Reflection on the Wedding at Cana
Jesus takes water in jars of stone and gives it new meaning with a miracle at a wedding.
I wanted to share a short reflection on John 2:6-11, which is a story about Jesus’ first miracle, where he takes water and turns it into wine. To read the entire context I recommend also reading verses 1-5, but for brevity I’ll only quote verses 6-11.
Below is from The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), John 2:7–11.
6 Now there were six stone water jars there for the Jewish rites of purification, each holding twenty or thirty gallons.
7 Jesus said to the servants, “Fill the jars with water.” And they filled them up to the brim.
8 And he said to them, “Now draw some out and take it to the master of the feast.” So they took it.
9 When the master of the feast tasted the water now become wine, and did not know where it came from (though the servants who had drawn the water knew), the master of the feast called the bridegroom
10 and said to him, “Everyone serves the good wine first, and when people have drunk freely, then the poor wine. But you have kept the good wine until now.”
11 This, the first of his signs, Jesus did at Cana in Galilee, and manifested his glory. And his disciples believed in him.
The first thing I notice is the vessel Jesus uses for his miracle. Verse 6 points out “six stone water jars,” which were used for Jewish ritual purification. Whether it was to clean oneself before eating1, or for dealing with moldy homes and diseases on the skin2, God gave the Jews in the Torah plenty of rules on how to stay clean. The diseases were thought to have come from being in a state of sin and requiring atonement, and there was a great deal of judgment from the community that may come to the owners of the home and the diseased. In the Old Testament, there were priests who would come into homes to inspect and perform rituals to make homes and people clean. The former requiring the use of bird blood, even.
In using these ritualistic jars, Jesus gives new meaning to what it means to be clean. What was important was not physical hygiene or appearing healthy when worshipping, but rather our spiritual purity. We couldn’t achieve true cleanliness by taking the water from the jars and cleaning our bodies, because there was no amount of water that could purify us perfectly. We could only do that through Jesus, in his miraculous death and resurrection, which He did by putting His own body through the winepress and by drinking our cup of wrath. We simply get to enjoy the fruits of His labour.
It also becomes clear that Jesus had been labouring since before the wedding. When the Jews were wandering after having escaped Egypt, Paul tells us that Christ was the spiritual rock and source of the living water that kept them alive3. In this passage, the life-giving water which sustained the Israelites’ physically is converted by Jesus into a drink of celebration and jubilee, for a wedding. So even before the Jews reached the Promised Land, the source of the water that was keeping them pure had been Christ all along. And Jesus through this miracle repurposes this water that sustained, into a wine that was glorious. The Messiah had arrived.
Jesus transforms that which we desire when we work hard and are thirsty, into a wine that we enjoy when we are relaxing and resting. Because of Him we no longer need to rely on our own efforts to enter into heaven, but we can have peace knowing that He already did the work for us. The water into wine stands in stark contrast to transmutations of water into blood in the Bible. In Exodus 7, Moses turns the water of the Nile into blood. Blood signifies judgment, sacrifice and death. I find it interesting that the wine in the cup of the New Covenant indeed has connection to blood; something we can explore in a future post. And I am glad that the water turned into wine and not blood.
I can’t help but wonder what it would have been like to have been a disciple at that time, witnessing the wedding and the water being turned into wine. Would I have remained skeptical even after seeing the miracle? Or would I have been so amazed that I immediately followed Jesus? In verse 11, John writes that the disciples believed in him after this miracle. The right people were there.
Mark 7:3-4
Leviticus 13,14
1 Corinthians 10:4