On 3-18-12 John 2:1-12 will be our Adult Sunday School/Uniform Series/International Sunday School Lesson, herein is my commentary. This lesson is known by some as The Wedding at Cana or Water Turned to Wine.

The Wedding at Cana

Or

 Water Turned to Wine

John 2:1-12

International Sunday School Lesson

March 18, 2012

Commentary

By

Jed Greenough

Jewish Mother's Answering Machine:

If you want chicken soup, press 1;

If you want matzoh balls with the soup, press 2;

If you want varnishkas, dial 3;

If you want knishes press 4;

If you want to know how am I feeling, you are calling the wrong number since nobody ever asks me how I am feeling.

How about this one?

A young Jewish man excitedly tells his mother he's fallen in love and that he is going to get married.

He says, "Just for fun, Ma, I'm going

to bring over 3 women and you try and guess which one I'm going to

marry."

The mother agrees.

The next day, he brings three beautiful women into the house and sits them down on the couch and they chat for a while.

He then says, "Okay, Ma, guess which one I'm going to marry."

She immediately replies, "The one on the right."

"That's amazing, Ma. You're right. How did you

know?

The Jewish mother replies, "I don't like her."

I hope you don’t mind my taking a bit of time for some fun, I often think about the mother and son relationship between Mary and Jesus.  Think about the pain that Mary experiences in her heart at the end of her son’s life and this day at the beginning of John’s account brings more appreciation.  This was a happy day, a wedding day and all the accompanying festivities and joys of family and friends that a day like this would have brought together.

When you consider the miracle itself you can go ahead and try and make an allegory out of it or we can perhaps feel that for a miracle it seems a bit minor when we consider Christ’s power.  Regardless, I think that what John was doing was simply conveying his eyewitness account of his experience with Jesus.

He knew Jesus very well and it would seem John had a closer relationship with Him.  We know that Jesus gave the care of His mother over to John at his crucifixion.  The full events of how that happened we don’t know but I would hope that John came to know Mary well and perhaps they had some conversations that included Mary’s reminisces.  That would have been fascinating to hear of Jesus’s boyhood, would it not?

We see from this account that Jesus knew His timetable.  He didn’t want to draw attention to Himself.  He knew how the people would react as His ministry grew and people would be drawn to the spectacular, a natural but sad human tendency to gravitate towards the flash or signs instead of the substance.  John, as you will see as you go through the book, emphasizes this idea of the timetable.

We also see from this account that Mary was well aware of Jesus abilities.  Again, fascinating is it not to think of His boyhood and what events made her, I don’t want to say blasé about those abilities, but matter of fact about them?

This idea of the stereotypical Jewish mother is a fairly recent invention by all accounts but good Moms know their sons and good Moms think their sons are all that but this Mom was right!

We also see in this account the “end” of the son and mother relationship.  Being the good son Jesus didn’t embarrass His mother.  He did as she asked and though it wasn’t His time she couldn’t know that this day was about the last normal one He would spend with her.

For Discussion:

1.      Have those that believe there is an allegory with Jesus changing the water to wine share those with you.

2.      Discuss the relationship of Jesus and His mother.

3.      Discuss what Jesus said to His mother and what Mary said after that.

4.      Research and discuss what is known of hospitality and wedding feasts back in Jesus’ time.

5.      See where else Jesus discussed this issue of time.

6.      Research and discuss what some have theorized as to why Mary and Jesus would have been at this wedding.

7.      How many disciples do you think Jesus had at this time?

8.      An observation, not counting the weight of the stone containers the wine alone in each would weigh from 165 to 250 pounds.

Upcoming Adult Sunday School Class Commentaries

3-25-12:  God’s Word Saves (Nicodemus Learns of New Birth) John 3:11-21

4-1-12:    Jesus Testifies to the Truth John 18:28-37 or John 18:28-38

4-8-12:    The Living Word (Jesus Lives) John 20:1-10, 19-20

4-15-12:  Cleansing the Temple (Temple is Cleansed) John 2:13-22

Scripture taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 Biblica. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved