The Wedding at Cana
Jesus' first public act of ministry and first miracle, turning water into wine. It's not a magic trick, it's a message.
John 2:1 On the third day there was a wedding at Cana in Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there. 2 Jesus also was invited to the wedding with his disciples. 3 When the wine ran out, the mother of Jesus said to him, “They have no wine.” 4 And Jesus said to her, “Woman, what does this have to do with me? My hour has not yet come.” (this is a rough translation, Jesus is basically saying something like, fine, but let me handle this low key behind the scenes my way not your way, which helps make sense of what is mother says next . . . ) 5 His mother said to the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.”
6 Now there were six stone water jars there for the Jewish rites of purification, each holding twenty or thirty gallons. 7 Jesus said to the servants, “Fill the jars with water.” And they filled them up to the brim. 8 And he said to them, “Now draw some out and take it to the master of the feast.” So they took it. 9 When the master of the feast tasted the water now become wine, and did not know where it came from (though the servants who had drawn the water knew), the master of the feast called the bridegroom 10 and said to him, “Everyone serves the good wine first, and when people have drunk freely, then the poor wine. But you have kept the good wine until now.” 11 This, the first of his signs, Jesus did at Cana in Galilee, and manifested his glory. And his disciples believed in him.
It is an unfortunate reality that this first public act of ministry by Jesus has more traction as a joke than as a message. Heck, even I have a coaster in my office, given by a well meaning church member, that reads, “Does anyone know which page of the Bible explains how to turn water into wine? Asking for a friend.”
This passage probably functions as joke material because it’s easier to laugh about than to understand and to internalize its message. The message is not only hard to understand, it is also hostile to institutional, man made religious practices. Practices intended to both keep God at a nice safe distance and to control people into conformity to man made designs.
Friends, this message at the wedding in Cana is intended to signal to us that the ministry of Jesus is going to do away with the Old Testament pattern of ritual, external conformity and replace it with God’s true desire and intent, inner transformation. Inner transformation is something that no rituals or liturgies or even books of discipline will ever be able to produce, but rather only the power of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit can produce.
Lets turn our attention to the elements of this passage of scripture to gain a proper understanding of the important message the John intends to convey to us:
v. 1 “there was a wedding” - The setting provides us with an important eschatological framework to the beginning of Jesus ministry. Everything following this beginning point is in preparation for what is referred to in Revelation as “the Marriage Supper of the Lamb” (Rev. 19:6-9).
v. 6 “there were six stone jars”. This is another symbolic clue of the eschatological messaging of this story. Both Jewish and early Christian leaders understood there to be 7,000 years of Biblical history (notice I didn’t say human history or earth’s history, but “Biblical history”). There is a unique plan of God being played out through the pages of scripture that will come to an amazing culmination when it is complete. This act by Jesus will mark the beginning of what was referred to as “the Age of Grace”, expected to last roughly 2,000 years (see Parousia Part 3).
“But observe what Himself says, The things which were written in the law, and in the prophets, and in the Psalms concerning me. And we know that the law extends from the time of which we have record, that is, from the beginning of the world: In the beginning God made the heaven and the earth. Genesis 1:1 Thence down to the time in which we are now living are six ages, this being the sixth, as you have often heard and know. The first age is reckoned from Adam to Noah; the second, from Noah to Abraham; and, as Matthew the evangelist duly follows and distinguishes, the third, from Abraham to David; the fourth, from David to the carrying away into Babylon; the fifth, from the carrying away into Babylon to John the Baptist; Matthew 1:17 the sixth, from John the Baptist to the end of the world. Moreover, God made man after His own image on the sixth day, because in this sixth age is manifested the renewing of our mind through the gospel, after the image of Him who created us; Colossians 3:10 and the water is turned into wine, that we may taste of Christ, now manifested in the law and the prophets. Hence there were there six water-pots, which He bade be filled with water. Now the six water-pots signify the six ages, which were not without prophecy. And those six periods, divided and separated as it were by joints, would be as empty vessels unless they were filled by Christ. Why did I say, the periods which would run fruitlessly on, unless the Lord Jesus were preached in them? Prophecies are fulfilled, the water-pots are full; but that the water may be turned into wine, Christ must be understood in that whole prophecy.” (Saint Augustine ~ Tractates on John 9.6)
Notice the nature of the jars. The intent of these jars is for washing, not for cleanliness, but for ritual purification. This was an idea communicated by the Old Testament ceremonial laws that a priest had to be made externally clean through a washing ritual before he was considered fit to enter the presence of a holy God. So humans are unfit to have union with God unless their uncleanness (sin) has been properly dealt with.
Observe how Jesus takes these jars and completely changes their purpose. No longer are they to be used for washing, but for drinking. Kind of gross in way right? But don’t miss the message, the symbol of wine is used extensively to communicate the way the Holy Spirit affects the mind and heart of believers who receive him. Ritualism may affect the outside on a purely surface level. Wine, on the other hand, is to be received on the inside of a person. Through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit made possible by Jesus Christ’s work and ministry, as believers, we are to receive his work and message in order to be transformed in the inner man. Something rituals are useless to accomplish.
Lastly observe the amount of the wine. We’re talking about roughly 150 gallons of wine. This party ain’t stopping, and the wine will never run out. We don’t have to live with the anxiety of not having enough for everyone or running out.
v. 10 They saved the best wine till last. The ministry Jesus is introducing is intended discontinue the Old Testament pattern of worship under the Mosaic covenant, and to transform it. The death and resurrection of Jesus will provide the means by which humans can be made fit for God the Holy Spirit to be permanently present inside of believers. A reality that cannot compare in quality and function to the external ritualism of the Old Testament worship. Worship which allowed for God to be around and upon his people, but not inside of his people in a permanent, abiding way. This story projects even further forward eschatologically into the final 1,000 years of human history, the millennial reign of Christ. This final sabbath day of Biblical history will be an unparalleled time of peace, unity, and prosperity for the nations of the earth under the rule of the global sovereign King, Jesus Christ (see Rev. 20).
That is a lot of message packed into this short episode of scripture. What are we to make of it?
Think about an important ritual given to us by Jesus on this side of his ministry like baptism. As Methodists, how do we understand that we are to baptize people correctly? Are we to use immersion? Sprinkling? Pouring?
Are we to baptize in the name of Jesus (Acts 2:38)? Or are we to baptize in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit (Matthew 28:19)? Friends, we just aren’t given detailed instructions on how to properly perform rituals in the New Testament, because that is by definition an Old Testament, old wineskin paradigm.
You see, under the new covenant wineskin, we aren’t about focusing on rituals. We are to be about being properly related to God through giving expression to our faith in Jesus Christ by being obedient to submit to baptism in relationship to the body of Christ. It is our message that we are to focus on, not rituals.
IT IS NOT HOW or where you are baptized that is important, IT IS THAT you are baptized that is important.
Now, the same goes for how we go about conducting our worship services. Because our wise founding fathers were aware that rituals were incapable of producing the results that God desires, they instructed us in our doctrines and disciplines as Methodists as follows:
Article XIII – Public Worship (From THE TRANSITIONAL BOOK OF DOCTRINES AND DISCIPLINE THE GLOBAL METHODIST CHURCH)1
We believe divine worship is the duty and privilege of man who, in the presence of God, bows in adoration, humility and dedication. We believe divine worship is essential to the life of the Church, and that the assembling of the people of God for such worship is necessary to Christian fellowship and spiritual growth.
We believe the order of public worship need not be the same in all places but may be modified by the church according to circumstances and the needs of men. It should be in a language and form understood by the people, consistent with the Holy Scriptures to the edification of all, and in accordance with the order and Discipline of the Church (1 Cor. 14:40).
And concerning this next doctrine of our faith, the problem being addressed isn’t so much our Pentecostal brothers and sisters. But the practice of the Roman Catholic church which at one time, and in some cases still does, insist that their worship service need be conducted in Latin in order to honor God and the traditions of the church. This props up Roman Catholic traditional dogma that since Peter was the bishop of Rome, making Rome the center of all of Christianity, we ought to retain the native language of Roman liturgical practices. The obvious problem with this being hardly anyone understands Latin.
Article XV - Of Speaking in the Congregation in Such a Tongue as the People Understand It is a thing plainly repugnant to the Word of God, and the custom of the primitive church, to have public prayer in the church, or to minister the Sacraments, in a tongue not understood by the people.
What point is there in clinging to tradition, if it doesn’t function to help people grow in their understanding of and connection to the message?
The conclusion we might draw from all of this in regards to worship is that music is important, and conducting our services in a disciplined and orderly way that functions to help people move forward in their faith is our primary if not only concern. God isn’t concerned with rituals and formalities at this juncture of the working out of his plan in Biblical history, he is concerned about transformation in the minds and hearts of believers.