Water to Wine (John 2:1-12)

John chapter 2, verses 1 through 12.

John 2:1–12

On the third day, a wedding took place in Cana of Galilee.

Jesus' mother was there, and Jesus and his disciples were invited to the wedding as well.

When the wine ran out, Jesus' mother told him, They don't have any wine.

What has this to concern uh what has this concern of yours to do with me, woman?

Jesus asked.

My hour has not yet come.

Do whatever he tells you, his mother told the servants.

Now six stone water jars had been set there for Jesus for Jewish purification.

Each contained twenty or thirty gallons.

Fill the jars with water, Jesus told them.

So they filled them to the brim.

Then he said to them, Now draw some out and take it to the head waiter.

And they did.

When the head waiter tasted the water after it had become wine, he did not know where it came from.

Though the servants who had drawn the water knew.

He called the groom and told him, Everyone sets out the fine wine first.

Then, after people are drunk, the inferior.

But you have kept the fine wine until now.

Jesus did this, the first of his signs, in Cana of Galilee.

He revealed his glory, and his disciples believed in him.

After this, he went down to Capernaum together with his mother, his brothers, and his disciples, and they stayed there only a few days.

Let's pray.

Lord, I thank you so much for your word.

Thank you that we get to be right here in Scripture here this morning.

But I pray that you would do uh do the speaking here this morning.

I'd be able to step out of the way.

I pray that we would approach you and we would approach your word with all humility, that your uh your message would shine through, Lord, that we would approach you with an openness for whatever it is you want to do in us uh to make us more like Jesus here this morning, we pray.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.

You may be seated.

So that's a heads up.

Today is a really long intro before we get to our text.

Because this first sign of Jesus sets up something that we're gonna be looking at for the next 10 chapters.

So we need to really set a good foundation this morning, and we're gonna be doing that right here in the beginning.

You know, chapter 2 starts off still in the first week of Jesus' public ministry, and it starts off with his first sign, as we see right here.

And as we've talked so much about, John's gospel is different than the synoptic gospels, than Matthew, Mark, and Luke.

Uh, chapters two through 11 of John are really going to focus on Jesus' ministry and proof of his divinity, proving that Jesus is God.

And John really doesn't focus on keeping things in order in his gospel.

Chronology is not a concern of John.

And in general, chronology in history was not a priority to this biblical Jewish culture like it is to ours in the U.S.

You know, we want everything in one pass and in order when we're looking at history, and that's how most of our history books are written.

In the Jewish culture, it was multiple passes through, filling in different details each time through the same story.

And that's what we find in the four gospels.

And I think in this next generation of Christians that John's living among, some questions and some confusion and even some heresies have started to pop up about Jesus.

And remember, the average life expectancy at this time is they think about 35 to 45 years old.

That was the average life expectancy, which might, you know, tell us why Joseph, Jesus' stepfather, you know, is no longer in the picture after we see him as a young boy.

But it's estimated that John lived to be about 90 years old.

So he was an outlier in his day of his age.

So at the time of John's writing, he may be one of the few people left on earth that actually knew Jesus or even saw Jesus or even was alive when Jesus was alive.

So he's probably writing to the next two or three generations after Jesus.

You know, there may be some confusion as to who may enter into the kingdom of God.

So he focuses a lot on that.

There may be some confusion as to who really is a child of God, or was Jesus really God himself?

So John writes his gospel from a different perspective.

And if you remember, in chapter 20, verses 30 through 31 of John, which we covered in the intro to the book, John tells us the purpose of his writing, why he wrote this book in the first place.

He says, Jesus performed many other signs in the presence of his disciples that are not written in this book.

But these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.

So that's the purpose.

John tells us outright.

This is why he wrote this gospel.

Now, something interesting is that John uses this word that we just saw there, that word signs, he uses it 19 different times in these 21 chapters that he wrote.

And he uses it to describe Jesus' miracles.

And we'll see seven different signs that Jesus does as we continue on in the next few weeks.

But John chooses the word signs.

I think I'm saying that right.

And we need to treat this word different than the word that was used in the other gospels, which was dunamis.

And they, the other authors use that for Jesus' miracles, and that refers to power.

But John chooses the word signs.

So it's unique in that way.

And we need to treat these words, signs, and miracles, differently.

Because signs have a message.

So we need to look at them as such and ask not only what was the miracle that Jesus did, but what was the message of the sign that he did?

You know, the miracle today is water into wine.

But what is the sign that Jesus was giving?

What's the message behind it?

So we'll look at that.

And I want you to know that I try to be very careful when teaching to make sure to point out symbolism, to point out signs and things like that.

But I'm also very cautious to make uh sure that I don't take symbolism too far.

You know, sometimes we can draw things out of scripture that the Holy Spirit never intended to be there in the first place.

Like that old adage, you know, if you torture a verse long enough, you can get it to say whatever you want.

But John uses a lot of symbolism and a lot of metaphors and talks a lot about signs in his writing.

So we need to address those things as such.

And along those lines, just to kind of set up, as I said, these next ten chapters, if we are to zoom out on the book of John from the 30,000-foot view, and we take the big picture of what's happening in chapters 2 through 11, I think we can see John drawing a correlation of Israel in their Exodus, you know, coming out of Egypt, and Israel in Jesus' time.

Contrasting the old covenant of law with the new covenant of grace.

So John will point out how the wilderness generation rejected the old covenant, and how this generation that Jesus is living among is rejecting the new covenant in Jesus Christ.

And he's gonna do that by comparison and also by contrast.

For example, today we'll see water turn to wine.

So wine and blood in the Bible are synonymous with each other.

In Genesis 49, 11, wine is even called the blood of grapes.

And I think it's appropriate.

I have this little calendar on my desk.

It's the dad joke of the day.

And this week, as I'm going through my dad joke of the day, there was one that said, What did the grape do when it got stepped on?

It let out a little wine.

How appropriate we're talking about this today.

But throughout scripture, wine is a symbol of blood, it's a symbol of a good life, it's a symbol of joy, and it's a symbol of having plenty.

Proverbs 3, 9 through 10 says, Honor the Lord with your possessions and with the first produce of your entire harvest.

Then your barns will be completely filled, and your vats will overflow with new wine.

And we're going to be drawing some correlations today between the water being turned to wine and the first plague in Egypt of water turning to blood.

So new and old covenant comparisons here today.

And then another example is like in chapter 4, you know, I think we can see a correlation of the last plague in Egypt causing the death of Pharaoh's son, and then the reversal of that with Jesus healing the royal official's son.

You know, blood once signifying death, now signifying abundant life.

You know, John mentions in chapter 3, you know, the snake in the wilderness was lifted up to save Israel.

And then the comparison is Jesus is lifted up on the cross to save the world.

We see God's provision to the Jews in the wilderness was manna from heaven, and Jesus calls himself the bread of life.

He tells them in John chapter 6, for the bread of uh God is the one who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.

John 6 · chapter mention

And the correlations go on and on.

Those are just a few, but we're going to be looking at those from a 30,000-foot view here this morning.

Not neglecting them, but also making sure we don't draw too much out of those correlations as well.

You know, and it's been a few weeks since we've been in John.

You know, we had um we had the last two Sundays where our special services.

But chapter two starts off here this morning with on the third day.

So let's revisit a little bit of where we're coming from.

On the third day from what?

So in chapter one, it starts with John establishing that Jesus is the Son of God, but is also God and has always existed.

He establishes that Jesus is life, that is, you know, the source of all life and is life himself.

He establishes that Jesus is light, both physically and spiritually, and that darkness cannot defeat, overcome, or comprehend that light.

Then we learned about John the Baptizer, John the Baptist, and how God called him to pave the way and point to the coming Messiah.

And we saw how John would point to Jesus and say, Look, he'd say, Behold the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world.

Then John, our author, tells us about some of Jesus' first encounters that he had with his disciples, which is where we left off three weeks ago.

And we talked about what it looked like for a rabbi to call a disciple, and how the rabbi would say, follow me.

And let's see how good your memory is here.

What is the job of a disciple?

It's to become just like the rabbi.

Oh yeah, okay.

What's the job of a disciple?

To become just like the rabbi, right?

Which is exactly our job as well, as disciples of Jesus.

That should be our goal is to become just like Jesus.

So that was chapter one.

Now let's jump into chapter two.

Look at verse one with me.

On the third day, a wedding took place in Cana of Galilee.

So we have a map up here that I want to show you.

And you can see Cana's way up here.

I don't know if you can read it from the back, but it's just north of Nazareth, you know, where Jesus' hometown.

So they're right next to each other, and they're all in this region of Galilee.

This is the Sea of Galilee right now.

But all of this wedding feast is taking place right up there in Cana.

And the third day here is probably referring to the calling of Philip and Nathaniel.

So a few days have passed from what we just saw in chapter 1.

And here they are in Cana of Galilee.

But John says on the third day.

And then he points to Jesus' first sign, which is water to wine.

Remember what I was talking about?

Old covenant to new covenant.

But look down at verse 19, chapter 2, which we're going to be covering next week.

But what does Jesus say in verse 19?

Jesus answered, Destroy this temple, and I will rise it up in three days.

I think John is setting this up here.

I think this first sign is completely pointing to Jesus' resurrection on the third day, which is the beginning of the new covenant that was brought about by Jesus' death, burial, and resurrection.

Now look at the second part of verse 1.

It says, Jesus' mother was there.

And Jesus and his disciples were invited to the wedding as well.

And there is so much speculation on these verses about whose wedding was this?

You know, and so many people have varying opinions on it.

But I think if it really added value to what the author wanted to describe to us and communicate to us, that he would have told us whose wedding this was.

So we're not going to get into that speculation.

But we know that Jesus' mother is there.

Jesus is invited along with all of his disciples, that he has at that point.

And we know that this takes place close to their hometown, only a few miles from Nazareth.

And this is probably someone that they know.

Maybe even it's a family member that's getting married, which may be why Mary is so worried about this family's reputation.

So at this point, Jesus is about a week into his public ministry, and he's acting as a rabbi, but he hadn't done any signs yet.

But Mary knew that Jesus could handle the situation.

You know, surely she's heard about Jesus' baptism, about his temptation in the wilderness, about how John the Baptist won't stop saying, you know, behold the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world.

She knows he's taken on disciples, you know, because they're actually there at the wedding with him.

You know, his public ministry has started.

So she comes to him.

Look at verse 3.

When the wine ran out, Jesus' mother told him, They don't have any wine.

You know, I think in our culture, we're like, well, that's a bummer.

You know, in this culture, this is a big embarrassing moment, especially for the groom's family who is supposed to provide the wine and the food for the ceremony.

And remember, this is an honor culture.

And hospitality was a really big deal in this culture.

And weddings were supposed to be the ultimate party for the Jews, lasting seven days.

And the implications of running out of wine is something I don't think we will ever fully grasp in our culture of what this really meant for this family.

You know, this could be a black mark on this couple from day one forever.

So Mary's very concerned about the honor of this couple and this family.

So she comes to Jesus and look at Jesus' response in verse 4.

What has this concern of yours to do with me, woman?

Jesus asks.

You know, at first glance, this could be seemed this could seem disrespectful, couldn't it?

For Jesus to talk to his own mother this way.

But again, we're viewing this from a different cultural lens and through the lens of a different language.

This term woman here is not how a son would typically address his mother, that's true, but is not derogatory either.

This word has a very respectful way for some, it was a respectful way for somebody to address a woman.

Almost kind of like I think the closest thing we have in English is like lady.

You know, like we would address a crowd by saying, ladies and gentlemen.

It's a respectful way to address a woman.

And when he says, What has this concern of yours to do with me?

He's not brushing her off.

It's like he's saying, You're coming to me as your son, but you're asking me to do something that I can only do if God tells me to.

So he doesn't say, Mom, here.

He addresses her as someone would that was not her son.

You know, many commentators point to this as a turning point in Jesus and Mary's relationship.

Not that they would lose their mother-son relationship, and not that Jesus would stop honoring her, you know, in any way as his mother.

But this seems like Jesus is respectfully letting her know that God would be directing his ministry, not her, or any other person for that matter.

You know, this was God's business, so he needed to deal with God alone in this matter.

It's like he's saying, you know, I can't do this thing you're asking as your son.

I can't obey your request blindly just because you're my mother.

You know, if it's going to happen, it has to be because God tells him to do it.

And because God says it's time for your first public sign.

That's why he says at the end of verse 4, My hour has not yet come.

You know, up until this point in Jesus' public ministry, God had not given him the go-ahead to perform public miracles and signs.

You know, we also know that Jesus never did anything until God gave him the go-ahead in the first place.

He tells us that in John 5 19, where Jesus says, Truly I tell you, the Son is not able to do anything on his own, but only what he sees the Father doing.

But presumably, something happens between verses four and verses five that is not mentioned.

And we need to understand that it was not Mary nagging Jesus or guilting him into this miracle.

You know, if he didn't want to perform it, and if God wasn't telling him to perform it, he's not gonna perform it.

You know, we don't know if Jesus got away, maybe to pray, you know, and God gave him the go-ahead.

Yeah, now's the time.

We don't know if after Jesus said these very words, the Holy Spirit prompted him, like, okay, now's the time, go ahead.

Or if Jesus knew, but needed to say this phrase to make sure that Mary knew that it would be God's direction alone that would lead him to doing the sign.

So some commentators point to uh at this moment, like what's John trying to do in the way that he puts these these sentences together?

And some commentators point to the heretical thought that Mary is God, and that this thought started to spring up already in the first century, and maybe John mentions this interaction right here to show that Mary was not God and did not direct Jesus' ministry, but that she was simply a woman that was given a huge honor and a huge responsibility to be the mother of Jesus Christ, but she's not God, she's nothing beyond just a human woman, which I think makes sense of why John would include this and why he would word it in this way through obviously through the guidance of the Holy Spirit.

But Jesus does get the go-ahead from God, one way or another, however, God does it, and it seems like Mary realizes it as well.

And then look at verse 5.

Mary says, Do whatever he tells you.

His mother told the servants.

Does it seem like Mary's offended at this point of what Jesus told her?

I really don't think so.

And I think this is actually really neat how God set this up that it was Mary's prompting that led to Jesus' first sign.

He allowed her to be a part of it, you know, to recognize the need and then to bring that need to Jesus.

And in faith, she tells the servants, do whatever he tells you.

Look at verse six.

Now, six stone water jars had been set there for Jewish purification.

Those are important words if you're a highlighter or underliner.

Each contained 20 or 30 gallons.

So these jars were large.

Think of the size of a five gallon bucket, and then multiply that times four or six.

And we're talking about some really good sized.

Containers.

And these jars would be provided as a courtesy to the guests so that when they arrived, you know, the servants could wash their feet, and when it was time to eat, they could go and they could ceremonially wash their hands before eating.

You know, a tradition, this hand washing tradition, was something that was not given to them by God in the law.

It was added to the Jewish law.

In Luke 11, 37, a Pharisee was amazed that Jesus did not perform the ritual hand washing before eating.

And Jesus responded to the Pharisee and said, Now you Pharisees clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside you are full of greed and deceit.

You see, God gave them the law, and the Jewish community kept wanting to add to it.

They kept wanting to make things harder for themselves.

Why?

So they could feel better about themselves in a legalistic way.

All the while being filled with grief and evil on the inside, as Jesus points out.

So, how fitting that Jesus would use these law containers, that's really what they were, as a symbol of the old covenant.

You know, I think the symbolism, the sign here, is that Jesus is saying, I'll turn your laws, and I'll turn your added laws, the misery that you've placed yourself under, and I'll show you a new covenant through my blood that will be filled with freedom from the law.

That will be filled with grace, that'll be filled with an abundance of joy.

Look at verse 7.

Fill the jars with water, Jesus told them.

So they filled them to the brim.

There's a lot of speculation about this part of this passage as well.

You know, did Jesus make all the water into wine in the stone containers?

Or did the water turn to wine after the servants dipped some out and faithfully carried it to the head waiter in obedience?

We don't know, but what we do know for sure, regardless of when it turned into wine, is that Jesus prepared enough provisions for all six of those containers to be served as really good wine.

And just so we can wrap our head around the abundance of this provision that Jesus is making available at this wedding feast, there's about 20 glasses of wine in a gallon.

I looked it up this week.

And to be on the conservative side, let's just say the containers were 20.

I said 20, 30 gallons, let's just say they were 20 gallons.

So that's 20 gallons times 20 glasses, so that's 400 glasses of wine in each one of these containers times six containers.

That's conservatively 2,400 glasses of wine that Jesus made provision for.

Why did he provide so much after everyone had already had some?

Jesus didn't want to make just enough.

He said to fill them up, and they filled them up until they were brimming.

And the lack of wine in the first place maybe meant that, most likely meant that the couple getting married and their families probably didn't have a lot of money to begin with.

You know, Nazareth, Cana, you know, in this region of Galilee, they weren't known for their wealth.

They were the blue collar hard workers, fishermen, farmers, uh, carpenters, things like that.

So it's quite the opposite.

They weren't in the wealthy region of Israel.

And if Jesus made all the containers into wine, the excess of this incredible wine could be sold for a large sum of money to help this couple get established.

But I think the larger lesson here is that Jesus blesses in abundance.

Just like he forgives in abundance, just like he gives grace in abundance, his provision for us is never lacking, and his forgiveness for us is never lacking as well.

Look at verse 8 with me.

Then he said to them, Now draw some out and take it to the head waiter.

And they did.

Then the hate the head waiter tasted the water after it had become wine.

He did not know where it came from, though the servants who had drawn the water knew.

How would you like to be this servant?

I think it would be kind of fun, wouldn't it?

Have you ever had really good news that you just couldn't wait to share with somebody?

And it's just like all this anticipation built up within because you couldn't wait to tell this person the good news.

Imagine the servant bringing it up to the head waiter and saying, You need to try this.

And the head waiter saying, What is it?

You know, where where did it come from?

And the servant's just like, you just gotta try it, and then I'll tell you where it came from because you're not gonna believe what just happened.

But look at the second half of verse 9.

He said, He called the groom and told him, Everyone sets out the fine wine first.

Then after people are drunk, the inferior.

But you have kept the fine wine until now.

You know, my major at Cal Poly was business.

And in economics, they taught us about the law of diminishing marginal utility.

Basically, that means nothing tastes better than the first bite of whatever you're eating.

You know, or that first sip of coffee in the morning, or whatever it might be.

Picture like the best thing you've ever ate.

You know, you're not gonna impress somebody more with something that maybe that you've made than the first bite that they take, or the first drink that they take.

And even if whatever it is that's amazing that you're eating, regardless of what it is, each bite is a little less impressive than the last.

And if you eat too much, it can even start to taste gross, right?

Between that last bite and that first bite.

So, verse 10 in the Greek, the head waiter calls the groom over and actually says, Haven't you heard of the law of diminishing marginal utility?

No, he doesn't say that in the Greek, I'm joking.

But that's basically what he's saying to this guy.

You know, you let their first glass or two be the good stuff.

And then when their senses are dulled and they're not really thinking about it, then you pull out the two-buck check, you know?

And then nobody's gonna notice that there's a decrease in the value of wine.

So he tells the groom, you have this backwards.

Like, you're doing this backwards.

The best is supposed to be first, and the mediocre is supposed to be second.

But if we keep all of this in context of old covenant and new covenant, the best and perfect came second, didn't it?

The law was good.

Jesus is perfect.

When Jesus spilled his blood, the wine that we symbolically take and we're going to be taking for communion for us that's grape juice, he didn't spill just enough for his disciples.

He didn't spill just enough for everyone just to last them through the year.

He forgave sin in abundance.

He forgave all trespasses, as we talked about last week at Easter, and his forgiveness cannot be exhausted.

His love, his grace, his mercy, his forgiveness is brimming at the top for each and every one of us.

Look at verse 11 with me.

Jesus did this, the first of his signs in Cana of Galilee.

The sign was the transition from the old covenant, the old form of purification, the ceremonial washing that we're talking about, to a new covenant.

The new form of purification, the washing that comes from the blood of Jesus Christ.

You know, in Exodus, Moses was the lawgiver.

You know, God used him to give the law to the Israelites.

And Moses, the lawgiver, his first sign that God performed through him and Aaron was turning water to blood.

The first plague in Egypt was water into blood, signifying death.

It caused death on everything that was in that water and made it undrinkable for all the other life forms.

The first sign the Savior did was turn water into wine.

And what does wine signify?

Joy and abundance.

Look at the second half of verse 11.

He revealed his glory, and his disciples believed in him.

You know, we'll see that Jesus reveals his glory a little bit at a time.

We'll notice that as we go through this book together.

You know, not everyone at this wedding feast saw the miracle.

And Jesus didn't make a spectacle of it either.

In a lot of ways, Jesus kind of slow plays his glory.

You know, think of how many times he healed somebody and then said, Don't tell anyone about what just happened here today.

He was revealing his glory at a deliberate pace.

You see, Jesus chose on earth to veil his glory.

Not completely block it, but veil it.

He just chose to veil it.

And then he gave people glimpses like we see right here.

He revealed his glory, and his disciples believed in him.

Now look at verse 12.

After this, he went down to Capernaum together with his mother, his brothers, and his disciples, and they stayed there only a few days.

You know, verses like these prove that Mary was not a virgin after giving birth to Jesus.

Jesus had half-brothers and sisters, and Mary had more kids with Joseph.

You know, Mary was a virgin at Jesus' birth.

She was highly favored among women.

She loved God with all of her heart, but did not remain a virgin.

And Scripture never gives us reason to believe that she's God or anything more than just a highly favored woman on this earth.

So, as had become the custom in some religions, we should never be praying to her.

We should never direct our prayers to her or think that she directs Jesus' ministry in any way.

So I think for us this morning, those are the 12 verses, what's our big takeaway here this morning?

For each one of us that's sitting here, what's our application of these verses?

Well, I think first, it's that Jesus cares and is compassionate toward our everyday concerns.

The concerns of Mary, the concerns of the bride and groom, the concerns of the family, the concerns for their honor.

Jesus was concerned for those everyday things.

I think the second thing that we can apply is that Jesus wants to be part of our everyday.

And I think the third thing that we can take away, as the bride and groom and their family did from this story, is to invite him into our everyday.

Invite him into our marriage, invite him into our celebrations, our joys, our concerns, our needs, whatever those things might be.

And then, as the servants did so faithfully in taking the wine to the head waiter, do whatever he says.

He cares for us.

He cares for our every day more than we do, and he knows better than we do.

So do whatever he says.

Whatever he says, let's have a ready yes on our lips for those things.

You know, that's why Jesus came in the first place.

He loved us so much that he wanted to make a way for us to be able to come to the Father through this new and perfect covenant that was made by his blood.

And that's exactly what we're going to be doing here this morning as we take communion.

Um, so just remember that.

But let's pray and then I'll invite Ben up to lead us in that time of communion.

Lord, I thank you so much for your word.

I thank you for the richness and the depth of it.

Lord, I thank you that you sent your only begotten Son to die for our sins, to make a way through his blood for us to be able to approach you, as Pete said in the beginning, to come boldly to your throne of grace, to be able to sit here and talk to you right now, to know if we're following Christ, that the Holy Spirit is living inside of us.

Lord, you have blessed us so thoroughly and so beautifully through this new covenant.

We don't deserve it.

But you love us so much and desire us so much that you made a way through your Son Jesus Christ.

And we are eternally grateful for that.

Lord, help us to never grow callous to the thought of what Jesus has done for each one of us.

Lord, I pray that we would be able to celebrate that well right now as we take communion together.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.