GOSPEL MEDITATION # 5
The Wedding at Cana
John 2:1-12
- Be comfortably alert, still and at peace.
- Say the Lord’s Prayer. Sing or cant the Jesus Prayer
- Pray for family, friends, neighbors, and yourself.
- Slowly and carefully read the passage of Scripture.
- Reread it. From memory, determine the central points.
- At Cana, 8.3 miles north of Nazareth, lived a family who knew, maybe even related to Mary and her family, including Jesus who at this point had gathered four disciples, if not more. These are all invited to a wedding.
- The location seems to be a synagogue because of the six large jars present, which were used for purification rites, since the Temple in Jerusalem was not close by.
- A situation developed when the supply of wine gave out. This wine was alcoholic, but of some low proof.
- Mary informed son Jesus of the problem and His reaction, “Woman” was one of “polite distance.” Jesus, most agree, thinks that it is not quite time to reveal Himself as the One sent by God to deliver His people. But the time had come.
- Jesus, perhaps on the quiet, asks servants to fill up the six jars that held the purification water. When this was accomplished, he wanted more water drawn from the same source, not from the jars themselves, and bring it to the wedding master, perhaps the father of the bride or groom.
- The water had turned into good wine, which would not have been necessary as the wedding guests were in a position not to know the difference.
- John tells us this is the first “sign” that Jesus did, which is intended to let it be know who this son of Mary really is. “Manifest his glory” means revealing Jesus’ deity.
- This incredible sign/miracle is a much larger event than most of us imagine as it moves directly contrary to laws of physics.