by Dcn. Bob Bonomi
In today’s Gospel from St. John, we see the beginning of Jesus’ ministry – and the first of the seven “signs”, or miracles, that John uses to showcase the divine nature of Jesus as the Christ.
In addition to the changing of water into wine here, the other six signs are:
1. The healing of the royal official's son in Capernaum (John 4:46-54)
2. The healing of the paralytic at Bethesda (John 5:1-15)
3. The feeding of the 5000 (John 6:5-14)
4. Jesus walking on water (John 6:16-24)
5. The healing of the man blind from birth (John 9:1-7)
and
6. The raising of Lazarus from the dead (John 11:1-45)
Now, while John in his Gospel only emphasized these seven “signs” instead of the collection of miracles that the other Gospel list, John used each one of his to help his community understand a particular aspect of the divine nature of Jesus, and to set the stage for John’s version of the Passion of Jesus and his subsequent resurrection.
It is important to note that most scholars figure that John’s Gospel was probably the last one written, maybe somewhere in the 90’s, and so his need to portray the various “whats” of Jesus’ ministry – the many healing and other miracles which would have been fairly well known by Christian followers by then – would be of less importance to the people than the “whys” of each, which witnessed to Jesus’ divinity as the only Son of God.1
Now, I often wonder, why change water into wine as your first sign? Jesus could have just as easily raised someone from the dead, like Lazarus, which would have really gotten people’s attention. And why was this sign so important to John? I mean, this particular miracle of changing water into wine is unique to the Gospel of John – you won’t find it mentioned anywhere in any of the other Gospels.
According to the introduction to the Gospel of John in the latest revision of the New American Bible, this first sign “symbolizes the entire creative and transforming work of Jesus.”
Let’s look at this story a little closer. It begins with Mary, Jesus and some of his disciples being invited to a wedding in Cana, shortly after the calling of Jesus’ first disciples. It’s about 4 miles from Nazareth to Cana, so the wedding must have been fairly important to Mary to travel that far to attend it. It is also reasonable to assume that this would be a fairly large celebration. Mary might have even been related to the couple.
As for Jesus and his disciples, they had recently begun traveling together – the previous chapter ends with the calling of Andrew, Simon Peter, Philip and Nathanial, and the beginning of this verse, although not included in today’s reading, puts this event as three days later. So, while John the Baptist has identified Jesus as the Lamb of God and the Son of God, these new disciples have yet to fully experience the divinity of Jesus.
The story also doesn’t say how long the party had been going on, but according to ancient Jewish wedding customs, a wedding celebration usually lasted for several days, so the fact that they ran out of wine isn’t necessarily surprising. But we can see some important symbolism in this sign:
• Weddings were communal events meant for celebration.
• Wine was a significant part of Jewish celebrations – it was meant to “gladden men’s hearts” as we hear in Psalm 104.
• Wine production was a major industry for the Jewish people, and God’s blessings were often compared to wine.
• And of course, at the Last Supper, Jesus used wine to signify His Blood.
From a theological perspective, Jesus’ creation of wine from water would have been seen by the Jewish people as a sign of the generosity of God and the amount created would show the abundance of that gift.
But before the sign itself is what might be the most important statement in this passage - Mary’s comment to the servers: "Do whatever He tells you." I’m not sure that converting water into wine was what Mary had in mind, but she had confidence in Jesus ability to come to the wedding party’s assistance.
Note:
• Mary’s intercession on behalf of the wedding party without being asked is a sign of her motherly concern for those around her. We recognize the same thing in her today when we ask her for her intercession on our behalf.
• Mary’s direction to the servers is the same to us today – if you are a disciple of her Son, you must do whatever He tells you.
And therein lies our greatest challenge: understanding what Jesus is telling us to do right now. I sometimes wonder what the servants thought when Jesus told them to fill those water jars. If it was me, I’d be wondering what jars of water had to do with the wine running out.
Kind of like someone today saying to God, “Hey, I’m out of gas” and God replying, “OK, go and get a five-gallon bucket of water.” It wouldn’t make sense to me.
Which I think may be our greatest challenge today. We face so many problems, both personally and in our communities at large, and we don’t know what we are to do. So, we turn to God for help. But what we are told doesn’t seem to make sense to us. Follow the commandments.
On the surface, the two greatest commandments sound simple: Love God, and love our neighbor. But how do we do that? If we listen to what the world says in all its fears, we may not hear what Jesus is saying to us in our hearts. Or, even if we hear, we may not trust that it will work out for the best.
Which brings us back to today’s Gospel. Once the water became wine, everyone at the celebration benefited, even without knowing how it came to be – or even knowing there was a problem in the first place. But the servants knew; and so did the disciples.
Even though they were just starting on their journey with Jesus and probably didn’t know what to expect, this first sign opened their eyes to the wonder – the mystery – of Jesus. And it says that they began to believe in Him.
We too are journeying with Jesus. And like his disciples, we too will see wonders and signs which we may not understand, and we will be called to do whatever he commands us, even if we don’t understand it or agree with it. And it will probably cost us something – maybe a lot. But if we will trust in Jesus, then we will share in the copious gifts God has in store for all of us, either in this world or in the next.
So, in the face of uncertainty or doubt – when the wine runs out – let us always do whatever Jesus commands us. And remember the simple prayer from St. Faustina Kowalska whenever we are in doubt or don't understand:
Jesus, I trust in You.
