John 2:1-25

The Wedding at Cana. The Temple Cleansed

1-11. The marriage at Cana. This miracle is not recorded by the synoptists because it occurred before the beginning of the ministry proper. St. John records it, because, spiritually interpreted, it forms a suitable introduction to our Lord's ministerial work. It teaches, (1) the superiority of the Gospel to the Law. Christ changes the water of Judaism into the good wine of the Gospel. This is not a fanciful interpretation, but an entirely natural one, if it be granted (as is abundantly shown in the Intro.) that the ancients were right in regarding this Gospel as a 'spiritual' or allegorical one. (2) Being a physical or creative miracle, it manifests Christ as the Lord of matter as well as of spirit. (3) It sanctifies marriage, and gives Christ's approval to innocent mirth and gladness. (4)

It reveals God's goodness and overwhelming bounty. In recording it, St. John doubtless had in view the Gnostic false teachers, who regarded matter as evil, and practised a rigid asceticism, rejecting all bodily pleasures, and abstaining from flesh and wine, and even from marriage. Such teaching was very prevalent in Ephesus, where this Gospel was written (see 1 Timothy 4:1), and tradition tells us that St. John vehemently opposed it.