The Wedding Feast at Cana

A Scriptural Reflection

Second Sunday in Ordinary Time

Is. 62:1-5
1 Cor. 12:4-11
Jn. 2:1-11

The story of the wedding feast at Cana in the Gospel of John (2:1-11), in which Jesus turns water into wine for the benefit of the guests at a wedding feast, is one of the most well-known episodes in the Gospels, not least because it shows Jesus enjoying a good party, and even helping to keep the party going. As one of the guests says to the host, not knowing the source of the wine: “Everyone serves good wine first,
and then when people have drunk freely, an inferior one; but you have kept the good wine until now” (v. 10, NAB).

The story also intrigues because of the fascinating glimpse it provides into the relationship between Jesus and Mary, his mother. Jesus at first seems to resist Mary’s implied request for him to help the hosts—”They have no wine” (v. 3)—and yet Mary nevertheless turns to the servers and tells them, “Do whatever he tells you” (v. 5). Biblical scholars have debated the connotation of Jesus addressing his mother as “woman” and what exactly Jesus meant when he tells Mary, explaining why he doesn’t want to get involved in the hosts’ problems, “My hour has not yet come” (v. 4).

The Church’s teachers have also emphasized that Jesus’ presence at the feast symbolizes the sanctification of marriage. For example, Pope John Paul II noted that, “Jesus’ presence at Cana is . . . a sign of God’s saving plan for marriage. . . . The grace of the sacrament offers the couple this superior strength of love, which can reinforce their commitment to fidelity even in difficult circumstances.” Similarly, the Catechism of the Catholic Church states that the Church “sees in it the confirmation of the goodness of marriage and the proclamation that thenceforth marriage will be an efficacious sign of Christ’s presence” (#1613).

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Although the story of the wedding feast at Cana is well-known, I want to focus on a small detail in the narrative that is often overlooked but that is nevertheless significant. I think we are tempted to assume that the water Jesus turns into wine was drinking water—logically so, since the wine was intended to be drunk—but John actually makes clear that this is not the case. According to the story, the water came from “six stone water jars there for Jewish ceremonial washings” (v. 6). It further explains that these jars were already “each holding twenty to thirty gallons” of water, but Jesus asks the servers to fill each of them to the brim (vv. 6-7). Why is this detail significant?

The Law of Moses calls for ritual bathing as a way of cleansing impurity (see, for example, Lev. 15). The jars of water in John 2 were used for this purpose. In the century before Jesus’ birth, Jews had begun to use what is called a mikveh, a basin or pool, for these ritual baths. Although it’s not mentioned in the story, it’s possible that the jars mentioned in John 2 were used to fill such a mikveh. This suggests that either there was a mikveh located in the home of the wedding’s hosts, or that the wedding was being held in a public place, like a synagogue, where a mikveh was likely to be found; John doesn’t describe where the wedding was taking place.

Although this detail about the jars may simply be mentioned by the author to provide color, authors both ancient and modern have found it significant. The biblical scholar Neal M. Flanagan, O.S.M. points out that among the Hebrew prophets, an abundance of wine symbolizes the arrival of the messianic age; for example, Amos writes:

Yes, days are coming . . .
When the one who plows shall overtake the one who reaps
and the vintager, the sower of the seed;
The mountains shall drip with the juice of grapes,
and all the hills shall run with it.
I will restore my people Israel,
they shall rebuild and inhabit their ruined cities,
Plant vineyards and drink the wine,
set out gardens and eat the fruits. (9:13-14)

Flanagan goes on to suggest that the transformation of the water used for ritual bathing into wine symbolizes the fulfillment of Law and the dawning of the messianic age through Jesus’ salvific mission.

In the early fifth century, St. Augustine reached a similar conclusion in his ninth Tractate on the Gospel of John, arguing that the six jars or pots represent the “six ages” narrated in the Old Testament:

[T]he water is turned into wine, that we may taste of Christ, now manifested in the law and the prophets. . . . Prophecies are fulfilled, the water-pots are full; but that the water may be turned into wine, Christ must be understood in that whole prophecy.

But the allusion to ritual bathing in the story of the wedding feast should also lead us to think of baptism. In several places in the New Testament, the ritual cleansing found in the Law of Moses is used as a figure for baptism, the latter of which is described in terms of bathing, cleansing, or washing (e.g., Jn. 13:10, Acts 22:16, 1 Cor. 6:11, Tit. 3:5, 1 Pet. 3:21). There is reason, then, to think that baptism is being invoked in this story, as well. Similarly, John’s recounting of the story of the wedding feast at Cana falls shortly after his account of how John the Baptist, who “came baptizing with water” (Jn. 1:31), testifies that Jesus is the Messiah (1:29-34). Interestingly, unlike the other three Gospels, the Gospel of John does not describe John the Baptist baptizing Jesus, although it is implied by this parallel with the other three accounts of Jesus’ baptism:

I did not know him but the one who sent me to baptize with water told me, “On whomever you see the Spirit come down and remain, he is the one who will baptize with the holy Spirit.” Now I have seen and testified that he is the Son of God. (vv. 33-34)

Jesus’ baptism by John inaugurates His mission, and the transformation of the water into wine at the wedding feast at Cana soon after is a foreshadowing, or a “sign” to use the Gospel of John’s term, of how that mission will be fulfilled.