This is the story of Jesus speaking to social opposition, and Jesus Christ has an answer for religious opposition. There are two areas of life where Jesus Christ received opposition during His earthly ministry – social and religious. Basically they are the same thing because the religious crowd criticised Him because of His friends and the people with whom He dined. He dined with the prostitutes and the tax collectors, the ostracised part of the Jewish society. They didn’t like it and they said so. We have in this one chapter put together two things that do not occur chronologically. The first miracle that Jesus performed is turning water into wine, and that is a chronological event. It actually occurred at the first part of His ministry. But we have also in this chapter something which is not chronological. The next event in His ministry was not casting out the moneychangers. It is put together to show that it is always the religious crowd who criticises the social life of the relaxed crowd. The chronological event comes first and then the logical. The logical always follows the chronological in the scriptures to indicate a relationship. Jesus answers society; Jesus answers religion.
Verse 1 – “And the third day” is three days following John 1:43 which was the fourth day of the diary. It was probably on the Wednesday afternoon of the fourth day of the week in which this occurs. Traditionally in that day weddings of virgins occurred on Wednesdays. Apparently this was a very large wedding feast at which there were hundreds of people involved as wedding guests.
“the mother of Jesus” – the mother of the humanity of Christ. Mary is not the mother of God. At the moment Jesus only has six disciples, those who came out of the four-day diary. They included Andrew, Peter, James John, Philip and Nathanael. Jesus was late to the wedding because He had just arrived in town. The words “the mother of Jesus was there” is in the imperfect tense, which means she had been there since the beginning of the wedding feast.
Verse 2 – “Jesus was called.” The Greek says, “invited.” This is an aorist tense, which means word had been left to come as soon as He arrived.
Verse 3 -- Now the crisis. The feast had been in progress for some time; Jesus had arrived just as the wine ran out. There was no accident about the time of His arrival. The word “they” means Jesus and His six disciples. This doesn’t necessarily imply that Jesus Himself drank; it doesn’t say yes or no.
“the mother of Jesus saith unto him, They have no wine.” At this point Mary is saying withdraw. She is telling Jesus and these disciples to leave because there is no more wine and the ceremony cannot be followed, it is a time for everyone to leave otherwise the bride and groom are going to be in a very embarrassing situation. The wedding feast is still going on and they are out of wine.
Verse 4 – “Woman,” gunh. This is a very strong rebuke. He doesn’t say “mother,” He says “woman.” Everything Jesus said during His lifetime He said either from His deity, His humanity, or His hypostatic union. This came from His deity. While Mary is the mother of the humanity of Jesus, Jesus Christ is the God of Mary. As Mary’s God He said to her “Woman” – rebuke.
“what do I have to do with thee?” is not what He said at all. He said, “What is this to you and me?” The fact that they are out of wine doesn’t mean anything to you and to me. This indicated, if anything, that neither Jesus nor Mary drank. This seems to be the only conclusion that we can draw from that phrase. Remember that from the human viewpoint Mary is just another woman and she is definitely at this point a woman out of line. In effect, “What is the loss of wine to us?” Mary hinted that they should depart because there was no wine, but Jesus rebuked her. But He really had another reason. The rebuke, as is so often from God when He rebukes us, is to drive us to the faith-rest technique. This is exactly what Jesus did to her; He drove her to faith-rest. All rebuke from God is to stimulate the faith-rest technique -- as well as rebound, of course
The techniques will not cause the believer to grow up spiritually; only knowledge of doctrine will do that. The techniques are designed to carry the believer while he is learning doctrine so he can grow up.
And when Mary heard this rebuke, who knew doctrine, who was sensitive to the fact that her human son was also her God, her saviour, was therefore stimulated immediately and switched from the human viewpoint to the faith-rest principle.
“mine hour is not yet come.” “Mine hour” refers to the cross. No wine means let’s depart. Jesus rebuked her, “What does wine mean to you and to me? It doesn’t mean a thing. Our happiness doesn’t depend on wine.” Then He said, “It isn’t time for me to depart, it isn’t time for the cross.” It is time to put a light on the cross for all of the miracles of Jesus were designed to focus attention on the cross, to focus attention on who and what Jesus Christ is. She said let’s go and He said it isn’t time for Him to go. In the plan of God Jesus had to do certain things, it was no accident that He was there and they were out of wine. He has come not simply to provide wine and therefore to save the day, which He does, but He has come to leave His calling card to the human race. His calling card is a miracle.
Verse 5 -- “His mother saith to the servants.” She didn’t have to say another thing because she knew Bible doctrine. The rebuke brought her back into focus immediately. She immediately moved on and turned to the servants there. Now she is operating on the faith-rest technique. She had no idea how He was going to present His calling card but she knew that something was about to happen and she had all the faith-rest in the world. At this point she brings her Bible doctrine into play, the doctrine starts flowing again and therefore the mentality of her soul came up with an answer – orientation to the plan of God. And the volition of her soul made a decision. Words were formed in her mind and uttered by her lips. “Whatever he says, do it.”
From the human standpoint it was hopeless, there was no way to get wine there. Therefore there was nothing more she could do except “run away.” And when Jesus said to her, “Woman,” it was like saying turn around and face the issue, I am here. And Jesus Christ says that to you and to me many times. When you start to hit that panic button He says, “Fear thou not, I am with thee.”
Verse 6 – “six water pots of stone.” These water pots were used for washing feet and hands; this was the custom of the Jews.
“two or three firkins apiece” is old English. It should be between two and three firkins, which simply means 20 gallons. So there is a total of 120 gallons. The pots are empty at this moment.
Verse 7 – “Fill them up with water. And they filled them up to the brim.”
Verse 8 – “Draw out now and take to the governor of the feast.” In other words, whenever you opened another wineskin, as it were, a new bottle of wine it was customary in the ancient world for the governor of the feast to taste it first to see if it was all right. Then he gave the instructions to serve it.
Verse 9 – “the water that was made,” perfect passive participle of ginomai: “which had become.”
“called the bridegroom” – in order to compliment him.
Verse 11 – “This beginning” means that this was His first miracle; “manifested his glory” – He left His calling card that He is God.
“and his disciples believed on him” – the iterative aorist means that they had previously believed, before they came. They didn’t believe because they saw the miracles, they had already believed. That is the whole reason for the miracle.
How many water pots? Six. How many disciples? Six. One disciple; one water pot. When Jesus found them they were empty. So into them went water. Water represents symbolically in scripture three things: a) salvation, as per Isaiah 55:1; b) the Word, Ephesians 5:26; c) the Holy Spirit, John 7:37,39. This would be true of all six. They were all water pots, empty when Christ found them just as we were when Christ found us. Those water pots weren’t doing a thing, they were non-functional. When Jesus finds us, we are totally useless, out of the plan of God, helpless, hopeless and we have nothing to recommend us. “Stone” here means everything that is negative, like hardheaded – cold, useless, worthless. First they were saved. Next they are going to take in the Word, they are going to have the power of the Spirit. And what happens? Then you have wine. And wine represents happiness, inner stimulation, inner happiness, inner peace, inner power. And that will be true of all six.
Verse 12-17 – Jesus expresses His attitude toward religion. The purpose of Christ’s mission aroused all the antagonism of religion. Now we begin with the activities of religion in relationship to the ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ. Having presented Himself as the only saviour, as the God-Man, in turning the water into wine He now presents Himself as the one who is totally opposed to religion.
Verse 12 – they were at Capernaum for a very short period of rest, and then on to Jerusalem in verse 13.
Verse 13 – “And the Jews’ Passover was at hand.” Notice the designation, “the Jews’ Passover.” In Exodus 12:11 it was called the Lord’s Passover but the Passover has now been infiltrated by religion. The Jews have converted that which spoke of the death of the Lord Jesus Christ, His work on the cross, into a religious ceremony. This is the way religion works. It infiltrates the truth; it distorts the truth; it uses ritual in order to obscure the truth.
Verse 14 – the corruption of the temple. The word “sitting” means that they were actually doing business in the temple. Remember the temple was the place where Christology was taught. This is the Old Testament Christology presented. The articles in the temple were similar to the articles in the tabernacle and each article was a reminder of the person and the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. So we have the principle that the temple represents the whole realm of Christology, but now it has been distorted by religion. It has now become a place for a religious con game; we have the moneychangers working there in the name of religion. So the temple which had once been the way of presenting the Lord Jesus Christ has now become a place of rejection of the Lord Jesus Christ. The issue has now to be clarified in the temple before Jesus Christ can begin His earthly ministry. This was the place for clarification. In other words, the world must be removed from the temple before the temple can reach the world with the gospel. Fir the temple had those objects in it which were designed to present the gospel in Old Testament fashion before the cross actually occurred historically.
When it says they are moneychangers they are not changing money, they are actually selling animal sacrifices at exorbitant prices, making up to 90-95% profit. They also had to split their profits with the religious organization who gave them the opportunity of doing business in the temple. They bought their franchise from the scribes and Pharisees, the religious crowd. So they received their concession from the Sanhedrin and the Sanhedrin then took a percentage of the profits. While this might have been legitimate business in other circumstances and in other places it was neither legitimate nor the right thing to do in the temple. It helped to obscure the principle of Christology and the doctrine of Christology. So we find that the spiritual has been replaced by the religious; and the religious, of course, comes around to gimmicks for making money. Times have not changed. Religion is just as much in the business of seeking to gain money, thinking about money, using pressure and gimmicks to get money, as in times of old. Religion today is just as vicious as it ever was.
There is a parallel passage in Matthew 21:12ff in which we have the cleansing of the temple described from Matthew’s viewpoint. While the Matthew account gives it chronologically John puts it in a logical place. From the very start of His ministry Jesus Christ was opposed by religion. The religious crowd is represented by the Sanhedrin.
Verse 15 – “he drove them all out of the temple.” There is one exception, the person who sells doves. He invited him to leave; everyone else was driven out violently. Verse 16 – here is the only exception.
Verse 17 – His disciples remembered the scripture, a quotation from Psalm 16:9. “The zeal of thine house” is literally, “The zeal that belongs to [or for] my house.” This is an objective genitive. In other words, the Lord was zealous for His own house. He was zealous for the cleansing of the temple which is the house of God.
Verses 18-22, He is now challenged by religion. He left His calling card in the northern part of the country by turning the water into wine. He leaves His calling card in Jerusalem in an entirely different way. One was a miracle that brought happiness; the other was a violent act which brought discouragement to the religious crowd.
Verse 18 – the religious crowd accepting the challenge. The words “the Jews” always refers to the religious crowd. “What sign shewest thou unto us, seeing that thou doest these things?” In other words, “What is your authority?”
Verse 19 – here is my sign. If you want to know what my authority is, listen to this. “Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up.” He was referring to His body. Apparently He pointed to His body. The word “this” would indicate that. They assumed immediately that He was speaking of the temple which He had just cleansed.
Verse 20 – this immediately aroused their antagonism. “Forty and six years” does not refer to the time of Zerubabbel, it refers to Herod’s redoing the temple.
Verse 21 – “But this he spake of the temple of his body.” This is in the imperfect tense, He kept on saying. In other words, He said more than is reported here. He was actually talking about the sign of the resurrection, not the sign of rasing up the temple or rebuilding the temple after it was totally destroyed.
Verse 22 – it was after the resurrection that the disciples really became serious about doctrine. Jesus Christ taught His disciples for three years but without any success. They learned very little, if anything. But just as soon as Christ was resurrected they snapped. Immediately they began to put things together and in place, because the Old Testament has a great deal to say about resurrection Psalm 16; Daniel 12, Isaiah 26, etc.
“then they believed the scriptures” – that was the first time that they used any faith-rest technique. It was the resurrection that cranked up their faith-rest technique. There had to be some catastrophe – His death. He came out of the catastrophe through resurrection and the whole thing just snapped them right in place and they began to use the F/R technique and to apply Bible doctrine to experience. So the resurrection was the sign which would pay off later on. But at this time the six disciples that Jesus has with Him are obviously not getting much out of this.
“and they believed the scripture, and the words which Jesus had said” – they didn’t believe anything that He taught until after the resurrection.
Verse 23 – “many believed in his name.” Aorist tense, in a point of time. They saw His calling card, they responded to it and they believed in the Lord Jesus Christ. His name means His person.
“when they saw the miracles that he was doing” – imperfect linear aktionsart. He kept on performing miracles. There were many people there who were alert and who realised that this was the Messiah, the God-Man, the only saviour, and they believed in Him.
Verse 24 – “But Jesus did not trust himself unto them, because he knew all.” The word “believe” here means to entrust. It is in the perfect tense and it means He refused to put Himself in their hands. They said, “Since you are the King put yourself in our hands and we will see that you are made ruler.” People came with a temptation. The devil came with a similar temptation. But He did not put Himself in their hands because they did not have the ability to make Him King.
Verse 25 – He knew all about the sin nature and He was not about to be taken in by this type of activity.
Miracles
1. God is sovereign and the universe does His bidding. E.g. water into wine.
2. Our so-called scientific laws do not exist.
3. They are not laws because science has no way of enforcing them or even guaranteeing that they will continue to operate in the same manner.
4. As a matter of fact, the universe with matter, energy and laws will not always exist in its present form. Revelation 20:11; 2 Peter 3:10-12.
5. The universe follows a pattern, not because science says so but because God is faithful in keeping it that way. In other words, scientific laws simply reflect the faithfulness of God. Every scientific text is a treatise on the immutability and resultant faithfulness of God.
6. Who keeps the universe operating on a fixed pattern? The answer is found in Colossians 1:17 – the Lord Jesus Christ.
7. How does He do it? By His Word – Hebrews 1:3. The God of the universe, the Lord Jesus Christ who keeps everything operating according to a fixed pattern, can at any time overrule His own laws for a specific purpose. Throughout the book of John He overrules for a specific purpose. It is the calling card, the specific presentation of Himself. It is the means by which many will be alerted to the gospel and will respond by personal faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
8. Why does the Lord do it? Why does the Lord keep everything operating? The answer is found in Hebrews 2:10 – to bring many sons into glory.
9. The laws of the universe merely define God’s faithfulness in time. The only thing that we have that is unchangeable is the Word of God, the promises of God, and the doctrines.
10. If you ever doubt that the Lord might not be faithful in fulfilling a promise that you have claimed by faith just remember that you are on this earth and cannot fall off, and that His faithfulness in no way is changed by your doubts. The very laws of the universe which seem to be the basis of our present stability are going to change at the right and proper time. But there is a change that occurs right now in contrast to these laws, i.e. our own doubts. We change every hour on the hour without Bible doctrine, we are unstable. Therefore, the so-called scientific laws, along with Bible doctrine, are designed to make us aware of the faithfulness of God and the grace of God. And by becoming so oriented we are stabilised and unchanging – the doubts do not move into the mentality of the soul and therefore a soul kink is avoided.