Jesus changes water into wine
The scene was a wedding at Cana in Galilee. Jesus’ mother was there and Jesus and His disciples were also invited to the wedding. The wine ran out at the wedding celebration. In Jewish society, wine was often associated with prosperity, celebration and joy and to run out of wine in a wedding celebration was an embarrassing social blunder.
The mother of Jesus told Him of the situation. Jesus’ reply to the mother may appear rather ‘curt’ to some: “Woman, what does this have to do with me? My hour has not yet come.” Jesus was actually reminding Mary that it was not yet time for people to know His real identity, ‘My hour’ refers to Jesus’ impending death – the time for Him to be revealed as the Messiah and crucified as the sacrificial Lamb had not yet arrived. Mary’s instructions to the servants to do what Jesus directed indicate that she understood His desire to keep His identity concealed and that she trusted His sense of timing.
Jesus told the servants to fill six large stone water jars used for Jewish rites of purification with water and then draw some of the water and take it to the master of the feast. The water had been transformed into good quality wine and this surprised the master of the feast who exclaimed that the good wine is usually served first and the poorer wine last but here the good wine had been reserved for last serving. This is the first of the signs Jesus did at Cana in Galilee.
The symbolic significance of the transformation of water into wine: the water representing Old Testament religion was transmuted by Jesus into a wine that represented the abundant blessings of God, picturing God’s eschatological kingdom as a banquet (Matt. 5:6; 8:11-12; Mark 2:19; Luke 22:15-18) and Jesus is the one bringing in this new kingdom and new era. The replacement of the water used in Jewish purification by the choicest of wines is a sign of who Jesus really is, namely, the One sent by the Father who is now the only way to the Father. All previous religious institutions, customs and feasts lose meaning in His presence.
Jesus’ cleansing of the temple
All the gospels give details of the cleansing of the temple by Jesus but the first three seem to be different in chronology with that of John’s. Some commentators suggest that Jesus cleansed the temple twice although others say that the controversy arising from Jesus’ actions at the temple would have ensured that the incident was not repeated. The Apostle John was not so concerned about the accuracy of the chronology; he was more interested in portraying Jesus as the Messiah.
The passage recorded that Jesus found people selling oxen and sheep and pigeons in the temple and the money-changers were also there. He made a whip of cords and drove them all out of the temple and he even overturned the tables of the money-changers. What made Jesus so angry?
Those who worship at the temple were required to present an unblemished sacrifice and pay the annual head tax using temple currency. The priests refused to accept foreign currency so that they could exchange the travellers’ money at exorbitant rates. They also rejected any animal (for sacrifice) that was not purchased at the temple so that they could sell animals for sacrifice at inflated prices. They were exploiting the people and conducting business in the midst of the temple which was dedicated for worship. Jesus was furious that they made the temple (His Father’s house) a house of trade and business. Jesus’ quote from Isa.56:7 in a parallel passage in Mark clearly indicates that God’s house is to be “a house of prayer for all nations” (Mark 11:17) – even the court of the Gentiles, not considered by Israel part of the temple proper, was in fact holy, for God intended from the beginning to gather all nations to Himself.
Jesus’ act at the temple is seen in messianic terms as a purifying act to get the temple ready for a new era. It was a belief of Judaism that the new era would come with a purity of worship, including a righteousness that the Messiah would bring about (Isaiah 9-11). If the question was where Jesus got the authority to do this act, His reference to His Father’s house points to the answer.
After the incident the Jews wanted Jesus to show a sign to justify what He did at the temple. It was common in the Old Testament context for prophets to prove their authenticity by performing a sign. Jesus instead offered them a puzzling statement: “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up”. They replied sarcastically that it took forty-six years to build the temple and yet Jesus was speaking about raising it up in three days. But Jesus was speaking about the temple of HIs body, referring to His future death and resurrection. Jesus has called for a purifying of the temple courts and presented His death and resurrection as the sign that points to His authority to make such a claim over the temple. John’s point is that Jesus is greater than the temple and is qualified to rule over it.
Jesus was reluctant to divulge HIs true identity as the people expected the Messiah to be a political and military leader who would free them from the rule of Rome. His mission was not what the people expected.