Retirement poses that question often to my short experience: what day is it? You can, and I do, forget the date and also the day. One flows into the next. That looking back to the past, or looking towards the future, can mean that we don’t put the emphasis upon the present.
In the Gospel according to John, they start with that great phrase “in the beginning“, possibly connecting with the Hebrew Scripture and the start of Genesis. Albeit scholars might think that the first 18 verses of the Gospel might have been added (also the last Chapter as well).
Outline of the Gospel
Whereas other Gospels speak of Jesus’ humble beginnings and regale us of the memorable stories of his life, demonstrating what he did, John just to the chase immediately. He is divine, of God. It shows an array of signs which point towards Jesus as God.
No other Gospel speaks as much of John, the one famous for baptisms. I am reluctant to now call him John the Baptist, as that was never a name he had in the Bible. Was it the aim of the writer(s) to compare the works of John and then Jesus, to show that one was a successor from the other? Those that followed John still exist today, in the form known as Mandaeism , which comes from the meaning of knowledge in Arabic. They believe that John was God’s light to the world and the divine redeemer.
Finally, women are portrayed as per their status and role: as witnesses to the truth, they are affirmed to public ministry even when faced with opposition by the blokes. Contrary to when women were “defined in their role as bearer of their husband’s offspring and their function as a sexual release for their husband“, women stand out throughout the Gospel. Mary of Magdala, Martha and Mary of Bethany, the Samaritan women possibly named Photini (more emphasis upon light?), and Mary, the mother of Jesus, all star.
Cana, the venue
So early in the Gospel, on the third day – see, they didn’t know which day of the week it was either, we are up in Cana, the northern part of Galilee.
Third Day?
- John 1:1 In the beginning – Day 1 – Creation, Logos, arrival of John the Baptist: it was fairly full on;
- John 1:29 The next day – Day 2 – John meets up with Jesus and sees the Spirit, as a dove, descend to Jesus;
- John 1:35 The next day – Day 3 – Jesus takes Andrew and Peter from John the Baptist’s group as his own;
- John 1:43 The next day – Day 4 – Philip and Nathanael join Jesus’ group;
- John 2:1 On the third day – the wedding at Cana.
So are we on Day 7, seen as perfect, or re-starting at Day 3?
Perhaps like me, they couldn’t keep track of the days – or was it a sign of the 3 days in Jerusalem?
There is some dispute whether Cana actually existed, with at least 5 possible candidates. Josephus, the Roman historian, writes about the place which offers credence to its historicity; however, further eminent people such as Eusebius – who I used to think played for Portugal but was a prominent author back in the 2nd C – and a Papal emissary in the 17th C were still arguing its precise location. Cana means reeds, in the Hebrew.
Anyway, this is a wee village, and you might not have stopped there for long if travelling through. However, like any village of today, there’s a vibrant community just visible behind the curtains. When there was an occasion to celebrate they’d pour out to have some fun. And so a wedding was described in John 2:1-12.
Now, before we start, we should recall that the author’s aim to write about Jesus as divine. This story about a wedding, but it clearly is also described as a Sign, one of 7 within the Gospel. A sign that Jesus was more than anyone else, but God.
Mary, Jesus’ mother was already there and Jesus was also in the invite list. We are not told what the wife looked like, or anything about the family, just that, in this story, there were servants and even a banquet master. Sounds quite grand for a village wedding. Mary nudges Jesus as to say the family is going to be really embarrassed as the wine is running out. Hospitality being quite a key factor, then as it is now. Jesus asks for the 6 large water purification jugs to be refilled. The water goes into wine – but, you knew that bit.
So, what’s happening here? This isn’t an event but a tableau of smaller signs to what they could see as Jesus. The turning of the water into wine wasn’t a mere dribble, but an excessive transformation. This would have drowned or at least sozzled the wedding party. But it’s a sign of God’s abundance, love. The wine which the banquet master drank, just to check of course, was deemed to be ‘good’, just like creation itself. Some of the Greek Christians who might have heard this story in the (very late) 1st C, for it’s not in any other Gospel, would link this to Melchizedek (Gen 14:18) who might be ‘possessed by divine intoxication, more sober than sobriety itself’, which will please Methodists1. The mention of the bridegroom (John 2:9) may be a sign towards the end of”messianic banquet, the feast that will celebrate the inauguration of God’s rule“2. Jesus was always going to be the ‘bridegroom’.
Disrespect to the women?
I said earlier than this Gospel placed women in a high position, and then we have that “greeting” from Jesus in John 2:4, “And Jesus said to her, “Women, what concern is that t you and to men?”” You might have got a thick ear in my day for such a comment to your Mum. However, scholars speak of it be a literary marker, such as “Behold“, or “truly I say to you“. It isn’t a sign of disrespect.
Of the 20 times Jesus speaks to a women in the Bible, there are 8 times when he uses ‘women’ or ‘daughter’ – a few of those are replicated as Matthew and Luke are commenting upon the same story, albeit from different perspectives. John claims four occasions out of his possible eight opportunities, when he uses ‘women’ or ‘daughter’. Perhaps it was an idiom of that time? Are we re-writing what we are reading in our perspective, our culture, without referencing it then? Given the overall slant of the Gospel to elevate women, some even claim it to be a feminist Gospel (Levine, 2003).
It’s over!
So, as the guests leave this metaphorical wedding, we may already be forgotten what day of the week it is, whether we had too much of a good time, and what should we take from this celebration.
I wrote 3 years ago about the possible link back to Bacchus, or the god Dionysus, who turned water into wine. As we move towards someone else’s big party, on the 20th January, what are reasons for celebrating?
Is it, like those in this Galilean village, to strengthen bonds with all, or to be divisive? The wine represented “grace, joy, virtue and wisdom“3 – all in abundance. May we see such signs after this party as well. God is here for longer than 4 years.