A Wedding In Cana

John 2:1-11

Most people enjoy attending weddings.  They are a happy and festive occasion. Jesus was no exception.  In our passage today from the Gospel of John we read that Jesus and a few of His disciples were invited to a wedding.  Let’s look at the passage together and see what we can learn from this account.

Weddings in Biblical days were big affairs.  Though weddings today can often be very expensive, costing many thousands of dollars, they generally last only one day.  In Biblical days weddings lasted several days, often up to a week, with every possible friend and relation invited. To refuse the invitation was insulting.  These weddings were very festive occasions, with a lot of music, dancing, much food and wine. A lot of planning went into preparing weddings, and as we’ll see, to run out of wine was a huge and embarrassing faux pas, breaking the rules of hospitality.

Though not as common a belief today as it once was, there are still some who do not believe Christians should relax, have a good time, and enjoy themselves. That’s not what Jesus thought, as we see here when He attended the wedding of some friends. I don’t believe that He sat at the sidelines with His arms crossed and a sour look on His face, either!  I believe that He was enjoying Himself. One does not need to get drunk or high on drugs, nor tell dirty jokes to have a good time.

At some time during the festivities the family ran out of wine.  The financial responsibility for weddings in this culture lay with the groom and his family. To run out of something like wine was of the utmost of embarrassment. Jesus’s mother, Mary, was probably a good friend of the groom’s family, and she knew about this problem. Instead of going into panic-mode, Mary knew to take the problem to Jesus (vs. 3).

When Mary came and told Jesus about the problem of no wine, she was probably not specifically asking for a miracle.  Mary was probably just asking if Jesus could help, no knowing what He would do. However, she explicitly trusted Him to know and do what was best.  Mary brought her problem to Jesus and left it in His hands. Mary didn’t tell Jesus what to do, rather she submitted the problem to Jesus and allowed Him to deal with it as He saw best. We need to do that with all of our problems.

When we read verse 4, and see Jesus calling His mother, “woman”, we might think Jesus was being rude or disrespectful to her.  He was not being disrespectful, as that would not be His character. It was probably more like our term “Ma’am”. Jesus was also gently letting Mary know that their relationship was now a changed one.  It was no longer a mother-son one, but now that Jesus was starting His ministry, it was as the Messiah, the Son of God.

The water jars in verse 6 were used for ceremonial washing, and held 20 - 30 gallons each.  These water jars were ordinary items. There was nothing special about them. The water in them was ordinary, too.  However, when given to Jesus, He turned that water into wine, and not just ordinary wine, but the best there was (vs. 10).  When we give ourselves to Jesus, to do with us as He desires, He will turn our ordinary into something wonderful for His use.  This miracle showed Jesus power over nature, and how His ministry was about loving and helping people.

Just as Mary told the servants to do whatever Jesus told them to do (vs. 5), we need to do the same.  Whatever Jesus says for us to do, we need to do that in order for Him to work in our lives. If the servants had ignored Him, thinking what He said was nonsense, they would have missed out on the miracle. Whatever Jesus says for us to do, do it. Don’t miss out on what He wants to do in your life!