Signs and Wonderings

John 2:1-25 

Water Turned to Wine

1 On the third day there was a wedding in Cana of Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there. 2 Now both Jesus and His disciples were invited to the wedding. 3 And when they ran out of wine, the mother of Jesus said to Him, "They have no wine."

4 Jesus said to her, "Woman, what does your concern have to do with Me? My hour has not yet come."  5 His mother said to the servants, "Whatever He says to you, do it."

6 Now there were set there six waterpots of stone, according to the manner of purification of the Jews, containing twenty or thirty gallons apiece. 7 Jesus said to them, "Fill the waterpots with water." And they filled them up to the brim. 8 And He said to them, "Draw some out now, and take it to the master of the feast." And they took it. 9 When the master of the feast had tasted the water that was made wine, and did not know where it came from (but the servants who had drawn the water knew), the master of the feast called the bridegroom. 10 And he said to him, "Every man at the beginning sets out the good wine, and when the guests have well drunk, then the inferior. You have kept the good wine until now!"

11 This beginning of signs Jesus did in Cana of Galilee, and manifested His glory; and His disciples believed in Him.

12 After this He went down to Capernaum, He, His mother, His brothers, and His disciples; and they did not stay there many days.

Jesus Cleanses the Temple

13 Now the Passover of the Jews was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. 14 And He found in the temple those who sold oxen and sheep and doves, and the money changers doing business. 15 When He had made a whip of cords, He drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and the oxen, and poured out the changers' money and overturned the tables. 16 And He said to those who sold doves, "Take these things away! Do not make My Father's house a house of merchandise!" 17 Then His disciples remembered that it was written, "Zeal for Your house has eaten Me up."

18 So the Jews answered and said to Him, "What sign do You show to us, since You do these things?"  19 Jesus answered and said to them, "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up."  20 Then the Jews said, "It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and will You raise it up in three days?"

21 But He was speaking of the temple of His body. 22 Therefore, when He had risen from the dead, His disciples remembered that He had said this to them; and they believed the Scripture and the word which Jesus had said.

The Discerner of Hearts

23 Now when He was in Jerusalem at the Passover, during the feast, many believed in His name when they saw the signs which He did. 24 But Jesus did not commit Himself to them, because He knew all men, 25 and had no need that anyone should testify of man, for He knew what was in man.

Jesus performed signs and left the onlookers wondering.  They watched Jesus first take water out of barrels meant for purification and make it into fine wine for wedding guests to celebrate with the best when there was no more before as it ran out.  Only His mother and the servants drawing the water knew at first what had happened and they wondered how this could be nd then who this could be who was able to turn ritual water into delicious wine.  Mark 7:3-4 describes how ritual washing was a religious requirement for those assuming it made them more holy and yet it did not wash the inside of the pompous ones making it mandatory before eating every time.  Jesus turned their empty works into a miraculous work with only a word to have the servants fill the sacred waterpots with their brand of holy water and then take it out and serve it to the guests as fine wine.  Though the wine likely had nothing to do with the later wine symbolizing His blood shed in atonement of His sacrifice on the cross, it makes us wonder if that was somehow hinted at here.  This was the beginning of the miraculous signs and wonder of them which Jesus worked and the disciples were in awe and wonder as He so demonstrated His glory (John 1:14), and they believed in Him with more certainty because of these signs.  We then see Jesus outraged when He suddenly and without warning entered the temple (Malachi 3:1) of worship and prayer only to witness the merchandizing of offerings having replaced the hearts of sacricial offerings from the hearts of the people.  Such zeal for His and His Father’s house (Psalm 69:9) filled Jesus with anger at those perverting the worship and prayer of His people.  The Jews who were making a profit from this perversion asked Him to prove His right and authority to do this by some miracle or sign instead of believing the word of the scriptures which He just quoted to them.  Therefore, Jesus gave them an answer in a hidden message like a parable that if they would destroy “this temple” that He would raise it back to stand up in just three days!  They could not understand how what took forty-six years could be redone in three and disbelieved.  They could not understand what miracle He was offering them in the destruction of the temple of His own body which He would raise from the grave after three days dead as we see in Acts 6:14, 10:40 as told earlier in Mark 14:58 and explained to the disciples here in John 2:21-22 as  the sign wondered about but not comprehended (John 1:5).  The disciples were convinced without this sign yet happening because they trusted Jesus by faith in His word as later proven after His resu according to Scripture.  Jesus then is shown to have known what is in the hearts of all who doubted and rejected the signs and refused to wonder at His work and therefore did not explain further what He was doing except in veiled parables (Mark 4:33-34).  In Luke 24:26-27 we see how he had to reveal the depth of these things according to what was already written about Him in the Old Testament.  Until then there were signs and wonderings as Jesus worked and taught to fulfill the Scriptures.