Jesus saith unto them, Fill the waterpots with water. And they filled them up to the brim.
At a wedding feast in Cana of Galilee, after the wine ran out, Jesus directed the servants to fill the six large stone jars used for Jewish purification, and they readily obeyed by filling them up to the brim. Without touching the jars He changed the water by His word alone into pure, wholesome, unfermented juice of the grape, superior in flavor to what had been served before and sufficient for all the guests. It was His first miracle at the opening of His public ministry, revealing His divine power and mercy toward human need and confirming His disciples in faith that He was the Redeemer. By gracing the feast with His presence He sanctioned marriage as a divine and sacred institution He Himself had established, to be restored, purified, and exalted to its original holiness. The act also showed His sympathy with innocent joy and social fellowship, while the ample, fully finished provision teaches that His grace and righteousness for forgiveness and salvation are abundant and more than sufficient for all who come to Him.
Wedding Setting at Cana
Jesus attended with His newly made disciples a wedding feast in Cana of Galilee among relatives of Joseph and Mary after returning from the Jordan, and there He used His power to add to the joy of the guests in sympathy with people and desire to promote their happiness. His blessing at that feast sanctified the relations of human life. He graced the feast by special invitation, knowing many influential persons would be brought together there.
He came after about two months of separation from His widowed mother Mary, during which He had been baptized by John and had endured temptation in the wilderness. His countenance was changed, bearing marks of fierce conflict and evidence of His high mission in holy expression and gentle dignity, while He remained the same tender, dutiful son. He was accompanied by young men who addressed Him with reverence as Master and told Mary of wonderful things witnessed at the baptism and on other occasions, declaring they had found Jesus of Nazareth of whom Moses in the law and the prophets wrote, the long-looked-for Messiah, gladdening her cherished hope of long years of anxious waiting.
This belongs to Jesus' first miracle at the opening of His public ministry, when He turned water into wine at Cana. It was performed at a marriage feast as He began His public ministry, where friends and kindred rejoiced together. His attendance there showed He did not shun the social life of His countrymen but mingled with people of all classes so they could know God revealed in human form.
Filling the Waterpots
Jesus directed the servants to fill the six large stone water-jars standing there for Jewish purification. Each jar held about two or three firkins. The servants readily and completely obeyed at His word, filling the pots up to the brim.
This happened after the wine had run out, when the shortage threatened a disgraceful failure of hospitality and created a human need. He did not touch the water or approach the jars but changed it by His spoken word, only looking upon it, which brought the divine into connection with the human. Their obedience prepared the water that became wine of the purest flavor, superior to the wine served earlier and enough for the guests.
Pure Unfermented Wine
The water that filled the pots to the brim became the pure, unfermented juice of the grape, clarified and refined, wholesome and refreshing, not a drink made intoxicating by fermentation or adulteration. It was the new wine found in the cluster in which is a blessing. Its effect was to bring the taste into harmony with a healthful appetite. Even the governor of the feast, whose taste had been perverted, recognized it as superior to what had been served before, and in that recognition his taste was restored.
He who made it had just come from suffering the forty days' fast in the wilderness to break the power of appetite over man, which had led among other evils to the free use of intoxicating liquor. His whole life was self-denial, and in that severest test He suffered to break that power. The miracle therefore gives no sanction for the use of fermented wine or strong drink, and never by word or act did He sanction it, for the Bible nowhere sanctions intoxicating wine. He Himself provided no such beverage.
This is consistent with His own warning that wine is a mocker and strong drink is raging. It agrees with His direction that John the Baptist should drink neither wine nor strong drink, and with His similar injunction of abstinence to the wife of Manoah. He foresaw the harm alcohol would bring in later ages. He does not contradict His own teaching, never places before men what would tempt them to evil, but teaches that the lower nature is to be brought into subjection.
The unfermented wine provided for the wedding guests is the same as the cup He gave His disciples at the first communion as a symbol of His own blood shed to cleanse from sin. As no leaven was allowed in the Passover bread, no fermentation was allowed in this wine. Only such unfermented wine should always be used on the communion table, because the sacramental service is designed to be soul-refreshing and life-giving with nothing connected to evil and nothing that ministers to evil.
Power and Purpose Revealed
The command to fill the waterpots set the miracle in motion as a sign of miraculous power, tender mercy toward human need, and generous provision, answering Mary's confident trust in His wisdom and power. It became for the disciples their first opportunity to openly acknowledge faith in Him, confirming the faith they already held and giving them convincing testimony that He was the world's Redeemer. That confirmation remained with them as the abiding result of what they witnessed at the feast.
Though the work was not publicized at first, it amazed those present when the new provision proved better than what had been served before. Jesus quietly withdrew before the guests could question Him, yet the disciples told others what they had witnessed. In that way its fame spread through all that region even to Jerusalem. That report prepared the way for His cordial reception in Galilee when those returning from the Passover told of it together with His cleansing of the desecrated temple and His healings of the sick, the blind, and the deaf.
By thus displaying His power, the miracle encouraged the nobleman to believe that Jesus could heal his dying son. It showed that He had done what no other man had done. Priests and elders, hearing of it, searched with new interest and intense anxiety the prophecies pointing to Christ, seeking to know the aim and mission of this unassuming Teacher.
Marriage and Social Fellowship
His presence and blessing at Cana sanctioned marriage as a divine, sacred institution worthy of marked respect, for He Himself had established it when He gave Eve to Adam as a helpmeet. The marriage covenant serves to illustrate important truths, and His honoring of the ceremony showed His high endorsement of it as a sacred ordinance. He will be present at marriage occasions when the union is marked by purity, holiness, truth, and righteousness.
He came not to put a cloud over the happiness of family and guests but in full sympathy with pure joy, in harmony with marriage as a blessed institution. He did not come to forbid marriage, enforce celibacy on any class, or destroy family relationships and the sacred relationship of marriage, but to restore, purify, ennoble, and exalt it to its original sanctity. He looks with pleasure on family life where sacred and unselfish love rules, and gives His sanction to every gathering that is pure and lovely and of good report.
He will be present where husbands and wives honor and cherish one another and their shared faith unites them in Him. The earthly family is to become a symbol of the family in heaven, with men and women united in holy wedlock to rear families whose members, crowned with honor, will be recognized as members of the family above.
The feast showed His sympathy with people and desire to promote their happiness, and His blessing sanctified the relations of human life. Innocent joy and social fellowship pleased Him, and it is right to gather for a pleasant occasion. Where people were open to the divine message He turned their thoughts to God's goodness and love and taught them the way of salvation.
His attendance was an expression of genial, beneficent, generous kindness, not worldly conformity, and without any shadow of worldly levity. By His precious teachings and generous conduct on that occasion He enshrined Himself in the hearts of those present and gave them opportunity to become acquainted with Him and know His character. In this was seen the marked contrast between His life and teachings and the bigotry, exclusiveness, narrowness, and self-righteousness of the Pharisees. Yet His presence there does not justify theater, dancing, or other pleasures that conflict with practical godliness.
It was a step toward breaking down Jewish prejudice and social and religious barriers and bringing people together as one family, opening contact with people across divisions. The disciples learned sympathy and humanity from it, and His relatives were drawn to Him in affection.
It teaches His followers through all time not to live in strict seclusion renouncing social communion or to exclude themselves from society, for people will seldom seek them on their own. To reach all classes they must meet them where they are, seeking men in public streets, in private houses, on boats, in the synagogue, by shores of lakes, at daily vocations, in households, and at marriage feasts. He did not shun the social life of His countrymen but mingled with people of all classes so they could know God revealed in human form, awakening interest by going among them as one desiring their good. Hearts are touched not alone from the pulpit; by manifesting unfeigned interest in their temporal affairs, carrying instruction into households, and bringing whole families in their own homes under divine influence, they do good and share truth while keeping life pure, lest by hiding religion to escape contamination of the world they lose golden opportunities to enlighten and benefit humanity.
Symbolic and Spiritual Meaning
The filling of the waterpots and the wine provided for the wedding feast symbolize salvation and the abundant provision made for the forgiveness of sin. The water represented baptism into Christ's death, while the wine represented His blood shed to cleanse the world from sin and to purify it from sin and blot out human iniquity. The ample supply reflects the abundance of that provision for salvation. The work Christ does is fully done, and the provision of the Saviour's grace and righteousness is full and more than sufficient, so that those who come to Him for the bread of heaven and the water of salvation will be supplied.
The same transformation illustrates Christ working with and through a mother's loving ministry to turn the ordinary life of the home into a blessing of heavenly worth and a life shaped by heaven. When a God-fearing mother keeps a close connection with Christ, Christ works with her, turning the common water of life into the wine of heaven, and her ministry of love makes the home a Bethel. His presence brings happiness and can transform the ordinary waters of life into the wine of heaven, making the home like an Eden of bliss, with the family a symbol of the family in heaven.
Health Temperance and Provision
By directing the servants to fill the waterpots to the brim and turning the water into the best drink the guests had tasted, which was unfermented grape juice, Jesus at His first miracle set an example of temperance and offered a safe drink for all. The wine He created from water at the marriage feast was only the juice of the fresh grape, with not one particle of fermentation in it. That unfermented grape juice is the only wine to have in the house, and the command forbids the use of fermented wine, liquor, and tobacco that confuse the brain and destroy the strength given to honor God.
The command to fill the waterpots belongs to His healing, life-giving work to give life and health and to cure and prevent sickness. It proves that the great object of hygienic reform is to secure the highest possible development of mind and soul and body in obedience to the laws of nature as the laws of God for good in this life and preparation for the life to come. It supports true health reform and temperance. Knowledge of the laws of health promotes spiritual as well as physical life, and supports the duty to preserve physical powers in the best possible condition to render acceptable service to God.
It gives scriptural ground for ministers to become intelligent on health reform and to teach its principles by precept and by quiet, consistent example. They are to give instruction on health and temperance at large gatherings, to arouse intellect and conscience, and to follow up the work with publications. This is because temperance in all things and preservation of physical powers in the best condition are required for acceptable service and for susceptibility to the sanctifying influence of truth.
In supplying a need at the wedding feast He teaches that the Lord provides for human needs. He guides His people in preparing suitable, wholesome, best foods for different times and occasions. He will not leave them ignorant about it. The food business is one of God's own instrumentalities to supply that necessity under the heavenly Provider of all foods, who teaches His people how to prepare the best foods for all times and occasions.
At a wedding feast in Cana of Galilee, after the wine ran out, Jesus directed the servants to fill the six large stone jars used for Jewish purification, and they readily obeyed by filling them up to the brim. Without touching the jars He changed the water by His word alone into pure, wholesome, unfermented juice of the grape, superior in flavor to what had been served before and sufficient for all the guests. It was His first miracle at the opening of His public ministry, revealing His divine power and mercy toward human need and confirming His disciples in faith that He was the Redeemer. By gracing the feast with His presence He sanctioned marriage as a divine and sacred institution He Himself had established, to be restored, purified, and exalted to its original holiness. The act also showed His sympathy with innocent joy and social fellowship, while the ample, fully finished provision teaches that His grace and righteousness for forgiveness and salvation are abundant and more than sufficient for all who come to Him.
Wedding Setting at Cana
Jesus attended with His newly made disciples a wedding feast in Cana of Galilee among relatives of Joseph and Mary after returning from the Jordan, and there He used His power to add to the joy of the guests in sympathy with people and desire to promote their happiness. His blessing at that feast sanctified the relations of human life. He graced the feast by special invitation, knowing many influential persons would be brought together there.
He came after about two months of separation from His widowed mother Mary, during which He had been baptized by John and had endured temptation in the wilderness. His countenance was changed, bearing marks of fierce conflict and evidence of His high mission in holy expression and gentle dignity, while He remained the same tender, dutiful son. He was accompanied by young men who addressed Him with reverence as Master and told Mary of wonderful things witnessed at the baptism and on other occasions, declaring they had found Jesus of Nazareth of whom Moses in the law and the prophets wrote, the long-looked-for Messiah, gladdening her cherished hope of long years of anxious waiting.
This belongs to Jesus' first miracle at the opening of His public ministry, when He turned water into wine at Cana. It was performed at a marriage feast as He began His public ministry, where friends and kindred rejoiced together. His attendance there showed He did not shun the social life of His countrymen but mingled with people of all classes so they could know God revealed in human form.
Filling the Waterpots
Jesus directed the servants to fill the six large stone water-jars standing there for Jewish purification. Each jar held about two or three firkins. The servants readily and completely obeyed at His word, filling the pots up to the brim.
This happened after the wine had run out, when the shortage threatened a disgraceful failure of hospitality and created a human need. He did not touch the water or approach the jars but changed it by His spoken word, only looking upon it, which brought the divine into connection with the human. Their obedience prepared the water that became wine of the purest flavor, superior to the wine served earlier and enough for the guests.
Pure Unfermented Wine
The water that filled the pots to the brim became the pure, unfermented juice of the grape, clarified and refined, wholesome and refreshing, not a drink made intoxicating by fermentation or adulteration. It was the new wine found in the cluster in which is a blessing. Its effect was to bring the taste into harmony with a healthful appetite. Even the governor of the feast, whose taste had been perverted, recognized it as superior to what had been served before, and in that recognition his taste was restored.
He who made it had just come from suffering the forty days' fast in the wilderness to break the power of appetite over man, which had led among other evils to the free use of intoxicating liquor. His whole life was self-denial, and in that severest test He suffered to break that power. The miracle therefore gives no sanction for the use of fermented wine or strong drink, and never by word or act did He sanction it, for the Bible nowhere sanctions intoxicating wine. He Himself provided no such beverage.
This is consistent with His own warning that wine is a mocker and strong drink is raging. It agrees with His direction that John the Baptist should drink neither wine nor strong drink, and with His similar injunction of abstinence to the wife of Manoah. He foresaw the harm alcohol would bring in later ages. He does not contradict His own teaching, never places before men what would tempt them to evil, but teaches that the lower nature is to be brought into subjection.
The unfermented wine provided for the wedding guests is the same as the cup He gave His disciples at the first communion as a symbol of His own blood shed to cleanse from sin. As no leaven was allowed in the Passover bread, no fermentation was allowed in this wine. Only such unfermented wine should always be used on the communion table, because the sacramental service is designed to be soul-refreshing and life-giving with nothing connected to evil and nothing that ministers to evil.
Power and Purpose Revealed
The command to fill the waterpots set the miracle in motion as a sign of miraculous power, tender mercy toward human need, and generous provision, answering Mary's confident trust in His wisdom and power. It became for the disciples their first opportunity to openly acknowledge faith in Him, confirming the faith they already held and giving them convincing testimony that He was the world's Redeemer. That confirmation remained with them as the abiding result of what they witnessed at the feast.
Though the work was not publicized at first, it amazed those present when the new provision proved better than what had been served before. Jesus quietly withdrew before the guests could question Him, yet the disciples told others what they had witnessed. In that way its fame spread through all that region even to Jerusalem. That report prepared the way for His cordial reception in Galilee when those returning from the Passover told of it together with His cleansing of the desecrated temple and His healings of the sick, the blind, and the deaf.
By thus displaying His power, the miracle encouraged the nobleman to believe that Jesus could heal his dying son. It showed that He had done what no other man had done. Priests and elders, hearing of it, searched with new interest and intense anxiety the prophecies pointing to Christ, seeking to know the aim and mission of this unassuming Teacher.
Marriage and Social Fellowship
His presence and blessing at Cana sanctioned marriage as a divine, sacred institution worthy of marked respect, for He Himself had established it when He gave Eve to Adam as a helpmeet. The marriage covenant serves to illustrate important truths, and His honoring of the ceremony showed His high endorsement of it as a sacred ordinance. He will be present at marriage occasions when the union is marked by purity, holiness, truth, and righteousness.
He came not to put a cloud over the happiness of family and guests but in full sympathy with pure joy, in harmony with marriage as a blessed institution. He did not come to forbid marriage, enforce celibacy on any class, or destroy family relationships and the sacred relationship of marriage, but to restore, purify, ennoble, and exalt it to its original sanctity. He looks with pleasure on family life where sacred and unselfish love rules, and gives His sanction to every gathering that is pure and lovely and of good report.
He will be present where husbands and wives honor and cherish one another and their shared faith unites them in Him. The earthly family is to become a symbol of the family in heaven, with men and women united in holy wedlock to rear families whose members, crowned with honor, will be recognized as members of the family above.
The feast showed His sympathy with people and desire to promote their happiness, and His blessing sanctified the relations of human life. Innocent joy and social fellowship pleased Him, and it is right to gather for a pleasant occasion. Where people were open to the divine message He turned their thoughts to God's goodness and love and taught them the way of salvation.
His attendance was an expression of genial, beneficent, generous kindness, not worldly conformity, and without any shadow of worldly levity. By His precious teachings and generous conduct on that occasion He enshrined Himself in the hearts of those present and gave them opportunity to become acquainted with Him and know His character. In this was seen the marked contrast between His life and teachings and the bigotry, exclusiveness, narrowness, and self-righteousness of the Pharisees. Yet His presence there does not justify theater, dancing, or other pleasures that conflict with practical godliness.
It was a step toward breaking down Jewish prejudice and social and religious barriers and bringing people together as one family, opening contact with people across divisions. The disciples learned sympathy and humanity from it, and His relatives were drawn to Him in affection.
It teaches His followers through all time not to live in strict seclusion renouncing social communion or to exclude themselves from society, for people will seldom seek them on their own. To reach all classes they must meet them where they are, seeking men in public streets, in private houses, on boats, in the synagogue, by shores of lakes, at daily vocations, in households, and at marriage feasts. He did not shun the social life of His countrymen but mingled with people of all classes so they could know God revealed in human form, awakening interest by going among them as one desiring their good. Hearts are touched not alone from the pulpit; by manifesting unfeigned interest in their temporal affairs, carrying instruction into households, and bringing whole families in their own homes under divine influence, they do good and share truth while keeping life pure, lest by hiding religion to escape contamination of the world they lose golden opportunities to enlighten and benefit humanity.
Symbolic and Spiritual Meaning
The filling of the waterpots and the wine provided for the wedding feast symbolize salvation and the abundant provision made for the forgiveness of sin. The water represented baptism into Christ's death, while the wine represented His blood shed to cleanse the world from sin and to purify it from sin and blot out human iniquity. The ample supply reflects the abundance of that provision for salvation. The work Christ does is fully done, and the provision of the Saviour's grace and righteousness is full and more than sufficient, so that those who come to Him for the bread of heaven and the water of salvation will be supplied.
The same transformation illustrates Christ working with and through a mother's loving ministry to turn the ordinary life of the home into a blessing of heavenly worth and a life shaped by heaven. When a God-fearing mother keeps a close connection with Christ, Christ works with her, turning the common water of life into the wine of heaven, and her ministry of love makes the home a Bethel. His presence brings happiness and can transform the ordinary waters of life into the wine of heaven, making the home like an Eden of bliss, with the family a symbol of the family in heaven.
Health Temperance and Provision
By directing the servants to fill the waterpots to the brim and turning the water into the best drink the guests had tasted, which was unfermented grape juice, Jesus at His first miracle set an example of temperance and offered a safe drink for all. The wine He created from water at the marriage feast was only the juice of the fresh grape, with not one particle of fermentation in it. That unfermented grape juice is the only wine to have in the house, and the command forbids the use of fermented wine, liquor, and tobacco that confuse the brain and destroy the strength given to honor God.
The command to fill the waterpots belongs to His healing, life-giving work to give life and health and to cure and prevent sickness. It proves that the great object of hygienic reform is to secure the highest possible development of mind and soul and body in obedience to the laws of nature as the laws of God for good in this life and preparation for the life to come. It supports true health reform and temperance. Knowledge of the laws of health promotes spiritual as well as physical life, and supports the duty to preserve physical powers in the best possible condition to render acceptable service to God.
It gives scriptural ground for ministers to become intelligent on health reform and to teach its principles by precept and by quiet, consistent example. They are to give instruction on health and temperance at large gatherings, to arouse intellect and conscience, and to follow up the work with publications. This is because temperance in all things and preservation of physical powers in the best condition are required for acceptable service and for susceptibility to the sanctifying influence of truth.
In supplying a need at the wedding feast He teaches that the Lord provides for human needs. He guides His people in preparing suitable, wholesome, best foods for different times and occasions. He will not leave them ignorant about it. The food business is one of God's own instrumentalities to supply that necessity under the heavenly Provider of all foods, who teaches His people how to prepare the best foods for all times and occasions.