Lesson for February 17, 2021
The Life of Christ
Lesson 9
The First Miracle
John 2:1-12
“On the third day there was a wedding in Cana of Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there; and both Jesus and His disciples were invited to the wedding. When the wine ran out, the mother of Jesus said to Him, “They have no wine.” And Jesus said to her, “What business do you have with Me, woman? My hour has not yet come.” His mother said to the servants, “Whatever He tells you, do it.” Now there were six stone waterpots standing there for the Jewish custom of purification, containing two or three measures each. Jesus said to them “Fill the waterpots with water.” So, they filled them up to the brim. And He said to them, “Draw some out now and take it to the headwaiter.” And they took it to him. Now when the headwaiter tasted the water which had become wine and did not know where it came from (but the servants who had drawn the water knew), the headwaiter called the groom, and said to him, “Every man serves the good wine first, and when the guests are drunk, then he serves the poorer wine; but you have kept the good wine until now.” This beginning of His signs Jesus did in Cana of Galilee and revealed His glory; and His disciples believed in Him. After this He went down to Capernaum, He and His mother, and His brothers and His disciples; and they stayed there a few days.”
Following the call of His first disciples, Jesus was invited to a wedding feast where His mother Mary was present. This wedding was taking place in the small town of Cana, in the province of Galilee, a short distance north of Nazareth. The Jewish wedding feast would often last a week, with a parade, as the bride was transferred to the home of the groom’s father. It was very common in Biblical times for the entire family, including the spouse and grandchildren to live with the parents after marriage. The typical Jewish wedding feast would include love songs from Bible passages found in the Book of Solomon. Friends and relatives would recite Biblical passages or quote historical Jewish wisdom. All of this was done in fun, as the wedding feast was a time of great celebration. This was the scene into which Jesus and His disciples were invited after the wedding festivities had already begun. The addition of more guests could possibly cause a shortage in the amount of wine available at this feast, as the food and drink were carefully planned by the steward. This shortage actually occurred, and it was Mary that appealed to Jesus to solve the problem by performing a miracle.
Mary’s statement in John 3:3 to Jesus tells us that she understood who He was and recognized His divine power. Unfortunately, Mary did not understand the Doctrine of Kenosis. What Mary was asking Jesus was to use His deity to fix the problem. Mary made this request based solely on the fact of Who she knew Jesus to be. Jesus took this opportunity to reveal His authority from God the Father. God’s authority, of course, superceded the parental authority that Mary had over Jesus. Jesus was an adult and Mary was perhaps into her forties or fifties. What Mary asked Jesus to do was to violate the Doctrine of Kenosis and perform a miracle from His deity. Jesus knew that would be against the will of God and wisely refused to use His deity in this way. Instead, He used the power of the Holy Spirit. My hour has not yet come meant He had not publicly declared His Messiahship to Israel which not a rebuke of Mary.
The Doctrine of Kenosis means that Christ voluntarily restricted the function of His deity. This doctrine takes its name from the Greek word kenoo, which means to deprive oneself of a rightful function. This doctrine explains how Christ, the Creator of the universe, could leave Heaven and become a man. II Corinthians 8:9, tells us that even though Christ was “rich,” for our sakes He became “poor.” This is kenosis.
We must remember that Jesus Christ is coequal and coeternal with God the Father and God the Holy Spirit. He voluntarily subordinated Himself to the Father’s plan of salvation. This means He also deprived Himself of the exercise of His divine attributes. At no time did Christ “empty Himself” of His deity. He was never less than God. He simply restricted the use of His divine attributes voluntarily. (Colossians 2:9)
Jesus was born as a man and had to learn the Scripture the same way that we do, under the filling of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit was the One Who empowered Him and sustained Him throughout His life on earth. As a man, Christ suffered in the same ways that we suffer but much greater, of course. The ultimate humiliation was suffering the divine judgment from God for our sins. (Matthew 24:36; John 8:56, 16:14; Philippians 2:8)
Christ glorified the Father by executing the Father’s plan, not by glorifying Himself. However, the limitation of kenosis ultimately glorified Christ because He was able to execute the Father’s plan perfectly, without committing personal sin. As a testimony to the fact that God is completely satisfied with the Son, Christ is now seated at the right hand of the Father. This impeccable life was our prototype to demonstrate to us the fact that we too can execute God’s plan utilizing the power of the Holy Spirit. (John 19:30; Philippians 2:5-8)
An interesting fact is that Mary was attempting to do the same thing that Satan had just done in the wilderness temptations. Jesus was, of course, polite to His mother, using the formal greeting of respect and affection woman (“ma’am” or “lady).” But He does make it very clear to her that He was now operating under the authority of the Father which had been given to Him. When Jesus says, “My time has not yet come,” this means the time had not yet come for Him to reveal His true identity publicly. Remember that Jesus is going to present Himself as the Messiah to the nation of Israel, but He is going to be rejected as their king and deliverer. He is going to offer the nation of Israel the millennial reign!
Though Mary was wrong in asking Jesus to perform a miracle from His deity, she did show her humility toward Jesus when she said in John 2:5, “Whatever He tells you, do it.” She was saying that she recognized Christ’s authority and was removing herself from any position of authority.
The first miracle of Christ follows when He turns water into wine. The amount of wine is significant – 20 to 30 gallons in each of six jars. This would most likely have been more than enough for the number of guests at a typical Jewish wedding feast. Christ was making a strong statement regarding Who He was and what He was about to do – reveal Himself as the Messiah, King of Israel. Performing this miracle confirmed Christ’s authority and caused people to believe in Him.
Verse nine and ten illustrate how God always gives us His best. Human viewpoint thinking would say, “Give the guests the superior-tasting wine first and the inferior-tasting wine later when they are “feeling good” or drunk and they will not likely notice the difference. Jesus however, operating from divine viewpoint, gives them the best-tasting wine of the feast last. You can imagine the embarrassment of the chief steward of the wedding in allowing the wedding party to run out of wine. The chief is much like a wedding coordinator or caterer in modern times. He is the one in charge of the food and drink, and to run out of either would cause great harm to his reputation as a chief steward. When the chief steward tasted the wine that had been made from water, he was totally amazed at what Christ had provided (not to mention that his job and reputation were spared). The word in Greek for taste is “geuomai” and means to savor or relish something by taste.
The first miracle of Jesus was a testimony to all miracles that followed. The testimony is that they were all for a sole purpose – to establish His authority as Messiah. Verse 11 makes this clear by the use of the Greek word “semeion” for signs, which means a mark, an indication, or a token. Jesus did not heal everyone in His day and those whom He did heal were done as signs of divine power under the filling of the Holy Spirit. The glory of Christ was always manifested when a miracle was performed by Him. His full glory was not manifested until the Resurrection, but His glory was beginning to be revealed so that those around Him would believe. The signs reveal the fact that God the Father was manifesting Himself through the humanity of Christ. The highest character of God was embodied in Christ, which Christ demonstrated as a result of the study of God’s Word and the filling of the Holy Spirit. We have the same opportunity to demonstrate the character of God in our lives. Jesus used the same two power options that we have to fulfill God the Father’s plan for His life.