The Gospel of John, Jesus' second sign, part 1

At the wedding feast of Cana, Jesus manifested His glory by proving that He is the Lord of Creation. More specifically, turning water to wine showed His ability to overturn the sin of Adam and to make people a new creation.

We see from the supporting stories and discussions that this involves raising these “temples” from the dead (John 2:19) and cleansing our temples. The story of Nicodemus tells us that this is done by a spiritual rebirth, as opposed to physical, and the story of the Samaritan woman tells us that this transformation is not limited to Jews and is therefore not conditional upon one’s physical genealogy.

The second sign manifesting Christ’s glory proves that Jesus is the Lord of space and time. We will see later how it relates to the seventh sign, where Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead.

The Setting

John 4:43-45 begins with the setting:

⁴³ And after the two days He went from there into Galilee. ⁴⁴ For Jesus Himself testified that a prophet has no honor in his own country. ⁴⁵ So when He came to Galilee, the Galileans received Him, having seen all the things that He did in Jerusalem at the feast; for they themselves also went to the feast.

We learn from the next verse that Jesus went back to Cana in Galilee. Cana was 14 miles due west of Capernaum and just a few miles north of Nazareth, where He had lived prior to His ministry. After turning water to wine previously, Jesus was welcome in Cana. Nazareth was a different story and perhaps serves as a contrast to Cana. When Jesus had been invited to Nazareth, His message of the universal love of God angered them so much that they would have thrown Him off the cliff. So His ministry headquarters was set up at Capernaum.

After attending the feast of Passover in Jerusalem, Jesus spent two days in the Samaritan city of Sychar, where He was welcomed. He then continued His journey to Cana, bypassing Nazareth, because, as the apostle tells us, “a prophet has no honor in his own country.” This statement makes little sense unless we know that Jesus bypassed Nazareth to get to Cana.

This statement should also be viewed in connection with John 1:11, 12,

¹¹ He came to His own, and those who were His own did not receive Him. ¹² But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name.

Jerusalem was the place of rejection, for the priestly leaders there “did not receive Him,” and those who were in submission to their authority followed in their footsteps. On the other hand, Cana, representing Galilee in general, “received Him” because of the miracle at Cana and because they admired His courage in casting the money changers out of the temple in Jerusalem.

This established the setting for the second miracle-sign in John 4:50, where the glory of God was manifested for the second time in the sequence.

[Sorry, this weblog was interrupted by an unexpected visitor. I will continue this tomorrow.]