christ’s commands without fully understanding them.
(vs. 9). This verse says that “When the ruler of the feast had tasted the water that was made wine, and knew not whence it was: (but the servants which drew the water knew;) the governor of the feast called the bridegroom.” As noted earlier, the “ruler of the feast” and the “governor of the feast” was the same person responsible for overseeing and managing the feast. Though the term “ruler” used here can also refer to a butler or head waiter, it seems to imply a steward whose duties included tasting the food and beverages. We are told that he tasted the wine, not knowing where it came from, but expecting it to be the same as what he had sampled before the feast. Parenthetically John tells us that even though the “ruler of the feast” didn’t know the wine was different, the servants did. After tasting it, he called for the bridegroom.
(vs. 10). The bridegroom approached the ruler of the feast, “And saith unto him, Every man at the beginning doth set forth good wine; and when men have well drunk, then that which is worse: but thou hast kept the good wine until now.” After the ruler or steward of the feast tasted the wine the servants brought to him, he quickly realized it was not the same wine. So superior was this wine that he hastily called the bridegroom to compliment him on the quality of the wine. The steward called the bridegroom’s attention to the usual custom of serving the best wine first.Then when a person’s sense of taste has become somewhat blunted, the inferior quality beverage was served. But he said that didn’t happen this time. The best wine had been saved until last. Just as the wine Jesus made was the best, so life with Him is better than life on our own. Why wait until everything else runs out before trying God? Why save the best until last? Note: Some people have a problem with the fact that Jesus provided wine for the wedding guests. Many scholars argue that the “wine” of that day was fermented but heavily diluted with water and thus not the kind of drink that could easily cause drunkenness. Other scholars understand the “wine” that Jesus miraculously produced to have been pure grape juice, free from any alcohol content. If that view is taken, there is no problem at all.
(vs.11-12) John now comments that “This beginning of miracles did Jesus in Cana of Galilee, and manifested forth his glory; and his disciples believed on him.” This was the first miracle that Jesus performed and it was in the small town of Cana in Galilee. The word for “miracles” used here is semeion which means “a sign.” When Jesus performed this miracle, to those who saw it, it was a sign of who He was. One of the purposes of John’s Gospel is to present Jesus as the Son of God and point readers to Him, where they can find light and life. The miracles or signs that John recorded were designed to do just that. Besides, the Jews looked for such signs (see I Corinthians 1:22). In performing these miracles or signs, Jesus “manifested forth his glory.” This means that Jesus revealed His glory. John tells us that the result of this first miracle was that “his disciples believed on him.” However, this belief would be tested in days to come, and there would be much more spiritual growth, but at this point they needed to understand that they were indeed following the Son of God.
After this miracle, John says that “he (Jesus) went down to Capernaum, he, and his mother, and his brethren, and his disciples: and they continued there not many days.” Following the wedding festivities, Jesus went to Capernaum with His mother, his brothers and the disciples that He had called up to this point. Capernaum became Jesus’ base of operations during His ministry in Galilee. Jesus had four brothers, James, Joses, Simon and Juda (see Matthew 13:55-56; Mark 6:3. He also had sisters, but we are not told how many. This group that followed Jesus to Capernaum stayed there with Him for a short period of time, the meaning of “they continued there not many days.”
V. Conclusion. Our response in any difficult situation must be to call on the creative Word, Jesus Christ, and believe in Him. We are not alone in our deep and troubling situations. God’s creative Word is always at work to help us. We can trust our Lord to bring life into the impossible situations that face us. Our response simply must be to believe Him.
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