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Joh_2:1-11
We find Him there “on the third day” after Nathaniel had joined Him. He and his disciples might have gone, without difficulty, from the banks of the Jordan to Cana in the two previous days, the distance being about fifty miles. It is possible, however, that only Philip and Nathaniel accompanied Him, for we not long after shall find the other three engaged in their usual occupations on the Lake of Tiberias, so as to suggest the probability that Jesus did not, on this occasion, take them on with Him, but had appointed to meet them on the shores of the lake at some future day. We know from Joh_21:2, that Nathaniel belonged to this place; and the probability seems to be, that something in connection with him induced Jesus to accompany him and his friend Philip thither; and that on their arrival a wedding-feast was found to be at hand, to which his mother had been invited from Nazareth, and had probably already arrived. This fact suggests that she was an acquaintance of one of the families united by this marriage, if not related to it; and it was probably her mention of the fact of her son’s arrival, that caused the invitation to be extended to Him and his disciples, one of whom, at least, was already known in the place. That He did not go to the wedding at Cana by previous invitation, seems to be shown by the long time He had been away from the neighborhood, and by the disciples being included in the invitation, He having had no disciples before.
The mother of Jesus appears to have taken a part in the concerns and proper ordering of this cheerful feast, which would alone seem to intimate that she was a friend of the family. Thus perceiving that the wine provided for the feast was likely to prove insufficient, she mentioned the matter to her son. Her object in doing so is not quite clear. Some have supposed that the unexpected addition to the party, made by himself and his disciples, having been unprovided for, was the occasion of this insufficiency; and that Mary meant to hint to Him that it would be proper for Him to withdraw with his followers, and by thus breaking up the whole party, spare the host the disgrace of his insufficient supply for his guests being exposed. Some image that she had been so accustomed to see Him work miracles in the exigencies of private life, that she expected He would, by some such means, supply the present need. The numerous miracles recorded in the apocryphal gospels of the infancy would certainly support that interpretation; but against it, and against the fables on which it is founded, we have the positive assurance of the evangelist that this was the beginning of his miracles. Another explanation is, that Mary had no very definite object in view, but having in all things found Him a wise and safe adviser, she turned to Him now, in the hope that He might suggest some means of help in this emergency. We should ourselves prefer this interpretation, were it not that our Lord’s reply clearly intimates that his mother’s intimation involved something more exacting than was becoming even in her, or than was agreeable to Him. It seems to us, therefore, likely that, from all she had seen, and heard, and pondered over, she had realized such an idea of his power as to conclude it fully equal to this singular emergency, however He may have seen fit to restrain it hitherto. She may also have had something of the motherly feeling that her son was altogether too slow in bringing himself forward, and that it might be well to quicken Him a little, by pressing upon Him this opportunity of bringing himself under the public notice.
His answer was: “Woman, what have I to do with thee? mine hour is not yet come.” Dismissing the idea that there is anything of rebuke in the term “Woman,” as applied to his mother—for it is the same epithet with which, in the tenderness of his dying hour, he accosted her from the cross—it must yet be acknowledged that his answer, as a whole, is one of rebuke and repression. His design was doubtless to teach that there were higher considerations than those of flesh and blood, where the interests of God’s kingdom were concerned; and, to render that lesson more impressive to us, He taught it first to her who, from her peculiar relation to Him, and from his having been a most dutiful son in all the common relations of life, might too readily be led to think, that she might venture to lay the gentle stress of her urgency or her expectations upon Him, in matters that affected the conduct of his mission to a lost world. Yet, while He would not permit even the mother that bore Him to lay her finger upon the ark of the covenant, He covered the harshness of his apparent refusal with the grace of a real concession to her wish.
He had said the time was not yet come; and therefore He waited until the wine was wholly exhausted. Then, on looking round, He perceived six water-pots of stone, each capable of containing two or three firkins, set hard by for the purpose of those ablutions which the Jews of that age were so frequent and scrupulous in performing. These were now empty, probably from the ablutions of so many guests. These vessels our Lord directed to be filled with water; and the servants, though wondering, did not venture to disobey Him, as his mother had hinted to them that they had better attend to any directions He might give. When this was done, He required them to draw it; and then, as they perceived by the color and odor that it had become wine, they scrupled not to bear it to the governor of the feast. This personage, being one of the guests whose function it was to preside at the table for the purpose of maintaining order, of enlivening the festivities, and of relieving the bridegroom from minute solicitudes, counted it among his duties to taste, for approval, any fresh lot of wine that might be produced for the use of the guests. Tasting this wine, he, not knowing whence it came, but finding it greatly superior to any that had yet been used, called out to the bridegroom, in a tone of jocund raillery, across the table, “Every man at the beginning doth set forth good wine; and when men have well drunk, then that which is worse; but thou hast kept the good wine until now.”
These words rendered the evidence of the miracle complete. First, the vessels used were such as were standing by for ordinary purposes, precluding any idea of collusion; then they were not wine-vessels but water-pots, so that it could not be suggested that there was some sediment of wine remaining in them, which gave a flavor to the water poured in, forming a kind of thin wine or tolerable negus, which might pass at the end of the feast; then there is the intervention of the servants in filling vessels, but for which it might have appeared, as it did in fact appear to the ruler of the feast, that the wine had come from some unexpected quarter; lastly, there is the evidence of the symposiarch, or, “ruler of the feast,” who, knowing nothing of the history of this wine, pronounces upon it that it is not only real wine, but good wine—better wine than had yet been produced at the feast. Nothing can be more complete; and, for convincing evidence in demonstration of miracles, there could scarcely be a better miracle than this. The keenest eye can discover no flaw in it.