Life Project Blog

John 2:1-12

This is the story of the first miracle of Jesus.  It has no parallel in the synoptics, and it stands quite alone giving insight into the way Jesus and His disciples lived that many Christians love to ignore: Jesus drank wine.  (Horror!) Just for fun, compare this passage with Colossians 2:20 ff.

If this blows your mind, then let me quickly sum up this passage for you: Jesus performed His first miracle at Cana, where for the first time His glory and authority was revealed, and His disciples came to believe in Him. OK, faint of heart, see you tomorrow and have a great afternoon!

Those of you who can handle this, let’s have a closer look…

The scene is set: Jesus, His mother (John never says “Mary”) and the disciples were there.  This seems to have been three days after the calling of Phillip.  No reason is given for the reason the wine ran out.  Some have postulated that the attendance of Jesus and the disciples was the cause, but since John says that they had been invited, this seems unlikely.  It would also seem that Mary was well known to the family involved here, since she so quickly took charge of the disaster. When she brings this social catastrophe to Jesus’ attention, His reaction is interesting: literally, “What’s it to me?”  Notice that Mary seems to be aware that Jesus can remedy the situation easily; why else would she pass right over His question and tell the servants to do whatever He says? Jesus statement that His time has not yet come has troubled some commentators who haven’t noticed that In John’s Gospel, John uses this wording to refer to the time of Jesus’ being glorified (by the cross) and not to His performance of miracles, in this case a rather mundane one, if indeed a miracle can ever be called that.

The total capacity of these jars would have been in the range of 120 to 180 gallons. It is worthy of note that Jesus used all of the jars and had them filled up completely; nobody could say that Jesus’ power was limited, nor could they claim that He just slipped some kind of magic fairy dust into them: they were full.

When the servants drew the “water” from the jars and served it to the master of the banquet, the master confirmed that not only was this wine, but it was the “good stuff”.  It can be hilarious reading commentaries about these verses when the commentator goes on and on about how this was “obviously” not really wine but unfermented grape juice.

One of the cardinal rules of interpretation of the Bible is that you must set aside your pre-suppositions, opinions and traditions and let the text speak for itself.  When you are confused or feel that you have come upon a contradiction, there are various things you can do to figure out what the meaning is. Here are two easy ideas: You can usually do a word study and find out what is going on.  In addition, a close examination of the complete context will also aid in determining what the text is teaching.  After this has been done, if the Bible turns out to support your pre-suppositions, opinions and traditions: Marvelous.  But where it doesn’t, your presuppositions, opinions or traditions are wrong. In this case, if you are bound and determined to say that Jesus would never allow the serving of wine, you have two problems to deal with:  First, the Greek word used here is oinos which happens to mean “wine”.  The Greek word for grape juice is tnyx.  Why would John, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, make such a writing error? Second, note what the master of the banquet said in verse 10.  Does that even remotely indicate that they were dealing with grape juice?  Does it sound to you like what he would say if the wine was watered down to less than 50% wine?  A better question would be, “Was Jesus trying to get everyone drunk?”  The text does not tell us that Jesus had everyone’s glass refilled, it tells us that the master of the banquet, the only one we know for sure that was aware of the problem got a sample.  We don’t know what the other attendees did after that, or if they even became aware that the wine was gone.  We do know why Jesus performed the miracle, however.

The brand new disciples, who had responded to the testimony of John the Baptist, and then to each other’s saw for the first time that Jesus was more than a man who had been blessed by God: He had a power that no mere mortal possessed, and they put their faith in Him. This would also be the reason for His future miracles; to confirm His true identity and the authority by which He taught.

Yes dear reader, this is the point, and all of the silly business of trying to explain away the wine only draws our attention away from the majesty of our Lord.

John 1:36-51

This section deals with the call of disciples of Jesus.  It is interesting to note that this concept has its beginning as a reaction to the testimony of John, as opposed to any sort of dramatic event.  None of them had angelic messages or voices from on high; they simply reacted to the person of Jesus Christ.  Why is that noteworthy?  Because that is exactly how you and I are “called”.  I’ve never met a man who claimed that he was a follower of Christ because he had experienced a personal audience with an angel, prophet or indeed God Himself.  He simply reacted to who Jesus is.

John’s story of the calling of disciples begins in verses 35-42; taking it as a whole, we see two main components, the first being John’s testimony that Jesus was the “Lamb of God.”  This is the confession that marks the difference between a world that is lost and a follower of Christ.  The second aspect is the response of the two disciples of John who heard it: they followed Jesus.  Notice however that their initial following of Jesus was literal in the sense that they were going to go where He went as opposed to give Him their lives.  When Jesus saw them he simply asked them what they wanted, a question that He would ask many over time.  The two did not give a great theological reply; they just wanted to see where He was staying, maybe to have a chance to talk with Him later.  Jesus gave them a classic reply, “Come and you will see.”

In truth, this is the matrix for all personal evangelism:  Someone hears about Jesus and they want to check it out.  Our approach is “Come and see”. In the case of our text, they arrived at Jesus’ lodgings at around 4 in the afternoon.  Time in the Gospels is reckoned more or less as a twelve hour day from roughly 6 am to 6 pm.  The tenth hour would be about 4 pm. During their visit, Andrew goes off to get his brother Simon, who comes along to see Jesus.  Andrew was now certain about the identity of Jesus.  Jesus, in verse 42 tells Simon that he will be called Cephas.  Note that the synoptics record this name change roughly in the middle of Jesus’ ministry; is this a conflict?  It is not a conflict because Jesus did not change Simon’s name to Cephas; He only said that he will be called by that name: future tense, it will happen someday.

The next section, vv. 43 ff takes place on the next day as Jesus moved on and in the process came upon Phillip.  He simply said to him, “Follow me.”  Phillip’s response was immediate: He followed Jesus.  When Phillip came upon Nathaniel, Nathaniel was more of a skeptic.  Nazareth was a nowhere town.  It isn’t mentioned in the Old Testament, nor in any surviving pagan writings.  It’s kind of like Fallon, Nevada: Noplaceville!  Funny, it is interesting that the Son of God should be from “Nowhereville”, and He was born in a stable on a road trip, and He died on a cross, naked and penniless.  There is no worldly appeal to Him; there is only who He is to draw a person closer.  Phillip’s reaction is a classic: “Come and see”.

When the skeptical Nathaniel first meets Jesus he is surprised by what Jesus knew about him.  His reaction was to believe what Phillip had told him, and he responded in faith.  Jesus has an interesting reply to Nathaniel’s expression of faith: You ain’t seen nothin’ yet!  Jesus begins His final comment in this chapter with “Truly, truly I say to you” the first of 25 times in this Gospel to introduce an important statement, and then proceeded to make a statement that reminds us of Genesis 28:12, Jacob’s ladder.  “…you will see heaven open and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.”  This statement gives the commentators some trouble, but my take is that His disciples would see that Jesus was directly connected with heaven, speaking for heaven and being of heaven.  Jesus and the Word cannot be separated.  This is also His first use of the title “Son of Man”.  It seems to be a favorite of His; it can refer to no one else.

John 1:19-34

Many scholars consider this section to be a second introduction to John’s Gospel, bringing the first section of a Heavenly view down to an earthly witness of the one sent to prepare the Messiah’s path.  John the Baptist is the first witness of Jesus as the Christ, and his is the first testimony recorded.  Witness or testimony is the clear theme of this passage, and in doing so, the Baptist has made a clear link between the Old Testament prophets and the appearance of Jesus on the scene; this is a theological foundation to Jesus’ later claims on this subject.

Verse 19 refers to “Jews of Jerusalem”, “priests” and “Levites”.  These distinctions should be understood as referring first to what we might call the “powers that be” among the Jewish leadership of the time.  The “priests” are those Temple functionaries who perform the duties of that office under the Law, and “Levites” refers to those from the same tribe who perform ancillary functions in the Temple, such as being ‘teachers of the Law” and Temple guards. This delegation was sent from the city to find out just who this crazy guy was who was dressing badly and baptizing people in the Jordan.  John’s reply to all of their questions was “no”; he was not any of those…

So, if John wasn’t the Messiah, Elijah or the Prophet, then who was he and why was he making such a commotion?

John now identifies himself by quoting from Isaiah 40:3.  John was God’s word spoken, not God’s word incarnate; John’s mission was to call for the people to prepare themselves for God’s arrival by repentance and baptism in water. He baptized in water to make preparation, but the One who was coming would baptize another way…

The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world! This is the one I meant when I said, ‘A man who comes after me has surpassed me because he was before me.’ I myself did not know him, but the reason I came baptizing with water was that he might be revealed to Israel.”

John 1:29-31

“The next day” is not always understood the same way by scholars.  Some maintain that it is a chronological reference, while others insist that in the Gospel of John it refers to the next significant event.  In either case, after the Jewish delegation had left, at some point, John made his declaration that Jesus was the One for whom he had been preparing the way.  He calls Jesus the “Lamb of God” making a clear reference to the sacrificial animal used in Temple sacrifices for the atonement of sin.  Jesus would take sin away entirely, not merely making a temporary atonement as the lambs in the Temple did.  John’s statement that he hadn’t known Jesus refers to John’s not understanding that Jesus, his cousin, was the One.

Then John gave this testimony: “I saw the Spirit come down from heaven as a dove and remain on him. And I myself did not know him, but the one who sent me to baptize with water told me, ‘The man on whom you see the Spirit come down and remain is the one who will baptize with the Holy Spirit.’ I have seen and I testify that this is God’s Chosen One.”

John 1:32-34

Here, John clearly tells the people how he knows Jesus is the One; John has seen the sign that God told him to watch for.  Thus, because John has been made to see the Spirit of God descend upon Jesus ‘like a dove’ and then remain there, John states positively that Jesus is the Son of God.

Final Note:  There is some dispute among scholars on the matter and timing of Jesus’ baptism by John.  Note that in this text, John told the Jews that there was standing among them someone that they did not know (vv. 26-27). Of course this is one of the issues debated.  It would appear that John had baptized Jesus at some point and then John had seen the spirit descend.  Was it immediate or was there a lag in time?  Verse 29 makes it appear that there was a time lag, even though John seemed to have suspected something the day before.  Naturally, since the gospel of John is not synoptic, the fact that the Apostle doesn’t stick to a strict time-line can also muddy the waters a bit. Whatever the answer is, one thing is beyond debate:  John, by a sign from God came to recognize that Jesus was the Christ and stated that fact boldly and publicly to the assembled people.

The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.

John 1:14

Up to this point, we know that the Word was with God and that the Word was God; the “Word-God.” We have also seen John refer to this Word-God as “he”. Now, for the first time, John identifies “him” as the Son of God, Jesus Christ. Yes, for it was none other than Jesus who became flesh and made His dwelling among us at the incarnation, it is of Jesus that the Hebrews author asserts, “and through whom also he made the universe” (Hebrews 1:2) which is parallel to John 1:3; there can be no doubt about whom it is that John is referring to here. It is Jesus who is the Son, having come to us from the Father.

Now that we are certain of just who John has been talking about, we can look at the attributes John mentions about Him, He was full of “grace and truth.” Notice the balance between those two; how many of us maintain that kind of balance between grace and truth when we are interacting with others? Some of us have a great deal of grace, so much so in fact, that we can overlook almost anything; we might even make the truth hard to find. Others are so strong on truth that we find ourselves pointing fingers at those around us, seldom displaying love or compassion or understanding.

I used to give my students a little chart containing two axes, the north-south axis was labeled “justice” at the top and “mercy” at the bottom, and the east-west was labeled “truth” on the west and “grace” on the east. Then I would ask them to rate themselves by making a little “X” where they think they fall on the chart as I asked them four or five simple questions. After that, I would ask the questions again and have them rate me…

Almost without exception, the students rated themselves right in the middle of the chart, and almost without exception they rated me in the upper left hand quadrant: they were all full of grace and truth, while I was cold, aloof and correct.

I always got a kick out of that and joked that they should just remember who was the one who was correct in the room. Then, springing the trap, I would congratulate them, for they had each placed themselves on a par with none other than Jesus Christ Himself, a position much loftier than anything the Apostle Paul would ever dare to claim!

The preacher who pounds his pulpit while heaping condemnation on the sinners around the room thinks he’s being just like Jesus, but where is the grace? The preacher who is willing to tolerate virtually any behavior also thinks he’s being just like Jesus, but where’s the truth? Oh yes, dear reader, it is so very hard for us to see ourselves the way that others do, and even harder to see ourselves as God sees us, but since being like Christ is our goal, we need to try.

It might just be that you, me and everyone else should seek His guidance in this through fervent and regular prayer that He, through His Spirit would guide our every action, that all around us would see His love at work in each of us.