The wedding at Cana (2:1-11)

John makes a point of giving a very detailed chronology of the first seven days of Jesus’ ministry: this is Day 7.  Perhaps He is continuing the parallel with Genesis 1, which we saw in the Prologue.  If so, this would suggest that the wedding feast was on the sabbath.  However, it was customary for Galilean virgins to be married on a Wednesday - in which case, Shabbat would have been the day that Andrew and John spent with Jesus.

Jesus goes from Bethany-beyond-Jordan, to Cana, arriving on 'the third day' - which suggests that Bethany must have been somewhere on the northern reaches of the Jordan.  Cana is about nine miles north of Nazareth, and it seems that Mary must have been involved in the wedding arrangements, since she had authority over the serving staff.  She also realised that the wine supply was a problem before the master-of ceremonies did, meaning she had inside knowledge of what was happening behind the scenes.  Some sources suggest that the groom’s mother was Salome, Mary’s sister - I.e. that the groom was a sibling of John’s.

The whole village and lots of other relatives would have been invited, and a wedding ceremony could last up to a week.  It was the groom's responsibility to pay for everything, and not to do so brought shame and sometimes even lawsuits.  Stone jars were used for water for ritual cleansing - feet, on arrival, and hands, before each course of a meal - because such jars were less prone to becoming ritually unclean than clay ones.  Though estimates vary, that these jars held a huge volume of water, seems to be widely accepted
- somewhere around a hundred and fifty gallons or about 700-800 modern-day wine bottles by volume!  Presumably they would have been hired in for the occasion, to cope with the cleansing needs of so many guests.

Jesus’s response to His mother’s request to ‘Do something!’, seems at first sight rude.  Certainly His response distanced Him from her - as we see in fact in all the other occasions when Mary seeks Him out during His ministry (cf Matt 12:46-50).  Joseph is presumed to have died because he isn’t mentioned after Jesus’s Bar Mitzvah (age 12) and Jesus is referred to in his own right as ‘the carpenter’, having presumably taken over as the breadwinner and ‘man about the house’.  So for eighteen years after telling His parents that He heeded to ‘be about My Father's business’, He had set aside His calling in order to provide for His family.  At this point Jesus had just turned thirty (the age when one could become a rabbi) and had then left the family business and journeyed south to be baptised, before being tempted in the wilderness for six weeks then returning to the Baptist’s acclamation.  Over a few days he had acquired five would-be disciples, (Andrew and it is thought John, then Peter and Phillip, and finally Nathanael who was from Cana, before returning to Galilee.  So Mary probably hadn’t seen Him for a couple of months but would likely have realised that something radical had changed in their relationship.

Commentators debate whether to call your mother ‘Woman’ was in fact rude or not.  Jesus used the same term when addressing Mary from the cross (19:26).  Some say the term is more akin to our use of the phrase ‘Lady …’, or ‘Ma’am …’ - slightly formal rather than rude.  Whatever, in effect He is saying to her, ‘Leave it to Me’.   He can no longer be defined as Mary’s son, or constrained by her agenda.  From now till Calvary, He was to plough a lonely path, with even His nuclear family sometimes thinking He was crazy.  His comfort 
and companionship, such as it was, came from those who journeyed with Him and hung on His every word: His followers were now His family.  And yet, His continuing concern for His mother and siblings is shown in that He takes them with Him when He relocates to Capernaum - as we shall see shortly.

Was Mary asking Him to perform a miracle? We don’t know.  Elsewhere in John’s gospel, Jesus’s reply, “My time has not yet come”, always refers to the time of His coming glorification through the Cross.  His siblings can choose what they do, and when (7:6), but He must stick precisely to His Father’s schedule.  We know that the knowledge of His eventual crucifixion was a massive burden for Him throughout these years: “I came to send fire on the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled!  But I have a baptism to be baptised with, and how distressed I am until it is accomplished!” (Lk 12:50)

Though Jesus seems to rebuff Mary’s initial overture, she shows her faith in Him by instructing the servants, ‘Do whatever He tells you!”.  And Jesus responds, telling them to fill up the purification jars - no quick task.  Having obeyed, they are then told to take a sample to the master of the feast, in his role as sommelier.  He seems unaware that there was a problem, and complements the groom on saving the best till last!  As far as we know, the miracle remained private knowledge between the servants, Mary, and Jesus and His disciples.  But John states that this was the first occasion when the disciples caught a glimpse of who Jesus really was: the Son of God.

This miracle, along with others such as the feeding of the five thousand and the calming of the storm, declare Jesus's sovereignty over Creation, and thus, His role as co-Creator.  As well as signposting Jesus’s true identity, this miracle also of course points forwards to the day when Jesus Himself will be the Bridegroom (3:27-31) at the Marriage Feast of the Lamb.  But there is something symbolic, too, in the re-purposing of the water jars.  In Judaism there was an endless need for re-cleansing and ritual purification - whereas wine is a symbol of the joy of the Holy Spirit.   For the remainder of the wedding feast in Cana, there would have been no water for purification! It was no longer needed, for Jesus was there.  And the endless consciousness of sin would be replaced by the eternal joy of being in God’s Presence.