John 1 - 2

Marriage At Cana

John's Gospel stands unique among the four Gospels.  Reviewing, we know that Matthew presented Jesus as a king; Mark presents Him as a servant; Luke presents Him as a Man who is Divine; and John presents Him as the Divine God who is a man.  John's Gospel is the most intimate of all four because of the close relationship young John had with Jesus.  This Gospel also contains a larger number unique incidents and teachings than the other three.

The opening verses are reminiscent of Genesis 1:1 and 1 John 1:1 in that all talk about the "beginning" and how the God/The Word/Jesus existed when the beginning began. Using the King James Version we can look at all three of these verses:

Gen 1:1 - In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.

John 1:1 - In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

1 John 1: 1 - That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the Word of life;

The parallels are unmistakable.  God was already in existence when the reality of Earth and Mankind were created. Matthew and Luke provide records of Jesus' human ancestry and lineage, but John provides Jesus' spiritual lineage: The Word - God - Jesus. As we progress through the Epistles and Revelations we will revisit this subject.

In chapter 2, John starts with the first public miracle of Jesus - turning water to wine. In verse 1 we find out that Jesus' mother is present at the wedding and verse 2 tells us that Jesus, and His disciples were invited and attended.  This shows wisdom on the part of those who hosted the festivities in that they wanted Jesus present. Evidently, things were going well because they ran out of wine.  In 2:3, Mary informs Jesus of the problem and verse 4 records one of the most enigmatic scriptures in the Gospels.  The KJV reads, "Woman, what have I to do with thee?  mine hour is not yet come."  The NLT reads, "Dear woman, that's not our problem. My time has not yet come." The Lamsa reads, "What is that to me and to you, my hour has not yet come."  I have long thought about this verse, but to date have not formulated a good understanding of Jesus' response.

Mary was not disturbed at His answer. She tells the servants, "Do whatever he tells you to do." This is still excellent advice today regardless of the problem you are facing.  Whatever Jesus tells you to do will always be the correct course of action.

There were six stone water containers nearby used to hold water for ceremonial washing.  The six speaks to the number of mankind, stone speaks to the earth.  The water represents the old ceremonial law.  Notice that Jesus told the servants to fill the containers with water.  We (the stone containers) must be filled with the water of God's word to become clean.  Then He tells them to pour/dip out the liquid and take it to the master of ceremonies. 

The Bible records nothing about anything specific that Jesus did, it was all done by the servants at His bidding. As His servants we should behave in a similar fashion. Instead of looking for a sign or a miracle, if we do His bidding (what He tells us to do) then signs and miracles will follow and confirm His Word.  The master of ceremonies confirms the miracle declaring this wine to be the "best" (v. 10).  In a similar way, Jesus takes the Word (water) in our life and changes it to the spirit (wine) and puts on display the best (His life living through us).

May God bless you and bless the reading of His Word.