This story is found in John Chapter 2 and opens up with
the words “on the third day”…well on the third day from what is the question to
ask. What is a beautiful and somewhat
shocking to discover is that in the Gospel of John he opens with a kind of new
creation week.
John 1:1 begins the same way as Genesis 1:1 with these
words – In the beginning… St. John is presenting Jesus as both the one through whom God
created the world and also the one through whom God will begin this new creation.
Not only does St. John begin with this creation theme but he continues in this
theme throughout John Chapter 1. St. John keeps saying - one then next day – Jesus did this – on the
next day Jesus did that – on the next day, one the next day. If you read
carefully and count the days by the end of Chapter one you are on the 4th
day, but then John says in Chapter 2 On the third day, meaning the third day
from that final 4th day at the end of Chapter 1 which bring us to
the 7th day. It is not as confusing if you just read it for yourself.
Yet we see these days still significant another
time.
Yes, and what
makes these days significant are the stone jars that are present at the
wedding.
John 2:6 Now six stone jars were standing there, for the
Jewish rites of purification, each holding twenty or thirty gallons.
What Jewish rite of purification are they talking about
here? It could be something as simple as
washing before and after meals. But it could also have to do with the book of
Numbers 19:11-22, where it talks about getting washed with water on the third
day and on the seventh day. Now John has just told us in verse 1 that it was
the third day, but I also showed you that it is the completion of John new
creation week and is the seventh day. So this wedding is on the 3rd
day and the 7th day.
In the book of Numbers you would wash yourself on the 3rd
day and the 7th day if you came in contact with a dead person. You
would be ceremonially unclean for 7 days and then could after washing you could
rejoin worship at the temple. So these stone jars with water were possibly for
people who were unclean, it gave them a chance to purify themselves before
coming to the party. But when Jesus changes the water into wine, he makes it so
that these jars can no longer be used for the ceremonial washing, because they
are no longer filled with water for cleansing, but wine for partying. Jesus therefore kind of forces the people to
be not able to practice the Law of Moses and become a sign of the heavenly
banquet at the end of the world where the best wine will be served at the
marriage feast of the lamb.
At the same time though Jesus is introducing
himself here as a kind of new Moses.
St. John in Chapter
had also ready introduced Jesus as the New Passover lamb when he said –
behold the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.
Now when St. John ends this story about the wedding at
Cana he uses these words in John 2:11 – This was the first of Jesus’ signs. Now
why is this miracle not called a miracle but a sign? It is because St. John is
trying to show Jesus as a new Moses with a new kind of Passover. If you recall
that Moses did ‘signs’ for Pharaoh that he was sent from God, and the first of
his signs was that he took the water and made it into blood.
Exodus 7:19 And the LORD said to
Moses, "Say to Aaron, `Take your rod and stretch out your hand over the
waters of Egypt, over their rivers, their canals, and their ponds, and all
their pools of water, that they may become blood; and there shall be blood
throughout all the land of Egypt, both in vessels of wood and in vessels of
stone.'"
Hey –
vessles of stone – like stone jars? So Moses comes with plagues to set his
people free in the first Exodus, Jesus comes with blessings that set his people
free in the new Exodus.
This wedding also points us to the cross.
Jesus himself links this event to the cross when he
says to his mother in 2:4 My hour has not yet come. Well what hour is he
talking about? If you continue to study the Gospel of John, Jesus uses that
“hour several times – for example:
John 4:21 Jesus said to her,
"Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor
in Jerusalem will you worship the Father.
John 12:23 And Jesus answered
them, "The hour has come for the Son of man to be glorified. John 12:27
"Now is my soul
troubled. And what shall I say? `Father, save me from this hour'? No, for this
purpose I have come to this hour.
So he
is definitely talking about the hour of his suffering and death.
It is
here that Steve Ray said something really cool. Steve said – doesn’t it bother
you that there are 6 stone jars there at the wedding – isn’t the New Testament
about the number 7 – the number of the covenant.
7 sacraments, 7 gifts of the Holy Spirit… He said – I think that the Gospel
does mention a 7th jar and that is Christ himself on the cross, when
his side is pierced what comes out – water and blood, that is brought to us
sacramentally through the accidents of wine at Mass.
