John Chapter 2

1. On the third day there was a wedding at Cana in Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there.

Jesus honours the estate of matrimony

Nathanael came from Cana.

2. Jesus also was invited to the wedding with his disciples.

Clearly known

3. When the wine ran out, the mother of Jesus said to him, “They have no wine.”

Literal: “Wine having failed."

It would be foolish to suppose that Mary did not remember well all the miraculous circumstances of our Lord’s birth, and all the words spoken before by the angel Gabriel concerning Him.

The Greek words so rendered mean literally, "Wine having failed." This circumstance probably shows the poor and humble condition of those to whose marriage Jesus was invited. (JCR)

Samson’s marriage feast lasted seven days. (Judges 15:10-18.)

4. And Jesus said to her, “Woman, what does this have to do with me? My hour has not yet come.”

Literal: "what to me and thee?"

This remarkable verse has naturally attracted great attention. In interpreting it, it is very important to avoid the extremes into which some Protestants and nearly all Roman Catholic writers have fallen, in their interpretations.

“Woman”: The very same expression was used by our Lord when He addressed His mother for the last time on the cross, and affectionately commended her to John’s care. He said, "Woman, behold thy son." (John 19:26.). It was not a rebuke!

“Hour”: The simplest and most reasonable view of these words is to refer them to Christ’s "hour" or time for working a miracle. (JCR)

5. His mother said to the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.”

One is the meekness with which Mary submitted to the gentle rebuke which came from our Lord’s mouth, in the last verse

6. Now there were six stone water jars there for the Jewish rites of purification, each holding twenty or thirty gallons.

100 litres (ref in FFB)

7. Jesus said to the servants, “Fill the jars with water.” And they filled them up to the brim.

They are to hear Christ’s voice, and do as He tells them, and then leave the result to Him. Duties are ours. Events are God’s. It is ours to fill the water-pots. It is Christ’s to make the water wine.

8. And he said to them, “Now draw some out and take it to the master of the feast.” So they took it.

9. When the master of the feast tasted the water now become wine, and did not know where it came from (though the servants who had drawn the water knew), the master of the feast called the bridegroom

10. and said to him, “Everyone serves the good wine first, and when people have drunk freely, then the poor wine. But you have kept the good wine until now.”

11. This, the first of his signs, Jesus did at Cana in Galilee, and manifested his glory. And his disciples believed in him.

The plain meaning of this sentence seems to be that this was the first miracle which our Lord Jesus Christ ever worked.

Lightfoot:

1. As marriage was the first institution ordained by God, so at a marriage was Christ’s first miracle.

2. As Christ had showed Himself miraculous a little while ago by a fast, so He doth now by an extraordinary provision at a feast. When He would not make stones bread, it was not because He could not.

3. He would not make stones into bread to satisfy Satan, but He was willing to turn water into wine to show forth His own glory.

4. The first miracle wrought in the world by man was transformation, (Exodus 7:9,) and the first miracle wrought by the Son of Man was of the same nature.

5. The first time you hear of John the Baptist, you hear of his strict diet, and so the first time you hear of Christ in His public ministry, you hear of Him at a marriage feast.

12. After this he went down to Capernaum, with his mother and his brothers and his disciples, and they stayed there for a few days.

Cana was a village in the hill country. Capernaum was a town on the shore of the lake of Galilee, at a very much lower level than Cana. It is therefore said that Jesus "went down.

13. The Passover of the Jews was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.

During the course of Yeshua’s public ministry, four Passover feasts are mentioned, which shows that His ministry spanned a period of three years. Verse 13 records the events surrounding the first of these feasts. His baptism had happened anywhere from four to six months earlier. (CS)

While the Jewish nation was expecting the appearance of a conquering Messiah with power and great glory, the true Messiah suddenly appeared in the temple (JCR)

Literal: written to gentiles “Passover of the Jews”….

14. In the temple he found those who were selling oxen and sheep and pigeons, and the money-changers sitting there.

Pragmatism – foreigners with foreign currency needed changing. The Jews made a profit from this transaction.

Dyke: "No pretence of good ends can justify that which is forbidden by God."

15. And making a whip of cords, he drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and oxen. And he poured out the coins of the money-changers and overturned their tables.

Literal: “cord made of rushes”

The distinction between our Lord’s mode of dealing with each of the objects of His displeasure deserves notice.

The oxen and sheep He drove out. There was no danger of their being lost by such treatment.

The money He threw on the ground. It might be soon picked up and carried away.

The doves He simply ordered to be taken away.

16. And he told those who sold the pigeons, “Take these things away; do not make my Father’s house a house of trade.”

An assertion by our Lord of His divine Sonship.

17. His disciples remembered that it was written, “Zeal for your house will consume me.”

Psalm 69:9

It occurred to their minds as a striking illustration of the spirit which their divine Master was exhibiting.

He was completely absorbed for the moment in zeal for the purity of God’s house.

It is one among many proofs of the familiarity of the poor and unlearned Jews with the Old Testament Scriptures (JCR)

18. So the Jews said to him, “What sign do you show us for doing these things?”

Typical of Jews – they needed a sign. Why? Jesus had provided a sign, surely!

19. Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.”

When the apostles began to preach, they continually referred the Jews to Christ’s resurrection as the proof of His Messiahship. And why did they do so? One main reason was, because their Master had told the Jews, the first time He appeared in the temple, that the great sign they must look to was His own rising again from the dead. (JCR)

20. The Jews then said, “It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and will you raise it up in three days?”

Herold’s temple

21. But he was speaking about the temple of his body.

This verse is an instance of John’s habit of making explanatory comments in his Gospel as he goes on, in order to make things clear to his Gentile readers.

22. When therefore he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this, and they believed the Scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken.

“Scripture” means generally the whole testimony of Scripture to our Lord’s claim to be received as the Messiah.

23. Now when he was in Jerusalem at the Passover Feast, many believed in his name when they saw the signs that he was doing.

These persons do not appear to have really believed with the heart, but to have been only convinced in their understandings.

The distinction between intellectual belief and saving belief, and between one degree of saving belief and another, ought to be carefully noticed in Scripture.

There is a faith which devils have, and a faith which is the gift of God. The persons mentioned in this verse had the former, but not the latter. So also we are told that Simon Magus "believed." (Acts 8:13.)

Again, there is a real heart-belief which a man may have that admits of great increase. This is the belief spoken of in the preceding verse.

After Yeshua had very publicly proclaimed Himself to be the Messiah by taking control of His Father's house, He began authenticating this by performing miracles.

The one miracle He had performed up to this point was done rather quietly, and only a few people knew it had taken place. However, the next miracles were very public.

For the first half of His ministry, the purpose of these public, authenticating miracles was to bring Israel to the point of decision: Would they accept Him as their Messiah, or would they reject Him?

Later, the purpose for His miracles would change; but initially, they were to authenticate both His person and His message. As to His person, they were to prove that He was the Jewish Messiah. As to His message, they were to validate that He was offering to Israel the kingdom of the Jewish prophets.

24. But Jesus on his part did not entrust himself to them, because he knew all people

25. and needed no one to bear witness about man, for he himself knew what was in man.

There was a positive response to the first public miracles: many believed in his name when they saw the signs that he was doing (Jn. 2:23). But while many put their trust in Him, Yeshua did not entrust Himself to them, for He recognized the nature of man. As the Apostle Yochanan developed the deity of the Son in his Gospel, he pointed out two things about Yeshua's omniscience. Negatively, and needed no one to bear witness about man, and positively, for he himself knew what was in man (Jn. 2:25). (CS)