John 2:1-12: Water into Wine

Video Teaching
Verse-by-Verse Commentary
Full Transcript

Video Teaching

Verse-by-Verse Commentary

Introduction

  1. Popular Misinterpretations and their Roots
    1. Sometimes, people use this passage to justify heavy drinking.  Jesus “partied,” so why shouldn’t we?  A counter-misreading claims that “wine” was actually grape juice.  Notice that no respectable translation uses that language.  Both of these readings have roots in the prohibition era.
    2. In the early 20th century, during Prohibition, the passage became a proof text against alcohol bans: “If I’m not supposed to have wine, why did Jesus give it to me?” Both temperance advocates and opponents crafted arguments that persist culturally.
    3. Earlier Christian tradition did not primarily read the story as about personal alcohol use.
  2. First-Century Context of Wine and Drinking
    1. Alcohol content and dilution practices
      1. Fermentation techniques in the first-century Mediterranean were less advanced; wine peaked around 11–14% alcohol, similar to lower-content wine today.
      2. The social norm was to mix wine with water; rabbinic literature indicates a usual ratio of three parts water to one part wine (Pesahim 108b, Shabbath 77a), which reduced the total alcohol content to around 2–3% ABV, roughly half of low-end beer in the United States.
    2. Drinking unmixed wine would have been gross and sad, kind of like ordering a full glass of vodka with your lunch at a restaurant today.  
  3. Drunkenness and Judaism
    1. In first-century Israel, a respectable Jew did not get drunk; drunkenness was associated with Greeks and Romans (Dionysus, Bacchus), the oppressors!
    2. Public drunkenness suggested that you were taking on the culture of the oppressors and could brand you as a collaborator in a time of constant rebellions.
  4. Scripture on Wine and Drunkenness
    1. A lot of biblical references to wine are actually positive:
      1. Psalm 104:15: “God makes wine that gladdens human hearts.”
      2. Judges 9:13: “Should I give up my wine, which cheers both gods and humans?”
      3. Deuteronomy 14: Instructions for religious feasts include encouragement to buy wine if resources permit.
    2. Drunkenness, on the other hand, is consistently condemned
      1. Galatians 5:21: Paul warns gentile converts that those given to drunkenness will not inherit the kingdom of God.
      2. Proverbs 20: “Wine is a mocker and beer a brawler. Whoever is led astray by them is not wise.”
      3. In 1–2 Kings, bad kings are often characterized as drunks, but good kings are not.

2 On the third day a wedding took place at Cana in Galilee. Jesus’ mother was there, 

  1. Weddings were major, joyous feasts (see Song of Songs for more on the topic).  The presence of Jesus and his disciples implies they were joyful, welcomed guests who enhanced celebrations.

2 and Jesus and his disciples had also been invited to the wedding. 3 When the wine was gone, Jesus’ mother said to him, “They have no more wine.”

  1. The shortage threatened severe social embarrassment for the hosts: in a culture where weddings were grand, hospitality was important, and emotions ran high, guests could feel insulted if provisions fell short, harming the young couple’s social relationships and reputation.

4 “Woman, why do you involve me?” Jesus replied. “My hour has not yet come.”

  1. Jesus calls Mary “woman,” rather than “mom.”  There’s some distance here that’s appropriate for his public ministry.  He’s not about to do a chore for his mom!  He’s acting by the will of his heavenly Father. 
  2. Jesus frames his timing (“my hour”) as divinely set.  The miracle will proceed on God’s terms, not anyone else’s.

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

  1. Mary tells the servants, “Do whatever he tells you,” showing her absolute confidence that Jesus will act.  It’s also good advice for discipleship today: do whatever Jesus tells you.

6 Nearby stood six stone water jars, the kind used by the Jews for ceremonial washing, each holding from twenty to thirty gallons.

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

  1. Notice that Jesus offers no explanation for what he’s asking for, but the servants still fill the jars to the brim!  Their faith is impressive, given that what Jesus is asking for appears to make no sense.
  2. Jesus involves the servants and water in this miracle, rather than producing wine ex nihilo (out of nothing) for spectacle; their actions and resources become the ordinary material he transforms into the extraordinary.  For the disciple, any action can be a part of the miraculous work of God.  Many are, if we pay attention.

8 Then he told them, “Now draw some out and take it to the master of the banquet.”

They did so, 9 and the master of the banquet tasted the water that had been turned into wine. He did not realize where it had come from, though the servants who had drawn the water knew. Then he called the bridegroom aside 10 and said, “Everyone brings out the choice wine first and then the cheaper wine after the guests have had too much to drink; but you have saved the best till now.”

  1. There is no singular “alakazam” moment where the water miraculously changes in a puff of smoke.  Instead, the miracle just happens without anyone quite being able to pinpoint the exact moment, much like the mercy of God is not always clear at first when it enters into our life, but it is not long before it is recognized.
  2. The first person to notice is the master of the banquet.  He is not a follower of Jesus, nor is he someone that Jesus seems to be particularly familiar yet, and yet he can verify the goodness of the miracle.  Real miracles don’t need to be hidden, nor do they require believers to see their goodness.  Their goodness is evidenced by all.
  3. Jesus ensures that joy does not run out.  As Fyodor Dostoevsky puts it in The Brothers Karamazov, “He has made himself like one of us and shares our joy and turns our water into wine, so that the joy of the guests shall not cease.”

11 What Jesus did here in Cana of Galilee was the first of the signs through which he revealed his glory; and his disciples believed in him.

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

  1. Wedding as metaphor for the soul’s relationship to God
    1. Throughout Scripture, weddings symbolize preparation, purity, and lifelong union with God; Cana’s setting connects Jesus’s mission to restoring and binding souls to God.
  2. Banquet as eschatological celebration
    1. Jesus often uses banquet imagery in parables to depict the grand celebration at the end of time when the faithful rejoice with God.
    2. Cana anticipates this eschatological joy: not dour or harsh, but celebratory.
  3. Wine as joy and Jesus’s gift
    1. Wine frequently symbolizes joy (Psalm 104:15; Judges 9:13). At Cana, Jesus ensures joy where circumstances were turning shameful.
    2. Jesus’s first miracle establishes him as the bringer of joy, transforming scarcity into abundance and elevating ordinary water into superior wine.

Full Transcript

So we’ve made it to chapter two, and here we see Jesus’s first miracle: turning water into wine. Unfortunately, this particular story in Scripture has some of the shallowest popular interpretations. I don’t know how many times I’ve heard someone use this story to show that Jesus was an awesome party guy. There was a party, they were running low on booze, and the party would be lame if someone didn’t intervene. Luckily, Jesus shows up and ensures that the booze keeps flowing. Much rejoicing.

Now obviously I’m exaggerating a little, but it is used to justify why one ought to drink readily and often and a lot. On the other hand, I have heard people read this story and try to explain why there’s actually no wine in the story at all—that it’s really just a mistranslation and ought to be grape juice. You can’t find a respectable translation out there that uses grape juice instead of wine, because it’s wine. Wine is wine.

Either way, you can see how both of those popular interpretations treat this as a metaphorical story intended to explain an individual person’s relationship to alcohol, which is a shame. For the vast majority of Christian history, that was not how people looked at this story. That’s something you only really see creeping in around the beginning of the 20th century, right around the time of Prohibition. This became an anti-prohibition proof text: “If I’m not supposed to have wine, why did Jesus give it to me?” Both sides then crafted their explanations from there, and the last vestiges of that haven’t quite fallen away yet.

So we have this cultural baggage that gives us a different understanding of the passage than people had for hundreds of years. When you put this passage into not our cultural context but the context of first-century Israel, you can see pretty quickly that it doesn’t even make sense for this to primarily be a story about an individual person’s relationship with alcohol.

First off, alcohol in the first century was not quite what it is today. If you really wanted to get drunk in first-century Israel, you would have a task in front of you. Fermentation techniques in the Mediterranean region were not as advanced as they are today. The highest alcohol content you could get in wine was somewhere between 11 and 14 percent, which puts it on par with lower-content wine today. That sounds reasonable until you learn that you didn’t drink wine without mixing it with water. That was considered gross.

It would be like going out to lunch with a friend, and the waiter asks for your drink order. Your friend says, “I’ll have a vodka.” The waiter hesitates—“a vodka cranberry? a vodka seltzer? a shot?”—and your friend replies, “No. Just a full glass of vodka.” That’s gross and sad. That’s how it would have been viewed in the first century if someone drank unmixed wine.

Rabbinic literature indicates a common mixture of three parts water to one part wine. That brings the alcohol content down to around two to three percent—about half of what low-end beer is in the United States today. So yes, it was wine, but very low-content wine. Could you get wild with it? Sure, but you’d really have some work ahead of you.

On top of that, there was a strong social stigma against drunkenness in first-century Israel. If you were a good Jew, you didn’t get drunk. That was something Greeks and Romans did—the outsiders, the oppressors. They had gods like Dionysus and Bacchus, with wild parties and excess. A good Jew did not do that.

So if your friends saw you getting drunk, they would think you were adopting the practices of your oppressors. In a time of frequent rebellion, that was not a label you wanted. You can see how, culturally, this wouldn’t even enter into the picture for the average listener of that time or the centuries that followed.

Scripture speaks about alcohol often enough that you don’t need this story to understand it. Wine is generally presented as a good thing—Psalm 104:15 says God gives wine to gladden human hearts. Judges 9:13 speaks of wine that cheers both gods and humans. Deuteronomy 14 even encourages buying wine for religious feasts if you have the means.

Drunkenness, on the other hand, is consistently condemned. Galatians 5:21 warns that those given to drunkenness will not inherit the kingdom of God. Proverbs 20 says, “Wine is a mocker and beer a brawler.” And in First and Second Kings, bad kings are often described as drunkards.

In other words: drinking, fine; drunkenness, bad. That’s consistent throughout.

So why spend time on this if that’s not what the story is about? Because people focus on it to the detriment of the true meaning. There is such depth in this miracle. It’s the first miracle of Jesus. It has so much to say about who he is, what he’s going to do, and how the miraculous works in the world. When we get hung up on the alcohol, we miss all of that.

So let’s approach the passage on its own terms. John chapter 2, beginning at verse 1:

On the third day a wedding took place at Cana in Galilee. Jesus’s mother was there, and Jesus and his disciples had also been invited to the wedding.

Weddings in first-century Israel were a big deal!  The happiest day of your life, a grand feast. Jesus’s mother is there, and Jesus and his disciples are invited. Imagine the honor: this random peasant wedding is attended by the King of Kings, and they don’t even know it.

It also tells us something about Jesus and his disciples. They were the kind of people you wanted at your party. They were joyful. They made the event better.  Then verse 3: 

When the wine was gone, Jesus’s mother said to him, ‘They have no more wine.’

Why is Mary concerned? Is she just wanting another glass? No. Weddings were social events with high expectations. Running out of wine would have been embarrassing, even insulting. It would damage relationships for a young couple just starting out. This isn’t a minor inconvenience; it’s a social disaster.

Jesus responds:

“Woman, why do you involve me? My hour has not yet come.”

It sounds strange to our ears, but he’s creating distance. At the beginning of his public ministry, he is making it clear that what he is about to do is not simply out of obligation to his earthly mother. He is about his Father’s work.

Mary’s response is remarkable. She turns to the servants and says, 

“Do whatever he tells you.” 

That’s some of the best advice in Scripture.

Nearby were six stone jars used for ceremonial washing, each holding twenty to thirty gallons. Jesus tells the servants, “Fill the jars with water,” and they fill them to the brim. He doesn’t explain himself. He simply gives the command, and they obey fully.

Then he says, “Now draw some out and take it to the master of the banquet.”

Notice, there’s no moment where it says the water turned to wine. As far as we know, the servants are carrying jars of water to their boss. That takes trust.  This tells us something about human participation in the miraculous. Jesus could have acted alone, but he involves them. Through their obedience, something extraordinary happens.

The master of the banquet tastes the water—now wine—and says, “Everyone brings out the choice wine first and then the cheaper wine after the guests have had too much to drink. But you have saved the best till now.”

Here we even have verification from someone outside the event. Real miracles don’t need to be hidden. They can be seen and experienced, even by those who don’t yet understand them.

Verse 11 says this was the first of the signs through which Jesus revealed his glory, and his disciples believed in him.

So how does this miracle reveal his glory?

Consider where it happens: at a wedding banquet. Throughout Scripture, weddings symbolize the relationship between God and his people. Banquets symbolize the final celebration in the kingdom of God. Jesus begins his ministry in a setting that points to the ultimate goal: union with God and eternal celebration.

And what does he do there? He provides wine—symbolically, joy. Psalm 104:15 speaks of wine that gladdens the heart. Jesus ensures that joy does not run out.  As Fyodor Dostoevsky puts it in The Brothers Karamazov, “He has made himself like one of us and shares our joy and turns our water into wine, so that the joy of the guests shall not cease.”

With all the serious, eternal work Jesus comes to do, he is not dour or joyless. The first thing he does is preserve joy.

I hope each of you experiences that joy to its fullest. Amen.