The First Sign

The First Sign: John 2:1-11

The main point: The miracles recorded in John’s Gospel are more than just random supernatural events;

they are signs that point to a much deeper reality. The transformation of water into wine at the wedding in

Cana is the first of these signs, and it tells us much about the identity and purpose of Jesus.

 

The Gospel according to John is different than the other three Gospels,

which are called synoptic gospels because they are roughly parallel in

the way they tell the story of Jesus’ life. John’s Gospel was created later

than the other three, and tells the story in a different way.

It has been traditionally connected to the apostle John, the son of Zebedee, brother of James.

Whether John wrote this gospel, or relayed his message to someone

else who then composed the gospel is uncertain.

Regardless, this gospel contains a message about Jesus that is true and reliable,

and that comes out of the first hand experiences of one of his disciples.

 

This gospel was certainly written when John was very old, and contains reflections

on the life of Jesus from the perspective of one who saw him live,

witnessed him die, encountered him after his resurrection,

and then lived a long life trying to understand and live out

what all of that meant as part of the Church, the new people of God.

John structures his Gospel a number of signs and I AM statements, all of which point to the identity of Jesus.

 

The first sign is the changing of the water into wine at the wedding in Cana.

On the surface this miracle seems a little unnecessary.

It was a very awkward situation to run out of wine at your wedding, to be sure,

and it was very kind of Jesus, at the prompting of his mother, to remedy the situation.

This does reflect an actual care for the daily lives of the people around him,

but it does not seem to be what this sign is all about.

 

This is not a random, feel-good miracle. John calls it a sign,

and it is called a sign because it points to something beyond itself.

And even though later miracles seem to be doing more immediate good,

such as healing someone’s blindness, or even bringing someone back from the dead,

they are still signs for something more. None of Jesus’ miracles in the Gospel of John were only

about doing something good. They were also, and more importantly, about communicating

who he was and what he had come to do. John is not just relating that these

miracles happened; he is also giving the reader an insight into what these miracles mean, what the signs point to.

 

So what doesthis first sign point to? New Wine had long been a symbol for the Jewish people

of the coming redemption, the fulfilment of God’s promise, the time of shalom, the

coming of the Messiah. One Hebrew saying has it that “there is no rejoicing save with wine”,

and we can see in passages such as Isa 25:6; Jer 31:12-14; Hos 14:7; Joel 3:18; and Amos 9:13-14

that free-flowing wine was expected to accompany Israel’s joy at arrival of the Messiah.

 

That Jesus created this wine from the water used for ritual cleansing is also significant.

Something new was happening in Israel, something that was deeply connected to

the history and rituals of Judaism, but also something that was going to bring a whole new life.

The water that Jewish people would ceremonially wash their hands and their cups with,

the water that was meant to make people ritually clean and pure, was not truly sufficient for the task.

No amount of water could ever wash away the world’s sins; no amount of ritual cleaning

could ever make a person pure and holy. Jesus alone could do that through the shedding of his blood.

In John 6 Jesus teaches that life can only come to those who eat his flesh and drink his blood,

connecting his own blood to the new wine of the covenant.

The old water cannot bring purity and life. Nothing humans do in their own strength can bring purity and life.

Only the new wine has the power to do that. And Jesus fills up the old water containers

with wine “to the brim”, showing that he is bringing abundant life, more than enough

new wine to fulfill every person and make them clean.

The wedding party runs out of wine, just as every human effort towards salvation will exhaust itself;

but Jesus’ wine will never run out.

 

Seeing the connection between this wine at the wedding and the blood of Jesus leads us

towards the true implication of the miracle at Cana:

the turning of water into wine is a sign that ultimately points to the death of Jesus.

This could explain Jesus’ reluctance to perform this sign, knowing that it was leading

him toward the shedding of his own blood.

Jesus’ mother asks him to perform a miracle, but Jesus knows that the miracle required

is on a totally different level. Her concern, the shortage of wine, is not the same as his concern,

the redemption of humanity. And he knows that it is not yet “his time”.

In John 12:23 Jesus announces that the hour had now come for him to be glorified, that is, killed.

The sign at Cana was merely the first step on the road to that hour, and was a fitting symbol

for what Jesus would accomplish through his death.

 

Finally, John points out that the sign was not recognised by the master of the banquet,

but it was noticed by the disciples. By this sign Jesus revealed his glory, and the disciples put their faith in him. 

God’s glory was shown in the Jewish Scriptures through theophanies (visions or manifestations of God),

through nature, and through the tabernacle and the Temple.

Now God’s glory, John says, is brought into the midst of God’s people again through the person of Jesus.

Bringing glory to God the Father is Jesus’ primary desire in the Gospel of John (see John 9:3; 11:4, 40),

and Jesus reveals the glory of God throughout the narrative, in particular through the signs.