from WL Worcester (H Blackmer, ed.), 
The Sower.  Helps to the Study of the Bible in Home and Sunday School
 
(Boston: Massachusetts New-Church Union, n.d.)

Table of Contents
 

 

Lesson 4

John 2: 1-11  The Beginning of Miracles

The Story

Primary

Some of those who heard John the Baptist speak began to follow Jesus. There were Andrew and his brother Peter, and John who writes the story. And as they went from the Jordan back into Galilee, there were Philip who was a neighbor of Andrew and Peter, and Nathaniel who was called as he sat under a fig tree, a man of Cana, the town to which the Lord and the disciples were going.

The next day there was a marriage in Cana, and the mother Mary was there, and Jesus and His disciples. A part of the marriage celebration was a feast given by the bridegroom. There was great care to provide all that the guests could need, and among other things wine for the feast. Mary learned that the wine had failed and she said to Jesus, "They have no wine." She believed that in some way He would help, and the Lord did help. He bade the servants to fill with water the six large stone jars from which water was taken for the many washings of hands and of dishes. The servants filled the jars, no doubt from the village spring which still is there, just outside the town. They filled them to the brim. "Draw out now," the Lord said, "and bear unto the governor of the feast." They did so, and the wine was better than what they had had before. The ruler of the feast did not know, but the servants knew that the wine had been made by the power of the Lord changing the water into wine. This was the first miracle in which the people saw the Lord's power. As the days went on, He did many other miracles, but this was remembered as the first, the turning of water into wine.

Junior

The Lord had begun His public ministry. The quiet years in Nazareth were past; the Lord had gone to John to be baptized, and now came back with five or six followers or disciples whom He had begun to teach, and who believed Him to be the long looked for Messiah. He came back to the village of Cana not far from Nazareth. There was to be a marriage in Cana among people who must have been friends of the Lord's family, for His mother was at the marriage, and Jesus and His disciples were also asked.

The marriage ceremonies were different from those we know about. On the evening of the marriage a procession went with the bride from her home to the home of the bridegroom. First in the procession came people who played music, then those who gave wine and oil to the people and nuts to the children. Then came the bride covered with a long veil, surrounded by her friends, and about them were people carrying torches and myrtle branches and wreaths of flowers. Everyone rose to salute the procession as it passed, or followed it on its way. When it came to the house of the bridegroom the bride was led to him, and the words were said and the papers signed that made them husband and wife, and they would be crowned with garlands. Then, after the washing of hands, the feast began, the bridal blessing being spoken over the first cup of wine. The feasting often lasted for days. The bride herself did not join in it, but stayed apart with her women friends, still covered with her veil. There was often music and dancing at the feast. The feast was furnished by the bridegroom or his father, and everything depended upon having a plenty for all, for in those Eastern countries hospitality to guests was a most sacred duty, and if one failed in it he would be forever disgraced.

We think of the house in Cana as built about a court, where possibly were shrubs and flowers. The rooms of the house opened upon this court, the doors and windows perhaps protected by a porch or gallery. Here, near the door of the banquet room, we may think of the six great "waterpots of stone, containing two or three firkins apiece," which may have been from eighteen to twenty-eight gallons each (and you know a gallon is four quarts). The water used in Cana was drawn at the village spring which you may still see at the foot of the hill below the village. Much water would be needed by a company like this. In the first place, water would be wanted to wash the feet of the guests, for they wore sandals and these had to be taken off and left outside so that only the bare feet of the guests should touch the floor of the host. Then the hands must be washed according to the numberless Jewish rules - a whole book of their law containing one hundred and twenty-six chapters; is devoted to purification. Then water must be had for washing the dishes in this long feast, etc., etc.

We can think of the guests sitting or reclining about the table in the brightly lighted dining-room, "the ruler of the feast" having a care that everyone was served, the mild wine of the country being passed around in generous fashion.

In the midst of all this, came word that the wine had given out, the greatest disgrace to the bridegroom. Mary, Jesus' mother, heard it and told Jesus, as if hoping that in some way He could help. But if the Lord helped, it would be by His Divine power, in which Mary had no part. So when she told Him that the wine had given out, He said, "Woman," a gentle, respectful word in His language, "what have I to do with thee? Mine hour is not yet come." But she said to the servants, "Whatsoever He saith unto you, do it." And the Lord said to them, "Fill the water pots with water. And they filled them up to the brim. And He said unto them, Draw out now, and bear unto the ruler of the feast. And they bare it"; for it was not water that they drew, but the most perfect wine. Read verses 9-11.

The Lord is always making wine by the grape vine. The vine takes up water from the earth and it is changed in the leaves by His sunshine, and then it fills the grapes with juice which sweetens as they ripen. This is most wonderful, but as it happens every day we become used to it. But at this feast He changed the water into wine without using the grape vine at all, and His disciples saw His great power and "believed on Him." This way of showing His power was called a miracle. The Lord used miracles not to compel men to believe in Him, for that would not be useful, but to confirm the faith of those who did believe. "His disciples believed on Him." We shall learn of many miracles done by the Lord. You will like to have a page for miracles in your notebook and keep a list of those that we learn about.


1. "The third day"- after what? (See John .1:43.)

2. Where was Cana? Which of the disciples lived there?

3. What did the Lord do at the feast? What did He first require the servants to do?

4. What is the purifying spoken of in verse 6?

5. Had the Lord done other miracles before this?

Spiritual Study

Intermediate

The outward circumstances of the Lord's life in the world and the outward events in which He took part (so far as the Gospels describe them to us) were all representative of spiritual experiences of His life and our lives. A feast is a type of the heavenly life in which there is abundant reception of true thought and good affection which make the spirit strong. The heavenly feast is also a marriage feast because in that life and in every particular of it there is a marriage of truth and goodness, and a still more interior marriage of the soul with the Lord. The marriage in Cana was a type of the heavenly marriage as it was beginning in simple hearts. Cana was Nathaniel's town (John 21:2) and we may associate with it the simple goodness of the disciple who was called as he sat under the fig tree. (John 1:47, 48) That the blessed state represented by this marriage belonged not only to the Lord's own life, but was beginning to exist from Him in the church and in the Lord's disciples, is suggested by the saying that "the mother of Jesus was there: and both Jesus was called and His disciples, to the marriage." (E. 252,-376, 617)

What is the wine of the heavenly feast? And how may it fail? Wine represents a perception of the ways of heavenly life, not a mere cold knowledge that certain ways are right, but a knowledge made sweet by a happy perception of the goodness and blessedness of those ways. There may be something of this happy perception in the beginning of a good work which we undertake, in the beginning of some relation upon which we enter, in the beginning of married life, in the beginning of our relation to the church and the Lord, but too often it fails when the first interest is gone; the inspiration of life is lost. The story of the marriage in Cana tells us that the Lord can give a still sweeter happiness than was enjoyed at first, and it tells what we must do to enable Him to give it. (A. 1069, 5113, 9139)

The water pots were filled with cleansing water in preparation for the giving of the wine. It means the necessity, in a time when inspiration fails, of learning what is right, of repenting of evil and doing good as a duty to the Lord. There were six water pots. Six is associated with the working days of the week, and means all states of dutiful life. They were filled to the brim, which means thoroughness in repenting and in doing right. This is what we must do, before the Lord can give again the perception of the happiness of good life. Now He can give it, and better than before. (R. 378; E. 376, 475)

This was the beginning of miracles, when the Lord was about thirty years old. (Luke 3 :23) It is a wonderful indication of the long and patient labor by which the Lord brought the Divine power and blessing into the world. Through all these years He had been removing each weak and imperfect thing of the nature which He had inherited from men, and bringing down the Divine in its place. So He was "glorified," and the miracles "manifested forth His glory." The Lord's answer to Mary, "Woman, what have I to do with thee?" meant that the power to do the miracle, and the power to give the spiritual blessing represented by the wine did not belong to the earthly nature with which Mary was related and which the Lord had been putting off, but to the Divine nature which He had been bringing down in its stead. Because of this change taking place as the Lord was glorified, He nowhere called Mary His mother. "That the Lord was the Son of Mary is true, but that He is so still is not true." (T. 102, A. 2649)

The miracles of the Lord cannot produce faith in His Divineness, but they serve in a subordinate way to confirm faith with those who feel His Divineness in their hearts.

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