|
About Jesus Steve Sweetman This Section - Chapter 2 Jesus
Changes Water Into Wine (ch. 2:1-11) In
this section John tells the story about Jesus and His disciples being invited to
a wedding at Cana in We
have no Biblical record of Jesus’ father Joseph being alive during the three
years of Jesus’ ministry. Why did
John say Mary was at the wedding but there is no mention of Joseph being there?
We don’t know for sure. Maybe
Joseph was not alive at the time. I’d
like to comment on the town on With
this in mind, you might well except what kind of wedding party took place here.
It was probably far from your nice Christian gathering.
There was most likely some rough and tough drinkers at this party, and
drink they did. Something
else you might want to consider is the practice of Jewish men in those days.
When their wives gave birth, the husband really wanted a male baby to
carry on the family line. This was
very important to these men. If a
girl baby was born, the custom was to fill a barrow of wine and put it away.
They’d do this every year until the girl was married.
Girls in these days could have been married as early as 13,14, 15.
So by the time the wedding day came the father could have had maybe 15 or
more of these large barrows of wine to drink.
It is clear that there was a lot of drinking at these weddings.
It
is interesting to note that Jesus did not think
He should not attend the party because of this drinking in excess.
Wedding
feasts in these days were huge events normally lasting for a number of days.
At this point in the wedding feast the wine had all been drank.
Jesus’ mother mentions this to Jesus.
Why she did so is not clear. Did
she think that Jesus might be able to help out in this area?
We’re not sure. In
verse 4 Jesus couldn’t really understand why she asked Him either.
He said, “dear woman, why do you involve me”?
Jesus does not call Mary “dear mother”, but “dear woman”.
Jesus is now in His earthly ministry as the Son of God, the Messiah of
Israel. For this reason He now
begins to call His mother “woman”. Yes,
she is still His earthly mother, but Jesus being the Son of God takes priority
and Mary being a woman is more appropriate to the Son of God than she being His
mother. She was like any other woman
in one respect. She needed salvation
and would find it in the same way as anyone else.
Yet we still see Jesus’ affection towards His mother. Though He calls
her “woman”, He prefaces it with
the word ‘dear”. Jesus
tells Mary “that His time has not yet come”.
What time is He speaking about?. I
am not quite sure of the answer. One
suggestion is that it is too early in the ministry of Jesus to start performing
miracles. This event might have taken place before His temptation with the
devil, and before His inauguration address at the synagogue. This is my guess.
Some suggest that the hour He was speaking about was His death, but I
don’t see the relevance between His death and Mary’s request for help. We
don’t have the whole conversation between Jesus and Mary.
He has just told her that His time had not yet come, and now we see Mary
telling the servants to do as Jesus tells them to do.
It is clear that Jesus agrees to help out but we don’t see Him saying
this to Mary. Years
ago I heard someone say something about this verse where Mary tells the servant,
“do what He tells you to do”. When
speaking to Catholics who esteem Mary much higher than Protestants one can say,
“we always do what Mary tells us to do, and the last thing she has told us to
do is to do whatever Jesus tells us to do”.
So in obeying Jesus, we are in turn obeying Mary, which should make our
Catholic friends happy. In
verse 6 John states that there were six stone jars that could hold up to twenty
to thirty gallons. Jesus told the
servants to fill the jars up with water. The
servants did as they were told and filled “them to the brim”, all the way to
the top. Jesus
then told the servants to draw some of the water out and I’m sure to their
amazement they had drawn wine and not water.
Concerning
these containers, these were actually containers used for ceremonial washing.
If for any of a number of reasons one would become unclean according to
the Law of Moses, he would wash himself clean.
This act of washing in one of these containers was symbolic of being
cleansed. It is interesting to note
that Jesus made wine in containers used for a sacred ritual.
Jesus turns water into wine, and that's a lot of wine, in ceremonial
religious containers. You'd think
that would be sacrilege. When
the master of the banquet tasted this wine he was surprised as well, though he
did not know just where the wine had come from.
The point that the master of the feast makes is that most people bring
out the good wine at the beginning of the feast, then when everyone has drank a
lot, he brings out the cheap wine. Why
would people do this? It is simple.
Because you want to impress people with good wine when they are in a
state to appreciate it. But when
people have had a lot to drink and are somewhat influenced by the wine, there is
no use wasting good wine on drunk people. So
the question is ,”was this wine that Jesus made, real wine, or grape juice”?
It was real wine. If it was
not real wine but grape juice the master of the feast would not have been so
impressed. Also,
the Greek word translated as “wine” here is the word “oinos”.
“Oinos” implies fermentation. When
Paul says in Eph. 5:18, “don’t get drunk with wine”, “oinos” is used
there as it is here. Therefore one
can get drunk by drinking “oinos” as Paul says in Eph. 5:18.
That means “oinos” is not grape juice.
It is real wine. John
says that this miracle was the first sign that Jesus performed in Jesus
Clears The This
section in John speaks of Jesus going to The
question should be asked, ‘is this the same event that Luke speaks about in
his gospel”? It is clear from Luke’s account that the Temple
event that he speaks about took place in the last week of Jesus’ life.
The Temple
cleansing that John is speaking about appears to have taken place early in
Jesus’ three year ministry – probably the first year.
It is probable that Jesus went to Verse
14 says that Jesus went “up to Jerusalem”. Why does John say that He went
up when in reality In
the Temple
court Jesus noticed men selling cattle, sheep and doves,
Others were exchanging money. This
made Jesus quite upset so He took the time to actually make a whip that He used
to drive the cattle and businessmen out of the Temple
courts. This might not look like
the Jesus that the world portrays today, but it is the real Jesus.
Jesus got upset at times. In
verse 16 we read that Jesus was upset because these men had made “his
Father’s house into a market place”. The
In
verse 17 the disciples remembered the words of the Old Testament where it says,
“the zeal for your house will consume me”.
Jesus had great zeal for the Old Testament Temple.
You must remember that these were still Old Testament times.
The Temple
met something. But for us, the In
verse 18 the Jews were quite upset with the actions of Jesus so they asked Him
to show some kind of a sign to prove that He had authority to do such things in
the As
usual Jesus answers their question with a statement that they can’t
understand. He told them that if
they destroyed this temple, in three days He’d build it again.
Well this made no sense to the Jews.
They told Jesus that it took forty years to build this temple and He
thought He could rebuild it in three days? To
the Jews Jesus made no sense at all. Jesus
was not speaking of the John
said that the disciples remembered these words after Jesus rose from the dead
and believed as a result. Of course
the disciples already believed. But
the remembering of these words made their trust and faith even stronger.
And so it is with prophecy, as this was.
It may be hard to understand before it comes to pass, but when it comes
to pass, then we can look back and say, “amen – now I understand”. During
Jesus’ stay in Jerusalem He did many miracles.
As a result many people believed in Him.
John specifically says that Jesus “did not entrust Himself to those who
believed”. What does this mean?
Jesus gave Himself to His disciples, but He did not give Himself to the
general public in the same way, to the same depth.
Why? John says because Jesus
knew the heart of man, and it wasn’t good.
In short, Jesus didn’t trust man. He never really fully trusted the
crowds that followed Him.
|