The Bible In Your Hand

John 2:3-11

Son, “The wine failed!” What a statement the mother of Jesus made to her Son. What she expects is a matter of speculation. However, Jesus’s reaction is certainly not a sign of disrespect, but a sign of deep respect. He said, “Woman, what does your concern have to do with Me.” Calling his mother “woman” was not disrespectful but rather a way of saying, “I love you, Mom, but not quite seeing what this have to do with me? My hour has not come.”

I should have mentioned in our last post that wine can symbolically be representative for teaching. Repeatedly in the books of Daniel and Revelation and elsewhere, certain types of teaching are associated with wine and have an intoxicating effect. It numbs the senses, making it difficult to discern truth from error. Therefore, it is not a far stretch for us to consider the wine mentioned in John 2:1-11 as physical wine and symbolic of the teachings of Israel and Judah. A wine that failed both physically and spiritually. The author of John’s gospel asks, “Is it possible Christ came as a new wine to give a purer understanding of “The Law and the prophets” of “God the Father’s character?” Let’s continue and see.

Before continuing, let’s briefly examine the last part of Jesus’ reply: “My hour has not yet come.” With this statement, the author of John’s gospel introduces a new concept, a concept he will refer to several time with the statement “My hour has not yet come, or as we go through our study, we will suddenly see it shift to “My hour has come.” We will examine this concept further in future posts.

“His mother said to the servants, ‘Whatever He says to you, do it.’” It is possible in Luke’s gospel, when the angel talked with Mary, that the angel gave some evidence of who Jesus is, what His mission would be, and that He would have the power to do miracles. Perhaps this is why she told the servant, “Whatever He says to you, do it.” Jesus’s mother seems to have a lot of confidence in her son.

“Now there were set there six water pots of stone, according to the manner of purification of the Jews, containing twenty or thirty gallons apiece” (John 2:6). This passage requires a bit of explanation, and I will attempt to keep it short. It was not enough to say pots, clay, or earthen pots; the author specifically mentions stone pots. Clay or earthen pots were a dime a dozen, figuratively speaking, while stone pots were hewn out of actual rock and thus expensive.

Clay within the scripture is a reference to humanity. Genesis 2:7 states: “And the LORD God formed man of the dust (the Hebrew word for dust is clay) of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living being. Jeremiah the prophet states: “And the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter; so he made it again into another vessel, as it seemed good to the potter to make” (Jeremiah 18:4). The clay pot represented Israel or can also represent humanity and God’s desire to remake humanity back into his image. By the way, his desire was for Israel to be made in His image.

So, clay represents humanity, and in Leviticus, both clay and stone were used within the sanctuary service, and if anything, unclean or common, touched a clay pot, that pot would be destroyed. But if anything, unclean touched a stone pot, the stone pot was not considered unclean. Why the difference? The clay represents humanity and its brokenness because of the contamination of sin, which breaks humanity’s relationship with God. But the stone pot represents Christ, who remains unchanged when he engages humanity in human form. He remains untouched by sin. The contamination of sin does not cause him to become broken. The other aspect is the stone or rock, representing Christ (see I Corinthians 10:1-4; see also the stories of Israel’s wanderings through the wilderness where water came from a rock).

In verse six, John says, “There were six water pots of stone, according to the manner of purification of the Jews.” The number six is representative of humanity. For humanity, that was created on the sixth day. But the text states, “according to the manner of purification of the Jews.” That is an interesting phrase. Before meals, prayer, and gatherings of a spiritual nature, a person was expected to ceremonially become clean by washing their hands. Water for this tradition came from water stored in stone pots, for this water was ceremoniously clean and free from contamination because it was in stone pots.

I will spare you the procedure they used, which was most fascinating in and of itself. But those who partook in the marriage feast at the groom’s house must become ceremonially clean. All those present had performed this ritual, and so now, the pots stood empty. “Jesus said to them, ‘Fill the waterpots with water.’ And they filled them up to the brim. And he said to them, ‘Draw some out now, and take to the master of the feast’” (John 2:7, 8).

Over the years, I have been puzzled as to the master of the wedding feast. I have concluded that “The Master of the Feast” represents the oldest member of the family, the father or oldest brother. Symbolically, it could represent God the Father. But as I said, I do not have solid Biblical proof of that. But this seems to fit with my understanding of what the Bible teaches. Some might say that the next verse disproves that statement when the verse states, well, let’s read the entire verse. “When the master of the feast had tasted the water that was made wine, and did not know where it came from (But the servants who had drawn the water knew), the master of the feast called the bridegroom. And he said to him, ‘Every man at the beginning sets out the good wine, and when the guests have well drunk, then the inferior. You have kept the good wine until now’” (John 2:9, 10)!

Humanity tends to try its best, but our best is never good enough, for it is only through Christ can be changed into His image. Humanity set out on its own to achieve something better but failed. Christ came to reveal the Father’s true character love to us and give us a better understanding of the Law and the Prophets.” Therefore, through Christ, a new wine is introduced. A wine that will heal Judah, heal Israel and the nations, and heal you and me.

Verse 11: This beginning of signs Jesus did in Cana of Galilee and manifested His glory; and His disciples believed in Him. The author asks, “Do you believe this is the Messiah? Or do you need further proof?”