3. Jesus Changes Water to Wine
In John 2.1-12, we come to the first “miraculous” sign performed by Jesus in the fourth gospel: the water turned to wine at the marriage feast of Cana. One French translator of the Gospel calls this miracle, not just the “first” sign but the “prototype” of the signs. One more good reason to choose it as our first example of Jesus’ supernatural works.
John 2.1-11: 1 On the third day a wedding took place at Cana in Galilee. Jesus’ mother was there, 2 and Jesus and his disciples had also been invited to the wedding. 3 When the wine was gone, Jesus’ mother said to him, “They have no more wine.” 4 “Dear woman, why do you involve me?” Jesus replied, “My time has not yet come.” 5 His mother said to the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.” 6 Nearby stood six stone water jars, the kind used by the Jews for ceremonial washing, each holding from twenty to thirty gallons. 7 Jesus said to the servants, “Fill the jars with water”; so they filled them to the brim. 8 Then he told them, “Now draw some out and take it to the master of the banquet.” They did so, 9 and the master of the banquet tasted the water that had been turned into wine. He did not realize where it had come from, though the servants who had drawn the water knew. Then he called the bridegroom aside 10 and said, “Everyone brings out the choice wine first and then the cheaper wine after the guests have had too much to drink; but you have saved the best till now.” 11 This, the first of his miraculous signs, Jesus performed in Cana of Galilee. He thus revealed his glory, and his disciples put their faith in him.
At first look, this miracle seems a bit frivolous. The occasion hardly seems to deserve a miraculous manifestation of divine omnipotence. After all, this is not a matter of restoring an only son to a grieving widow or of healing a terribly suffering sick person, or of helping the unfortunate in their extreme state of need. It is just a matter of helping a local family out of an embarrassing situation because they have run out of wine for a wedding feast. Why does Jesus bother to get mixed up in this?
John himself defines the significance of this episode by calling it a “sign” (Greek, semeion), and it will be up to us to discover what this sign might signify: what is the symbolic meaning of the Jesus’ act and why John thought it important to include this story in his gospel. Remember that with signs, there is a hidden meaning to find in what happens on the surface. The action will take place on two different levels at the same time: a literal, material, surface level; and a deeper, symbolic level.
Many have wanted to see, in Mary’s comment, “They have no more wine,” a request that Jesus do a miracle. But that is stretching the meaning of the text. In reality, Mary doesn’t ask for anything at all; she just tells Jesus that there is no more wine. This fits perfectly into the normal pattern of miracle stories in the fourth gospel. They begin with someone pointing out a pressing need for which there seems to exist no human solution (compare John 5.7; 6.7; 11.39). “Sir, I have no one to help me into the pool.” “Eight months’ wages would not buy enough bread for each one to have a bite!” “But Lord, by this time there is a bad odor, for he has been there four days.” At Cana, Mary is the one who reports a situation of distress to which she sees no remedy.
Behind the words of Mary, on the symbolic level, we can discern the voice of Israel’s faithful remnant: the true Jews who are waiting for the Messiah’s reign and for the divine blessings it will bring. In fact, in the Scriptures, wine, and especially abundant wine, often symbolizes the joy that God has promised to his people, the great joy of the Messianic age. Amos 9.13: “The days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when the reaper will be overtaken by the plowman and the planter by the one treading grapes. New wine will drip from the mountains and flow from all the hills.” (See also Joel 4.18; Zechariah 9.16) Wine will flow freely when the Messiah comes, symbol of joy and abundant spiritual blessings.
On the level of the concrete event, Mary is talking about a merely material shortage. Jesus views the situation from a higher plane. For him, Mary is unintentionally voicing the spiritual distress of the true Israel, painfully waiting for the salvation promised by God. Jesus sees her as speaking for the poor in spirit, those who mourn, those who hunger and thirst after righteousness: all the true Jews whose deep longings even the “true religion” of Moses cannot fulfill.
Jesus’ answer to Mary is literally “Woman, what is there between you and me?” This is a Hebrew expression which appears in the Bible with different shades of meaning according to the context. It means, generally, “What do we have in common?” If this question follows a request, it expresses a refusal. But at Cana, Jesus does not refuse anything because Mary has not asked for anything.
The expression seems to convey in this context a difference of viewpoints. You might translate it: “You and I are not on the same wavelength.” Mary is worried about an immediate material situation; she is wondering how the hosts are going to save the party. Jesus tells her, “We are not on the same plane. You are looking at this situation humanly, with human concerns; I am looking at it from the viewpoint of my mission.” Where Mary sees only an embarrassing social situation, Jesus sees, with all the underlying symbolism, the perfect opportunity to begin to show who he is and what he has come to do.
Grammatically, Jesus’ next sentence can be understood as a negative statement (“My hour has not yet come.”) or as a question (“Hasn’t my hour already come?”). Ancient manuscripts had no punctuation, the choice depends on the interpretation of the context. A negative sense is hard to reconcile with the rest of the story. If Jesus is making a categorical and even harsh refusal (“No way, lady!”), how is it that he goes ahead and performs the miracle anyway? Along with several French translators, I believe this is a question. Jesus is inviting Mary to consider this situation in a different way, from a higher plane. He invites her to discover that the time has come for him to intervene as the Messiah in accordance with the purpose of God.
In John’s gospel, the “Hour” of Jesus always refers to the time when he will definitively accomplish the purpose of God. Concretely, this Hour is the moment of his death, resurrection and ascension. That is when Jesus will fully manifest his glory, will enter into his reign and will reveal eternal life.
Strictly speaking, the Hour will not come until the end of Christ’s life, some three years after Cana. But, in the meantime, this Hour is already present, in advance, in the form of the signs that Jesus performs. The miracle of Cana will be the first sign, the first movie trailer, foretelling the Hour when Jesus will fully accomplish the mission for which the Father has sent him into the world.
Mary seems to sense that Jesus is going to do something, even if she doesn’t know what he has in mind. On the symbolic level, she is again speaking as the representative of the faithful remnant. Exodus 19.8: The people all responded together, “We will do everything the Lord has said.” She accepts in advance the as yet unknown conditions of the new covenant that God will conclude through Jesus.
Jesus is not just going to perform a magic trick or even an act of divine power. He will symbolically provide Israel with the wine of the messianic feast. He is acting out a prefiguration of the new age of salvation that will be inaugurated by his Hour. John specifies that the stone jars are six in number and that they were intended for the purification, that is the ceremonial washing, of the Jews. Both of these details are important and have symbolic significance.
Instead of the clay amphorae normally used to keep wine, Jesus uses stone jars reserved for a religious usage typical of Judaism. Mark 7.3: The Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they give their hands a ceremonial washing, holding to the tradition of the elders. What the Law of Moses could only represent symbolically, what any religious practice can only promise but never actually give, Jesus will accomplish it fully, to the brim.
This symbolism is confirmed by the number of jars. The number 6 (a failed and incomplete 7, 7 being the number of divine fullness and perfection) evokes the idea of imperfection to the Jew. Here, it underlines how much the old covenant was imperfect, unable to purify the conscience and give life.
The size of the jars is also a significant detail. The six jars, filled to the brim, would contain between 480 and 720 liters (120 to 180 gallons). That would be between 640 and 960 bottles of wine: way more than enough to supply the needs of a small village wedding feast. The wine furnished by Jesus not only remedies the powerlessness of religion but goes beyond anything we can imagine.
It is also of superior quality, certified by an expert. There is more meaning in the words of the master of the banquet than he realizes. On the surface level, he is giving his opinion on the quality of the physical wine the servants have just served to him. On the symbolic level, he is proclaiming that God, after centuries of waiting, has now answered the deep longing of his people. “You have saved the best until now.” The superior wine of Christ comes after the lesser wine of the Law, and is drawn from the water of ritual purification. It is to bring out this symbolism that Jesus performs this prophetic sign. Origen wrote, “At Cana, the Lord brings joy. Before his coming, Scripture was water; after, it became wine.”
In verse 11, John calls this miracle the first, or the “prototype” of Jesus’ signs. In the synoptic gospels, Jesus inaugurates his public ministry, not by a miracle, but by a proclamation. Luke 4.18-19 : 18 “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, 19 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” Mark 1.14-15: 14 After John was put in prison, Jesus went into Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God. 15 “The time has come,” he said. “The kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the good news!”
In John, the sign of Cana takes the place of this proclamation. It shows symbolically that the time has come when the Messiah will accomplish the purpose of God in behalf of mankind, when the promise of perfect and infinite joy will be fulfilled to the brim.
Prayer
Lord, show us again your power and your goodness by changing the weakness of our hearts into the strength and joy of your Spirit. Grant that, drunk with the good wine of your love, we may lose our taste for the false pleasures of this world. Grant that, always ready to do whatever you say, according to your viewpoint and your timetable, we might receive our reward on the last day. Amen.