John 2:1-12

00:00:00:18 – 00:00:28:19
Clint Loveall
All right, friends, thanks for joining us. Welcome on this Tuesday, as we begin the second chapter, the Gospel of John. Some, some schedule interruptions recently slowed down a little bit. We’ll get back into it. Probably not fast progress today, but we are getting into the heart of the narrative. There’s a thing that we run into today, that is helpful to know about the Gospel of John.

00:00:28:24 – 00:00:52:37
Clint Loveall
John presents, Bible scholars look at John, and as they look at all the content, there are a couple of things that happens in groups of seven. And one of them is called the Seven Signs of John. So there are seven miracles or seven things that that John presents Jesus doing. And then they sort of set up the stage for who Jesus is.

00:00:52:37 – 00:01:14:52
Clint Loveall
And we get that today. Today is the first sign. And John will even tell us that as we get to the end of this section, a pretty familiar story, though. A, a unique story. One of those stories that’s only in the Gospel of John. We don’t have this story anywhere else, don’t know anything about it, its origin, or where it came from.

00:01:14:52 – 00:01:35:21
Clint Loveall
What tradition or what, why it is that John alone has it, but it is the case. Let me read down through this four ways, and we’ll come back and talk it through. On the third day, there was a wedding in Cana of Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there. Jesus and his disciples had also been invited to the wedding.

00:01:35:25 – 00:01:56:31
Clint Loveall
When the wine gave out, the mother of Jesus said to him, they have no wine. Jesus said to her, woman, what concern is that to you and me? My hour is not yet come. His mother said to the servants, do whatever he tells you. Now standing there were six stone jars, water jars for the Jewish rite of purification.

00:01:56:36 – 00:02:21:27
Clint Loveall
Each held 20 or 30 gallons. Jesus said to them, fill the jars with water and they filled them up to the brim. Let’s, we can go ahead and stop there as we move into this. So lots of things happening. There is a mid-week wedding and Jesus, his disciples and his mother not yet named, are all there. They’ve all been invited to the wedding.

00:02:21:27 – 00:03:02:52
Clint Loveall
Now, in in Jesus culture, in Jesus day, weddings were often a very large celebration. Sometimes a week’s worth or several days worth of kind of activities and events. A very a big deal. And so Jesus here is, is with the wedding and, hears from his mother they have no wine. Now it people who study culture, the scholars, the ones who know something about what this would mean, the hospitality, customs.

00:03:02:52 – 00:03:31:01
Clint Loveall
This would be a massive, failure. Michael. This this would be. This would be the kind of thing that people would talk about. It would be. I don’t know if you call it offensive, but but I don’t know if we naturally. I mean, yes, it’s a bummer to run out of food, but this is this is more akin to sin than a mistake from a cultural perspective.

00:03:31:01 – 00:03:39:29
Clint Loveall
I’m not saying running out of wine is a sin. I’m saying that this would be something held against this family and talked about. It’s a big deal.

00:03:39:34 – 00:04:05:56
Michael Gewecke
Yeah, it absolutely is. And I think that’s an interesting way into the text, is, is to recognize that in this culture and in this time, hospitality to this stranger has a much higher place in culture than it certainly does today in a Western culture. If you’re in America, or at least many places in America. But even beyond that, Clint and I think you’re right to point out it, this is the height of a family’s hospitality.

00:04:05:56 – 00:04:32:47
Michael Gewecke
It is a kind of service to the community. A wedding is not a one day with a reception to follow type event. This is a week long kind of party. And you know, if you’ve ever known someone who maybe went and, married someone in another country, maybe in India, or maybe somewhere in the Middle East, a lot of times, even today, weddings are a much more extended affair, sometimes lasting an entire day or multiple days.

00:04:32:47 – 00:05:07:43
Michael Gewecke
And this this kind of event would have been far more akin to that, highly planned, highly orchestrated, each one of those steps having different meanings and different connections and community, was such an important part of this event. It was the family showing hospitality for everyone in the community. So that’s Clint, where I think this story has such interesting implications, because if you’re a person reading this today, you might think to yourself, they ran out of wine, big deal.

00:05:07:48 – 00:05:38:21
Michael Gewecke
Jesus is doing this miracle or being called to this miracle. Big deal. Why is this the sign that John starts? But there are so many different layers to this. We won’t explore them all today, but the first is very simply that this miracle to its first reader would have made sense. It would have had a kind of gravity to the kind of weight to it that Jesus didn’t just provide drink for the celebration, though he did that.

00:05:38:26 – 00:06:04:10
Michael Gewecke
The point of this is ultimately Jesus helped a family save face. And even more than that, his mother seems to have some knowledge, some role in the planning or execution of this ceremony. He may have done so for his mother as well, that there was a way which Jesus completed, a thing which was coming off the rails, to be quite frank, and it would have meant something to the people who would have been buried.

00:06:04:17 – 00:06:12:27
Michael Gewecke
So Jesus is setting something right that has significant, importance to the community and that you’re right to start all this there.

00:06:12:27 – 00:06:36:52
Clint Loveall
Yeah. I don’t know what the modern equivalent would be, but if if. Jesus, if a person of Jesus day was reading this and they read, they ran out of wine, we read that as a detail that would that would make them uncomfortable, that would, though, that would be shocking and and disrupting for them. Now, the fact that Jesus is there, Mary is there, the disciples are there.

00:06:36:52 – 00:07:00:00
Clint Loveall
Some have speculated that this may have been some kind of extended family connection to Jesus. That’s all. John doesn’t tell us all the details we wish that he would. And so John’s stories are always ripe with opportunity to kind of try and fill in the gaps. That’s fun to do. But ultimately we we often or most often don’t know any of those details.

00:07:00:00 – 00:07:29:06
Clint Loveall
But some have suggested that this is a family wedding. Anyway, Jesus mother troubled by this, says they have no wine. And Jesus says what sounds to us disrespectful woman? What concern is that of yours and mine? Now? Woman is not a sign of disrespect. It’s a it’s actually a respectful term, ma’am. Miss, you know, it is not the way that it translates in English.

00:07:29:06 – 00:07:51:31
Clint Loveall
Quite. And then he says a strange thing. My hour has not yet come, and I think maybe this is the first time we’ve run into it, Michael. But the word hour is significant. And in the Gospel of John, we’re going to see it over and over again. And, and maybe a, maybe a more English way to think about it is my time.

00:07:51:36 – 00:08:15:56
Clint Loveall
And for John, Jesus time is going to be his work on the cross, the when he refers to his hour. It’s that work of redemption that he is headed toward. Ultimately, remember, we’ve told you that the Gospel of John doesn’t back load that like Mark does, or even the synoptics that’s on the table from the very first page in John.

00:08:16:01 – 00:08:43:04
Clint Loveall
And so we know right away there is that moment. There is that time coming when Jesus is going to forfeit his life. We’ve already been told that already. We’re that we’re headed that direction. And so, here he says this doesn’t have in other words, this isn’t my ministry. What does this have to do with me? And and as a typical mother, she just goes right about her, her plan.

00:08:43:12 – 00:09:11:15
Clint Loveall
She says to the servants, do whatever he tells you. So again, whether this is some kind of, silent conversation between Jesus and his mom, mom, I’m not doing it. And she looks at him and says, okay, do what he tells you, that they so, you know, again, all those fun kind of places to speculate and imagine. But the short version is Mary.

00:09:11:20 – 00:09:26:33
Clint Loveall
By decision or by inclination or by in, by intuition, she knows that Jesus is going to act. And so she tells the servants, do whatever he tells you there.

00:09:26:43 – 00:09:48:54
Michael Gewecke
There’s so many different places where I think this story does fire our imaginations, and some of them we might just read by without really seeing some of the meaning behind it. I think we continue in the text into verse six, and we find one of those things, six stone water jars for the Jewish rites of purification. That’s an interesting detail, right?

00:09:48:54 – 00:10:19:01
Michael Gewecke
The Jewish rites of purification. You might just read by that. And say, fascinating detail. Never in John you never read by these things. And them just sort of, be descriptors. This has meaning because and I know that we can’t rush ahead as much as I like to skip ahead in the book of John, certainly talk about the crucifixion scene where, by the way, this scene, gets prefigured a little bit, symbolized a little bit, or at least called to mind a little bit.

00:10:19:06 – 00:10:47:06
Michael Gewecke
But what you have right here is an explicit reference to water and to wine. The vessels that would hold purifying water are the vessels that will hold the wine that Jesus Christ will make it. It is an unbelievably rich, spiritual, symbolic gesture. This idea that the place where the people turn for their hearts to be cleansed is the place that they’re going to drink from.

00:10:47:11 – 00:11:18:48
Michael Gewecke
And you, if you’ve been in any Christian church, you will recognize that image of drinking from the top. Clearly, that is an image we get in in absolute, purest form in the Last Supper, when Jesus himself offers wine to his disciples. So, Clint, if you came to a story like this and you thought it sounded strange that Jesus, that his first miracle recorded a book that gives such high credence to the the deity of Christ who he is, then you might find it strange.

00:11:18:48 – 00:11:39:18
Michael Gewecke
Well, why is this the miracle that we see at the beginning? Why is this the first sign that is offered? And I think as we go through this story, as we see these details, it starts to paint a bigger picture that connects throughout the whole book that will follow that that Jesus is the one who’s going to fulfill what the purification rites themselves could do.

00:11:39:23 – 00:11:54:06
Michael Gewecke
And like a, like a wise preacher or a discerning preacher, John is providing both a narrative of what’s happening, but also some of the spiritual insight of what it means. And it’s both being delivered to us at the same time.

00:11:54:10 – 00:12:20:34
Clint Loveall
Yeah. I think when you come to the miracle stories, particularly these seven signs stories, the the two things that are helpful to keep in mind is the quality and the quantity. And we see that here in John’s first story, John gets to use the word purification. People who study this stuff say that, you know, between 120 and 180 gallons of water is a lot for a wedding of that day.

00:12:20:49 – 00:12:41:57
Clint Loveall
But John is about extravagance in this case. And so not not only is there going to be an exceptional vintage of wine, but an exceptional amount of it as well, so he fills them up to the brim. Now let’s pick up the story. He said to them. Now draw some out. Take it to the chief steward. So they took it.

00:12:42:01 – 00:13:01:07
Clint Loveall
When the steward tasted the water that had become wine, he did not know where it came from, though the servants who had drawn the water knew. The steward called the bridegroom and said, everyone serves the good wine first, and then the inferior wine. When the the guests have been drinking. But you have kept the good wine until now.

00:13:01:12 – 00:13:25:09
Clint Loveall
Jesus did this, the first of his signs in keen Cana of Galilee, and revealed his glory. And his disciples believed in him. After this he went down to Capernaum with his mother, his brother, and his disciples, and they remained there a few days. So again, now John covers a ton of ground. Very quickly draw some out. They do.

00:13:25:13 – 00:13:54:56
Clint Loveall
It’s become wine. It’s it’s fascinating. For as popular and well known as this miracle is in any Jesus reference secular or religious water into wine is known it this is a this is somehow characteristic of Jesus’s abilities and Jesus’s miracles. This one stands out to people. And yet notice that John says absolutely nothing about how it happens.

00:13:55:01 – 00:14:18:03
Clint Loveall
Jesus doesn’t need help in the Gospel of John. Jesus doesn’t need explanation really in any of the gospels, but here it’s as simple as water goes in, wine comes out. That’s all you got to know. The steward takes it, tastes the wine, and he calls the bridegroom and says, look, most people put their best wine out first to impress everybody.

00:14:18:16 – 00:14:44:31
Clint Loveall
And then as they’ve been drinking, they get less and less discerning. But you saved the best until last. So what do we have? We have an incredible amount. 150 gallons or so of the best wine there, including the wine that they started with, which would have been what they intended. So why does John do this? Because that’s what Jesus produces, an abundance of the best.

00:14:44:45 – 00:14:49:45
Clint Loveall
And so we see already here, John starting patterns that he’s going to come back to later.

00:14:49:49 – 00:15:14:00
Michael Gewecke
And it’s not just Clint what Jesus has done or is going to do. It’s also partly who Jesus is. Because think about the history of Israel. Over all of the ages have come the prophets who have declared the Word of God. He’s declared Dodd’s intention over and over and over again. And here, when Jesus arrives, then suddenly it’s the best.

00:15:14:00 – 00:15:43:33
Michael Gewecke
Jesus’s arrival marks the moment upon which everything culminates, including this very sign that Jesus does right. All of the wine that comes previous is now inferior in the face of what Jesus creates. And I think John, as the first miracle is, is connecting this whole picture, and it’s connecting the history of the people and the things that they thought were good, that he’s now going to transfigure it.

00:15:43:33 – 00:16:06:45
Michael Gewecke
It’s all going to be changed in light of his glory and grace. And then also you’re going to see how that Jesus is going to continue to amaze. He’s not just going to change the lot for a family at a wedding. He’s also going to teach and reveal to the disciples everything that is true about how God has changed the world and who Jesus is.

00:16:06:46 – 00:16:34:35
Michael Gewecke
And I think it’s worth noting at the end of verse 11 that this then leads to, a further signs. This is just the first of his signs in Galilee, and it reveals his glory and and don’t miss what are the disciples response to that glory? They believe in him. And that’s shorthand not just for what happened to the disciples, but an invitation for you in this first sign that you two might see it and believe.

00:16:34:35 – 00:16:39:19
Michael Gewecke
And John is going to continue to unpack this in the word stories, signs to come.

00:16:39:19 – 00:17:11:49
Clint Loveall
Which I think is a reason that John prefers the word sign to miracle. I think that John John thinks in terms of signs. Because what do signs point to something, right? Miracles are incredible. And certainly this is miraculous. But for John, it’s not only that. It is a thing that points you towards something deeper, something better. And so this is the first of the signs of the guidance post.

00:17:11:54 – 00:17:38:51
Clint Loveall
This is the first thing that Jesus did for the people that begins to give them an awareness of who he is. And so the disciples then respond, because how does one always respond in John when they encounter the power of Christ with belief? They believe in him. And so, a really interesting story. We don’t know why this is unique to John.

00:17:38:56 – 00:18:06:57
Clint Loveall
It’s fascinating way to start the gospel. At a small ish family event, in and out of the way place. And yet that is the first inkling for those who see it. Notice, maybe not for everybody, but for those who saw what happened. An amazing sign of who this man is. Now, we don’t really have a lot of time to go into it.

00:18:06:57 – 00:18:33:58
Clint Loveall
I’ll just point you in the direction. If you wanted to dig into the Old Testament, you know, even, a pretty quick internet search on wine and Bible. Once you got through all the arguments about whether Christians should drink or not wine, an Old Testament would give you a lot of resources of the importance of wine, the wine of wrath, the wine of of blessing.

00:18:34:03 – 00:19:03:12
Clint Loveall
The vineyard imagery in the Old Testament wine is a rich metaphor in the story of God’s people for their relationship with God and for what God promised to do to them in both good circumstances and bad circumstances. And so wine is not a random, ingredient here. Wine is central to the storytelling of the faith people. And and that’ll come back.

00:19:03:12 – 00:19:09:52
Clint Loveall
We’ll see that again. But just know that there’s there are roots to this that are, that are deep.

00:19:09:57 – 00:19:27:27
Michael Gewecke
No doubt. And, hope that with all of that said, there’s something here today that’s been encouraging, maybe new to you and then and let you see this story in a new way, and certainly hope that you might subscribe so that you could stick with us here as we go through the rest of these signs and the entire book of John, which is a rich, rich story to come.

00:19:27:27 – 00:19:30:45
Michael Gewecke
So like subscribe. We look forward to seeing you tomorrow.

00:19:30:46 – 00:19:31:30
Clint Loveall
Thanks for listening.