Abide in Him: John 2
Welcome back! I hope you are enjoying this study and finding it helpful as we dive into the book of John. I know I’ve enjoyed learning more about Jesus through this gospel. I’ve read through this book many times throughout the years and I’m always amazed at how much more I learn with each reading. His word truly is living and active.
For this post, we will cover all of chapter two.
The Text
Jesus’s First Miracle (Verses 1 – 12)
Chapter two begins two days after Jesus calls Philip and Nathanael to be His disciples. Jesus, His disciples, and His mom are attending a wedding in Cana. Wedding feasts during those times were different compared to our modern day weddings. Rather than a wedding reception lasting about half a day, as most do here in the states, wedding feasts back then continued for almost a week. At some point during this long celebration, the host runs out of wine, which leads Mary to ask Jesus to do something about it. Notice though she doesn’t ask Him to perform a miracle. As The Bible Knowledge Commentary explains, she had yet to see Jesus perform any miracles, so it would be odd that she would ask Him for one at this point (Walvoord and Zuck, p. 278).1, 2
In verse 4, Jesus says, “Woman, what does this have to do with me? My hour has not yet come.” Now, this might seem like a harsh reply, particularly considering He is speaking to His mom. In modern English, the term “woman” sounds cold and distant. In ancient times though, it was a common, polite term, though it did put distance between the person saying the word and the one hearing it. The Jewish New Testament Commentary (JNTC) has an interesting take on this interaction. It suggests Jesus may have said this to His mom to help her “in the transition from seeing Him as her child to seeing Him as her Lord,” (Stern, p. 163).3
As a mom, I totally understand this. No matter how old my kids are, I’m always their mom, which brings a certain level of respect and authority. I can see why Mary approached Jesus and asked Him to do something about the lack of wine. It would be like me asking my kids to run to the store to pick up something. Also, at no point in my relationship will my kids have authority over me (unless I’m physically or mentally unable to manage myself). I can’t imagine the heart and mind change Mary had to go through as she learned to submit to her son, the Son of God.
With regard to Jesus replying “My hour has not yet come,” the JNTC goes on to say that He as Lord “sovereignly determines when He will intervene in human affairs…He does not perform miracles on demand…,” (Stern, p. 163). Again, this may have been said for Mary’s benefit to help her grasp that He was the Son of God. Mary didn’t take offense to it. She reacted by telling the servants to obey Jesus. She recognized her son’s authority and sovereignty.
Jesus then asks the servants to fill the large stone jars with water in verse 6. These jars were used for rites of purification – basically, a ritual washing of the hands before and after a meal. These jars held 25 – 30 gallons of waters, so they were huge. The servants obeyed Jesus and filled the jars to the brim. Why is this important to know? Because it explains the jars were completely full of water – no space for anything else. Then Jesus turned the water to wine.
During my research for this chapter, I came across a fascinating explanation at bibleref.com (a ministry of gotquestions.org) of what the jars and the miracle of turning water to wine represented. The water, which represented purification, was transformed to wine, which biblically represents blood (think about the Last Supper where Jesus gave the wine to His disciples to represent His blood). According to the article, “In a symbolic way, this miracle mirrors how Jesus’ sacrifice transformed the rituals of law into the gospel of grace.”4 We no longer need the rites of purification with water because His blood cleanses us.
The story continues with the master of the feast tasting the wine. Impressed, he praised the bridegroom for serving the good wine towards the end of the feast, rather then serving it first. Again, we can compare this transformation to how Jesus works in our lives. In his commentary, Tony Evans says, with regard to this miracle, “…even when you thought his best was a thing of the past, Jesus is the new wine, and some of His best work comes in the midst of our emptiness,” (Evans, p. 1022).5
Finally, the master of the feast didn’t know where the wine came from (and more than likely neither did the bridegroom). The only ones who witnessed Jesus’ first miracle were His disciples, His mom, and the servants. As He said, His hour had not come yet for the world to know Him. But, as verse 11 says, this miracle manifested (or “made clear”) His glory, which caused His disciples to believe in Him.
The Zeal for His Father’s House (Verses 13 – 22)
Several days have passed since the wedding and Jesus now heads to Jerusalem for Passover. As He enters the temple, He finds traders selling animals for sacrifices and money-changers exchanging currency. At first glance, this may seem harmless, particularly as many people at the time traveled from distant places to observe Passover. In order to do so though, these people would need an animal for sacrifice, which may have burdened them during their travels. It makes sense then for the temple to provide the sacrificial animals. It was also necessary for people to pay a Temple tax, but to do so, they could only pay in Tyrian coins rather than Roman currency. Thus, the money-changers would exchange the Roman money for the Tyrian coins.1,3,5
So, why did Jesus flip their tables and drive them all out of the temple? Because the sellers and money-changers were providing their services for an excessive amount of money. They were profiting off the people’s spiritual need. In fact, in Luke 19:46, after He cleanses the temple for a second time, He refers to the sellers and money-changers as “robbers.”
Another reason why He was angry was because of where they sold the animals and exchanged the money. They were providing these services in a place where God-fearing Gentiles (or non-Jews) were not permitted to enter. As a result, these people were unable to purchase sacrificial animals or exchange their currency, which in turn prevented them from properly worshiping God.
As Jesus drove the people out of the temple, He says, “Take these things a way; do not make my Father’s house a house of trade,” (John 2:17). It was at this moment the disciples remembered that it had been written that “Zeal for your house will consume me,” which is a quote from Psalm 69:9. Basically, He was passionate about keeping the temple sacred and not defiled as a marketplace, or “den of robbers.”
Jesus is then confronted by the religious people and basically asked who gave Him the authority to do what He did (if they only knew who they were talking to, right?). Jesus responds by saying “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” Of course, as we find out in verse 21, He was referring to Himself, not the physical temple. The people don’t understand what He says though, including His own disciples. Verse 22 explains that it wasn’t until after His resurrection (I’m guessing at least three years later as this is the beginning of Jesus’ ministry) that the disciples finally understood what He meant.
Let me just pause here and say that I’m comforted with verses like this. Whenever I doubt or have a lack of understanding, it helps to know the disciples had trouble understanding things even though Jesus walked with them in the flesh. It also helps to see that God did give them wisdom to understand, even if it was at a later time. In James 1:5, James tells us to ask God for wisdom and He will generously give it to us. And, as we’ll see in later studies, whenever the disciples didn’t understand a parable, they asked Jesus and He explained it to them. The lessons here for me are to ask for wisdom and to wait on God’s timing.
Jesus Knows Us (Verses 23 – 25)
The final section of chapter two gives us a picture of how people saw Jesus during his early ministry. Verse 23 says many people believed in His name when they saw his miracles. Let’s compare verse 11 to this verse because there is a difference that might help us to understand. Verse 11 says “This is the first of His signs, Jesus did at Cana in Galilee, and manifested His glory. And His disciples believed in Him,” (emphasis mine). Verse 23 says “Now when He was in Jerusalem at the Passover Feast, many believed in His name when they saw the signs that He was doing,” (again, emphasis mine). Both groups (the disciples in verse 11 and the people in verse 23) saw the works of Jesus, which led to belief. The disciples though believed in Him, not just His name. The Greek word for “name” is “onoma” and it means “name” but it can also refer to “reputation” or what someone is known for. So, the disciples believed in Jesus. As we studied in chapter one, they already believed He was the Messiah, the long awaited Savior and Lamb of God who would redeem them. Watching Him turn water to wine only confirmed or “made clear” what they already knew.
With regard to the people in verse 23 though, they believed in His reputation for performing signs. They didn’t see Him as the Son of God as Nathanael did in chapter one. When it says He didn’t “entrust” himself to them, it was because He knew their hearts. Being God, of course He knows us – our thoughts, our motives, and our hearts. He knew they only believed in His works (miracles, healings, and so on), but not in Him as the Son of God, the Messiah, and their Savior.
Final Thoughts
I’ve always wondered why Jesus chose turning water to wine as His first miracle. Now I have some idea as to why He did, which only proves my point that whenever I dive deep into the Word of God, I learn more about my beautiful Savior.
The last two sections of chapter two illustrate how Jesus wants us to draw near to Him. He was angered by the sellers and money-changers not just because they were making a profit, but because they were also keeping others from worshiping God. He wants us to approach Him and pursue a holy life through Him. He also wants our relationship with Him to be authentic, which means we know and worship Him for who He is, not what He can do for us. The disciples understood this as they saw Him as the Messiah. The crowds didn’t. They only wanted the miracles. I don’t know about you, but my prayer is to have the authentic relationship with Him.
Next time in our Abide in Him study, we will look at John chapter three.
References:
1. Edwin A. Blum, “John,” in The Bible Knowledge Commentary: An Exposition of the Scriptures, ed. J. F. Walvoord and R. B. Zuck, vol. 2 (Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, 1985), 278.
2. https://www.gotquestions.org/parable-wedding-feast.html
3. The Jewish New Testament Commentary by David H. Stern (Jewish New Testament Publications, 1992), 163-165
4. https://www.bibleref.com/John/2/John-2-6.html#commentary
5. The Tony Evans Bible Commentary by Tony Evans (Holman Bible Publishers, 2019), 1021-1022
6. ESV Study Bible (Crossway Bibles, 2008), 2022-2024
7. https://www.biblestudytools.com/lexicons/greek/kjv/onoma.html
8. ESV Exhaustive Concordance (Crossway, 2018), 1482
