Christ’s First Miracle
Published by Stanley Pouw in 2012 · 22 January 2012
“On the third day there was a wedding in Cana of Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there. 2 Now both Jesus and His disciples were invited to the wedding. 3 And when they ran out of wine, the mother of Jesus said to Him, “They have no wine.” 4 Jesus said to her, “Woman, what does your concern have to do with Me? My hour has not yet come.” 5 His mother said to the servants, “Whatever He says to you, do it.”
Now after giving us some testimonies, John turns in the beginning of chapter 2 to the works of Christ because the deeds and the works of Christ also tell us that He is God. It's not just the testimony of other people that is important, but it's the testimony of Christ's life, His words, His personality, His divine knowledge, His actions and the miracles He performed that is the real proof. All of these things prove to us that Christ indeed was God in a human body.
Now in order to confirm this, John in the book of John gives us eight different sign miracles that Christ performs. All these eight miracles are different. Christ healed many blind people, John only records one. Christ fed the multitudes at least twice that we know of, John records only one. He merely takes illustrations from the variety of miracles that Christ performed to show us that indeed Christ is God.
The first miracle is turning water into wine in John 2. The second one is healing the nobleman's son in chapter 4. The third one is curing the paralytic in chapter 5. Then in chapter 6 there are two, the feeding of the 5,000 and walking on the Sea of Galilee. In chapter 9 the sixth one, giving sight to the blind and in chapter 11 the seventh one, raising Lazarus. And the eighth one is in chapter 21 where Christ provided fish for the nets of the disciples.
There is no duplication in these. Why did Christ do these miracles? The answer is in right in this story in chapter 2:11, “What Jesus did here in Cana of Galilee was the first of the signs through which He revealed his glory; and his disciples believed in him.” He wanted to show us His deity by His miracles. Glory means Deity.
Glory means all that God is, in all of His character, in all of His person and in all of His attributes. And Jesus wanted to reveal by His miracles that He was God in control of nature, in control of all of the forces of the universe. And so John here presents eight miracles, guided by the Holy Spirit, to verify to us that Christ is God.
From chapter 2 to chapter 12 we find the public ministry of Jesus to the Jews. From chapter 13 to 17 there is no public ministry, it is all a private ministry with the disciples. He takes them aside in these chapters to get them ready because He's going to go away. Then in chapter 18 to 20 He leaves. So the book of John is divided in to three categories: 1st, public ministry, 2nd, His private ministry with His own, and then last from 18 to 20, His final departure.
So tonight we are beginning His public ministry and we see the first miracle that He performed on earth. His first public act to reveal His true glory. Now please notice four things in this text: the scene, the situation, the supply and the significance. We’ll discuss the first two tonight and the last two next Sunday.
First the scene in verse 1, "And the third day there was a wedding in Cana of Galilee." Now what does the third day refer to? It basically says that there were three days between the time that Christ had called Philip and Nathanael until this wedding.
Now Cana of Galilee was approximately 22 miles away, so it took them a couple of days to get there. Jesus and His six new disciples had journeyed from the banks of the Jordan. Cana was a little village about nine miles from Nazareth. In fact, some writers say that you could see Cana on a clear day. Nazareth was the town where Christ had lived His 30 years so far and all His family was there, His sisters and brothers and relatives.
So they arrived in Cana of Galilee and there was a wedding there. Now the second part of verse 1 says, "And the mother of Jesus was there." In fact, some Bible scholars feel there's a family relationship because you see Mary as kind of an assistant to the host. It is very interesting that Christ would choose to do His first miracle right here.
Christ at this point is moving away from that isolated family life into the public limelight. And He does His first miracle right at that initial point where He's still got the family and yet He's opening up that public ministry. So this miracle is almost a royal farewell to His family. He does the miracle right there where they are in view of them and from there He moves out.
Where was Joseph? Well after the time of Christ in Jerusalem at the age of 12, we don't ever hear about Joseph again. Once Christ said in Luke 2:49, "I must be about My Father's business," Joseph was not discussed anymore. Some believe that Joseph had died by the time you get to the marriage at Cana. We know that Joseph was dead by the time Jesus was crucified because Christ would not have committed his mother Mary to John.
Now a wedding in Israel was a big thing. In fact, the biggest thing going in those days were weddings. When a man and his wife came together, that union entertained practically the whole community. A wedding normally would begin on a Wednesday with a very luxurious feast and following that there would always be the ceremony of the wedding itself.
And it would last anywhere from two to seven days, depending upon how wealthy they were. You just said goodbye to your job, you dropped all the worry about the crops, you went over to the house and you had a great time for a week. In fact, the bride and the bridegroom would have been betrothed to each other long before this but they didn't really live together until the wedding ceremony.
And each night was a festive occasion and very often night by night they would dress the bride and the bridegroom in their bridal robes and with a lot of people carrying a lot of torches they would parade them through town singing songs. They were treated like a king and a queen. And in a life where there was much poverty and much hard work, this was truly a refreshing festival of joy in those days.
Jesus and His disciples got an invitation to the marriage. You say, "Well how could the disciples get an invitation to the marriage when they just got called three days before and they didn't have a post office or a letter carrier, I mean, they just have been walking from Jordan over there, how could they get an invitation?"
Christ, of course, knew that He was going to Cana to perform this miracle. Obviously because He is all-knowing. And sometime when they got to Nazareth, His home, someone extended an invitation to go on down to Cana because there was a marriage there and His mother was there. So Jesus having been invited, along with the disciples, went down to the marriage at Cana.
Now Christ's presence at this marriage is very important. By Christ doing a miracle to ensure the success of the marriage ceremony, He is sanctifying marriage and the ceremony itself. Marriage is a sacred union and it is, two becoming one in the sight of God. That's why God hates divorce. In fact, in Genesis 5 when Adam and Eve were brought together to become one, God referred to them together as Adam, not the Adams...they were one. Marriage was designed by God.
I sometimes hear today in the marriage counseling that the ceremony is immaterial, that if you just love somebody, what's marriage, it's just a piece of paper. Perhaps the most significant reason why the ceremony is important is that in the Bible a ceremony was always a part of marriage, both in the Old Testament and New Testament.
Jesus Christ Himself sanctified the ceremony. It was a clear honest testimony before God and the world of the intent of one man and one woman to live together with the promise of fidelity and godliness. And it was a statement to the world of that promise. A marriage ceremony is a sacred promise before God.
To go into a union without a marriage ceremony would be foolish because it would eliminate a tremendous motive and restraint to make things work out if there's trouble. The vows to each other with God as a witness give a strong motive to make things work when there are differences. And people who get married without the ceremony aren't really married before God, and so they're committing adultery.
So Christ sanctified many events of life. And He entered in to the trials and tribulations of life to show how to purify the daily life of man. How fitting was it that the first miracle was at a marriage, because of His own likening of His relationship to the church as that of a bridegroom and a bride. Some day when Christ comes to take us to be with Him in heaven, we're going to have a ceremony too called “the marriage supper of the Lamb”.
Now look at the situation in verses 3 to 5, where this problem came up. "And when they ran out of wine, the mother of Jesus said to Him, “They have no wine.” Now wine was a staple drink in those days. I've heard people say, "Well, you have to remember, the wine wasn't fermented." Oh yes it was. You try to make grape juice without refrigerators or preservatives, it fermented fast. It was a hot area. In fact, back as far as Genesis 14:18, you remember Melchizedek showed up and brought bread and wine.
They didn't have a purification process, so water was worse to drink than wine. And wine was even used with milk, and, of course, milk was used much with children as it is today. But wine was the staple drink then and it could be the wine from many different kinds of fruit, but primarily from grapes because they lend themselves so well to the production of wine.
Now because there were no preservatives the wine did ferment and developed into a drink with high alcohol content. In fact in the time of Christ, wine was often a mixture of three parts water for every two parts of wine in order to eliminate this problem of drunkenness.
Especially on a hot day, when a man would be working hard and wanted to quench his thirst, it would be easy for him to become intoxicated with wine and out of control. So the Bible has stringent rules on drinking wine and drunkenness, both in the Old Testament and New Testament.
So Mary told Jesus that they were running out of wine. Now she didn't say, "Please go down and do this, Jesus, and do that and the other," no, she just told Him because she knew that Jesus would do what He wanted and she knew that He had the power to do anything.
You might say, "But this after all is just such a trivial miracle. Jesus is going to provide a lot of wine for a party, that's all?" Is that really a trivial miracle? Number one, hospitality in the east is very important and this was an important occasion and these were thirsty people and this was a real need. Secondly, it was a miracle of love, wasn't it? The host was embarrassed and people were thirsty. Christ was providing for a simple need.
Have you ever noticed that the miracles of Christ were always simple miracles? I used to think about the miracles that Jesus could have done. He could have walked into Jerusalem and just motioned and everybody in the city would have gone 40 feet up in the air and just been suspended there for a day and said, "Now I'll let you down when you believe that I'm Messiah."
Jesus Christ could have pulled off some miracle that absolutely would shatter all the concepts you have in your brain. But He never did. He never did anything for the sake of sensation. Every miracle He ever did had an inherent need, didn't it? There was a blind man who needed to see. There was a paralytic who couldn't walk. There were some hungry people who needed to be fed.
You see, He never wasted His power, He always did a miracle and it was always a beautiful simple miracle to give somebody something they needed. It was the beauty of the Savior meeting man on the simplest level of his life and supplying his simplest need. Does that teach you something about Christ in your life as a Christian? He literally moves creation to supply the simplest need. Does Christ really supply our food and our needs, do we believe that?
Now look at verse 4, Jesus said to her, “Woman, what does your concern have to do with Me? My hour has not yet come.” Now I want to break this up so you can see it. The first thing He says to her is "Woman," Now you say that sounds a little bit cold, I mean, after all, this is His dear mother. No she isn't, not really.
What is He saying? This word “woman” is a very interesting word, it's the same word that Jesus used on the cross when He said, "Woman, behold your son," and committed her to John. Do you know what it means? If we could put it into an English word it would be the word in its most grandiose concept, the word "lady." It's an exalted word, lady.
"Well why does Jesus not call her mother?" Had Jesus called her mother, He would have been emphasizing His human relationship to her. But when He called her “lady”, in effect He was saying, I'm God. You see, Mary was not only the mother of Jesus Christ humanly, but Mary was also a lady who needed Jesus Christ to be her Redeemer, and her Savior.
And Jesus is pointing that out at this time. In effect, He is saying, "Mary, the human relationship is over. I'm leaving this private life; you're now talking to the Son of God. It's no longer ‘mother’, from now on I’ll always call you ‘woman’.
And then He says this, "Woman, what does your concern have to do with Me?" What does that mean? In Greek it literally means, "What is there for you and Me?" In other words, "What do we have in common? What are you, a woman, telling Me the Son of God that I have to do? Are we working together, you a woman and Me God? Don’t worry, I’ll take care of it.”
You think Mary got the message? Sure she got the message. The next verse she said, “Whatever He says to you, do it." She knew Jesus was going to do something. Do you understand that His relationship with Mary as a mother and son was now different? Do you remember in Mark 3:31-35 when Jesus was teaching? His mother showed up and they said, "Go in and tell Jesus that His Mother is calling you."
And Jesus said, "Who is My mother? Who are My brothers?" And the people looked around at each other in amazement. And then He said this, "He that does the will of My Father is My brother and My sister and mother." In other words, the supernatural divine relationship had totally superseded any human relationship.
He says, "My hour is not yet come." You know, that's an interesting statement because that statement is repeated seven times in the gospel of John. Christ had a total awareness of the fact that He was on a divine schedule decreed by God before the foundation of the world. And nothing will happen that is not in the fullness of time, nothing. And He said when that moment comes, I'll act. Do you believe in Him? He is truly God, Amen? Let’s pray.