John 2:1-12

Third Section: 2:1-11. The First Miracle. Strengthening of Faith.

Jesus, after having been declared by John to be the Messiah, manifested Himself as such to His first disciples; an utterance of miraculous knowledge, in particular, had revealed the intimate relation which united Him with God. He now displays His glory before their eyes in a first act of omnipotence; and their faith, embracing this fact of an entirely new order, begins to raise itself to the height of its new object. Such is (according to John 2:11), the meaning of this passage. His first miracle takes place in the family circle. It is, as it were, the point of connection between the obscurity of the private life, to which Jesus has confined Himself until now, and the public activity which He is about to begin. All the sweet and amiable qualities by which He has, until now, adorned the domestic hearth, display themselves once more, but with a new brightness. It is the divine impress which His last footstep leaves in this inner domain; it is His royal farewell to His relation as son, as brother, as kinsman.

ADDITIONAL NOTES BY THE AMERICAN EDITOR.

X. CHAPTER II.

1. The first eleven verses of ch. 2 are evidently connected with the first chapter, because of the continuance of the designation of the days, because of the fact that in John 2:11 the miracle is connected with the faith of the disciples mentioned, and because the story of the public life of Jesus and His first Messianic appearance evidently begins with John 2:13. The historical introduction, accordingly, closes with John 2:12.

The explanation of the design of the miracle recorded in these verses is thus easily seen to be that which the writer indicates in John 2:11; it was to manifest the glory of Jesus before these disciples, to the end of confirming their belief in Him. Any other purpose, such as that of turning the minds of the disciples away from the severities of the old system to the free, joyful service of the new, must have been altogether subordinate and secondary. The book is written for testimony and its results, and the miracle was needed now for testimony. It was of the highest importance that these five or six men, who were to be apostles, should be established in their faith at this time. The character of the miracle was determined, as all the miracles of Jesus' life seem to have been, by the circumstances which presented themselves. So, in this case, it was a miracle at a wedding and a miracle of turning water into wine. That it taught or might teach other lessons was incidental; that it taught faith was the reason for performing it. It was a σημεῖον.

As to particular points in these verses, it may be remarked:

1. In the presentation of the story we may see that the writer is guided by the end which he has in view. The circumstances mentioned set forth the striking character of the miracle and its reality, and the narrative also makes prominent the words addressed by Jesus to His mother. The first two of these points have a direct bearing, evidently, on the manifestation of His glory (John 2:11). There can be little doubt that the same is true of the third. The words that are found in John 2:3-5 look towards a miraculous work as a possibility.

2. The answer of Jesus in John 2:4 can hardly be explained, if the request of Mary was only that He would, in some ordinary way, help the family out of their present embarrassment. This was so reasonable a suggestion on her part, it would seem, that He could not have replied to it either with such an element of severity in His words or with such a form of expression. Her meaning, therefore, must apparently have involved something beyond this. The instance most nearly resembling this, in which we find in this Gospel the words “ my (or, the) hour (or time) is not yet come,” is that in John 7:6, where the brethren of Jesus urge Him to make Himself known more publicly at Jerusalem. We may believe that, on the present occasion also, there was somewhat of the same thought in His mother's mind. She must have been looking for the time when He would come forward publicly; she must have expected it with increasing interest, and with even impatient desire perchance, as He moved forward in His manhood; she must have thought it near when He left her for John's baptism; she may even have known from Himself that it was near. He had now returned from the baptism with disciples why should not this be the time? Whether we are to understand, therefore, that she was asking for an exhibition of miraculous power in the particular emergency of the hour or not, it seems impossible to doubt that there was in her mind some call for a display on His part of His Messianic character and dignity which should go, in its publicity and effect, beyond the company then present, and become in itself the assumption as if before the world, of His office. The time for this had not yet come. The path which opened to His mind and that which opened to hers were different. He must go forward by slow steps, and begin by simply confirming the faith of the few disciples who were the foundations of His Church.