And when they wanted wine, the mother of Jesus saith unto him, They have no wine.
At a wedding feast at Cana the wine gave out before the festivities ended, causing embarrassment and failure of hospitality, and Mary, who had an active part in arranging the feast, told Jesus of the need in an indirect request for help. She had long believed He was the Messiah and longed for His glory to be revealed, trusting His wisdom and power to act only as was best. His presence there showed His sympathy with ordinary human joy and sanctioned marriage as a sacred divine institution He Himself had established. The wine that failed and that He supplied was pure unfermented juice of the grape, wholesome and harmless, for He did not make, serve, or endorse intoxicating drink contrary to all His teachings. That need occasioned His first miracle, which revealed Him as the promised Messiah, confirmed the disciples' faith, and symbolized His blood shed as abundantly as forgiveness for the purification of the world from sin.
Setting at Cana Wedding
The want of wine belongs to a wedding feast at Cana where the changing of water into wine was the first miracle, marking the beginning of the public ministry. Jesus was present with His newly made disciples, meeting Mary again after separation during His baptism and wilderness temptation. She saw He was still tender and dutiful, yet bearing marks of conflict and divine dignity. His gracing the feast with His presence showed He took part in ordinary social life and entered the homes of those who invited Him.
The festivities lasted several days, and the supply failed before the end, from some cause, when more was called for. At so late an hour more could not be obtained or provided, and to go without was unusual on such an occasion. The lack threatened to appear inhospitable, a serious failure of hospitality and apparent disgrace, bringing perplexity, regret, and embarrassment. Mary spoke to Jesus because she thought He who could do all things might suggest relief for the want.
She was present not merely as a guest but as a relative of the parties, who had helped arrange the feast and had a prominent, active part in it, speaking as one having authority. Because of that relationship and responsibility the shortage troubled her and she brought the problem to Him expecting help. The need led into a miracle whose superior quality the guests afterward remarked on. The servants' account amazed the company, who at first overlooked Jesus, and He left so quietly that even His disciples did not notice.
Mary's Request and Faith
When the supply gave out, Mary turned to Jesus with the simple report that there was no wine left, and those few words carried a hidden appeal that He who could do all things should use His power to meet the need. She brought the shortage to His attention because the failure troubled her and she looked to Him for relief. Her statement was not a mere observation but an indirect asking, a suggestion that He might supply what was lacking for the guests.
She had long believed that Jesus was the Messiah and cherished the hope that His glory would be revealed, and at this feast she longed for Him to show that He was honored by God. She spoke because she believed He had the wisdom and power to help and thought He might suggest something to relieve the embarrassment of the moment. She expected Him to help, yet she submitted to His will and trusted Him to act only if it was best.
Jesus answered that His hour had not yet come, making clear that Mary could no longer direct Him as a mother, for His divine mission and the Father's will, not earthly ties or personal requests, governed the use of His power. Mary was not discouraged by that reply but told the servants to do whatever He said.
Christ's Sympathy and Example
The setting at Cana shows sympathy for people and desire to minister to their happiness, using divine power to add to the joy of the feast and hallowing the relations of human life. It is right to gather for a pleasant occasion, for innocent happiness is welcomed, ordinary human joys are shared, people are wanted to be happy, and thoughts are turned from cares toward God's goodness and love. From this the disciples learned sympathy and humanity.
Presence at the marriage feast was a deliberate step toward breaking down social barriers and bringing people together as one family, beginning to break down Jewish exclusiveness, prejudice and narrowness. It showed close sympathy with humanity and a mission extending beyond the Jewish people to all classes and to the world as Redeemer, seeking opportunities in ordinary social settings to reach people, do good, enlighten and benefit them.
Ordinary social gatherings were not shunned, and there was no seclusion like the Pharisees with their narrow, self-righteous, restrictive ideas and austere separation, but people were met where they were in homes, at daily work and at feasts. Attendance was not worldly conformity but generous, gracious, genial and beneficent conduct with precious teaching that gave those honored an opportunity to know character, to become acquainted with God made human, and to be drawn to know Him, in contrast to Pharisaical teaching. Such mingling revealed character and used the occasion for instruction.
Disciples through all time are taught by this example not to exclude themselves from society, renounce social communion, seek strict seclusion, or hide religion within stone walls to escape contamination of the world, for that loses golden opportunities to enlighten and benefit humanity. To reach all classes they must meet people where they are, since people will seldom seek them on their own, and hearts are not touched by divine truth from the pulpit alone. Interest is awakened by going among people as one who desires their good, seeking them in public streets, in private houses, on boats, in the synagogue, by the shores of lakes, at daily work and at marriage feasts, showing unfeigned interest in their temporal affairs and carrying instruction into households to bring whole families under the influence of divine presence.
Joining the solemn and impressive Jewish marriage occasion, whose pleasure and joy were not displeasing, sanctioned the social gathering and social communion with no shadow of worldly levity. That sanction gave no license to scenes of dissipation and revelry, while presence rebuked intemperance, self-indulgence, folly, pretentious piety and senseless exactions, and showed greatest veneration for the law of God and obedience to its precepts, leaving a perfect pattern of inward character unlike the seclusion of Pharisees and other dignitaries. Attendance permits young people's innocent pleasures but gives no approval to theaters, parties, or dancing.
Marriage Honored by Christ
By His presence and His action at the marriage festival in Cana, where the wine failed, Christ began His public ministry and set His sanction upon marriage as a sacred institution established by God Himself. That institution is His own appointment, in which a man and a woman unite to build a family, and by attending the wedding He gave it high endorsement and marked respect. He honored the marriage relation itself and accepted the ordinance of marriage by being present to take part in it.
He honored the marriage ceremony by His presence and showed active interest in it, expressing sympathy with and approval of those being married. He came not to cast a cloud over the happiness of the family and guests but in full sympathy with pure joy. He did not come to forbid marriage or to destroy family relationships, and the miracle of supplying the need proved that marriage is not forbidden by God. He enforced celibacy upon no class, but came to exalt marriage, to restore it to its original sanctity, and to restore and ennoble pure affection.
His presence gives sanction to every gathering that is pure and lovely and of good report. He looks with pleasure upon the family where sacred and unselfish love rules. In this way the earthly family is to symbolize the family in heaven. Throughout His later ministry He treated the marriage covenant with marked respect, using it to illustrate many important truths.
Wine Was Pure Grape Juice
The wine that ran out at Cana and the wine afterward supplied in its place was the pure juice of the grape in its natural state, unfermented, clarified and refined, wholesome, refreshing, harmless and safe, wholly unlike fermented wine and strong drink. It was only the fresh product of the grape, with not one particle of fermentation in it. Christ did not make, serve, or endorse intoxicating drink. To have made intoxicating wine would have been contrary to all His teachings and example. He would not provide what would tempt men, cloud reason, becloud judgment, and benumb spiritual perception.
He had just come from His long fast and suffering in the wilderness to break the power of appetite over man, including the appetite leading to free use of intoxicating drink. He is the Angel who led Israel in the wilderness and spoke the law from Sinai, who prohibited those in holy office from using wine so they might have clear judgment to distinguish between the common and the sacred, do justice to the fatherless and widows, teach His statutes and laws, and accept no bribes. He is the One who told the wife of Manoah to drink no wine or strong drink because her son should be a Nazarite from birth, and who told Zacharias that the unborn John should drink no wine or strong drink. Such a One would not make wine rendered intoxicating by fermentation or adulteration for a wedding feast.
The verse therefore gives no sanction for keeping or using fermented wine or liquor in the house. Only fresh grape juice is to be used, because intoxication confuses the brain and causes accidents and loss of self-control, while God demands clear minds and full strength to honor and glorify Him. Intoxicating wine is not a fitting beverage or symbol of Christ's blood at the Lord's table. The wine provided at Cana was the same kind He gave His disciples as a symbol of His own blood, with no fermentation in the wine just as there was to be no leaven in the bread.
One object of the miracle was to restore perverted taste to a healthy condition by leading the governor of the feast to acknowledge this wine superior in quality to any he had tasted, thus bringing taste into harmony with healthful appetite. The charge that Christ was a wine-bibber and Sabbath-breaker is false. He kept His Father's commandments, and His whole life was temperance and self-denial to break the power of appetite. Had He been a wine-bibber He could not have been a perfect offering, and the virtue of His blood would have been of no avail.
Miracle's Meaning and Effects
The lack of wine recorded here occasioned the first display of miraculous power, by which He was revealed and men were led to consider that He was the promised Messiah. The abundant supply He then provided symbolized salvation, the water standing for baptism into His death and the wine for His blood shed to purify the world from sin, given as abundantly as forgiveness itself is given.
The wine He made astonished the guests because it surpassed in quality what had been served first. That miracle confirmed the faith of the disciples and testified to them that He was the world's Redeemer. It gave them opportunity to acknowledge their faith in Him and kindled hope that God had raised up a deliverer for His people.
Reports of the miracle spread through all that region even to Jerusalem. There priests and elders searched the prophecies pointing to Christ with new interest and intense anxiety to know the aim and mission of this unassuming Teacher who did what no other man had done. The report prepared the way for His warm and cordial reception in Galilee, where many hoped He was the promised Deliverer.
In particular, the report of changing water into wine encouraged the nobleman to believe that Jesus could also restore his dying son to health. The same miracle illustrates Christ working through a mother's loving ministry. As He turned water into wine, so He turns the common water of daily home life and ordinary experiences into the wine of heaven, transforming a God-fearing mother's ordinary work of home care into a ministry of infinite worth and lasting spiritual blessing that makes the home a Bethel.
Lessons for Daily Living
The shortage of wine belongs to instruction that temperance in all things is duty and that life must be brought into harmony with the laws of health. Conscience must be aroused to practice the principles of true reform, and the subject must be kept fresh line upon line and precept upon precept. Its principles are to be taught to others by precept and by quiet, consistent example that arouses intellect and conscience, for without true temperance there is no susceptibility to the sanctifying influence of truth.
The running out of wine was a real, practical need on a particular occasion, brought to Jesus, and met by His provision. As with the feeding of the multitude, that supply teaches that the Lord provides for human needs. He guides His people in preparing suitable, wholesome food for different times and occasions, and will not leave them in ignorance but teaches them how to prepare the best foods for all times and occasions. The food business itself is one of His own instrumentalities for supplying need.
At a wedding feast at Cana the wine gave out before the festivities ended, causing embarrassment and failure of hospitality, and Mary, who had an active part in arranging the feast, told Jesus of the need in an indirect request for help. She had long believed He was the Messiah and longed for His glory to be revealed, trusting His wisdom and power to act only as was best. His presence there showed His sympathy with ordinary human joy and sanctioned marriage as a sacred divine institution He Himself had established. The wine that failed and that He supplied was pure unfermented juice of the grape, wholesome and harmless, for He did not make, serve, or endorse intoxicating drink contrary to all His teachings. That need occasioned His first miracle, which revealed Him as the promised Messiah, confirmed the disciples' faith, and symbolized His blood shed as abundantly as forgiveness for the purification of the world from sin.
Setting at Cana Wedding
The want of wine belongs to a wedding feast at Cana where the changing of water into wine was the first miracle, marking the beginning of the public ministry. Jesus was present with His newly made disciples, meeting Mary again after separation during His baptism and wilderness temptation. She saw He was still tender and dutiful, yet bearing marks of conflict and divine dignity. His gracing the feast with His presence showed He took part in ordinary social life and entered the homes of those who invited Him.
The festivities lasted several days, and the supply failed before the end, from some cause, when more was called for. At so late an hour more could not be obtained or provided, and to go without was unusual on such an occasion. The lack threatened to appear inhospitable, a serious failure of hospitality and apparent disgrace, bringing perplexity, regret, and embarrassment. Mary spoke to Jesus because she thought He who could do all things might suggest relief for the want.
She was present not merely as a guest but as a relative of the parties, who had helped arrange the feast and had a prominent, active part in it, speaking as one having authority. Because of that relationship and responsibility the shortage troubled her and she brought the problem to Him expecting help. The need led into a miracle whose superior quality the guests afterward remarked on. The servants' account amazed the company, who at first overlooked Jesus, and He left so quietly that even His disciples did not notice.
Mary's Request and Faith
When the supply gave out, Mary turned to Jesus with the simple report that there was no wine left, and those few words carried a hidden appeal that He who could do all things should use His power to meet the need. She brought the shortage to His attention because the failure troubled her and she looked to Him for relief. Her statement was not a mere observation but an indirect asking, a suggestion that He might supply what was lacking for the guests.
She had long believed that Jesus was the Messiah and cherished the hope that His glory would be revealed, and at this feast she longed for Him to show that He was honored by God. She spoke because she believed He had the wisdom and power to help and thought He might suggest something to relieve the embarrassment of the moment. She expected Him to help, yet she submitted to His will and trusted Him to act only if it was best.
Jesus answered that His hour had not yet come, making clear that Mary could no longer direct Him as a mother, for His divine mission and the Father's will, not earthly ties or personal requests, governed the use of His power. Mary was not discouraged by that reply but told the servants to do whatever He said.
Christ's Sympathy and Example
The setting at Cana shows sympathy for people and desire to minister to their happiness, using divine power to add to the joy of the feast and hallowing the relations of human life. It is right to gather for a pleasant occasion, for innocent happiness is welcomed, ordinary human joys are shared, people are wanted to be happy, and thoughts are turned from cares toward God's goodness and love. From this the disciples learned sympathy and humanity.
Presence at the marriage feast was a deliberate step toward breaking down social barriers and bringing people together as one family, beginning to break down Jewish exclusiveness, prejudice and narrowness. It showed close sympathy with humanity and a mission extending beyond the Jewish people to all classes and to the world as Redeemer, seeking opportunities in ordinary social settings to reach people, do good, enlighten and benefit them.
Ordinary social gatherings were not shunned, and there was no seclusion like the Pharisees with their narrow, self-righteous, restrictive ideas and austere separation, but people were met where they were in homes, at daily work and at feasts. Attendance was not worldly conformity but generous, gracious, genial and beneficent conduct with precious teaching that gave those honored an opportunity to know character, to become acquainted with God made human, and to be drawn to know Him, in contrast to Pharisaical teaching. Such mingling revealed character and used the occasion for instruction.
Disciples through all time are taught by this example not to exclude themselves from society, renounce social communion, seek strict seclusion, or hide religion within stone walls to escape contamination of the world, for that loses golden opportunities to enlighten and benefit humanity. To reach all classes they must meet people where they are, since people will seldom seek them on their own, and hearts are not touched by divine truth from the pulpit alone. Interest is awakened by going among people as one who desires their good, seeking them in public streets, in private houses, on boats, in the synagogue, by the shores of lakes, at daily work and at marriage feasts, showing unfeigned interest in their temporal affairs and carrying instruction into households to bring whole families under the influence of divine presence.
Joining the solemn and impressive Jewish marriage occasion, whose pleasure and joy were not displeasing, sanctioned the social gathering and social communion with no shadow of worldly levity. That sanction gave no license to scenes of dissipation and revelry, while presence rebuked intemperance, self-indulgence, folly, pretentious piety and senseless exactions, and showed greatest veneration for the law of God and obedience to its precepts, leaving a perfect pattern of inward character unlike the seclusion of Pharisees and other dignitaries. Attendance permits young people's innocent pleasures but gives no approval to theaters, parties, or dancing.
Marriage Honored by Christ
By His presence and His action at the marriage festival in Cana, where the wine failed, Christ began His public ministry and set His sanction upon marriage as a sacred institution established by God Himself. That institution is His own appointment, in which a man and a woman unite to build a family, and by attending the wedding He gave it high endorsement and marked respect. He honored the marriage relation itself and accepted the ordinance of marriage by being present to take part in it.
He honored the marriage ceremony by His presence and showed active interest in it, expressing sympathy with and approval of those being married. He came not to cast a cloud over the happiness of the family and guests but in full sympathy with pure joy. He did not come to forbid marriage or to destroy family relationships, and the miracle of supplying the need proved that marriage is not forbidden by God. He enforced celibacy upon no class, but came to exalt marriage, to restore it to its original sanctity, and to restore and ennoble pure affection.
His presence gives sanction to every gathering that is pure and lovely and of good report. He looks with pleasure upon the family where sacred and unselfish love rules. In this way the earthly family is to symbolize the family in heaven. Throughout His later ministry He treated the marriage covenant with marked respect, using it to illustrate many important truths.
Wine Was Pure Grape Juice
The wine that ran out at Cana and the wine afterward supplied in its place was the pure juice of the grape in its natural state, unfermented, clarified and refined, wholesome, refreshing, harmless and safe, wholly unlike fermented wine and strong drink. It was only the fresh product of the grape, with not one particle of fermentation in it. Christ did not make, serve, or endorse intoxicating drink. To have made intoxicating wine would have been contrary to all His teachings and example. He would not provide what would tempt men, cloud reason, becloud judgment, and benumb spiritual perception.
He had just come from His long fast and suffering in the wilderness to break the power of appetite over man, including the appetite leading to free use of intoxicating drink. He is the Angel who led Israel in the wilderness and spoke the law from Sinai, who prohibited those in holy office from using wine so they might have clear judgment to distinguish between the common and the sacred, do justice to the fatherless and widows, teach His statutes and laws, and accept no bribes. He is the One who told the wife of Manoah to drink no wine or strong drink because her son should be a Nazarite from birth, and who told Zacharias that the unborn John should drink no wine or strong drink. Such a One would not make wine rendered intoxicating by fermentation or adulteration for a wedding feast.
The verse therefore gives no sanction for keeping or using fermented wine or liquor in the house. Only fresh grape juice is to be used, because intoxication confuses the brain and causes accidents and loss of self-control, while God demands clear minds and full strength to honor and glorify Him. Intoxicating wine is not a fitting beverage or symbol of Christ's blood at the Lord's table. The wine provided at Cana was the same kind He gave His disciples as a symbol of His own blood, with no fermentation in the wine just as there was to be no leaven in the bread.
One object of the miracle was to restore perverted taste to a healthy condition by leading the governor of the feast to acknowledge this wine superior in quality to any he had tasted, thus bringing taste into harmony with healthful appetite. The charge that Christ was a wine-bibber and Sabbath-breaker is false. He kept His Father's commandments, and His whole life was temperance and self-denial to break the power of appetite. Had He been a wine-bibber He could not have been a perfect offering, and the virtue of His blood would have been of no avail.
Miracle's Meaning and Effects
The lack of wine recorded here occasioned the first display of miraculous power, by which He was revealed and men were led to consider that He was the promised Messiah. The abundant supply He then provided symbolized salvation, the water standing for baptism into His death and the wine for His blood shed to purify the world from sin, given as abundantly as forgiveness itself is given.
The wine He made astonished the guests because it surpassed in quality what had been served first. That miracle confirmed the faith of the disciples and testified to them that He was the world's Redeemer. It gave them opportunity to acknowledge their faith in Him and kindled hope that God had raised up a deliverer for His people.
Reports of the miracle spread through all that region even to Jerusalem. There priests and elders searched the prophecies pointing to Christ with new interest and intense anxiety to know the aim and mission of this unassuming Teacher who did what no other man had done. The report prepared the way for His warm and cordial reception in Galilee, where many hoped He was the promised Deliverer.
In particular, the report of changing water into wine encouraged the nobleman to believe that Jesus could also restore his dying son to health. The same miracle illustrates Christ working through a mother's loving ministry. As He turned water into wine, so He turns the common water of daily home life and ordinary experiences into the wine of heaven, transforming a God-fearing mother's ordinary work of home care into a ministry of infinite worth and lasting spiritual blessing that makes the home a Bethel.
Lessons for Daily Living
The shortage of wine belongs to instruction that temperance in all things is duty and that life must be brought into harmony with the laws of health. Conscience must be aroused to practice the principles of true reform, and the subject must be kept fresh line upon line and precept upon precept. Its principles are to be taught to others by precept and by quiet, consistent example that arouses intellect and conscience, for without true temperance there is no susceptibility to the sanctifying influence of truth.
The running out of wine was a real, practical need on a particular occasion, brought to Jesus, and met by His provision. As with the feeding of the multitude, that supply teaches that the Lord provides for human needs. He guides His people in preparing suitable, wholesome food for different times and occasions, and will not leave them in ignorance but teaches them how to prepare the best foods for all times and occasions. The food business itself is one of His own instrumentalities for supplying need.