1 Jan. John 2:1-11

1 Jan. Jesus displays miraculous powers of creation.

"Two days later there was a wedding in the town of Cana in Galilee... When all the wine was gone, Jesus's mother said to him, 'They have no more wine'..."

"In that place there were six stone water jars that the Jews used in their washing ceremony. Each jar held about 100 litres."

"Jesus said to the servants, 'Fill the jars with water'… 'Now take some out and give it to the master of the feast'. So they took the water to the master. When he tasted it, the water had become wine."

"So in Cana of Galilee Jesus did his first miracle. There he showed his glory..."

          (John 2:1-11)

 

 

After a time of contemplation and prayer in the Judaean Desert at the beginning of his ministry, Jesus returned north to his home region of Galilee. In the autumn of 26AD, he performed his first miracle at a family wedding at Cana in Galilee by turning water into wine. Six large stone jars had previously been filled with water for the Jewish guests to wash their hands so they would be ritually ‘clean’ before eating the wedding banquet (see Mark 7:1-4).

Heavy stone jars were used because they could be washed out to ‘cleanse’ them and then be re-used. Lighter earthenware jars would have had to be regularly replaced as they were slightly porous and therefore became ritually ‘unclean’ when handled by anyone who was ‘unclean’ (see Leviticus 11:33).

Jesus told the servants to fill the jars again and to serve this ‘water’ to the guests – who were amazed that the host had kept the best wine until last.

Only God can create in this way; yet Jesus created a beautiful life-giving drink out of nothing more than H2 and O. In this way God showed his 'glory' - the radiant shining presence of God himself displayed in the person of Jesus of Nazareth.

Cana of Galilee was a village within walking distance of Jesus's home town of Nazareth. Ever since the purchase of a property here in 1641 by Franciscan monks, the site of Biblical Cana has been identified as the hill top village of Kafr Kana, about 3 miles / 5km north east of Nazareth. Today, visitors to Kafr Kana are welcomed at the Franciscan Shrine of Cana that commemorates Jesus’s first miracle and the sanctity of Christian marriage.

Also in the village of Kafr Kana is St Bartholomew’s Chapel (see the photo), which commemorates the home of Nathanael (Bartholomew) “from Cana in Galilee” (see John 21:2).

You can read more about Cana in Galilee @ https://www.thebiblejourney.org/…/4-jesuss-journeys-around-…

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