The Wedding at Cana

(Gospel of John 2:1 - 2:12)
 
Two days later there was a wedding feast in the village of Cana in Galilee.  Jesus' mother was in attendance and Jesus himself, as well as his disciples, had been invited to the festivities. 

When the supply of wine gave out, Jesus' mother informed him, "They have no wine left!"

Jesus responded, "My dear woman, of what concern is that to us? ... My time has not yet come!"

But his mother bid the servants, "Do whatever he tells you."

There happened to be standing nearby six stone jars of the type that were used to hold water for Jewish ritual ablutions.  (Each had a capacity of from 18 to 27 gallons.)  Jesus told the servants, "Fill the jars with water," and they filled them to the brim.  "Now draw out some of the water and take it to the steward."  They did what he had told them.

When the steward tasted the water, he found that it was now -- wine!  He had no idea where it had come from, (though the servants who had drawn the water knew).   The steward took the bridegroom aside and remarked, "Hosts generally serve the good wine first and cheaper wine later, after everybody’s had a few.  But you have saved the best till now." 

This miracle, performed in Cana in Galilee, marked the first time that Jesus had manifested his divine power.  And because of it his disciples put their faith in him.

After the wedding, Jesus, accompanied by his mother, his brothers, and his disciples journeyed to Capernaum, where they stayed a few days.

Notes
1.  Jesus, his mother, and disciples attend a wedding in Cana.  We are not told who the bridegroom is, but he would probably have been a relative or a friend of Jesus' family, and someone of sufficient means to host an ample feast.  He and his steward, though, are remiss in furnishing a sufficient supply of wine for the guests, an egregious faux pas.  This provides the opportunity for Jesus to perform his first miracle, turning water to wine.  Use of his magical powers allows his host to save face and furthers the consumption, if not over consumption, of alcohol.  On the surface, is this really the best use of his powers, the most fitting debut to his career as a miracle worker? 

2.  The interchange between Jesus and his mother (she is not identified as Mary) is enigmatic.  The mother mentions that the supply of wine has given out, but her son dismisses it as a matter of no concern to them, it being the responsibility of the host and his servants to make sure everyone has enough to drink.   She seems to expect that her son will do something about it.  Then he remarks, "My time has not yet come,"  What does he mean?  We can only infer, less from the context than from what will later ensue, that he is not ready to reveal himself as the Messiah by working any miracles.  His mother (the ultimate stage mother?) must give him a nudge.  She goads him to make a miracle and come out of the closet, so to speak.  She, therefore, must have been aware of his powers, aware of his true identity.  (Had Jesus been practicing miracles around the house?)  Far from desiring to show off, Jesus seems reluctant to do what he does and, it would seem, turns the water to wine only to please his mother.  He takes no credit for it, yet his disciples and others are aware of what he had done.  And this, according to John, comprises his coming out as miracle worker and Messiah.

3.  Looking deeper into the water-into-wine miracle, one can easily see the symbolism in the account.  The jars to be filled with water are connected with religious worship.  The water turned into wine represents God transformed into man.  The transformed water is the last and the best of the wine, as Jesus is to be the last and the best of the prophets.  This incident, significantly, is not recounted by any of the other Gospel writers, surprising if it were actually Jesus' first documented miracle.  It is presented here to evidence the divinity of Jesus, which John ardently contends.  The miracle may be authentic or thought by the authors to be so -- but perhaps not: adding a fictional miracle or two in the interest of proving a point and promoting belief may have seen morally justified to the authors.  It is also possible, perhaps most likely, that the account was not intended to be taken literally; the authors may have felt that the story, due to its symbolic significance, merited inclusion in the narrative.  (It must always be remembered that the Gospels were written not as historical accounts, but as religious propaganda.)

4.  Jesus attends the wedding with his mother.  We may, therefore, assume that Jesus is not married and that his father Joseph is deceased.  Indeed, few of the figures in the Gospels ever seem to have wives.  Yet, in Jewish society at that time marriage was all but mandatory and matches were made at any early age.  A bachelor didn't have much standing; even rabbis were expected to be married.  It is likely, though,  that among many of the religious sects prevalent at that time, men and women remained single and celibate, as would members of most future Christian orders, including the Catholic clergy (although this prohibition would not be strictly enforced until the 11th Century  -- the First Lateran Council of 1123).  However, if Jesus were a carpenter (or mason), a craftsman, a skilled artisan, perhaps,  the inheritor of his father's business, it seems certain that he would be expected to marry, at least after he had established himself professionally.  The fact that he has not done so may be excused by the fact that he is still young.  There is also the possibility that he cannot yet afford to marry, because his father is not alive to pay the requisite bride price.  Or maybe Jesus is considered of illegitimate birth by the community and is therefore a poor matrimonial prospect. (This is negated by the assertion of Philip that Jesus is the son of Joseph, though this could mean “stepson”.  The fact that he was socially acceptable enough to be invited to the wedding also militates against this explanation.)  And there is the possibility that Jesus may have been indeed married, but that a wife was considered an inconvenient irrelevancy or an embarrassment to Gospel writers who wrote her out of the narrative in the way Hollywood screenwriters excise dramatically superfluous characters from biopics.  The canonical Gospel texts shed no light at all on this matter, however, and it must remain an subject of speculation.

5.  Even in this brief scene with his mother, there is the impression that Jesus is a young man, certainly no older than early twenties, and not, as is always assumed, a man in his late thirties, which would, at that time, be middle age.  If he is really a man in his middle 30’s, then one is faced with the question, “what had he done with himself for the 15 or 20 years of his early maturity.”  If he were the Messiah, why would he waste most of his manhood in manual labor?  If he was capable of performing miracles, would he wait so long to reveal himself?   Why would his mother, who already seems kinda pushy, wait until her son is middle aged until she coaxed him to fulfill himself and his destiny?  Or why would a man of such obvious greatness find his calling only in mid life?  (This universally accepted older age for Jesus is based entirely upon the Gospel nativity stories, which are, without a doubt, entirely fabulous and should, therefore, be dismissed as chronological guides to his biography.)

6. Cana was probably a small village near Nazareth,  It has never been positively identified.  Capernaum was a fishing town on the north coast of the Sea of Galilee, northeast of Nazareth.