John 2.11
July 28th 2013
Welcome – thank you for choosing to be here today.
Let’s pray together and lift each other up to the Father of Lights.
Music
Corporate Prayer
(A list at the back of the room if there is anyone you would like to add for when we pray before departing).
When we come back our verses of study will be John chapter 2 beginning at verse 1.
So last week we left off and Jesus was getting introduced and acquainted with some of the men who would become His disciples, namely Andrew and his brother, Peter, Philip and Bartholomew who is known as Nathanael here in John.
This brings us to chapter three verse one –so let’s read:
John 2:1 And the third day there was a marriage in Cana of Galilee; and the mother of Jesus was there:
2 And both Jesus was called, and his disciples, to the marriage.
3 And when they wanted wine, the mother of Jesus saith unto him, They have no wine.
4 Jesus saith unto her, Woman, what have I to do with thee? mine hour is not yet come.
5 His mother saith unto the servants, Whatsoever he saith unto you, do it.
6 And there were set there six water pots of stone, after the manner of the purifying of the Jews, containing two or three firkins apiece.
7 Jesus saith unto them, Fill the water pots with water. And they filled them up to the brim.
8 And he saith unto them, Draw out now, and bear unto the governor of the feast. And they bare it.
9 When the ruler of the feast had tasted the water that was made wine, and knew not whence it was: (but the servants which drew the water knew;) the governor of the feast called the bridegroom,
10 And saith unto him, Every man at the beginning doth set forth good wine; and when men have well drunk, then that which is worse: but thou hast kept the good wine until now.
11 This beginning of miracles did Jesus in Cana of Galilee, and manifested forth his glory; and his disciples believed on him.
All right back to verse one:
John 2:1 And the third day there was a marriage in Cana of Galilee; and the mother of Jesus was there:
I do not think it is by accident that the first recorded miracle of Jesus was turning water into wine at a marriage festival.
But I can’t really tell you why. ?
In the Old Testament God often referred to Himself as marrying the House of Israel, or of being the Nation of Israel’s husband.
We notice that He did not consider himself to be the wife of Israel but her husband – the one who cared for Israel, who loved her, who watched out for her and provided for her.
In fact, when Israel would turn to idolatry God would assign the term adulterous to her (Israel) and scripture often would describe Israel’s pursuits of idols as her “going a whoring” after false gods – where she was an adulterous wife to an otherwise perfect and loving God.
In other words, while God was a perfect husband, and provider, a protector, a lover, and a defender of Israel, “she” was often easily moved toward other suitors she found more attentive or attractive.
There is some really beautiful imagery found throughout the Old Testament in relation to this union of Israel and God.
Isaiah 54:5 says
“For thy Maker is thine husband; the LORD of hosts is his name.”
In Jeremiah 3:14 the Lord says to Israel:
“Turn, O backsliding children, saith the LORD; for I am married unto you.”
Perhaps the most expansive passages referencing the marital relationship God had with Israel is located in Hosea 2.
In the first half of the chapter the Lord is angry with His wife (Israel) and says to her (personifying her as a wandering and adulterous wife):
Hosea 2:2 Plead with your mother, plead: for she is not my wife, neither am I her husband: let her therefore put away her whoredoms out of her sight, and her adulteries from between her breasts;
3 Lest I strip her naked, and set her as in the day that she was born, and make her as a wilderness, and set her like a dry land, and slay her with thirst.
4 And I will not have mercy upon her children; for they be the children of whoredoms.
5 For their mother hath played the harlot: she that conceived them hath done shamefully: for she said, I will go after my lovers, that give me my bread and my water, my wool and my flax, mine oil and my drink.
6 Therefore, behold, I will hedge up thy way with thorns, and make a wall, that she shall not find her paths.
7 And she shall follow after her lovers, but she shall not overtake them; and she shall seek them, but shall not find them: then shall she say, I will go and return to my first husband; for then was it better with me than now.
8 For she did not know that I gave her corn, and wine, and oil, and multiplied her silver and gold, which they prepared for Baal.
9 Therefore will I return, and take away my corn in the time thereof, and my wine in the season thereof, and will recover my wool and my flax given to cover her nakedness.
10 And now will I discover her lewdness in the sight of her lovers, and none shall deliver her out of mine hand.
11 I will also cause all her mirth to cease, her feast days, her new moons, and her sabbaths, and all her solemn feasts.
12 And I will destroy her vines and her fig trees, whereof she hath said, These are my rewards that my lovers have given me: and I will make them a forest, and the beasts of the field shall eat them.
13 And I will visit upon her the days of Baalim, wherein she burned incense to them, and she decked herself with her earrings and her jewels, and she went after her lovers, and forgat me, saith the LORD.
Then, without any explanation, God (obviously angry in verses 1-13 at the behavior of Israel) describes the way He will ultimately receive his wayward wife and says:
14 Therefore, behold, I will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak comfortably unto her.
15 And I will give her her vineyards from thence, and the valley of Achor for a door of hope: and she shall sing there, as in the days of her youth, and as in the day when she came up out of the land of Egypt.
16 And it shall be at that day, saith the LORD, that thou shalt call me Ishi; and shalt call me no more Baali. {Ishi: that is, My husband} {Baali: that is, My lord}
17 For I will take away the names of Baalim out of her mouth, and they shall no more be remembered by their name.
18 And in that day will I make a covenant for them with the beasts of the field, and with the fowls of heaven, and with the creeping things of the ground: and I will break the bow and the sword and the battle out of the earth, and will make them to lie down safely.
19 And I will betroth thee unto me for ever; yea, I will betroth thee unto me in righteousness, and in judgment, and in lovingkindness, and in mercies.
20 I will even betroth thee unto me in faithfulness: and thou shalt know the LORD.
21 And it shall come to pass in that day, I will hear, saith the LORD, I will hear the heavens, and they shall hear the earth;
22 And the earth shall hear the corn, and the wine, and the oil; and they shall hear Jezreel.
23 And I will sow her unto me in the earth; and I will have mercy upon her that had not obtained mercy; and I will say to them which were not my people, Thou art my people; and they shall say, Thou art my God.
Additionally, in the New Testament, the church is described as Jesus bride – another allusion to Him being a husband who loves and cares for His bride.
In Revelation 21:9 we read
“And there came unto me one of the seven angels which had the seven vials full of the seven last plagues, and talked with me, saying, Come hither, “I will shew thee the bride, the Lamb’s wife.”
The picture here is that Christ is such a devoted and loving husband He gave his life for the church – advice Paul says those who choose to be earthly husbands ought to also take toward their wives.
For these reasons – the commitment of God to the Nation of Israel and Jesus commitment to His church divorce is taken so seriously in scripture.
For this reason polygamy stands outside of God’s picture of marriage – for God is not married to many nations and neither is Jesus husband to many churches or brides but only one.
In any case, there is something symbolic to Jesus first miracle being at a wedding festival.
Maybe it ties to God in the flesh beginning His earthly ministry at a marriage to the church He was establishing. Again, I’m NOT entirely sure.
In any case, we read that on the third day this event took place. Some suggest that the scripture is talking about the third day since Jesus met Philip. Some think it is referring to the third day of the wedding celebration (since marriage festivals often lasted seven full days back then).
We’re not really sure what third day is being referenced but they were in a place called “Cana of Galilee” to distinguish it from another “Cana” which was in the land of the tribe of Ephraim,” and this Cana was within a half days journey to Nazareth, where Jesus was raised.
According to John 21:2 this town was the home of Nathanael, who we met last week.
Now, we also read in verse one that the “mother of Jesus” was present. The presence of Mary the Mother of Jesus suggests that this marriage was a relative of the Lord’s
Guess who else was invited? (verse 2)
2 And both Jesus was called, and his disciples, to the marriage.
Now, from what I can tell, the disciples who were invited were Andrew, Peter, Philip and Nathanael – those who we were introduced to last week. And possibly John the Beloved as well.
There could have been others but so far this is all we know who believed on Him. Again, they were not yet called to be His apostles – that would happen later – but they were certainly pursuing Him and His Messiah-ship in faith.
It is possible this first miracle was going to help solidify their decision to drop everything and follow Him full time for three years.
3 And when they wanted wine, the mother of Jesus saith unto him, “They have no wine.”
Because the marriage festivals lasted upwards of seven days in all likelihood Jesus showed up sometime after the actual wedding ceremony occurred (where there would have been plenty of wine present) and instead came a day or two or three later when the wine was running low.
Now, because Jesus mother came to Him to tell Him about the lacking wine supply some people have concluded that this was Jesus wedding – because His mother was in charge.
We don’t really know why Mary came to Jesus but I’m not of the opinion it was His marriage for a whole bunch of reasons – including the fact that He was invited to the wedding, not part of it.
What I do find interesting is the fact that Jesus mother believed it was in her son’s ability to do something about the lack of wine.
Of course, she could have been a very proud Jewish mother who had the opinion that her son could fix any situation. But I don’t think so.
I think she KNEW He could do something about it. How she knew . . . we don’t know.
Because He had not worked any miracles yet in public does not mean He had not proven His divinity in private growing up in His mothers care.
Of course His own brothers did not believe in His divinity at first so this idea is quite questionable, but His Mother had the idea in her head that He was capable of doing something to fix the situation that was not available to others.
I find the whole interaction interesting.
Listen to Jesus reaction in verse four.
4 Jesus saith unto her, “Woman, what have I to do with thee? mine hour is not yet come.
The way we read it here in the English sounds like a rebuke.
It wasn’t.
First of all, to say “woman” (instead of mother) was a common way to address females and did not come across to women as it does to us today.
Jesus calls His mother woman from the cross, and He calls Mary Magdalene woman when He resurrects – and Jesus was a great friend to women-kind.
But more to the point Jesus would never NOT honor his parents – that would have broken the fifth commandment. So it must have been said in a different tone and manner than how it sounds.
I tend to think of it humorously and I see it going down like this:
Jesus mother KNEW what her son was capable of doing. So she hears at this wedding of a relative that they have run out of wine. And all the family women are all up in arms over there not being enough wine.
I can hear the womanly buzz going on in the kitchen as we read about it.
And so Jesus mother says in a very Jewish-like motherly way:
“I tell you, my Son Joshua can fix this – problem solved, done.”
So she comes up to Jesus and says:
“Can you believe this! They’re outta wine. I TOLD cousin Hanna to get an extra firkin but does she listen to me neverererer? ”
Maybe Jesus ignores her at first. Under his breath He’s thinking, “Mother, not here. Not now.”
Maybe she tugs at his robe. “Yeshua. Yeshua?”
Maybe He excuses Himself from speaking with his friends and turns to her with exasperation:
“Mother?”
“Yeshua, darling, they’re out of wine.”
Maybe Jesus even whispered His response . . . sort of, you know, grinding his teeth a bit, like, “back off Mom,” and says:
“Woman, what have I to do with thee? mine hour is not yet come!”
Translated to our day and age:
“Mom, what are you doing? This is NOT . . . the right . . . time . . . for me . . . to act! Not for aunt Hanna at least!”
I think this could have been a moment of family friendly banter because of how Jesus mother responds to what He says.
Listen (verse 5)
5 His mother saith unto the servants, “Whatsoever he saith unto you, do it.”
It’s classic. I mean it’s like she didn’t even pay any attention to His response and just went ahead with what she knew He was both capable of accomplishing.
So while He’s telling her, “Whatta yawant me to do. Ma?” She’s telling the servants standing around, “Whatevah He tells you to do, do it.”
And she goes back into the kitchen.
(beat)
Whatever happened there between Jesus and His mother, what we do know is the result was a miracle.
6 And there were set there six waterpots of stone, after the manner of the purifying of the Jews, containing two or three firkins apiece.
OF course we know that the Jews – following the instructions of both God and their ancestors, were huge on washing things.
Their hands, utensils, pots, even the furniture. It was their manner, their custom.
And holding the water for these uses were six cisterns – waterpots.
And each of them held two to three firkins of liquid each.
This is the only place where the word firkin is used in all of scripture and they say it means the equivalent amount of liquid as a Hebrew bath . . . which is about 8 gallons of water.
If this is the case, then we know Jesus made about 42 gallons of wine.
So Jesus says to the servants:
7 “Fill the waterpots with water. And they filled them up to the brim.”
I think it was fitting that these servants of the wedding feast filled the pots so that they could attest to the miracle.
Additionally, I think we can read they filled them to the brim to prove nobody came along and poured in some vino to create an admixture.
Additionally, wine was never put into vessels for carrying water for purification so this enhanced the unique nature of the miracle.
But fittingly and finally, where the Jews were used to washing and washing and washing themselves, symbolic of purification (of the outer vessel) the turning of the water into wine (which was drunk) and therefore taken internally, was to show that all true cleansing would soon be done by the shed blood of Christ and would operate on the inside out.
So Jesus tells the servants to fill the waterpots with water and they did (to the brim) (verse 8)
8 And he saith unto them, Draw out now, and bear unto the governor of the feast. And they bare it.
According to John’s account there doesn’t seem to be anytime between the time they filled the pots to the time He had them draw out the wine so apparently the miracle was immediate.
We don’t see any application of ceremony or pomp. He doesn’t call everyone around to witness it nor does He say anything over them pots – He doesn’t even seem to get near them.
He willed it, and it was done.
Now, I want to point something out to you that is not in scripture, is not provable, and may very well be nothing but baloney from the mind of meathead here.
But if I have discovered anything about God in studying the Word I have discovered that He threats meaning all through how He does things.
A few weeks ago we discussed how scripture says that it is by the shedding of blood that sin is propitiated.
And we asked, “Why the shedding of blood?” And we read how scripture also states that the life of flesh is IN the blood.
So to shed blood is to shed life.
Let me take this one more step in this and then tie it all together.
I think it was Ben Franklin who said “time is the stuff life is made of.”
To shed blood is to “give life” for the life stolen – and since life is composed of increments of time, shedding blood is giving time for time lost.
This is a bit heavy so let me explain it in another way: sin is the taking of life (or time given to another by God) and wasting it through our selfishness.
The more time (or life) we take or steal from another individual, the more egregious the sin in terms of consequences here on earth and maybe in hell.
For example, if we steal a nickel from a person that nickel represents a period of time that person spent earning that nickel.
If we take a person’s sight that theft steals all kind of life (by and through all the time they must use to get through the day).
Murder is a total life or time stealer, which is why it is so heinous.
So, look at the sin, calculate the time or life it steals from another, and you have a built in calculator on the selfish nature of the act.
What is interesting about this model is we might think that just calling someone a name when we are kids is insignificant but maybe that name robs them of innumerable hours of life due to insecurities.
Bottom line, sin is the robbery of life, quantified in time. Which is why it is the loss of life, through the shedding of blood, that can ONLY make payment for sin.
When we apply this model to the work of Christ – “who is the Life” – we find a reverse model.
In and through Him we discover a redemption of time, which is then a redemption of life.
So whether He raises the dead, or heals the diseased, or forgives a woman caught in the very act of adultery, we find all sorts of things happening to time:
In forgiving a person of sin we discover less time in worry and guilt and more time in freedom of mind and heart.
In healing a leper we see a person freed to spend their life hours on other things.
In nearly every miraculous act Jesus does we see a redemption of time, which is a redemption of life, for all involved.
You name the miracle, I’ll show you the relationship to a redemption of time – which, from what I can tell, would not exist had Adam and Eve remained in the Garden.
And this is one of the miracles of turning the water into wine. Certainly, to get water to transform into the juice of a vine fruit is amazing, but it was the fermentation process that made the miracle move from the improbable to the impossible.
By having them fill the waterpots with water and then immediately take it to the governor of the feast showed a complete power not only over matter but of time.
9 When the ruler of the feast had tasted the water that was made wine, and knew not whence it was: (but the servants which drew the water knew;) the governor of the feast called the bridegroom,
So when the ruler or governor of the feast tasted the wine John the beloved makes sure to let us know that he was unaware of Jesus involvement with the process.
This ensured that judgment of the flavor and quality of the wine was impartial.
The servants knew what had happened but the head of the refreshments and food did not. So he tastes the wine and says (verse 10)
10 Every man at the beginning doth set forth good wine; and when men have well drunk, then that which is worse: but thou hast kept the good wine until now.
For those of you unfamiliar with hosting strategies – especially when it comes to serving wine – what the governor of the wedding feast says is that typically:
“When people throw a party, the very best wine is brought out first. And people drink up. And as the night goes on, and their senses get a little worn down or desensitized (by exposure to the alcohol) a wise host then (when “men have wel drunk”) breaks out the garbage wine and nobody can tell the difference. BUT . . . (this governor states), “but thou hast kept the good wine until now!”
Now, we can’t think that this was like a bunch of stoners who were like, “Dude, you waited to bring out the good stuff till now.”
Good wine does not mean higher alcohol content.
We have some friends who are wine officianatos. I mean they know everything about the kind of glass you drink this wine from, the bouquet, how to let wine breath, and the ratio of sugar to alcohol content.
Frankly, alcohol content has little to do with whether a wine is considered good or not. Good wine is all about the nuanced flavors, the weight, the color, and other factors.
The point of this story is that Jesus, in changing the water into wine did not create some slop – it was good, indicating that when God does a miracle, it’s done right.
So much so that the governor of the feast was able to discern the quality of the wine being served after all the wine already purchase had been consumed.
Anything, everything, God does is good. His called the original work in the creation “good” seven times.
And it was good.
Of course sin corrupts it, robbing it of its total goodness, but the great redeemer came with the full capacity to bring all things back to their original states.
He REDEEMS them – including the time.
Speaking to believers, Colossians 4:5 says:
“Walk in wisdom toward them that are without, redeeming the time.”
Ephesians 5:15-16 See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise,
redeeming the time, because the days are evil.
The Greek word for redeeming the time is exagorazo and it means to buy back or ransom something from a lost or imprisoned state.
It is the exact Greek word used when it describes what Jesus did for every sinner on earth – He redeemed us from the debt owed for the life (for the time) we’ve squandered in sin – in stealing life or time from others or from ourselves which God has gifted us with.
Once we become believers, we are then encouraged to redeem the time placed before us, to ransom back that which was lost in the pursuit of things with eternal significance . . . on things that give and enhance and encourage life and living in others, not things that steal life from them.
That’s kind of a sizeable directive, isn’t it – redeeming the time for ourselves (our own lives) and the lives of others.
I would suggest that the first thing we do is sort of step back and see that is life (or time) giving – and try and involve ourselves in giving life or time to others.
When we perform some act of alleviating a load we are redeeming time for another person, did you ever think of this?
To watch a mother’s child is to give the mother a chance to spend time (life) on another area.
We see in such “sacrifices” a similar model employed by our King, who gave His life (time) so others might have more Life/Time . . . listen . . . and to have it more abundantly.
All the elements and characteristics of true love we read about in scripture is tied to time giving or life giving.
And at the risk of sounding like a motivational speech, even when we listen to another person, or encourage them, or counsel them, or do a labor for them, or support them in some way or another, we ARE adding to their life through opening more blocks of time or enhancing the time they have been given.
This is Christianity.
Selflessness so others might live.
(Verse 11 explains to us the result of this miracle, saying)
11 This beginning of miracles did Jesus in Cana of Galilee, and manifested forth his glory; and his disciples believed on him.
His first public miracle – did you catch it, folks – making wine.
Bringing refreshment. Filling a need, Helping a celebration. Taking care of something that apparently could not be rectified in any other fashion.
Giving of Himself so others might have.
In this His glory – the glory of God- was made manifest.
And it was certainly a miracle of tremendous and enduring significance.
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