And he saith unto them, Draw out now, and bear unto the governor of the feast. And they bare it.
After the jars were filled Jesus told the servants to draw out and carry what was in them to the ruler of the feast, and they obeyed and bore it. By His word alone, without touching the water or going to the jars, He turned the water into wine fresh from the cluster. What was drawn was pure, unfermented juice of the grape, clarified and refined, wholesome and refreshing, and better than the wine served before. He did not make, use, or approve fermented drink, and gives no sanction for its use. His presence and gift at this wedding honored marriage as a sacred institution of God and showed His sympathy in adding to innocent social joy.
Cana Wedding Setting
The command to draw and bear to the governor was given at a marriage in Cana of Galilee among relatives of Joseph and Mary, where many influential persons were gathered. Jesus went there on purpose with His newly made disciples, and after His arrival became known He and His friends received a special invitation, so He graced the feast with His presence. He came after a long separation from His mother, after His baptism by John and His fierce conflict in the wilderness of temptation, bearing the marks of that conflict and the evidence of His high mission in holy expression and gentle dignity. His mother met Him there as the same tender, dutiful son yet changed, while His companions addressed Him with reverence as Master and told Mary of wonderful things they had witnessed at the baptism and on other occasions, declaring Him Jesus of Nazareth, the long-looked-for Messiah of whom Moses in the law and the prophets wrote.
It was a solemn and impressive Jewish occasion, a marriage festival in a festal hall where friends and kindred rejoiced together. By having the servants draw and take the drink to the governor of the feast, the miracle was brought into the ordinary setting of that wedding feast. His being present and taking part shows that at the opening of His ministry He joined the ordinary social life of His countrymen and of His community rather than shunning ordinary occasions, being present among people to bless them and make His character known.
He came just after His baptism and fierce conflict and long fast in the wilderness, where He suffered to break the power of appetite over man. That suffering in the forty days' fast to break appetite's power stood behind His action when He had the drink borne to the governor, and He bore the marks of that conflict in holy expression and gentle dignity.
Servants Obey Command
After the stone jars had been filled, Jesus told the servants to draw from the waterpots and carry what they drew to the governor of the feast, and they obeyed and bore it to him. What they drew from the water-filled jars was wine, the choicest wine, pure unfermented grape juice provided to meet the need of the wedding feast. The direction to draw and take it to the governor formed part of the miracle by which the water was made wine, and by providing only this safe drink Christ set a right example concerning drink.
He changed the water to wine by His spoken command alone, without touching the water or approaching the stone jars. At His word telling the servants to draw out and carry to the ruler of the feast, the water in the jars became wine fresh from the cluster. That He made and used only unfermented wine showed unfermented wine to be the safe choice, confirmed the disciples' faith, and manifested His glory.
The servants knew the vessels had just been filled with water, but the governor and the guests did not know that the wine had run out. They also did not know where the new drink had come from when it was brought in and carried to the governor. When the governor tasted it he found it better than the wine served earlier, superior in quality so that the guests were astonished, and it was sufficient for everyone.
Pure Grape Juice
What the servants drew out and bore to the governor of the feast was pure, unfermented grape juice, the pure juice of the grape clarified and refined, fresh from the cluster, not intoxicating liquor produced by fermentation or adulteration. It was not fermented wine of an intoxicating character but the safe, unfermented drink that Christ made without touching the jars or approaching them, by His word alone. The servants knew the vessels had just been filled with water, while the governor who tasted it did not know where it came from.
It was the choicest and best wine served at the feast, superior in quality to what had gone before, sufficient for all, and astonishing to the guests. It was wholesome and refreshing, the new wine found in the cluster with a blessing in it. Its effect was to bring the taste into harmony with a healthful appetite and to restore perverted taste, leading the governor to acknowledge its superior quality.
Christ did not make, use, or endorse fermented wine, and He gives no sanction for its use by word or act, for the Bible nowhere sanctions intoxicating wine. He who warned that wine is a mocker and strong drink is raging, who teaches bringing the lower nature into subjection, whose whole life was self-denial, who suffered the forty days' fast in the wilderness to break the power of appetite over man, who directed that John the Baptist drink neither wine nor strong drink, who enjoined similar abstinence upon the wife of Manoah, and who never places temptation before men, did not contradict His own teaching at Cana. The wine He made was the best the guests had tasted, yet it was unfermented grape juice, a safe drink and an example of temperance.
The drink at Cana was the same unfermented cup He gave His disciples as the symbol of His own blood, shed to cleanse the sins of the world. As no leaven was allowed in the Passover bread so no fermentation was allowed in this wine. It was designed to refresh the soul and give life, with nothing connected with it or with the sacramental service that could minister to evil, and therefore the same unfermented wine should always be used on the communion table.
By providing only this safe, unfermented drink He set a right example concerning drink and temperance for all.
Grace and Symbolism
Using His power at the wedding feast to add to its joy shows His sympathy for people and His desire to minister to their happiness. Directing the servants to draw from the waterpots and carry it to the governor of the feast, which they obeyed, was how He met the need of the occasion with pure, unfermented grape juice. That first miracle expressed His sympathy with and approval of those at the wedding, and He did not use it to meet His own needs.
The provision He supplied was more than the feast required, teaching that the Saviour's grace and righteousness are full and abundant. Those who come to Him for the bread of heaven and the water of salvation will be supplied. The miracle illustrates that Jesus gives good gifts that remain fresh and satisfying, in contrast to worldly pleasures that end in disappointment.
The wedding provision symbolizes salvation, with the water representing baptism into Christ's death and the wine representing His blood shed to cleanse the world's sins. It shows Christ working through ordinary things as He transforms common water into the wine of heaven. He can transform the ordinary conditions of life into heavenly joy, and He works through a mother's loving ministry to transform ordinary life into a blessing.
When a God-fearing mother keeps close connection with Christ, He works with her ministry of love and turns the common water of life into the wine of heaven in the home. His presence can make the home and family a place of happiness, like Eden. He came to restore, elevate, purify, and ennoble pure affection, so that the family on earth with His presence can be a symbol of the family in heaven.
Marriage Honored as Sacred
Christ's presence and blessing at Cana give high endorsement to marriage as a sacred, divine institution, and treat the marriage covenant with marked respect. He recognized it as an institution He Himself had established when He gave Eve to Adam as a helpmeet. His first miracle there confirmed the disciples' faith and showed that He honored marriage. His active interest on that occasion shows He came not to put a cloud over the happiness of the family and the guests but is in full sympathy with pure joy.
Marriage is not forbidden by God. He enforces celibacy on no class of men. Marriage joins husband and wife as one, and their shared belief in Christ should unite them in Him. He came not to destroy the sacred relationship of marriage but to exalt it and restore it to its original sanctity, and He looks with pleasure on the family relationship where sacred and unselfish love bears sway.
Marriage joined with purity, holiness, truth, and righteousness is a great blessing to the human family. Men and women are ordained to be united in holy wedlock to rear families whose members, crowned with honor, shall be recognized as members of the family above. This example supports honoring the marriage relationship and living in a way that honors God.
By being there He shows Himself in harmony with the blessed institution of marriage and gives His sanction to every gathering that is pure and lovely and of good report. He continued afterward to honor it and to illustrate important truths by it.
Sympathy in Social Life
His presence at the wedding, including His direction to draw and bear to the governor of the feast, sanctioned innocent social happiness and shows it is right to gather for pleasant social occasions. Innocent happiness at that solemn marriage pleased Him. He sanctioned such innocent gatherings without joining in worldly levity.
He entered ordinary social life to reach people and break down religious separation and Jewish prejudices, so that His influence could extend to all classes. His presence was a step toward bringing people together across social divisions in close sympathy with humanity. He met people in ordinary social settings to do them good and bring them within reach of divine truth. Wherever hearts were open He taught the way of salvation.
Through the miracle the disciples learned sympathy and humanity, for through it Jesus showed sympathy and humanity. His generous and gracious conduct and His elevating, instructive teaching gave those present an opportunity to know Him and His character. In this they could see how His life and character differed from the Pharisees' narrow, self-righteous, condemnatory ways and strictness.
His attending was not worldly conformity but an expression of generous, social care and genial, beneficent character. Unlike the Pharisees and other dignitaries who preserved an austere seclusion, He joined the mixed assembly of a festal gathering and accepted invitations from learned and noble as well as poor and afflicted. He approved innocent happiness while rebuking intemperance, self-indulgence and folly, and His presence gives no license to dissipation and revelry, pleasure-seeking, or practices such as theatergoing, parties, and dancing. No shadow of worldly levity marred His conduct, and His elevating and instructive conversation held hearers entranced. In the same act He left a perfect pattern of one who was a Jew inwardly, rebuking pretentious piety, freeing people from senseless exactions, while showing veneration for the law of God and teaching obedience to its precepts.
Witness and Reception
The servants did as they were told, drawing from the jars and bearing what had become wine to the governor of the feast, and then telling what had been done. The response of the guests to the wine drew attention to the miracle and to Jesus Himself. The servants' account, joined with the guests noticing the quality of the wine, left the whole company amazed.
This was His first miracle, and with it He began His public ministry. What the disciples had seen and heard at the Jordan, together with this miracle, gave them opportunity to acknowledge their faith. The miracle manifested His glory, confirmed the disciples' faith, and served as convincing testimony that He was the world's Redeemer. In those who beheld it, it kindled hope that God had raised up a Deliverer.
When the company looked for Jesus, He had quietly withdrawn, unnoticed even by His own disciples. Yet news of the miracle spread through all that region, even to Jerusalem. Priests and elders heard it with wonder and searched with new interest the prophecies pointing to the coming of Christ. They did so with intense anxiety to know the aim and mission of this unassuming Teacher who came among the people in so unassuming a manner yet did what no other man had done.
The reports of Cana showed His power and gave hope that He was the promised, looked-for Deliverer. They gave hope even that He could put rulers to flight. In this way the miracle at Cana prepared the way for His welcome and warm, cordial reception in Galilee when He returned there from Judea.
Guidance for Daily Living
The drawing out and bearing to the governor belongs to the providing of wine at the wedding feast, which shows the Lord supplying a needed thing. Together with the feeding of the multitude it teaches a lesson of the highest importance about food, that God provides for human needs and guides His people in preparing food suited to different times and occasions. The food business to supply human necessity is one of God's own instrumentalities, and Jesus as the heavenly Provider of all foods will not leave His people in ignorance but will teach them how to prepare the best foods for all times and occasions.
The verse teaches the necessity of preaching and practicing the principles of health reform. It calls for educating the self to live in harmony with the laws of health and teaching others the better way, keeping the subject fresh line upon line and precept upon precept, arousing intellect and conscience to the duty of practicing true reform. It calls for preserving physical powers in the best possible condition in order to render acceptable service, and for being temperate in all things in order to be susceptible to the sanctifying influence of the truth. God has placed knowledge of the laws of health within reach to promote spiritual as well as physical life, so that to refuse to improve that light and knowledge is to reject one of the means God has granted.
Ministers are to learn what true health reform is and to teach its principles by precept and by quiet, consistent example. Instruction on health and temperance is to be kept fresh at large gatherings, arousing intellect and conscience to duty, and the work is to be followed up with publications. Christ turning water into wine is applied to His working through a mother's loving ministry, transforming ordinary life into a blessing. When a God-fearing mother keeps a close connection with Christ, Christ works with her ministry of love to turn the common water of life into the wine of heaven in the home, and her home becomes a Bethel filled with heavenly life.
What was provided was pure juice of the grape, not intoxicating wine, for the Bible nowhere sanctions intoxicating wine. It was wholesome and refreshing, the new wine found in the cluster with a blessing in it, made by Him who warned that wine is a mocker and strong drink is raging, who teaches bringing the lower nature into subjection and never places temptation before men, whose whole life was self-denial, who suffered the forty days' fast to break the power of appetite, who directed that John the Baptist drink neither wine nor strong drink, and who enjoined similar abstinence upon the wife of Manoah, and He did not contradict His own teaching. Wine is good and harmless only when it is unfermented, and even so John was forbidden to drink either wine or strong drink, whether sweet or sour. The wine Christ created out of water was only wine from the fresh grape with not one particle of fermentation, and this gives the rule that no wine nor liquor should be kept in the house except that fresh grape wine. The same unfermented wine was used by Christ and His disciples in the first communion and should always be used on the communion table as the symbol of His blood, with nothing connected to the sacramental service that could minister to evil.
After the jars were filled Jesus told the servants to draw out and carry what was in them to the ruler of the feast, and they obeyed and bore it. By His word alone, without touching the water or going to the jars, He turned the water into wine fresh from the cluster. What was drawn was pure, unfermented juice of the grape, clarified and refined, wholesome and refreshing, and better than the wine served before. He did not make, use, or approve fermented drink, and gives no sanction for its use. His presence and gift at this wedding honored marriage as a sacred institution of God and showed His sympathy in adding to innocent social joy.
Cana Wedding Setting
The command to draw and bear to the governor was given at a marriage in Cana of Galilee among relatives of Joseph and Mary, where many influential persons were gathered. Jesus went there on purpose with His newly made disciples, and after His arrival became known He and His friends received a special invitation, so He graced the feast with His presence. He came after a long separation from His mother, after His baptism by John and His fierce conflict in the wilderness of temptation, bearing the marks of that conflict and the evidence of His high mission in holy expression and gentle dignity. His mother met Him there as the same tender, dutiful son yet changed, while His companions addressed Him with reverence as Master and told Mary of wonderful things they had witnessed at the baptism and on other occasions, declaring Him Jesus of Nazareth, the long-looked-for Messiah of whom Moses in the law and the prophets wrote.
It was a solemn and impressive Jewish occasion, a marriage festival in a festal hall where friends and kindred rejoiced together. By having the servants draw and take the drink to the governor of the feast, the miracle was brought into the ordinary setting of that wedding feast. His being present and taking part shows that at the opening of His ministry He joined the ordinary social life of His countrymen and of His community rather than shunning ordinary occasions, being present among people to bless them and make His character known.
He came just after His baptism and fierce conflict and long fast in the wilderness, where He suffered to break the power of appetite over man. That suffering in the forty days' fast to break appetite's power stood behind His action when He had the drink borne to the governor, and He bore the marks of that conflict in holy expression and gentle dignity.
Servants Obey Command
After the stone jars had been filled, Jesus told the servants to draw from the waterpots and carry what they drew to the governor of the feast, and they obeyed and bore it to him. What they drew from the water-filled jars was wine, the choicest wine, pure unfermented grape juice provided to meet the need of the wedding feast. The direction to draw and take it to the governor formed part of the miracle by which the water was made wine, and by providing only this safe drink Christ set a right example concerning drink.
He changed the water to wine by His spoken command alone, without touching the water or approaching the stone jars. At His word telling the servants to draw out and carry to the ruler of the feast, the water in the jars became wine fresh from the cluster. That He made and used only unfermented wine showed unfermented wine to be the safe choice, confirmed the disciples' faith, and manifested His glory.
The servants knew the vessels had just been filled with water, but the governor and the guests did not know that the wine had run out. They also did not know where the new drink had come from when it was brought in and carried to the governor. When the governor tasted it he found it better than the wine served earlier, superior in quality so that the guests were astonished, and it was sufficient for everyone.
Pure Grape Juice
What the servants drew out and bore to the governor of the feast was pure, unfermented grape juice, the pure juice of the grape clarified and refined, fresh from the cluster, not intoxicating liquor produced by fermentation or adulteration. It was not fermented wine of an intoxicating character but the safe, unfermented drink that Christ made without touching the jars or approaching them, by His word alone. The servants knew the vessels had just been filled with water, while the governor who tasted it did not know where it came from.
It was the choicest and best wine served at the feast, superior in quality to what had gone before, sufficient for all, and astonishing to the guests. It was wholesome and refreshing, the new wine found in the cluster with a blessing in it. Its effect was to bring the taste into harmony with a healthful appetite and to restore perverted taste, leading the governor to acknowledge its superior quality.
Christ did not make, use, or endorse fermented wine, and He gives no sanction for its use by word or act, for the Bible nowhere sanctions intoxicating wine. He who warned that wine is a mocker and strong drink is raging, who teaches bringing the lower nature into subjection, whose whole life was self-denial, who suffered the forty days' fast in the wilderness to break the power of appetite over man, who directed that John the Baptist drink neither wine nor strong drink, who enjoined similar abstinence upon the wife of Manoah, and who never places temptation before men, did not contradict His own teaching at Cana. The wine He made was the best the guests had tasted, yet it was unfermented grape juice, a safe drink and an example of temperance.
The drink at Cana was the same unfermented cup He gave His disciples as the symbol of His own blood, shed to cleanse the sins of the world. As no leaven was allowed in the Passover bread so no fermentation was allowed in this wine. It was designed to refresh the soul and give life, with nothing connected with it or with the sacramental service that could minister to evil, and therefore the same unfermented wine should always be used on the communion table.
By providing only this safe, unfermented drink He set a right example concerning drink and temperance for all.
Grace and Symbolism
Using His power at the wedding feast to add to its joy shows His sympathy for people and His desire to minister to their happiness. Directing the servants to draw from the waterpots and carry it to the governor of the feast, which they obeyed, was how He met the need of the occasion with pure, unfermented grape juice. That first miracle expressed His sympathy with and approval of those at the wedding, and He did not use it to meet His own needs.
The provision He supplied was more than the feast required, teaching that the Saviour's grace and righteousness are full and abundant. Those who come to Him for the bread of heaven and the water of salvation will be supplied. The miracle illustrates that Jesus gives good gifts that remain fresh and satisfying, in contrast to worldly pleasures that end in disappointment.
The wedding provision symbolizes salvation, with the water representing baptism into Christ's death and the wine representing His blood shed to cleanse the world's sins. It shows Christ working through ordinary things as He transforms common water into the wine of heaven. He can transform the ordinary conditions of life into heavenly joy, and He works through a mother's loving ministry to transform ordinary life into a blessing.
When a God-fearing mother keeps close connection with Christ, He works with her ministry of love and turns the common water of life into the wine of heaven in the home. His presence can make the home and family a place of happiness, like Eden. He came to restore, elevate, purify, and ennoble pure affection, so that the family on earth with His presence can be a symbol of the family in heaven.
Marriage Honored as Sacred
Christ's presence and blessing at Cana give high endorsement to marriage as a sacred, divine institution, and treat the marriage covenant with marked respect. He recognized it as an institution He Himself had established when He gave Eve to Adam as a helpmeet. His first miracle there confirmed the disciples' faith and showed that He honored marriage. His active interest on that occasion shows He came not to put a cloud over the happiness of the family and the guests but is in full sympathy with pure joy.
Marriage is not forbidden by God. He enforces celibacy on no class of men. Marriage joins husband and wife as one, and their shared belief in Christ should unite them in Him. He came not to destroy the sacred relationship of marriage but to exalt it and restore it to its original sanctity, and He looks with pleasure on the family relationship where sacred and unselfish love bears sway.
Marriage joined with purity, holiness, truth, and righteousness is a great blessing to the human family. Men and women are ordained to be united in holy wedlock to rear families whose members, crowned with honor, shall be recognized as members of the family above. This example supports honoring the marriage relationship and living in a way that honors God.
By being there He shows Himself in harmony with the blessed institution of marriage and gives His sanction to every gathering that is pure and lovely and of good report. He continued afterward to honor it and to illustrate important truths by it.
Sympathy in Social Life
His presence at the wedding, including His direction to draw and bear to the governor of the feast, sanctioned innocent social happiness and shows it is right to gather for pleasant social occasions. Innocent happiness at that solemn marriage pleased Him. He sanctioned such innocent gatherings without joining in worldly levity.
He entered ordinary social life to reach people and break down religious separation and Jewish prejudices, so that His influence could extend to all classes. His presence was a step toward bringing people together across social divisions in close sympathy with humanity. He met people in ordinary social settings to do them good and bring them within reach of divine truth. Wherever hearts were open He taught the way of salvation.
Through the miracle the disciples learned sympathy and humanity, for through it Jesus showed sympathy and humanity. His generous and gracious conduct and His elevating, instructive teaching gave those present an opportunity to know Him and His character. In this they could see how His life and character differed from the Pharisees' narrow, self-righteous, condemnatory ways and strictness.
His attending was not worldly conformity but an expression of generous, social care and genial, beneficent character. Unlike the Pharisees and other dignitaries who preserved an austere seclusion, He joined the mixed assembly of a festal gathering and accepted invitations from learned and noble as well as poor and afflicted. He approved innocent happiness while rebuking intemperance, self-indulgence and folly, and His presence gives no license to dissipation and revelry, pleasure-seeking, or practices such as theatergoing, parties, and dancing. No shadow of worldly levity marred His conduct, and His elevating and instructive conversation held hearers entranced. In the same act He left a perfect pattern of one who was a Jew inwardly, rebuking pretentious piety, freeing people from senseless exactions, while showing veneration for the law of God and teaching obedience to its precepts.
Witness and Reception
The servants did as they were told, drawing from the jars and bearing what had become wine to the governor of the feast, and then telling what had been done. The response of the guests to the wine drew attention to the miracle and to Jesus Himself. The servants' account, joined with the guests noticing the quality of the wine, left the whole company amazed.
This was His first miracle, and with it He began His public ministry. What the disciples had seen and heard at the Jordan, together with this miracle, gave them opportunity to acknowledge their faith. The miracle manifested His glory, confirmed the disciples' faith, and served as convincing testimony that He was the world's Redeemer. In those who beheld it, it kindled hope that God had raised up a Deliverer.
When the company looked for Jesus, He had quietly withdrawn, unnoticed even by His own disciples. Yet news of the miracle spread through all that region, even to Jerusalem. Priests and elders heard it with wonder and searched with new interest the prophecies pointing to the coming of Christ. They did so with intense anxiety to know the aim and mission of this unassuming Teacher who came among the people in so unassuming a manner yet did what no other man had done.
The reports of Cana showed His power and gave hope that He was the promised, looked-for Deliverer. They gave hope even that He could put rulers to flight. In this way the miracle at Cana prepared the way for His welcome and warm, cordial reception in Galilee when He returned there from Judea.
Guidance for Daily Living
The drawing out and bearing to the governor belongs to the providing of wine at the wedding feast, which shows the Lord supplying a needed thing. Together with the feeding of the multitude it teaches a lesson of the highest importance about food, that God provides for human needs and guides His people in preparing food suited to different times and occasions. The food business to supply human necessity is one of God's own instrumentalities, and Jesus as the heavenly Provider of all foods will not leave His people in ignorance but will teach them how to prepare the best foods for all times and occasions.
The verse teaches the necessity of preaching and practicing the principles of health reform. It calls for educating the self to live in harmony with the laws of health and teaching others the better way, keeping the subject fresh line upon line and precept upon precept, arousing intellect and conscience to the duty of practicing true reform. It calls for preserving physical powers in the best possible condition in order to render acceptable service, and for being temperate in all things in order to be susceptible to the sanctifying influence of the truth. God has placed knowledge of the laws of health within reach to promote spiritual as well as physical life, so that to refuse to improve that light and knowledge is to reject one of the means God has granted.
Ministers are to learn what true health reform is and to teach its principles by precept and by quiet, consistent example. Instruction on health and temperance is to be kept fresh at large gatherings, arousing intellect and conscience to duty, and the work is to be followed up with publications. Christ turning water into wine is applied to His working through a mother's loving ministry, transforming ordinary life into a blessing. When a God-fearing mother keeps a close connection with Christ, Christ works with her ministry of love to turn the common water of life into the wine of heaven in the home, and her home becomes a Bethel filled with heavenly life.
What was provided was pure juice of the grape, not intoxicating wine, for the Bible nowhere sanctions intoxicating wine. It was wholesome and refreshing, the new wine found in the cluster with a blessing in it, made by Him who warned that wine is a mocker and strong drink is raging, who teaches bringing the lower nature into subjection and never places temptation before men, whose whole life was self-denial, who suffered the forty days' fast to break the power of appetite, who directed that John the Baptist drink neither wine nor strong drink, and who enjoined similar abstinence upon the wife of Manoah, and He did not contradict His own teaching. Wine is good and harmless only when it is unfermented, and even so John was forbidden to drink either wine or strong drink, whether sweet or sour. The wine Christ created out of water was only wine from the fresh grape with not one particle of fermentation, and this gives the rule that no wine nor liquor should be kept in the house except that fresh grape wine. The same unfermented wine was used by Christ and His disciples in the first communion and should always be used on the communion table as the symbol of His blood, with nothing connected to the sacramental service that could minister to evil.