The “disciple whom Jesus loved,” known as John, either John ben Zebedee, the Apostle, or John the Elder, was writing his recollections of his experiences with Jesus so that those who hear or read would believe Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and would find eternal life in His name (cf. John 20:31). He began by speaking of the Word of God, the Creator, the life and light of men, who took on flesh and dwelt among us as Jesus of Nazareth (John 1:1-18).

John the Evangelist had spoken of John the Baptist as one sent by God to testify regarding the light and the One who was greater than he (cf. John 1:6-8, 15). John the Evangelist then set forth John the Baptist’s testimony (John 1:19-28). In Bethany beyond the Jordan, where John the Baptist was doing his baptizing, the Jewish leaders asked John whether he was the Christ, Elijah, or the prophet; John denied it all; instead, John would only affirm himself as the voice shouting in the wilderness to prepare the way of the Lord, the fulfillment of Isaiah 40:3 (John 1:19-24). Jesus Himself would later consider John to be the Elijah to come, just as the angel Gabriel had predicted John would come as the Elijah to fulfill the word of YHWH in Malachi 4:5-6 (Matthew 11:7-15, Luke 1:11-18). Jesus’ and Gabriel’s testimony are enough to prove the case; perhaps it was not revealed to John that he was Elijah.

The Jewish religious leaders wanted to understand why John was baptizing if he was not the Christ, Elijah, or the prophet, and it was a good question. Jewish people of the Second Temple Period valued ritual washings highly; the places for such ritual washings, known as mikva’ot, can be found in all kinds of dwellings of this period. A baptism of repentance, however, was not something commanded or even spoken of as part of the Law of Moses or a ritual in Judaism. John baptized because God told him to do so; it would symbolically represent repentance, a changing of the hearts and minds of the people; he looked forward to One coming of whom he was unworthy to even untie His sandal (John 1:25-28).

The next day John the Baptist saw Jesus walking toward him; John then testified to Jesus as the Lamb of God who would take away the sin of the world (John 1:29). Lambs were not the standard offering as sin offerings, but the lamb was the offering made for the Passover which led to the liberation of the Israelites from Egyptian bondage (Exodus 12:1-27). It was revealed to John how Jesus would thus be sacrificed to liberate the creation from its bondage of sin. John testified regarding how he had come believe Jesus was the Chosen One of God: God had told him the One whom he baptized upon whom the Spirit would descend like a dove would be the One who would baptize with the Holy Spirit; lo and behold, when John baptized Jesus, the Spirit descended upon Him (John 1:30-34). Thus John the Evangelist did not directly narrate the story of Jesus’ baptism, but provided John’s testimony regarding that baptism. Furthermore, according to John, Jesus was baptized by the will of God as a sign to John to confirm who He was.

The day after that John the Baptist was standing with two of his disciples, and Jesus again walked by him. John again spoke of Jesus as the Lamb of God, and those two disciples began following Jesus (John 1:35-37). John the Evangelist would then narrate the call of some of the disciples in a whimsical way. One of the disciples was Andrew, brother of Simon; the other disciple is left unmentioned, but since we are reading this story as part of the witness of John the Evangelist, we have reason to assume he is that other disciple. They ask where Jesus is staying, and He said they would see; they stayed with Him for a while, and Andrew then went out to find his brother Simon and told him they had found the Messiah of God (John 1:36-41). Andrew brought Simon to Jesus, and Jesus named him Peter (John 1:42).

The next day Jesus intended to go to Galilee. He saw Philip and called him to follow. Philip found his friend Nathanael and told him how he had found the One whom Moses and the prophets had written: Jesus of Nazareth (John 1:43-45). Nazareth was a very small village in rural Galilee; Nathanael thus asked if any good thing could come out of Nazareth, and Philip told him to come and see (John 1:46). When Jesus saw Nathanael approaching, He spoke of him as an Israelite in whom there was no guile: that is, he has no filter, and said what he thought (John 1:47). Nathanael wondered how Jesus could know who he is; Jesus said he saw Nathanael under the fig tree before Philip called him (and thus, ostensibly, gave indication He knew exactly what Nathanael had said; John 1:48). Nathanael immediately confessed Jesus as the Son of God, the King of Israel; Jesus responded he would see greater things than these, and then evoked Jacob’s ladder, saying they would see heaven opened up and angels ascending and descending on the Son of Man, thus foretelling His death, resurrection, and ascension (John 1:49-51).

“On the third day,” an idiom indicating a few days later, Jesus and His disciples had made it to Galilee and attending a wedding to which they were invited (John 2:1-2). Jewish weddings were extravagant affairs hosted by the groom’s family and which would last for many days. The host family, however, experienced a scandal: the wine had run out. While we might experience such a situation as embarrassing because of poor planning, the host family would be experiencing it as a shameful demonstration of poverty. Jesus’ mother Mary was at the wedding, and sufficiently well-known to the host family to be able to give commands to the slaves; she told Jesus they were out of wine (John 2:3). Jesus asked her what she wanted from Him, for His time had not yet come; she knew who was His Father and what He could do, but He had not yet begun His active ministry (John 2:4). Mary knew her Son would honor her subliminal request, and told the slaves to do whatever Jesus told them to do (John 2:5). Jesus told them to fill to the brink with water six stone jars of purification: they would be ritually clean, and by virtue of their purpose, would have only held water (John 2:6-8). When the head steward of the wedding tasted the wine, he summoned the host family: for understandable reasons hosts begin feasts with the best wine and reserve wine of lower quality for later after everyone’s taste buds had been dulled; yet the host family had kept the best wine until later (John 2:9-10)! John the Evangelist identified Jesus’ turning the water to wine as His first miraculous sign, and His disciples thus believed in Him (John 2:11). Jesus spent some time with His mother and disciples in Capernaum (John 2:12).

Jesus’ first miraculous sign at the wedding in Cana has caused a lot of difficulties for many who profess to follow Jesus. They have a hard time understanding how Jesus could have done such a thing and enabled people getting drunk. They thus imagine to themselves Jesus would have not really turned the water into wine but alcohol-free grape juice. Such represents a complete misunderstanding of ancient practice and Jesus’ purposes. Greek oinos means alcoholic wine by default; there are some uses of the term to describe grape juice in the process of becoming wine, but such a context is explicitly identified when speaking of oinos in that way. Both Jewish and Greco-Roman people consumed wine in prodigious amounts; it was the standard beverage of the time. They would have consumed wine cut with water; to consume wine uncut was considered barbaric.

No one at the wedding in Cana would have understood Jesus’ behavior as enabling drunkenness or dissipation. Instead, they understood what was at stake. If there was no more wine, there was no more wedding feast. The host family would be shamed and the marriage of the young couple would begin under inauspicious circumstances. By turning the water into wine, Jesus allowed the party to continue. Jesus made much of celebration and festival. When the Pharisees asked Jesus’ disciples why they did not fast, Jesus told them they could not fast while the Bridegroom was present (cf. Matthew 9:14-15). Jesus spoke of His return as the Bridegroom entering the wedding feast (Matthew 25:1-13). One of the seven blessings in Revelation come to those invited to the wedding banquet of the Lamb, which, as we can see from John 1:29, 36, is Jesus (Revelation 19:7, 9). Many in cold, dour, and sterile contexts imagine Jesus to be cold, dour, and without much joy; such is entirely inconsistent with the portrayal of Jesus in the Scriptures. Jesus is the Life of the party. Jesus’ first miracle in John’s Gospel kept the party going. There are indeed circumstances which call for lamentation, mourning, and bitterness; but there are also circumstances which call for excitement, joy, and celebration. Jesus well navigated both; but we do well to never forget Jesus lived, died, was raised, reigns, and will return in order to throw a huge party, and understand Him appropriately.

Thus John the Evangelist narrated how Jesus had gone from Bethany to Cana and the beginning of His active ministry in Israel. May we follow Jesus so we might be able to celebrate with Him for all eternity!

Ethan R. Longhenry