Why did Jesus choose the wedding at Cana for His first miracle?

The beginning of His miracles was in Cana of Galilee, and by it He manifested His glory and His disciples believed on Him. It was a remarkable miracle, this turning the water into wine at the marriage feast. He had ordained the marriage tie in the beginning, and though it had become sadly marred by sin He hallowed it by His presence. They were not great or rich, this couple who called Jesus to their marriage; indeed the fact that they had no wine would indicate that they were very poor, but Jesus was the Friend of the poor, as He is to this day, and He manifested His glory by caring for them in their need and raising the joy of their marriage day to a level they could not have known if He had not been there. "He provided a fit accompaniment, provided it of the best, and in such large measure as has alarmed and amazed the timid moralist. The quality and the greatness of the gift were worthy of God; and we see the generosity all the more clearly when we remember that this bountiful Creator had a little while before refused to create bread to relieve Himself of hunger" (Nicholl).

On the occasion of the marriage at Cana no external glory marked the presence of Jesus. His disciples were there and His mother also, but He soon showed, by the answer He gave His mother, that the initiative was His and not hers; and also that His hour was not yet come — neither the hour of His suffering, nor the hour of His glory, when "all things" will be at His disposal. However, He quickly manifested His glory by showing that water was at His disposal, and that He could make of it that which He pleased. He turned the water of purification into the wine of rejoicing. This was the beginning of His miracles or signs, and as a sign it looked on to the ultimate result of His work. There can be no gladness of an abiding sort save on the basis of a purification which He brings to pass, and the gladness which will spring forth when at last the marriage day comes for a cleansed Israel, will be the best of all. The "good wine" is kept until that day. This sign, demonstrating His glory, confirmed the faith of His disciples, and may well confirm ours.

The first miracle the Lord Jesus did when He was here on earth was in Cana of Galilee (John 2:11). His mother said to Him, "They have no wine." This really sets forth Israel. There was no joy in the nation because they had forsaken their God; they had departed from Him in their hearts. And when their Messiah came and presented Himself to them, as it says in the prophet Isaiah, ". we hid as it were our faces from Him; He was despised, and we esteemed Him not" (Isa. 53:3). The One in their midst should have been their joy but they did not recognise or own Him. But by turning the water into wine in Cana He proved He was the only One who could bring joy to Israel. Despite this they did not know Him. The feast-master didn't know where the wine had come from, just as the rulers failed to recognise Him, or bow to His authority.

The first sign is given in the second chapter. Our Lord was there at the wedding feast at Cana as an invited guest. In the changing of the water into wine He manifested His glory. His act of power signified that He must supersede every human host. In this act He demonstrated that He was the true Host for Israel. He will bring in the joy of the kingdom in the coming day of marital festivity, but only after the waterpots have been filled with water of purification. The purifying fountain (see Zech. 12 and 13) shall follow the great tribulation. Then Jehovah shall be called Husband by His people and shall no more be called Master. Then shall the joy of the vineyards be their portion when the door of hope is opened to Israel, culminating in the betrothal with all its attendant blessedness (Hosea 2:14-23). Thus shall the Lord be Host and Husband to Israel in the coming day of His manifested glory. All this and much more is suggested in the consideration of this first sign. May we who belong, not to Israel but, to the heavenly family of God, learn from the sign that the gracious, lowly Stranger, who came to His own and was not received by them — He who was unknown in the world His own hands had made — is none other than the Lord of glory.

The miracle wrought, its effects are described (2:11). By it the Lord manifested His glory. He was indeed a Divine Person, the only begotten Son of God (1:14). Creation was subject to Him, seeing that water could become wine. Then, too, His disciples believed on Him. The Baptist's testimony that He was the Son of God must have been confirmed, as they witnessed this display of power. Further, two facts were established of interest and of importance to us all — God is not opposed to lawful occasions of the creature's rejoicing, nor does He withhold from men the fruit of the vine, as if it were sinful to drink of it, though of course it is only to be taken in moderation.

A remark, too, may here be made as to the miracle. When was it wrought? Was it whilst the water was in the stone jars? or was it wrought between the servants' drawing out water and that water reaching the ruler of the feast? Was all the water in the jars turned into wine, or only so much as was needed for the feast? Now the words in verse 9, "The servants which drew the water knew," would seem to imply, that they drew out water from the jars, which subsequently became wine ere it reached the ruler of the feast. Both opinions have been expressed so we notice them. Whichever was the case the miracle remains the same — water became wine. The water-pots, filled with water up to the brim, and the time of year, shortly before Passover (so there could have been no ripe grapes to squeeze their juice into the vessels), alike forbid any thought or possibility of collusion. The miracle was a real one, and a special one. We read elsewhere of nothing like it. It was not even like multiplying that which was already there, but of producing that which was not previously in existence.

Moreover, if Christ secures true happiness, He does so as One Who is wholly apart from Israel and the world. In verse 1 we see a social occasion with which the mother of Jesus is connected. In verse 2 we see Jesus and His disciples forming a distinct circle apart from the world. They are called to the marriage; and in response, the Lord graces the occasion with His presence, thus putting His sanction upon a relationship instituted by God.

Nevertheless, when the wine runs short, He will not intervene at the instigation of His mother. He says, "Woman, what have I to do with thee? Mine hour is not yet come". Through His mother the Lord was connected with Israel and the law. By refusing to act in connection with the mother, He shows that all that He did, as presented in this Gospel, flowed from His relationship as the Son with the Father, and not from natural relationships with the mother or legal relationships with Israel. In this gospel the Lord is ever viewed as outside all earthly relationships, as a heavenly Man bringing in "heavenly things" (John 3:12). He thus manifested forth His glory as being in relationship with the Father, as carrying out His will and finally securing joy for man.

The way the Lord takes to supply the good wine is surely significant. He causes the empty waterpots of purification to be filled and from these waterpots the wine is drawn forth. Does this not tell us, in a symbol, that the happiness of men will only be secured when holiness is maintained?

They in each instance show the glory or real character of the One Who performs the immediate work of power. In the first miracle or sign which Jesus did as recorded in our Gospel, we observe the power of the Creator in exercise upon inanimate nature. A true case of transubstantiation occurs. The element water is changed so completely into wine that colour, taste and smell proclaim the fact; the governor of the feast bearing eloquent though unconscious testimony to the miracle wrought (chap. 2:9-10). Who but the Creator can change the nature of things? And the Evangelist tersely and illuminatively comments, "This beginning of signs did Jesus in Cana of Galilee, and manifested forth His glory"; "the glory or character as of the Only Begotten of the Father" (chap. 1:14).

The first sign, which is called the beginning of signs, was given in Cana at a marriage, which, figuratively, sets forth Jehovah’s resumption of relations with His earthly people, now as a nation long disowned. Here He turns the water of purification into the wine of joy and gladness. Then it will be confessed that the good wine has been kept to the last.

The second chapter opens with a striking miracle — the water turned into wine. It is only given here. Jesus is God, the God of creation. He had shown His omniscience to Nathanael, now His omnipotence to others. It was "the third day," possibly the third since He had first seen Nathanael.46 But the passage is so significant that one does not feel disposed to question the thought that the Spirit may here have meant figuratively the type of a day yet future when glory will appear, as distinguished from the day of John the Baptist's testimony, and that of the Lord and His disciples. For as the light shone in despised Galilee when He came in humiliation, so will it shine on the poor in spirit when He appears in glory; and judgment fall on the proud and lofty, on Jerusalem in its religious pretensions, so big and so hollow, till grace makes even her lowly before Him.

We can understand, therefore, the importance of the sanction which the Lord gives by His presence at this marriage feast; and even why He takes at it the place He does, as Maker of all. It is every way harmonious; while the need and limitations brought us by the fall are recognized also and provided for. The wine runs out: the joys of earth pass and cannot be renewed; alas, the empty forms of purification, like the six empty water-pots of stone, provide no basis upon which the blessing can come. Only the servants who draw the water know how, when at his bidding the pots are filled with water, this is changed into the new wine which is alone really "good"; and in which we recognize the memorial of His own deep sorrow, yea, of the blood out-poured for the guilt of man. And here Cana, "purchase," comes to its true significance, as the secret of the return of blessing of which Galilee reminds us. But we shall see all the details of what is here more fully brought out as we take up this story in its connection with the series of pictures in which the glory of Christ is being continuously displayed.