You probably guessed that I am giving my biblical thoughts on the wedding in Canna where Jesus performed His first recorded miracle. The reference is John 2:1-12.
I admit that when I read the opening words “on the third day” that really got my attention, because there are a number of things recorded in the Bible that occurred on the third day. The most memorable in the New Testament is when Jesus was resurrected on the third day. So I asked myself is the miracle at the wedding connected to Jesus resurrection?
To understand the context of the wedding miracle I read the preceding passages in John 1. Reading John 1 I realised there is a distinct link between that passage and Genesis 1 (see my blog on Salvation in Genesis for some further reading). The first chapters in John and Genesis set the referral point for the wedding scene. However I will return to that thought at the end of the this blog.
So the scene is obviously a wedding and this gives the context of the passage and the message. I am sure you know that a wedding is about union between two people and the parallel is that Jesus mission was about the union of God to His children (us).
In John 2 verse 6 we read there are 6 waterpots of stone. We know these pots were generally used to purify the hands prior or during to a meal, apart from other uses. In the wedding they now replaced the purifying water with wine. Then we find out the wine runs out and Jesus has it replaced with water. This is interesting in its self. The pots are to cleanse the hands prior to a meal then for the wedding they replace that with wine then Jesus replace the pots with water and turns it into wine. It is a statement about mans efforts in salvation. Man uses the water to cleanse themselves and resorts to man made wine to save themselves. However Jesus uses the Living Water to cleanse us and the wine represents His blood which provides us salvation. So this parallel is comparing mans efforts versus Jesus way is Jesus to salvation.
This story is a metaphor to illustrate our lives without God and more specifically humanity without God. The clue is the number 6. Six in the Bible means humanity without God, it is “the number of man, the number of imperfections and man’s work”.
So here we find man’s efforts in producing wine eventually fails, despite man’s efforts it will never restore the union between man and God that was in the beginning of the creation of man.
To further explain let’s look at verse 7. Jesus instructs the servants to fill the 6 empty pots and they filled them to the brim (that is to the very top). This filling to the brim is significant. As it eliminates any chance of the servants or Jesus adding something extra to the water to alter it, otherwise it would overflow. The change from water to wine was not from what was added rather it was a changing from within. Just like us. We are not changed because Jesus helps us to change by adding some extra power, rather we are changed completely because Jesus lives in us. I cringe when I think I use to pray these words “please help me to be a better person ………”. Rather I now I pray for Jesus to live in me through the Holy Spirit and take control of my life and do the will of God in me.
The important part is to understand that Jesus is the 7th pot in this story and as you know seven means perfection in the Bible. He pours himself completely into the other pots. That is why the master of the feast called the bridegroom and said to him “Every man at the beginning sets out the good wine, and when the guests have well drunk, then the inferior. You have kept the good wine until now” Again this affirms the concept that man’s efforts will never be good enough and always inferior. Only Jesus is perfect and it is He that must live in us to escape condemnation and the fear of death.
Now lets wrap this up. The wedding feast is about union with God as it was in the garden of Eden. John purposley connects Genesis 1 (which is about salvation and having the Light live in us) in the first chapter of John because he knows Jesus is the Light of the world and the Lamb of God who takes away sin. Jesus was also “in the beginning with God” and talked with Adam and Eve and now has come to restore the relationship that once was. It was the third day when Jesus resurected and this was the day salvation through His blood was available to us. Praise God.
My Biblical Thoughts 