John 2 · The Lantern

The Wedding at Cana

And on the third day a wedding took place in Cana of Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there;

He was truly both seen and heard upon the mount; true and real was the draught of that wine at the marriage of (Cana in) Galilee; true and real also was the touch of the then believing Thomas.

Galilee. Let him that loves learning again note well: for not in Jerusalem is the gathering, but without Judaea is the feast celebrated, as it were in the country of the Gentiles. For it is Galilee of the gentiles, as the prophet saith.

Above, the Evangelist showed the dignity of the incarnate Word and gave various evidence for it. Now he begins to relate the effects and actions by which the divinity of the incarnate Word was made known to the world. First, he tells the things Christ did, while living in the world, that show his divinity.

and Jesus also was invited, and His disciples, to the wedding.

The third day was now come from Jesus' baptism, and there was a marriage taking place in Cana of Galilee. Jesus' mother was there when, on the failure of the wine, he made wine out of water.… Jesus being Maker of man and woman does not refuse to be called to a marriage; it was he who after forming Eve brought her to Adam.

The Son of God went to the wedding so that marriage, which had been instituted by his own authority, might be sanctified by his blessed presence. He went to a wedding of the old order when he was about to take a new bride for himself through the conversion of the Gentiles, a bride who would forever remain a virgin.

And this is what comes next: Jesus was invited. Christ decided to attend this wedding, first of all, to give us an example of humility. For he did not look to his own dignity, but "just as he condescended to accept the form of a servant, so he did not hesitate to come to the marriage of servants," as Chrysostom says.

And when the wine was running out, the mother of Jesus says to Him, “They have no wine.”

That wine, which was produced by God in a vineyard, and which was first consumed, was good. None of those who drank of it found fault with it; and the Lord partook of it also. But that wine was better which the Word made from water, on the moment, and simply for the use of those who had been called to the marriage.

The wine was made to fail, to give our Lord the opportunity of making better; that so the glory of God in man might be brought out of its hiding place: And when they wanted wine, the mother of Jesus saith unto Him, They have no wine.

At this physical marriage some role in the miracle belongs to the mother of Christ, some to Christ, and some to the disciples. When he says, When the wine ran out, he indicates the part of each. The role of Christ's mother was to superintend the miracle; the role of Christ to perform it; and the disciples were to bear witness to it.

And Jesus says to her, “What to Me and to you, woman? My hour is not yet come.”

With Him is nothing incomplete or out of due season, just as with the Father there is nothing incongruous. For all these things were foreknown by the Father; but the Son works them out at the proper time in perfect order and sequence.

Most excellently did the Saviour fashion for us this discourse also. For it behoved Him not to come hastily to action, nor to appear a Worker of miracles as though of His Own accord, but, being called, hardly to come thereto, and to grant the grace to the necessity rather than to the lookers on.

Then when he says, Jesus said to her, the answer of Christ is given. This answer has been the occasion for three heresies. The Manicheans claim that Christ had only an imaginary body, not a real one. Valentinus maintained that Christ assumed a celestial body and that, as far as his body was concerned, Christ was not related to the Virgin at all.

His mother says to the servants, “Whatever He may say to you, do.”

Now there were six stone water jars standing there according to the purification of the Jews, having space for two or three metretae each.

Jesus says to them, “Fill the jars with water.” And they filled them up to the brim.

For these thankless men saw, and by means of His miracles handled the wonder-working God, and yet remained in unbelief. ... They heard of the wine that, without previous culture, was ministered; of the bread that was eaten at that spontaneous banquet; they heard that the demons had been put to flight; the sick restored to health.

Addressing the expectant servants, he said, "Fill the jars with water." The servants promptly obeyed, and suddenly in a marvelous way the water began to acquire potency, take on color, emit fragrance and gain flavor—all at once it changed its nature completely!

Then when he says that Jesus instructed them, Fill those jars with water, he gives the material of the miracle. Here we might ask why this miracle was performed with already existing material, and not from nothing. There are three reasons for this.

And He says to them, “Draw out now and carry it to the master of the feast.” And they carried it.

According to the will of the one who gave the command, the water was changed into wine, slaking the thirst of those who drank but also providing wine more abundantly for the couple's future.

And Jesus said to them. Here the fourth point is touched upon, namely the approval of the miracle, in the approval of the wine made by the testimony of the chief steward, whose duty it was to judge the wine. On account of which he says: And Jesus said to them, namely, to the servants: Draw out now and carry it to the chief steward.

Then, the miracle is made known. For as soon as the jars were filled, the water was turned into wine. So the Lord reveals the miracle at once, saying: Now pour out a drink and take it to the head waiter. First, we have the command of Christ selecting who is to test the wine; secondly, the judgment of the head waiter who tasted it.

And when the master of the feast tasted the water become wine — and he did not know from where it is, but the servants knew, which had drawn the water — the master of the feast calls the bridegroom

and says to him, “Every man sets out the good wine first, and when they may have drunk freely, the inferior; you have kept the good wine until now.”

For the bridegroom in that marriage, to whom it was said, "Thou hast kept the good wine until now," represented the person of the Lord. For the good wine-namely, the gospel-Christ has kept until now.

The Lord did not simply make wine out of water, but excellent wine. For the miracles of Christ are such that they far surpass what is accomplished by nature. That the water was turned into wine is attested by the servants who drew the water; that it was excellent, by the master of the feast.

Hence he adds: People usually serve the choice wines first, and when the guests have had their fill, then they bring out inferior wine. Here we should consider, according to Chrysostom, that everything is most perfect in the miracles of Christ.

This beginning of the signs Jesus did in Cana of Galilee, and He revealed His glory; and His disciples believed in Him.

[Jesus] once changed water into wine by a word of command at Cana of Galilee. Should we not believe him when he changes wine into blood? It was when he had been invited to an ordinary bodily marriage that he performed the wonderful miracle at Cana.

When Christ, as a sign of His power, clearly changed the water into wine All the crowd rejoiced, for they considered the taste marvelous.

Then when he says, This beginning of signs Jesus worked in Cana of Galilee, he gives the disciples' acknowledgment of the miracle. We can see from this the falsity of the History of the Infancy of the Savior, which recounts many miracles worked by Christ as a boy. For if these accounts were true, the Evangelist would not have said, This beginning of signs Jesus worked.

Jesus Cleanses the Temple

After this He went down to Capernaum — He Himself and His mother and His brothers and His disciples — and they stayed there not many days.

We must ask, however, why his brothers are not invited to the wedding (nor were they present, for they are not mentioned), but they go down to Capernaum with him and his mother and the disciples.

He did not stay many days there, on account of the Passover, which was approaching: And the Jews' passover was at hand. But He continued there only a few days, because he lived with men in this world only a short time.

Above, the Evangelist presented the sign Christ worked in order to confirm his disciples; and this sign pertained to his power to change nature. Now he deals with the sign of his resurrection; a sign pertaining to the same power, but proposed by Christ to convert the people. The Evangelist does two things as to this miracle. First, he mentions its occasion.

And the Passover of the Jews was near, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.

And He found in the temple those selling oxen and sheep and doves, and the money changers sitting.

[Heracleon says] that those found in the temple selling oxen and sheep and doves, and the money-changers sitting, represent those who give nothing away free but suppose the entrance of foreigners into the temple to be a matter of merchandise and profit.

The Jews are again hereby too convicted of despising the laws given them, and making of no account the Mosaic writings, looking only to their own love of gain.

Then when he says, In the temple precincts he came upon merchants selling oxen, sheep and doves, the Evangelist sets down what moved Christ to propose the sign of the resurrection. He does three things with this. First, he exposes the faulty behavior of the Jews. Secondly, he discloses Christ's remedy (v 15). Thirdly, he gives the announcement of the prophecy (v 22).

And having made a whip of cords, He drove all out from the temple, both the sheep and the oxen; and He poured out the coin of the money changers and overthrew the tables.

(tom. x. in Joan. c. 16) Should it appear something out of the order of things, that the Son of God should make a scourge of small cords, to drive them out of the temple? We have one answer in which some take refuge, viz.

Why do you not recall before the eyes of your mind that our Redeemer, entering the temple, overturned the seats of those selling doves and poured out the money of the money-changers? For who are those in the temple of God today who sell doves, if not those who in the Church receive payment for the imposition of hands?

The Lord's remedy is at once set forth. Here the Lord's remedy consisted in action and in words, in order to instruct those who have charge of the Church that they must correct their subjects in deed and in word. And he does two things with respect to this. First, he gives the remedy Christ applied by his action. Secondly, the remedy he applied by word (v 16).

And to those selling the doves He said, “Take these things from here; do not make the house of My Father a house of trade.”

His disciples remembered that it is written: “The zeal of Your house will consume Me.”

"They," His disciples, it says, "Remembered that it is written, The zeal of thine house hath eaten me up." But the Jews did not remember the Prophecy, and said, "What sign showest Thou unto us?" both grieving that their shameful traffic was cut off, and expecting by these means to stop Him, and also desiring to challenge Him to a miracle, and to find fault with what He was doin…

Zeal, taken in a good sense, is a certain fervour of the Spirit, by which the mind, all human fears forgotten, is stirred up to the defence of the truth. To take the passage mystically, God enters His Church spiritually every day, and marks each one's behaviour there.

Then when he says, His disciples then remembered, he sets down a prophecy which was written in Psalm 69 (v 9): "Zeal for your house consumes me." Here we should remark that zeal, properly speaking, signifies an intensity of love, whereby the one who loves intensely does not tolerate anything which is repugnant to his love.

The Jews therefore answered and said to Him, “What sign do You show to us, that You do these things?”

Wherefore He will not give them a sign; and before, when they came and asked Him, He made them the same answer, "A wicked and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and there shall no sign be given unto it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas." Only then the answer was clear, now it is more ambiguous.

For inasmuch as they sought a sign from our Lord of His right to eject the customary merchandize from the temple, He replied, that that temple signified the temple of His Body, in which was no spot of sin; as if He said, As by My power I purify your inanimate temple from your merchandize and wickedness; so the temple of My Body, of which that is the figure, destroyed by your ha…

Having set forth the occasion for showing the sign, the Evangelist then states the sign which would be given. First, he gives the sign. Secondly, he mentions the fruit of the signs Christ performed (v 23). As to the first he does three things. First, the request for the sign is given. Secondly, the sign itself (v 19). Thirdly, the way the sign was understood (v 20).

Jesus answered and said to them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.”

Now, He suffered all these things for us; and He suffered them really, and not in appearance only, even as also He truly rose again.

I remember that the Apostle often refers to God the Father as raising Christ from the dead; but he is not inconsistent with himself or at variance with the Gospel faith, for the Lord Himself says:—"Therefore doth the Father love Me, because I lay down My life, that I may take it again. No one shall take it from Me, but I lay it down of Myself.

Hence he says, Jesus replied, and he gives the sign for which they asked. He gives them the sign of his future resurrection because this shows most strikingly the power of his divinity. For it is not within the power of mere man to raise himself from the dead. Christ alone, who was free among the dead, did this by the power of his divinity.

The Jews therefore said, “For forty-six years this temple was built, and You will raise it up in three days?”

But at the time when this was spoken, the Jews were perplexed as to what it might mean, and cast about to discover, saying, "Forty and six years was this Temple in building, and wilt thou rear it up in three days?" "Forty and six years," they said, referring to the latter building, for the former was finished in twenty years' time.

Note, that they allude here not to the first temple under Solomon, which was finished in seven years, but to the one rebuilt under Zorobabel. (Ezra 4:5) This was forty-six years building, in consequence of the hindrance raised by the enemies of the work.

Then when he says, The Jews then retorted, we have the interpretation of the sign he gave. First, the false interpretation of the Jews. Secondly, its true understanding by the apostles (v 21).

But He was speaking concerning the temple of His body.

For He showed to what belongs (the incidents of) being destroyed, thrown down, and kept down-even to that to which it also appertains to be lifted and raised up again; although He was at the same time bearing about with Him "a soul that was trembling even unto death," but which did not fall through death, because even the Scripture informs us that "He spoke of His body." So tha…

With perfect justice he banished the wicked from the temple, since the temple represented the temple of his body, in which there was no stain of any kind of sin.

Then, the true interpretation of this sign as understood by the apostles is given. First, the way they understood it is given. Secondly, the time when they understood it (v 22). He says therefore: The Jews said this out of ignorance.

When therefore He was raised up out from the dead, His disciples remembered that He was saying this, and they believed in the Scripture and in the word that Jesus had spoken.

The question still remains, "How was it that the disciples did not know that He must rise from the dead?" It was, because they had not been vouchsafed the gift of the Spirit; and therefore, though they constantly heard His discourses concerning the Resurrection, they understood them not, but reasoned with themselves what this might be.

And it is not surprising that the Jews did not understand the words of Jesus, nor did the disciples. For them there were two greatest difficulties: one — that the matter of the resurrection is very hard to comprehend, all the more so since it was entirely unknown to them; the other — that He who lives in the body is God.

The time when the apostles acquired this true understanding is then shown by the Evangelist when he says, When, therefore, he had risen from the dead, his disciples recalled that he had said this. Prior to the resurrection it was difficult to understand this.

And when He was in Jerusalem at the Passover, in the Feast, many believed in His name, beholding His signs that He was doing.

But it is greatly to be wondered at, how it has come to pass that, while affirming that they have found out the mysteries of God, they have not examined the Gospels to ascertain how often after His baptism the Lord went up, at the time of the passover, to Jerusalem, in accordance with what was the practice of the Jews from every land, and every year, that they should assemble a…

Christ ceaseth not from saving and helping. For some He leads to Himself by wise words, the rest startling by God-befitting Power too, He taketh in His net to the faith, by the things which they see Him work persuaded to confess, that the Artificer of these so great wonders is of a truth God.

Then he sets forth the fruit which resulted from the signs, namely, the conversion of certain believers. Concerning this he does three things. First, he mentions those who believed on account of the miracles. Secondly, he shows the attitude of Christ to them (v 24). Thirdly, he gives the reason for this (v 25).

But Jesus on His part was not entrusting Himself to them, because of His knowing all men,

(tom. x. c. 28) Or, it was those who believed in His Name, not on Him, to whom Jesus would not commit Himself. They believe on Him, who follow the narrow way which leadeth unto life; they believe in His Name, who only believe the miracles.

"He Himself," it says, "Jesus did not entrust Himself to them" and did not transmit the full teaching, as to those who did not truly believe, penetrating into their hearts (Ps. 93:11; Jer. 17:10) and knowing what was in them concerning Him. For it was not hidden from Him what the thought was in each person who apparently believed.

The attitude of Jesus to those who believed in him is shown when he says, But Jesus did not trust himself to them, i.e., those who had believed in him. What is this, men entrust themselves to God, and Jesus himself does not entrust himself to them? Could they kill him against his will?

and because He had no need that anyone may testify concerning man; for He Himself was knowing what was in man.

For inasmuch as the Word of God was man from the root of Jesse, and son of Abraham, in this respect did the Spirit of God rest upon Him, and anoint Him to preach the Gospel to the lowly. But inasmuch as He was God, He did not judge according to glory, nor reprove after the manner of speech.

"Because He knew all men, and needed not that any should bear witness of man: for Himself knew what was in man." The artificer knew what was in His own work better than the work knew what was in itself. The Creator of man knew what was in man, which the created man himself knew not.

The universal knowledge of Christ is then described: for he knew not only those who were on close terms with him, but strangers too. And therefore he says, for he knew all men; and this by the power of his divinity: "The eyes of the Lord are far brighter than the sun" (Sir 23:28).

John2

The Wedding at Cana

Jesus Cleanses the Temple