John 2:1-11 “Can’t You Read the Sign?”

The Gospel of John is unique among the four New Testament Gospels. Matthew, Mark, and Luke, often called the Synoptics, tend to view the events of Jesus’ life together. John often goes his own way. For example, the cleansing of the temple narrative happens in Holy Week in the Synoptics, but in John, it takes place at the very beginning of Jesus’ ministry. John wants to use the events of Jesus life to make claims about who Jesus is instead of following events chronologically. For John, Jesus is the Logos of God become flesh. Jesus is the light of the world. Jesus and God are one.

To prove that Jesus and God are one, John gives us a series of 7 signs. A sign is not just a miracle. For John, a sign is an act of God that points to something important. Much the way a road sign gives important information, Jesus’ signs give important information about who He is and what He is doing. While there is some disagreement about which of Jesus’ works in John’s Gospel are signs, there is a consensus that there are seven signs, and turning the water to wine is the first of them. The first of the series of signs is intended to be a key to understanding all of them. So for John, this sign is central to who Jesus is.

While there is a lot of interesting information to be gleaned about the relationship between Jesus and Mary in the text and a lot of information about the timing of Jesus’ self-disclosure, the focus of this text is describing who Jesus is. Jesus is the one who can turn water into wine. He has control over the elements of the universe.

There are some symbols to be aware of in this text as well. The messianic age was to be a time of flowing wine. In this sign, Jesus has six water pots filled with water and turns the water into wine. That is a lot of wine. The amount of wine Jesus produces is somewhere between 120 and 180 gallons of it. By noting the abundance of wine, John is telling us that in Jesus the new age of God has dawned in the person of Jesus.

The sign at the wedding of Cana points to Jesus glory. Jesus was no ordinary human. He was not just a person with an unusually developed connection to God. Jesus was God incarnate. In spite of His human body, Jesus’ earliest disciples saw His glory through this sign and believed in Him.