It happened in Cana of Galilee!

Sunday, March 3, 2019 

It happened in Cana of Galilee!

Fr. Jacob Anish Varghese

Jesus did this as the beginning of his signs in Cana of Galilee and so revealed His glory, and His disciples began to believe in Him”  (John 2:11).

The first of Our Lord’s great “signs” was the transformation of water into wine at the marriage in Cana of Galilee. In typical Johannine style, the story is not recorded for its sentimental or entertainment value, but for its theological significance. This story is a “sign”, a symbol, a revealing, an epiphany — showing us God at work in our world, teaching us important lessons about God and about ourselves.

Jesus had been invited to the marriage there together with His mother and disciples.  When the wine ran out, and when this presumably was going to spoil the festive atmosphere of the wedding – or perhaps embarrass the bridegroom and the bride – the mother of Jesus intervened. 

Let us look at some of the elements mentioned in the gospel narrative, in order to have a deeper understanding of the unfolding of the Kingdom of God.

1. The water used for transformation: 

The water which Jesus transforms isn’t just any water, but water stored for the ritual washings prescribed by Old Testament Law. This water is symbolic of the Old Law, of the old way of doing things. 

2. The number of jars present: 

Even the number of jars is significant; the number seven signified completion or perfection in Jewish and early Christian writings, so the presence of six jars tells us that the old way of doing things is incomplete and imperfect. The amount of wine that results is also significant; the party went from having no wine (a shameful breach of hospitality) to having somewhere between 120 and 180 gallons (more than they could possibly use), furthermore it was wine of the highest quality. Several of the Old Testament prophets had used the image of a super-abundance of wine to describe what life would be like when the messiah arrived. By changing Old Testament water into the new wine of Christ, we are told that the old age has passed away and that the kingdom of God has come. 

3. The banquet setting: 

The setting for this miracle, this revealing, is also very appropriate; this sign takes place at a feast, a banquet, at a wedding. It is a fore-taste of the heavenly banquet at the marriage between the Lamb and his bride, the Church, which St. John records in his Revelation. 

4. “On the third day..”

We are told that, “on the third day there was a wedding…” Here Jesus is glorified on the third day, even as he rose from the dead on the third day after his crucifixion. 

Why did Jesus refer to His mother as ‘woman’? 

In the Gospel of St. John, and in the narrative of this event, Jesus even goes on to call his mother, as ‘woman’, certainly a strange term for a Jewish man to use for his mother. Only a reading of the gospel passage with clarity and typological insight will reveal the use of term ‘woman’ as a symbol of the ‘new eve’. Virgin Mary here is the counterpart to the “woman” in the garden of Eden (Genesis 3).  The mother of Jesus is the “New Eve” who will act in a way that is in harmony with the will of God, and not in a way that will subvert that will.  

According to the Raymond E. Brown, “In this light we can compare the woman in the Garden of Eden who led Adam to the first evil act with the woman at Cana who leads the new Adam to his first glorious work.  In the prophecy of Genesis we hear that God will put enmity between the woman and the serpent and that her seed will crush the serpent. In calling his mother “woman,” Jesus may well be identifying her with the new Eve who will be the mother of his disciples as the old Eve was the ‘mother of all the living.’  She can play her role of intercession, however, only when her offspring on the cross has crushed the serpent” (The Gospel and Epistles of John: A Concise Commentary)

The glory of God

Nothing is superfluous or meaningless in St. John’s writing. John uses this story to help explain the glory of God. John tells us that in this miracle Jesus “manifested his glory; and his disciples believed in him.” “Glory” is a very important biblical concept; sometimes it is used to refer to worship. To — give God the glory — means to worship Him remembering what he has done for us, but most often the term “glory” is used to refer to a revealing of God’s presence, of realising and knowing that God is in our midst. 

Do whatever he tells you…

There is yet another very important lesson revealed to us in this passage. How often does something go wrong in our lives, something that we don’t understand, something that must be fixed, yet we don’t know how? Look at the example of Mary’s faith in Jesus in this story. She instinctively turned to him when something went wrong; she knew that he would take care of it. She did not know what he would do, yet she trusted in him completely, saying to the servants, “do whatever he tells you”. What wonderful advice she gives to us, “do whatever he tells you”— and all will be well. Mary had faith that could trust, even when she did not completely understand. She knew that by trusting and following her Son everything would turn out all right. Her love, her trust, her faith kept her close to her Son, even through the agony of the Cross. May we have the strength to follow her example and obey her direction, “do whatever he tells you”.