March 9, 2014: John Chapter 2

The Gospel According to John Chapter 2

Originally posted Friday, April 4, 2008

General Comment: Chapter two reports two events: the wedding at Cana of Galilee and the cleansing of the Temple. In the first we will see an example of how John uses the word "glory" with the desired affect. Both stories are of the type called "replacement." This style is frequently used by John to assert that what Jesus has done or taught is a replacement of some Jewish religious practice, teaching or place. In the Temple story the literary technique of "displacement" is used. This is used in all versions of the Gospel. There are a number of examples of moving a post-resurrection belief backwards into the narrative of Jesus' ministry. John is the most skillful as we will see in the cleansing story.

As already mentioned, John is a complicated Gospel artfully written and replete with special words, words with double meanings the use of sayings from Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek as well as from sources that are not cited for our reading benefit. The Christology is elegant, and the organization of debates is well crafted. It is important for understanding John that we understand what we are reading.

John Chapter 2:1-12 The Wedding at Cana of Galilee

There was a wedding being held in Cana of Galilee (Khirbet Qana), the home town of Nathaniel ("God has given") about nine miles northeast of Nazareth. Mary was there and Jesus and his disciples were also invited. John uses the honorific "Mary mother of Jesus" as title of highest respect for her having given birth to a son, her first born. The typical wedding began with a procession of the grooms friends escorting the bride from her home to that of the grooms. It is little wonder that the wine ran out. When it did Mary informs Jesus of the predicament. To run out of wine would have brought shame on the groom. Jesus' response begins with "woman." This is not a disrespectful address. Jesus often uses "woman" when addressing others than his mother. He replies "what to you and to me?" In other words, why is that our concern? It really wasn't their concern and she may have been motivated out of sensitivity for the groom's family's feelings. Jesus' adds to his disengagement from the problem, "My hour has not yet come." The word "hour" (hora) is one of John's special terms. It is not the hour in a chronological sense. It is always used as a composite of four events at the end of Jesus life: Suffering, death, resurrection and ascension. It is akin to his use of "life" to always mean eternal life. We will come across a number of these special words in our reading.

Mary disregards Jesus disengagement and tells the servants to follow whatever instructions Jesus gives (these are servants, not slaves). Perhaps the mother knows the son well enough to expect him to rise to the occasion. And he does. John informs us there were six stone water jars available holding 2 to 3 measures each. This would provide a total capacity of 96 to 144 gallons. The volume will become important in the story, but also important will be John's noting that these were stone jars instead of clay. The jars hold water "for the Jewish rites of purification (see Mark 7:1-4)." The Levitical Holiness Code allows that if something unclean touches a clay jar the jar is to be destroyed because it has become unclean. If it is a stone jar it does not become unclean. Having six jars which had to be carved from stone may reflect the relative economic status of the groom or his family.

Jesus instructs the servants to fill all the jars with water "to the brim" then to draw some out and take the sample to the "head waiter" for sampling. (The head waiter or steward would be one of the guests put in charge of organizing and managing the festivities. It would not be a best man.) The steward is amazed that the wine is of such good quality and has been saved for so late in the party, the reverse of the usual custom.

John has several meanings built into this story. First, the wedding setting is frequently cited in Jewish literature as representative of the celebratory messianic age. The great quantity and quality of the choice wine is representative of the abundance in that messianic age, often cast in terms of Abrahams Table. John is clearly expressing this sense of foreseeing the time of the fulfillment of the Kingdom of God. Second, by Jesus turning the waters of purification into a sign of the Kingdom he is replacing those rites which are no longer necessary or effectual in assuring ritual cleanness or readiness for the Kingdom of God. For John these rites are now embodied in Jesus. Belief in him as the one in whom the Kingdom is already breaking out is all that is necessary.

John calls this a sign. As vs. 11a states, a sign is a miracle (generally) through which Jesus' "glory" is revealed, "glory" being the presence of God at work in and through Jesus. The desired effect of seeing that glory is found in vs. 11b. His disciples believed in him.

John Chapter 2:13-25 Jesus Cleanses the Temple

We immediately notice something very different. In the Synoptic Gospels this scene is placed at the end of Jesus ministry and is the presumptive cause of Jesus' death. As located in John the scene fulfills an entirely different purpose. The Synoptic tradition is certainly historically accurate as related to Jesus' arrest and death. Some writers have attempted to deal with the difference by positing two cleansings. That is highly unlikely and there are no biblical or early Christian references to such an act that would surely have been remembered and well documented.

John has "displaced" the scene from its historic place at the end and placed it at the beginning of Jesus' ministry. The result of this literary composite is to include in one scene two of John's understandings of Jesus' as Messiah. First, John uses the first part of the event, Jesus' driving out the sellers of cattle, sheep and doves and the money changers, as a prophetic act against the corruption of the Temple (the actual sanctuary, not the outer precincts). In connection with this act Jesus quotes Zech. 14:21 which also is a prophecy against the Temple being used as a place of commerce. Jesus' action is in keeping with a long line of Prophets - Amos, Jeremiah, Isaiah and others who spoke against the Temple, its corrupt priests and practices. Jesus' reaction to the misuse of the Temple looks forward to the new Temple in the Messianic age when its use as a house of prayer will be restored. It is in this context that Jesus responds to a demand for a sign to prove his authority by saying, "If you destroy this Sanctuary I will raise it up in three days." The saying is transparent. John is referring to Jesus body, destroyed (crucified) and raised (resurrected) on the third day. By this saying and the resurrection, John portrays Jesus as the replacement of the Temple Sanctuary. John is saying to his community, whatever the Temple was as the place of God's presence (Shekinah) as well as a place of prayer is now embodied in Jesus, the Son of God and the one in whom God is present.

The last part of the passage is instructive with regard to John's understanding of levels of belief. Many believed in Jesus as a result of the signs he was doing (John does not tell us what these signs were). Jesus does not "believe in their belief" because it is based only on their seeing the signs. What they believed in was a Jesus who was a miracle worker, not the one sent by God as the giver of eternal life. Their level of belief might lead to something greater but it is like the seed sown on rocky ground. It will be difficult to take root and bear fruit.

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Vs. 20 provides some insight into how old Jesus was at the time of this event. Jesus' statement about raising the Temple in three days is countered by mention that it had been under construction for forty six years. Herod the Great began the work in the year 20/19 BCE. Forty six years would make the temple scene occur in 27/28 CE. Jesus was born in the year 6 BCE so in this scene at the beginning of his ministry he would be between 33 and 34 years old. With John's three year ministry, at the time of Jesus death he would be between 36 and 37.