Water Into Wine

On the third day a wedding took place at Cana in Galilee. Jesus’ mother was there, and Jesus and his disciples had also been invited to the wedding. When the wine was gone, Jesus’ mother said to him, “They have no more wine” (John 2: 1-3).

“My time has not yet come” (John 2:4).

Jesus was very aware of his time line. Jesus had a specific mission to complete on earth, he knew it, and he said so. Jesus was sent to be the sacrificial lamb to atone for the sin of mankind. He is the fulfillment of God’s promise of a redeemer to Adam and Eve, the Messiah foretold by the prophets. Jesus himself claims this:

“He went to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and on the Sabbath day he went into the synagogue, as was his custom. And he stood up to read. The scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written: ‘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, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.’ Then he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him, and he began by saying to them, ‘Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.’” (Luke 4: 16-21).

Luke goes on to say that the people marveled. I’m sure that they did. Basically what Jesus did here was take this verse of Isaiah which tells of the coming Messiah’s ministry of preaching and healing, and applied it to himself.

“He then began to teach them [the disciples] that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and that he must be killed after three days and after three days rise again” (Mark 8:31).

This moment, however, at this wedding celebration in Cana, his time had not yet come. Jesus’ time of fulfillment would come soon enough on the cross.

“His mother said to the servants, ‘Do whatever he tells you’” (John 2:5).

You sort of get this image of Mary in this passage that she is some sort of state mom, pushing her reluctant child to perform so that he becomes famous and she can reap the benefits of that fame. Knowing, however, the Bible’s description of Mary’s character, such cannot be the case. Rather, the Old Testament figure of Joseph is called to mind by what Mary says. Joseph was a foreshadowing of the Messiah and we are reminded of this in Genesis:

“When all Egypt began to feel the famine the people cried out to Pharaoh for food. Then Pharaoh told all the Egyptians, ‘Go to Joseph and do what he tells you,’” (Genesis 41:55).

The details are different, but this story and the story of the famine in Egypt in the book of Genesis are parallels, in a broad sense. The wedding guests are, like the Egyptians, experiencing a kind of famine - a “wine famine”. When Jesus miraculously provides for the wedding guests, as God provided for the Egyptians through Joseph, we get a hint of who Jesus really is - Messiah, God in human flesh.

“…six stone water jars…” (John 2: 6-7).

We are not talking about an insignificant amount of water here. Western culture has a hard time taking off it’s shoes when it comes over to visit for coffee. Ceremonial foot-washing is simply a concept we Westerners do not generally grasp. Sandals being the footwear of the day, travelers making their way through the desert on foot tended to get dirty quickly. An end-of-journey foot wash was not only a sign of hospitality and respect, but almost certainly an necessity at the end of any trip made in the ancient Middle East. One can only imagine the amount of water needed for the wedding’s host to fulfill his cultural foot washing obligations. John says, “six stone water jars.” Bible commentator Paul E. Kretzmann elaborates:

“The water-pots held two or three firkins apiece, for upon this occasion there was a great deal of water needed; each measure being the equivalent of nine gallons, the combined capacity of the water pots may well have been 120 gallons,” (Kretzmann vol. 1, 417).

When the servants did what Jesus told them, this meant that they filled six large stone vessels to the brim with approximately 120 gallons of water which they had to draw from a well by hand. There was no question to the servants that the liquid contained therein was water. I often wonder what the attitude of the servant was who was sent to draw the water from the jars for the steward to taste. Was he reluctant? Did he hesitate for fear that the dipper once retrieved from the jar would bear only the water they had they had so recently filled the jar with? John doesn’t say. We can assume, however, that the miracle had significant impact on them, since John tells us, “He [the master] did not realize where it [the wine] had come from, thought the servants who had drawn the water knew,” (John 2:9).

The significance of the miracle was not lost on the disciples either, as John indicates that this was the moment when the disciples, “put their faith in him [Jesus].” Indeed, throughout Holy Scripture, this seems to be the purpose of miracles - to inspire faith and reveal the Glory of God. The miracle at the wedding feast at Cana not only did this for the disciples but it does the same also for us. It is a comforting fact indeed that Jesus concerns himself with, “not only the great and pressing needs of men…but also the small embarrassments of life. Our trust in his kindness and love should be unlimited,” (Kretzmann vol. 1, 417).

Works Cited

Kretzmann, Paul E. Popular Commentary of the Bible, The New Testament Vol. 1. St. Louis, MO: Concordia Publishing House. 1921

The Wedding Feast

And again Jesus spoke to them in parables, saying, "The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who gave a wedding feast for his son, and sent his servants to call those who were invited to the wedding feast, but they would not come. Again he sent other servants, saying, 'Tell those who are invited, See, I have prepared my dinner, my oxen and my fat calves have been slaughtered, and everything is ready. Come to the wedding feast.' But they paid no attention and went off, one to his farm, another to his business, while the rest seized his servants, treated them shamefully, and killed them. The king was angry, and he sent his troops and destroyed those murderers and burned their city. Then he said to his servants, 'The wedding feast is ready, but those invited were not worthy. Go therefore to the main roads and invite to the wedding feast as many as you find.' And those servants went out into the roads and gathered all whom they found, both bad and good. So the wedding hall was filled with guests (Matthew 22:1-10).

Why did Jesus speak to them in parables and who is the “them” Matthew is writing about? Jesus addressed his parables to the Pharisees in particular[1], but also to the crowds of people who were not his disciples in general. The disciples are the ones to whom Jesus referred when he said, “To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given. For to the one who has, more will be given…but from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away.” The disciples have the knowledge of the kingdom of heaven and they will “have in abundance” as a result of Jesus’ teaching them. Those who oppose Jesus and reject him will lose even the knowledge they have.

Parables are generally defined as a complete, imaginary story designed to illustrate a spiritual truth (Engelbrecht, 2009). For the unbeliever – the “one who has not” – the parable also functions as an instrument of judgment. Because unbelievers reject the Gospel, their eyes cannot see, nor can their ears hear, the truth that the parable illustrates[2]. We are called to faith by the Holy Spirit working through God’s word. We cannot come to Jesus by our own efforts, reason, or strength. This is why Jesus says we must have faith like a little child[3].We receive God’s gracious forgiveness and salvation through our simple, child-like trust in Jesus words, brought to us by the Holy Spirit. These spiritual issues are not things that we can reason out, weigh as evidence in a courtroom trial, and decided to believe in after we have processed it logically.

Then some of the scribes and Pharisees answered him, saying, "Teacher, we wish to see a sign from you." But he answered them, "An evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth (Matthew 12:38-40).

Indeed, this is what the Pharisees were attempting to do – or at least pretending to do – when they asked Jesus for a sign and why Jesus speaks to them in parables[4]. In this particular instance, Jesus tells them that there will be no magic trick to convince them, and directs them to Holy Scripture for the sign they seek. This sign Jesus points the Pharisees to is the sign of Jonah, the sign of his impending death and resurrection[5].

This idea that faith depends on the working of the Holy Spirit through the means of God’s Word and not on a person’s reason is also illustrated to us in the parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus[6]. The wicked rich man who had died and gone to hell begs Abraham to send Lazarus to his brothers as a warning sign that they should turn from their wickedness and avoid the eternal torment that surely awaits them. What is Abraham’s answer? “They [the five brothers] have Moses and the Prophets [God’s Word]; let them hear them.” Jesus goes on to explain that, if a person will not listen to the voice of God calling him through Holy Scripture, he will not be convinced of God’s message even is someone should rise from the dead. His heart has been hardened.

What does Jesus mean by the phrase “Kingdom of Heaven? The Kingdom of Heaven, at other times called the Kingdom of God, is God’s ruling as king over the whole universe, the church on earth and the church and angles in heaven (Luther, 1986). Jesus makes clear that this concept is not a physical, earthly kingdom, like a country or empire; it is a spiritual kingdom[7]. Jesus makes the spiritual nature of his kingdom the most evident in his dialogue with Pontius Pilate[8]. The Jews and Romans viewed Jesus the same way they viewed the Zealots, as a political threat. Jesus makes it very clear that he was not leading a revolution, at least in the conventional sense. Jesus came to conquer sin, death, and the devil for mankind by dying as a sacrifice on the cross. By his death and resurrection he established his kingdom of grace, and rules over it from his place in heaven at God the Father’s right hand. When he returns, it will be to judge the world[9].

"But when the king came in to look at the guests, he saw there a man who had no wedding garment. And he said to him, 'Friend, how did you get in here without a wedding garment?' And he was speechless. Then the king said to the attendants, 'Bind him hand and foot and cast him into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.' For many are called, but few are chosen." (Matthew 22:11-14)

Why did the king in Jesus’ wedding feast parable treat the man without a wedding garment so harshly? The man was one of the people whom the king's servants went out into the streets to bring to the wedding. He was invited to the feast by the grace of the king, and not by virtue of his relationship with the king, or anything else that could be attributed to him. In the ancient Middle East it was customary for the host of a banquet such as the wedding feast described in the parable, to provide his guests with clothing appropriate for the celebration to which they had been invited. For this man to to be at the banquet but not properly attired would mean that he would have had to refuse to wear the clothing provided him by the king for some reason (Engelbrecht, 2009).

God is the king in the parable. The wedding feast is the Kingdom of Heaven, or the spiritual kingdom of God's grace, secured and won for mankind by the blood of Jesus. The first group of people called to the feast represents the Jews, particularly the Scribes, Pharisees, and the Teachers of the Law - the Jewish political/religious establishment of the time. Their rejection of the invitation to the feast is a rejection of God's call to repentance and the gracious gift of forgiveness he freely gives. The servants mistreated and killed represent the prophets. The people gathered in off the street represent the inclusion of Gentiles in God's kingdom. The man who refused to wear the garment provided for him by God is one of those called who miss out on the blessings of God's Kingdom because they do not respond to the invitation properly - in child-like faith.

Perhaps the man in the parable thought that his clothes were good enough to attend the banquet when in reality, compared to the garments of God's righteousness tailored for is by Christ on Calvary's cross, they are tattered rags. Though the man did nothing to deserve an invitation to the banquet or festival garments, the king provided for him in abundance. In the same way, though we in no way deserve mercy, the Lord invites mankind to join him at his heavenly banquet through the message of the Gospel. How will we respond to his invitation? Will we faithfully accept the garments provided us without question or condition, or will we reject the message and try to come to the party on our own terms, wearing our own filthy rags? If we do, we will end up like the man in the parable – cast into the outer darkness, where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth.

Works Cited

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[1] Matthew 13:10

[2] Matthew 13:13; Isaiah 6:9-10

[3] Mark 10:15

[4] Matthew 12:39

[5] Matthew 12:39-40

[6] Luke 16:19-31

[7] Mark 1:15; Romans 14:17

[8] John 18:36

[9] Matthew 25:31-32

Engelbrecht, E. A. (Ed.). (2009). The Lutheran Study Bible. St. Louis, MO: Concordia Publishing House.

Luther, D. M. (1986). Luther's Small Catechism with Explanation. St. Louis, MO: Concordia Publishing House.