Admittedly, it was a lot of wine!

Jesus’ first miracle changed six cisterns of water into 120 to 180 gallons of the finest wine (see John 2:1-11). By today’s standards, that’s 340 to 510 bottles of wine. For one wedding!

How was it right for Jesus to provide so much wine at the wedding at Cana? Doesn’t it seem excessive? Wasn’t Jesus tempting the people at the wedding to overdrink by making so much? With questions like these, we need to be careful of making assumptions.

The unknowns

There are several unknowns:

• We don’t know how many people attended the wedding celebration. Some estimates say 50 to 100 people. But Cana was a relatively small town. It could have been considerably more because everybody knew everybody.
• We don’t know when they ran out of wine at the wedding. In Jesus’ day, they traditionally celebrated a wedding for as long as a week. Did they run out of wine on day 2? Did they run out of wine on day 6? We don’t know.
• We don’t know if they even used all the wine that Jesus made. Leftover wine would not have been a problem or issue.
• We also don’t know if anyone overdrank at this wedding. Again, we need to be careful of assumptions. Could there have been someone who did? I suppose it might be a bit naïve to think someone didn’t. But if someone did, it doesn’t mean that Jesus condoned it. And if someone did get drunk, that happened because that person drank too much, not because Jesus made too much.

The knowns

Here is what we do know:

• They ran out of wine at the wedding Jesus attended. A total embarrassment to the bride and groom! Imagine if you ran out of food or drink at a wedding you were hosting.
• Wine was a staple drink. To have a stock of wine for regular meals, let alone a wedding, was not unusual or uncommon.
• Jesus made excellent wine. Listen to the shock of the master of the banquet after he tasted it: “Everyone brings out the choice wine first and then the cheaper wine after the guests have had too much to drink; but you have saved the best till now” (John 2:10).

And there’s the touchy issue again: “After the guests have had too much to drink.” Gary Baumler aptly addresses this issue in his commentary on John’s gospel: “The expression ‘after the guests have had too much to drink’ troubles some readers. No one wants to envision Jesus at a wedding with drunken guests. Some scholars, therefore, translate the verb ‘have drunk freely,’ which is a possibility. But when we realize the master of the banquet was emphasizing how refreshingly different the wedding at Cana was from what he was describing, the problem disappears” (John, The People’s Bible Series, p. 41).

The most important part

But all the knowns and unknowns miss the most important point of Jesus’ first miracle: “What Jesus did here in Cana of Galilee was the first of the signs through which he revealed his glory; and his disciples believed in him” (John 2:11).

The first of the signs pointed to something more wondrous than the miracle itself. It pointed to something far, far greater than the abundance of wine. It pointed to this: “God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son” (John 3:16). It pointed to the glorious fact that Jesus is the Son of God. That fact puts an end to any misguided assumptions of Jesus and proclaims the precious truths of who he is.

Jesus, the Son of God, is abundantly gracious. Look at all creation. What do you see? Abundance. Look at Jesus’ other miracles, miracles like the feeding of the five thousand. What do you witness? Abundance. Look at your daily bread. What do you receive? Abundance. “Everything God created is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving, because it is consecrated by the word of God and prayer” (1 Timothy 4:4,5). This includes 120 to 180 gallons of wine at a wedding.

Jesus, the Son of God, is holy and perfect. He could not, would not, misjudge making too much wine. This is where, perhaps, a loving rebuke is in order. I wonder if asking, “How was it right for Jesus to provide so much wine at the wedding at Cana?” could be a subtle insinuation that it wasn’t right. I wonder if it is a suggestion that Jesus did something wrong.

We are good at these insinuations and suggestions, you know. “Why is Jesus allowing this to happen? How come Jesus isn’t answering my prayer? Where is a miracle when I need one?” Do we hear ourselves when we ask these questions? I realize the rebuke is sharp, but it needs to be when we doubt, question, or criticize Jesus’ divinity.

I can’t help but hear Jesus’ plea, “Believe [the miraculous signs], that you may know and understand that the Father is in me, and I in the Father” (John 10:38). It is a merciful plea to trust him because his miracles proclaim that he is the Son of God.

Jesus did not change water into wine in deference to his mother who asked for help. Neither did he do it to save the day like some superhero or to appeal to the masses. Jesus changed water into wine to appeal to you and me for this one reason: that we would see his glory and believe in him. Why? So “that by believing [we] may have life in his name” (John 20:31).

Jesus changed water into wine to appeal to you and me for this one reason: that we would see his glory and believe in him.

Jesus, the Son of God, came to save us from a greater embarrassment than running out of wine at a wedding. He came to save us from the terrifyingly embarrassing punishment that our sins deserve. He did that by dying on the cross in our place.

Jesus, the Son of God, also came to bless us with a greater abundance than six cisterns of wine. Listen to this abundance: “Where sin increased, grace increased all the more, so that, just as sin reigned in death, so also grace might reign through righteousness to bring eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Romans 5:20,21).

When talking of Jesus and wine, I can’t help but think of the Lord’s Supper. Do you hear the abundant grace I hear when Jesus said, “Drink from it, all of you. This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins” (Matthew 26:27,28)? Poured out for every single sin when we receive the Lord’s Supper.

You might think I have gone off on a tangent and forgotten the question. Not at all. How was it right for Jesus to provide so much wine at the wedding at Cana? It was right because he is God, who went from Cana to Calvary for us and our salvation.

Author: Daniel Baumler
Volume 112, Number 01
Issue: January 2025