Introduction
From verse 19 of John 1, John has been describing for us the first week in the Lord’s public life. On Day 1, a delegation from Jerusalem came to find out what they could about John the Baptist who was preaching and baptising in the wilderness. They wanted to know was he the Christ? Was he God’s Spirit-Anointed and Conquering King who was to come into the world? And he denied it and said to the members of that delegation that he was only a voice calling on God’s people to get ready for the coming of the Lord. And then he referred to one standing among them who is far, far, far greater than John was. He was referring to the Lord Jesus, who is far, far, far greater than John because he is indeed God.
On Day 2, John saw the Lord coming towards him and he pointed him out and said, ‘Look, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.’ And just as lambs and rams were killed in Old Testament times as sacrifices so that God’s people could go on living, so God had come in the flesh in the person of his Son to give up his life on the cross as the once-for-all sacrifice for sins. He was killed so that we can live and live for ever in the presence of God.
On Day 3, John the Baptist pointed out the Lord Jesus to two of his disciples. And they followed the Lord and stayed with him for the rest of that day. One of them was Andrew. The other is unnamed, but he may have been John the writer of the gospel. And the next day — Day 4 — Andrew got his brother, Simon, and brought him to the Lord. And the Lord renamed Simon as Peter. And he was able give him a new name because he is both our King and our God.
And on Day 5, the Lord called Philip to follow him. And Philip then went to find Nathanael and brought him to meet the Lord. And when the Lord saw Nathanael, he referred to Jacob’s dream back in Genesis 28, when heaven opened and God came down to speak to Jacob. And the Lord Jesus went on to say to Nathanael that the day will come when heaven will be opened once again and he — the Son of Man — will come with his angels. And we know from elsewhere in the Bible that he will come again to gather together his people and to bring us into the new heaven and earth where we’ll be made perfectly happy and holy for ever as we gaze upon God.
So, that’s Days 1 to 5 of the first week of the Lord’s public life. We don’t know what happened on Day 6, but on Day 7 the Lord went with his mother and his disciples to a wedding in Cana. And that’s what we’re thinking about this evening.
The text
We read in verse 1 of chapter 2 that it’s the third day. That is, it’s the third day since the last event which John reported. And on the third day, there was a wedding in Cana in Galilee. The Lord’s mother was there and the Lord Jesus and his disciples were also invited. Perhaps Mary was there because of some family connection to either the bride or the groom. And when John refers to the Lord’s disciples here, he probably means the people we met in chapter 1. So, Andrew and Simon Peter and Philip and Nathanael and the unnamed disciple, who may have been John.
Weddings in biblical times might go on for days. And they were great family occasions. And for the wine to run out — as it did on this occasion — would have been a disaster for the family hosting the wedding and it would have brought shame on them. And we can sympathise with them, because it would be embarrassing for a family today if the food or the drink ran out at a wedding. We can imagine the guests sitting there, with their empty plates and cups, wondering what’s going on and whose fault is it? Whose fault is it? We’re always looking for someone to blame.
And look at what John says in verse 3. It’s not that the wine was running out. The wine was already gone. It was done. There was no more wine. What a disaster!
When Mary finds out about this predicament, she mentions it to her son. From the Lord’s response to her, it’s clear that she expects him to do something about it. And that’s perhaps puzzling, because John tells us later that changing the water into wine was the Lord’s first miracle. And that means that Mary has never seen the Lord perform any miracles and so what did she expect him to do on this occasion? It’s puzzling, but clearly she expected him to do something.
And the Lord’s response is also a little puzzling, isn’t it? First of all, he calls her ‘Woman’. The NIV translation softens what he says by making it ‘Dear Woman’. But that’s not what he said. He called her, ‘Woman’. It sounds disrespectful to us, doesn’t it? Children wouldn’t address their mothers like this today. However, it seems from what the commentators tell us that it was a normal form of address in those days. However, while it was normal, it was also a formal way of addressing someone. My wife often trains people in the United States and they’re very polite and they call her ‘Ma’am’. It’s polite, but formal. And that’s perhaps how we should understand the Lord’s address to his mother: it was respectful, but formal. And perhaps the point of using this formal address is to make clear that while he was her son, he wasn’t like other sons, because he had come to do, not her will, but the will of his Father in heaven.
You see, up until that moment in time, he’d probably done everything she wanted, because up to that moment in time he had lived at home with her as a private person. But now that he was beginning his public ministry as God’s servant, things would have to be different. He would always be respectful and loving towards his mother. He would also be the perfect son, because he is perfect. But he had come into the world to do his Heavenly Father’s will.
And then he said to her, ‘why do you involve me? My time has not yet come.’ What does he mean by ‘my time’? As we read through John’s gospel, we’ll see that the Lord says several times that his time has not yet come or that his hour has not yet come. And you get the impression that something significant and important is going to happen. Something significant and important is going to happen, but it’s not the right time yet. Something awesome is going to happen, but it’s not the right time yet. But then we come to chapter 12. And the Lord says: ‘Now my heart is troubled, and what shall I say? “Father, save me from this hour”? No, it was for this very reason I came to this hour.’ And then he goes on to speak about his death on the cross. And so, you realise that this is what he’s been talking about all along. Every time he mentions ‘my time’ or ‘the hour’, he’s been thinking about the time when he will give up his life on the cross for our sins before rising from the dead afterwards.
So, that’s the time he’s been thinking about: the time when he must do his Father’s will and give up his life on the cross for us and for our salvation. And while that time hasn’t yet arrived, nevertheless here in John 2 he’s thinking about it. So, he hasn’t come to do his mother’s will. Instead he has come to do his Father’s will. But that time hasn’t yet come.
Nevertheless, even though that time hasn’t come, he’s about to do something which anticipates what he will do and the effect it will have on the world.
And Mary seems to understand that he’s going to do something, because she tells the servants to do whatever he tells them. And the Lord tells the servants to fill up the six stone water jars which were standing nearby. Fill them up with water and then draw some out and take what you draw out to the master of the banquet. And the servants did what he said; and when they drew some out they discovered that the water in the six stone water jars had become wine. And not just wine, but the best wine. Do you see that in verse 10? When the master of the banquet tasted it, he declared that people normally serve the good wine first and then the cheap wine later. But you have saved the good wine till now.
And John adds by way of conclusion that this was the first of the Lord’s miraculous signs. And that connects what we read here with what John wrote near the end of the gospel where he said that the Lord did many other miraculous signs in the presence of his disciples which are not recorded in this book. So, every time he performed a miracle, it was a sign, pointing the people to his true identity as the Christ and the Son of God. Every miraculous sign pointed to his true identity as the Christ: God’s Spirited-Anointed and Conquering King was was coming into the world to save us from our sin and misery. And every miraculous sign pointed to his true identity as God’s Only Begotten Son. And John explains that he recorded these signs so that we may believe in him. And by believing in him, we may have life in his name.
That’s what John wrote near the end of his gospel. And in chapter 2 he says that changing the water into wine was the first of the Lord’s signs. And by this sign, he revealed his glory. That is, they revealed who he really is: that he’s the Christ and the Son of God. And look: the disciples put their faith in him. They believed. And by believing in him, they received eternal life in his name. So, although they have died, they are still alive, because they are right now in the presence of their Saviour in heaven. And when he comes again, they will live with him and with all who believe in his name for ever and for ever in body and in soul. These things are written so that you may believe. And by believing, you will live with him for ever.
Renewal of all things
As we begin to think about the significance of this miracle, let me remind you of what I said last week about why John begins his gospel the way he does.
John begins his gospel by telling us about the Word of God who was with God in the beginning and who is God and all things came to be through him. All things came to be through the divine Word. So, John tells us in the opening verses of his gospel that God made all things through the divine Word. And those opening verses of John’s gospel recall what we read in Genesis 1 where it says that God made all things by speaking. That is to say, he made all things through his word. The opening of John’s gospel recalls the opening of Genesis.
And the book of Genesis opens with what God did in the very first week ever. And at the end of that first week, God had made the world and everything in it.
And John’s gospel begins with what the Lord Jesus did in the first week of his public life. And what did he do at the end of that first week? At the end of that first week he transformed part of the world. He transformed water into wine. He turned it into something better.
And he did this as a sign of who he is and of what he came to do. So, he’s the Christ and the Son of God. And the Son of God came into the world as God’s Spirit-Anointed King to transform us by his Spirit and therefore to make us better. He sends his Spirit into our lives to renew our hearts so that we love God more and more; and to renew our thoughts and desires so that more and more our thoughts and desires are to do God’s will. He transforms us by his Spirit.
For now, he only renews us partially, because he only renews us inwardly, and not outwardly. And because of our remaining sin, we’ll never be perfect in this life. But when the Lord comes again, he will renew us outwardly as well as inwardly, because he’ll give us a new body. And he’ll make us perfect in body and soul. And so, he’ll make us completely better.
And he’ll bring us into the new heavens and earth where everything will be better. And so, we read in Revelation 21 that in the new heavens and earth, there will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, because the old order of things has passed away. Everything which is wrong and broken and painful and which makes us weep belongs to this heaven and earth. But all of those things will pass away when Christ comes again to renew all things. And there will be no more sorrow in the new heavens and earth. And there will be no more sin, because he will transform us completely and make us completely and wholly better.
And as a sign of that, the Lord Jesus took water and he changed it into wine. He turned it into something better as a sign of what he will do for his people and what he will do for the whole of his creation. At that wedding in Cana, he transformed part of his creation to show us what he will do for his whole creation when he comes again.
And it’s significant that he performed this sign at a wedding banquet, because the Old Testament prophets expected there to be a great banquet when God comes to save his people. And in the book of Revelation, John writes about the wedding supper of the Lamb in the life to come when all of God’s people will eat and drink and celebrate in the presence of the Lord. And so, as a foretaste of that, the Lord Jesus performed his first miracle at a wedding banquet to signify how he will transform the world and his people when he comes again. And we’ll eat and drink and celebrate in his presence and give thanks to him for renewing us.
Every day there are things which happen to us and there are things which we do ourselves which make us frustrated. We’re frustrated with ourselves, because we’re not better than we are. And we’re frustrated with other people and with the way things are because everyone and everything seems to fall short. We expect people and things to be better and it’s frustrating when they’re not.
But out of his overflowing kindness to us, God has come into the world in the person of his Son to make all things perfect by his Spirit. For now, he transforms us partially. But when he comes again, it won’t be partially, but it will be completely. He will make us perfect and we’ll therefore live perfect lives in a new and perfect world. That’s the great hope which Christ gives to us.
Forgiveness
The only thing keeping us from that perfect world is our own sin and our rejection of God our Creator and our rejection of his overflowing love and kindness to us and our rejection of his good purposes for us. Our sin is what will keep us from eternal life in the presence of a holy and good God. And so, it’s also significant that the water which the Lord changed into wine was held in six stone water jars. And John explains for us they were normally used for ceremonial washing.
The background to these water jars is that the Lord commanded his Old Testament people to perform all kinds of washings to remove from them their ceremonial uncleanness. If they were ceremonially unclean, they couldn’t go up to the temple to worship the Lord. So, they were kept from the presence of God by their uncleanness. But then God gave them instructions on how to wash themselves to make themselves clean again.
But they all knew that, while washing themselves with water might make them ceremonially clean, it didn’t make them morally clean. It didn’t cleanse their hearts of their sin. It didn’t wash away their guilt. And so, you have David in the psalms asking God to cleanse his heart from his sin. He understood that his sin was his real problem. And the rest of the people knew that no matter how much they washed themselves with water, they were still guilty sinners in the eyes of the Lord. They knew that they did not belong in the presence of their holy God who sees our hearts and who sees all the sinful thoughts and desires and inclinations which are lurking there. Ceremonial washing was not able to cleanse them inwardly. And it’s perhaps significant that John notes for us that there were six stone water jars at the wedding. In the Bible, seven is the number for perfection. And six, therefore, is less than perfection. Six falls short. And those six water jars fell short of providing the true purification which we all need.
And just as the Lord turned the water into something better, so he came to provide us with a better form of cleansing. He came to cleanse us, not from ceremonial uncleanness, but from moral uncleanness. He came to wash away our iniquity and to cleanse us from our sin by his death on the cross, when he shed his blood to cleanse us from our guilt.
All of those Old Testament washings were for the time-being only and they were to make do until God himself came in the flesh to offer himself on the cross as the once-for-all perfect sacrifice for sins. And by believing in him, we are sprinkled with his blood and made clean deep down inside.
And so, in his first New Testament letter, John tells us that if we confess our sins, God is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and will purify us from all unrighteousness. Instead of holding our sins against us, he will remember them no more. And instead of pointing out our sins, he will cleanse us from them. He will do this for us, because he is faithful to his promise to forgive us. In fact, John says that it’s just or it’s right for him to forgive us. And that’s because Christ our Saviour has paid for our sins with his life.
Turning the water into wine was a sign of how the Lord will renew us and the whole of his creation by his Spirit. And turning the water into wine was also a sign of how he came to provide us with a better form of cleansing than his people had in the past.
And so, when we sin against God — as we surely will, because we’re sinners — we can go to God with confidence and ask him to forgive us. And we can be confident that God will indeed forgive us, and he won’t hold our sins against us and he won’t punish us for what we have done. We can be confident of his forgiveness because Christ our Saviour has already paid or our sins with his life and God will require no further payment from us. And when our conscience accuses us, or when satan tempts us to despair, we should remember and believe that the blood of Christ cleanses us from every stain.
God’s love
And we should marvel at the overflowing goodness and love of our God, because it was God the Father who sent his Son into the world to give up his life for us and for our salvation. It was the Father’s will for the Lord Jesus to suffer and die on the cross to pay for our sins and to shed his blood to cleanse us.
And it was God the Son who became flesh so that he was able to suffer and die in our place and to give up his life on the cross to make peace for us with God. He loved us so much that he was willing to bear the punishment that we deserve and to take the blame for us so that we can receive forgiveness and eternal life.
And it was God the Holy Spirit who enabled Mary to conceive and give birth to a child who was none other than God the Son in the flesh. And the Holy Spirit enabled him to be and to do everything he needed to be and to do in order to deliver us from our sin and misery.
As I’ve said before, the Father and the Son and the Spirit, being one God, worked inseparably to accomplish our salvation. And they did so because of their overflowing goodness and love for us. Because of their overflowing goodness and love, they chose to save us and to do all things necessary to give us eternal life in their presence. And because of their overflowing goodness and love, we can look forward to everlasting life and happiness in the presence of God, instead of having to suffer eternal punishment, away from the presence of God, which is what we deserve. And our salvation is due to God, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit and the wonder of their love for us.
Glory
And the final thing to say today is that, according to John, the Lord Jesus revealed his glory at that wedding in Cana. He revealed his glory by making clear to his disciples his true identity as the Son of God who came into the world as the Christ. And the wonderful thing is that, not just those disciples, but all who believe in him will see his glory in the life to come.
Whenever those disciples saw the Lord Jesus perform this miracle, they were no doubt amazed by what they saw. And from that moment on they must have loved being in his presence and they must have loved learning all they could about him and getting to know him better. Can you imagine how thrilling it must have been for them to listen to him and to hear all the wonderful things he had to teach them about his Heavenly Father? Can you imagine how thrilling it must have been for them to see all the wonderful things he was able to do? They would never become bored. They would never think that they’ve heard and seen enough and they now want to turn their attention to something else. No, every new thing would thrill and excite them and produce in them a longing for more. He revealed his glory to them that day in Cana, but there was more for them to see, because there is no end to his glory and there is no end to his perfections. There is always more to discover and more to enjoy and they were able to see more wonderful things throughout his time among them.
And in the life to come, everyone who has believed in him will see him and his glory. And not only will we see his glory, but we’ll see the glory of the Father and the Spirit as well. We’ll see the glory of our God who is the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. And we’ll be made perfectly holy and happy as we worship him without weariness.
In this life, we might become weary of learning about our God. Our brains begin to hurt and our bodies become tired and we must rest. But in the life to come, we’ll worship him without weariness as he reveals more and more and more of his glory to us. And our enjoyment of him will never cease, but it will go on and on and on for ever. That’s what we can look forward to in the life to come. And we can look forward to it, because God the Father sent his Only Begotten Son in the power of the Holy Spirit to take away our sins and to renew us in his image and to bring us into his presence.
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