When The Wine Ran Out 1-12-25 AM
I. The party (John 2:1-2).
a. We are told there was a marriage in Cana of Galilee.
i. We don’t know the exact location of this town now.
ii. It is believed to have been 8-10 miles from Nazareth.
b. Marriages in that day were far different than those of today.
i. They lasted a week.
ii. The final night, the seventh night of the wedding, is when the bride and groom would move into their home together.
iii. The groom was expected to have food and wine for all that would be there.
c. Mary, the mother of Jesus, was there.
i. We don’t know why.
ii. There are a lot of ideas about it but the Bible does not say why.
d. Jesus was also invited to this wedding as were His disciples.
i. These disciples were probably the ones mentioned in chapter one.
ii. Andrew and Peter, Philip, Nathaniel, and the unnamed disciple, whom most believe is John, the writer of this account.
e. This would have been a very festive occasion and most of the people from the town would be there as well as some from out of town.
II. The predicament (John 2:3-5).
a. The KJV says they “wanted wine.”
i. The NAS says “When the wine ran out.”
ii. This is the idea.
b. This would have been a terrible predicament for the groom.
i. He was tasked with making sure that all the people would be fed and have wine to drink.
ii. To not have enough was going to be terribly embarrassing for him.
iii. I have read that it was even possible for him to be taken to court over it.
iv. Whether that is true or not is not fully known, but for that even to be considered shows what a faux pas this really was.
c. What do you do when you run out of wine?
d. Mary thought the thing to do was to ask Jesus to handle it.
i. She came to Jesus and said “They have no wine.”
ii. Like, here, handle this problem.
e. We don’t know that she was expecting a miracle.
i. Nothing Jesus had been doing should have given her this expectation.
ii. It may be that she was asking her son for help.
iii. Some believe that she was like the wedding coordinator or even the caterer.
iv. Others believe this was some family member’s wedding and that is why Mary was concerned.
f. Whatever the case, she has now made this a problem for Jesus to handle.
g. Jesus says, “Woman, what have I to do with you?”
i. Some have taken this as a rude statement by Jesus.
ii. Remember though, Jesus used this same term when speaking to her on the cross.
iii. It literally says, “What to Me and to you?”
1. Br. Lipe, in his commentary on John, says this was a Semitic idiom.
2. He then quoted D.A. Carson, who stated that this expression always denoted “distance between the two parties.”
3. What Jesus is doing is marking a change in relationship between Himself and His mother.
4. If Jesus has to handle this matter, it is going to show a distinction between Him and her that hasn’t been there as yet.
h. This is seen by what Jesus says next: “Mine hour is not yet come.”
i. When this phrase is found in John’s account, it has to do with the time of the death of Jesus.
ii. Here, and in John 7:30 and John 8:20 we read hour not yet come: It is not time for Jesus to die.
iii. John 12:23 and John 13:1 we read hour is or was come.
iv. Same thing when Jesus is speaking to the Father in John 17:1: it was time for Jesus to die.
i. Jesus knew that if He performed a miracle here, the clock to Calvary started ticking.
j. We don’t know if Mary fully understood what Jesus meant but she simply told the servants to do whatever Jesus said do.
III. The provision (John 2:6-10).
a. At this feast, there were six stone waterpots used for the various purification acts of the Jews.
i. These would hold water to be used for the washing of hands, head, and feet at various times for various reasons.
ii. They would also be used to wash the vessels used in food preparation and eating.
iii. They would hold 20-30 gallons.
b. Jesus told the servants to fill the waterpots up and they filled them to the brim.
i. So Jesus uses these waterpots that would have had unclean water in them.
ii. He didn’t tell them to pour out what water was in them and fill it with new.
iii. He just told them to fill them up, which they did, to the brim of the pots.
c. People read a lot into this section.
i. They say six is the number of man, seven being the divine number.
ii. They say to the brim because without Jesus, there is something missing in our lives and only He can completely fill them up.
iii. Other things like this have been drawn out of the text.
iv. I think there happened to be six pots there.
v. I think Jesus wanted them filled to make sure there would be enough.
d. One thing I do want to take from this is: Jesus did use something common that the people would throw out, this wash water, and make it glorious.
i. That water was good for nothing.
ii. That is, until Jesus focused His attention on it.
iii. This is the way we are.
e. Once they have filled the pots, Jesus tells them to draw some out and take it to the governor, or headwaiter.
i. He was like the master of ceremonies.
ii. They did exactly as Jesus told them.
f. Jesus did absolutely nothing but tell the servants what to do.
g. As we see from verse nine, the water had changed to wine.
h. Jesus shows us His power over nature.
i. This is a twelve month process according to what I have read.
ii. To go from the grape to drinkable wine takes a while.
iii. This changed immediately.
i. We should not be surprised by this because of how John begins this letter (John 1:1-3).
j. Jesus is powerful enough to make all things, surely He can make water into wine.
k. When the governor gets the wine he calls over the groom.
i. He says people generally bring the good stuff first then when people are used to it, the lesser quality stuff is used.
ii. The wine Jesus made, unsurprisingly, was excellent.
l. We discussed a few weeks ago about the use of alcohol and whether or not this was alcoholic wine.
i. I won’t do deep dive back into that.
ii. However, the drinking water of the day was not good.
iii. Jews knew drunkenness was sinful.
iv. To deal with this, they would dilute the water with wine to both purify the water and dampen the effects of the wine.
v. They would do so from 3 to 10 parts water to 1 part wine.
m. There was no doubting what Jesus had done.
i. Not everyone there knew what Jesus did.
ii. But it had an effect on those that did.
IV. The purpose (John 2:11).
a. Remember the purpose of the book of John (John 20:30-31).
b. This is exactly what took place.
c. Jesus showed His glory, at least to those who knew what was going on.
i. This idea is also seen in John 1 (John 1:14).
ii. His ability to do this proved to all that Jesus was different from all others.
d. It caused His disciples to believe in Him.
e. This is the purpose of all miracles or signs.
i. The NAS has signs.
ii. The miracles, this one included, were acts done to signify exactly who Jesus was.
f. This miracle accomplished its intended purpose: to create belief in unbelievers.
(The four main point titles came from a sermon by John MacArthur but the sermon material is mine)