"This beginning of miracles did Jesus in Cana of Galilee, and manifested forth his glory; and his disciples believed on him" (John 2:11).
Turning water into wine was the Savior's first recorded miracle. But why did he do it? Sherrie Mills Johnson, who teaches in the department of ancient scripture at BYU, thinks Jesus was doing more than just providing refreshment at a marriage in ancient Cana.
"What we find in this very first miracle … is that Jesus is
proclaiming his mission. That he came to earth to change peoples' hearts," Johnson told a class during BYU's Campus Education Week on Aug. 16.
The story in John 2:1-11 is familiar to readers of the New Testament. Mary, the mother of Jesus, tells him the wedding feast is out of wine. Jesus asks servants to fill some pots with water, and then miraculously the water is transformed into wine.
But there is more going on here than first meets the eye.
"The people that were observing (Jesus') miracles … were trained in symbolism," Johnson said. "Symbolism has dropped out of American culture pretty much. There are still a lot of symbols that we use, but for the most part it isn't part of our daily life."
The word translated as "miracle" in John gives clues to the symbolic purpose of the story. Johnson said that the original Greek word used to describe Jesus' miracles is semeion. Semeion means "sign or indication." Johnson said this demonstrates that the important thing about miracles is their symbolic teachings. "There are messages in these miracles."
Some messages can also become obscured if we don't understand the culture. In John's story of this miracle, after Mary tells her son there is no wine, Jesus responds: "Woman, what have I to do with thee? mine hour is not yet come" (John 2:4).
"I tell my students at the university not to speak to their mothers like this … it would be very rude," Johnson said. "But in the culture of the time, what Jesus is saying there is 'Woman' meaning 'Of all the women in the world, you are THE woman to me.' … In the culture Jesus is coming from, this is an incredible show of reverence."
Also, the Joseph Smith Translation adds some light by translating the verse to read, "Woman, what wilt thou have me to do for thee? that will I do; for mine hour is not yet come."
"What he is saying there is, 'It's not time for my mission to begin yet. My Father in Heaven is not instructing me what to do yet, but you are my mother, and so whatever you want I'll do," Johnson said. "So in that one verse, we have an amazing amount of love and reverence and ho
nor that the Savior is showing for his mother."
Likewise, the Mary shows deep reverence for her son when she turns to the servants and says, "Whatsoever he saith unto you, do it" (John 2:5). "She knows something. She's seen him do these kind of things before," Johnson said.
The next verse is about waterpots and is naturally overlooked. But to Johnson, it is an incredible verse full of meaning: "And there were set there six waterpots of stone, after
the manner of the purifying of the Jews, containing two or three firkins apiece" (John 2:6).
"Now I'm sure you've all been as frustrated as I have at times reading scripture at the lack of detail," Johnson said. "But John gives us this verse with incredible detail because he knows the secret to encoding the message in there is in that verse."
Weddings like these lasted one to two weeks, Johnson said. "They've been there for some time, long enough to run out of wine." There must have been plenty of empty wine pots and jugs available. But Jesus didn't ask the servants to fill the smaller empty vessels, instead, he told them to use the waterpots.
These waterpots were used for the "purifying of the Jews." They were used for ceremonial washing whenever someone came into a home. They could not be made of clay, which Johnson said was considered ritually impure. Instead, these stone waterpots were chiseled out of boulders. They were big and heavy (two to three firkins is 18 to 27 gallons) and were consecrated for holy purposes.
"These (waterpots) are symbolic of you and me," Johnson said. "Remember throughout the scriptures we are taught that we are the vessels of the Lord."
Because the stone waterpots were too heavy to bring to a water source, it would take many trips to fill them.
"All through the scriptures the Lord tells us that he is the fountain of living waters. All through the scriptures, the servants of the Lord are prophets, they're teachers, they're parents, they're anyone who teaches us," Johnson said.
The spiritual teachers in our lives bring us living waters from the source Jesus Christ and fill us, as John says, "up to the brim." Johnson said this detail of "to the brim" is also important. It means nothing more can be added. Nothing more can be done.
But then the miracle. But then the sign.
"You have to do as much as you can do, be as full as you can go and then Jesus Christ changes you into something better," Johnson said. "He makes water into wine. And he makes you and me … into Celestial beings. He changes us."
e-mail: mdegroote@desnews.com