John 2:1-11
Lesson Focus
God uses ordinary stuff through ordinary people to do extraordinary things.
Lesson Outcomes
Through this lesson, students should:
Understand that God in Christ uses ordinary objects to do great things, giving glory to God.
Seek to pray for the brokenness in our world and listen for how we can be the answer to others’ prayers.
Make a list of ways in which they can be the answer to others’ prayers.
Catching up on the Story
John has given us no doubt as to who he thinks Jesus is. Jesus is the one who has existed for all of time, the Son of God who created everything and who holds everything together. He is the one on whom God’s Spirit rests. Now, Jesus has begun to call disciples, and some have confessed their belief in him as the Son of God and Israel’s Messiah. Now, however, the story’s direction begins to shift. The groundwork for who Jesus is has been laid; now, as Jesus begins his public ministry, John will reveal more fully who this Jesus fellow is. One of the devices he will use is the “sign” or “miracle.”
This simple story of Jesus turning water into wine acts as a sign for us. All signs, regardless of their physical nature, point to something beyond themselves. This story isn’t about wine, weddings, or familial relationships; it is about the newness and unexpected nature of the salvation that God is bringing through Jesus Christ. The old and new are strangely mixing. What has been hidden is being revealed.
The Text
Jesus, his mother, and his disciples are invited to attend a wedding. Weddings in Jesus’ day were big to-do’s. They required a feast, and the groom’s family was held to certain standards regarding food and drink. Poorer families, of which there were many, would not regularly have had meat or wine to drink. They would have saved for weeks and possibly years to provide the proper food and drink. If a wedding celebration was not up to standard, shame could be brought to the family. We aren’t told who the lucky couple is or how Jesus knows them. It is possible that they are family, friends, or relatives. Cana of Galilee is not that far from Nazareth. The only information we are given is that Jesus is there, and his mother discovers that the wine supply has run dry.
Jesus’ mother, who is never called by her name in the Gospel of John, finds out that the wine is all gone. At this point, we don’t know what she knows about what Jesus can do, but we can guess that she believes he can do something about the situation. So, she approaches her son and informs him of the situation, “ …the mother of Jesus said to him, ‘They have no wine.’” The English translations miss the point that every place you see “said” in this passage should actually say “says” in the present tense. In this passage and other places throughout John’s Gospel, John uses the present tense to draw his listeners into the story (Bruner, 128).
Jesus’ response can seem a bit surprising to us. There are lots of theories as to why Jesus calls his mother “woman,” but it does not matter. It is likely not a harsh or disrespectful word. Later in this Gospel, on the cross, Jesus will call his mother “woman” again as he hands her over to the Beloved Disciples, who will care for her: “Woman, here is your son” (John 19:26).
Jesus informs his mother that his “hour” has not yet come. For John, Jesus’ “hour” or time has much to do with this death and resurrection. Jesus’ hour is when he will go to the cross and glorify the Father. According to Jesus, the wine supply concerns neither him nor his mother. In other words, it has no significance for Jesus’ ultimate mission. Jesus’ mother, however, is undaunted by Jesus’ response. She tells the party’s servants to “do whatever he tells you.” Mary knows Jesus can do something; the question is, will he?
Jesus spots six stone jars used for the Jewish rites of purification. These containers held large amounts of water, around 150 gallons, and were used to wash the hands and feet of guests before entering the house and eating.
Jesus instructs the servants to fill the jars with water up to the top. There will be no room to add anything else to the water. The servants are then instructed to take a sample of water from the jars to the head steward, the guy in charge of the food and drink. The servants do as instructed and take the water, now turned to wine, to the head steward. He is amazed, not because water has been turned into wine (he doesn’t know that now), but because this is really good wine. Everyone knows you serve the best wine at the beginning before the guests become too drunk to care what they are drinking. It’s an upside-down way of doing things.
Why water into wine? In a dry land like the Middle East, water is a precious thing. It is what gives and sustains life. It isn’t taken for granted, and it is never misused. At the same time, however, it is also one of the most mundane and normal things around. It is the stuff of everyday life. We would simply cease to exist without it. Jesus takes this very ordinary thing, water, and uses it to create something extraordinary. He could have just told the waiters to go and check the jars, and they would have been filled with wine, but he does not.
Wine, for Israel and now for us as Christians, represents salvation. It represents God’s goodness, fullness, and provision for his people. Just as Jesus turned the ordinary water into wine, God can also transform what is ordinary in our everyday lives into salvation. He doesn’t start from scratch but uses what’s already here. Therefore, we should never feel discouraged by what we have or do not have. God can always take the seemingly ordinary and insignificant things we have and transform them into extraordinary things to be used for his glory.
We aren’t given a response from anyone, not the groom, not the head steward, not the servants, not Jesus’ mother, or the disciples. The only thing we are told is that Jesus performed this sign to reveal his glory. His disciples’ belief was strengthened, and ours has been, too.
So What…?
What does this mean? Jesus, in the Gospel of John anyway, is always pointing to God the Father. Everything he does, all he says is to make the Father known to the world. God, in and through Jesus, is, in this story, quietly and unexpectedly transforming the things we know and expect into signs that point to the work of God’s salvation. He uses the normal and mundane stuff of life to transform us. For John and us, Jesus is God using what’s already created to redeem the world.
How many times have we looked at the brokenness of our world and thought, “There’s just nothing to be done about it? The problems are too big.” We often convince ourselves that the only thing left to do is for Jesus to somehow intervene to make things right. We pray for those affected by gun violence, war, or homelessness, and we are right to do so. But this story teaches us that God likes to use what is there to do extraordinary things. Certainly, we are not Jesus, but we are what’s here.
One of Mary’s phrases should ring loud in our ears, “Do whatever he tells you.” She speaks these words to the waiters, hoping they will listen to her son’s words and be obedient. She was not disappointed. So the challenge before us today, in the face of our world’s many needs, is to “Do whatever he tells you.” As we pray, let us listen for how we might respond to the needs of those around us, both great and small. May we do whatever he tells us.
Discussion Questions
Read the text aloud. Then, read the text to yourself quietly. Read it slowly, as if you were very unfamiliar with the story.
Have you ever planned an event or a party and had a crucial supply run out? How did that make you feel? What did you do about it?
Why do you think Jesus’ mother tells him the wine has run out? What do you think she thought he would do about it?
Jesus responds to his mother that his “hour has not yet come.” What does he mean by that?
Jesus uses normal objects like jars of water and plain servants to do this first miracle. It also seems that he did this miracle in a quiet manner. Why is it important that Jesus operates in this manner?
Throughout the Gospels, Jesus uses mundane materials to do extraordinary things. What ramifications does this have for you and me as we contemplate our place in God’s mission?
One of the greatest lines in the story comes from Mary, “Do whatever he tells you.” This line, coming from someone who intimately knows Jesus, could be directly spoken to us. What is God telling you to do?
This week, as you share prayer requests with your group, pray and then, in regard to each request, ask these two questions: What is God saying to us about this? What are we going to do about it?
As you go throughout the week and encounter problems, be it small or large, personal or national/international, ask yourself these same questions: What is God saying to me? What am I going to do about it?
Works Cited
Frederick Dale Bruner, The Gospel of John: A Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI; Cambridge, U.K.: Eerdmans, 2012).
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