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Transcript 219D — The Wedding at Cana [Jn 2:1-11]
HC: Good evening. Welcome to Open Forum.
CALLER: Hello, Mr. Camping. I wanted you to talk a little bit on the Wedding at Cana. Did I understand it right when I heard you say one time that these people at the wedding were unsaved? Could you tell me what you think that the changing of water into wine symbolizes? I know it was a miracle, but was there anything else there? And then I wanted you to talk on the Communion wine whether it has to be wine, or whether it can be grape juice, or whatever.
Thank you
HC: You're welcome. Good night.
The question is raised concerning the Wedding at Cana of Galilee. Here Jesus performed His first miracle, in that He changed water into wine. And the evidence of the passage is that this was regular wine, an alcoholic beverage. Now why would He do this? Let's answer that question, first of all.
What was He proving by this? Well, there were six stone jars there. And He said, "Fill them with water," or they were filled with water, I guess. And these He changed into wine. Now the first thing we see here is that in changing water into wine an act of creation was required. Water has two elements, hydrogen and oxygen. Wine has an additional element, carbon. And so to change that water to wine means that instantaneously Christ had to create carbon.
So the six stone jars immediately remind us of the six days of creation, don't they? Christ was the Creator, of course. And He is showing that He is the Creator of the universe. He is the Lord God. It is a mighty demonstration of the fact that God, the Creator of the universe, has become flesh and dwelt among us.
Secondly, these stone jars contained water of purification, we read. Now in the Old Testament there were a number of signs, or official representations of what salvation, or what the Messiah's work of saving us, was all about. One was the sign of circumcision, another was the burnt offerings, a third was the blood sacrifices, and a fourth was the purifying rites, the washing with water. For example, the priest, before he went about his ceremonial duties in the temple, would wash his feet and his hands in a laver of water. It was actually baptism. It was cleansing by water.
And this water in these stone jars was reserved for this purpose. And this purifying rite was pointing to the coming Messiah. Now when Christ turned this into wine, what was He pointing to? He was pointing to Himself as the Messiah, because the wine represented the shed blood of Christ. The fruit of the vine is the representation of the poured out blood of the Lord Jesus Christ.
And so therefore, in this wedding feast, as He does this miracle, He is not only pointing to Himself as the Creator, but as the Messiah. He has come to redeem us from our sins.
Now the question is raised, He gave this wine to these people who were seated around this wedding. Would God do this if they were born again believers? I really doubt that He would have. In Proverbs 31:4 it says, "It is not for kings to drink wine or desire strong drink." Yet in verse 6 it says, "Give wine to those that are perishing, and strong drink to those who are about to die."
In other words, God has given wine to the world. And remember, wine is able to be made by man only because God has created grapes the way He did. It isn't produced by man's ingenuity. It is produced by the fact that God has created the vineyards in just the way He did. But wine has been provided for man so that he might be able to face life in an unreal way. The sharp edges are taken away. He's tired, and he's frightened, and a glass of wine acts as somewhat of a tranquilizer. And unfortunately, of course, man will drink more than he should. And he can be troubled by drunkenness.
But a born again believer doesn't need wine for that purpose. A born again believer can go to the Lord Jesus Christ. We don't have to resort to tranquilizers to face life. We can rest our life in the Lord Jesus Christ.
I say that most of the people at the Wedding at Cana of Galilee were unsaved, not only by virtue of the fact that Christ gave them wine to drink, but because there was only a very tiny percentage of believers in the world in that day. Even after Jesus had preached for three and a half years, the largest number of believers that we can find is a little more than 500. You'll find that number in I Corinthians 15. Or in the upper room in Jerusalem, there were about 120, a very small percentage, if we figure that they would come out of a nation that perhaps numbered about two million people.
And so the likelihood at this wedding feast is that there were very very few that were saved. Of course we can't deny the possibility that He gave wine even to the saved there, as a figure of the Communion that He would offer in His own shed blood.
Now this brings us to the last question. What about the Communion service that we celebrate these days? Should we use wine or grape juice? Interestingly enough, the Bible is silent. It speaks about the fruit of the vine in connection with the beginning of the Communion service, and it speaks about the cup, but it does not use the word grape juice, it does not use the word wine. And so I believe we're on safe ground whether we use grape juice or whether we use wine. I believe that either would be in accordance with the scriptures.