John 2 Commentary
We should not be fooled by the phrases, “next day” and “On the third day”. This gospel has little respect for chronological order. The apostle John is interested in highlighting key themes, regardless of when they happen.
So we have an event that happened a few days before Jesus’ crucifixion appearing in the second chapter.
“My hour has not yet come.” Verse 4. What hour? Probably Jesus points to the crucifixion, when the Lamb of God is sacrificed to take away the sin of the world. It is also the point at which the temple is destroyed to pave the way for the new Temple. The resurrection would follow within 48 hours.
The fact that Jesus proceeds and helps the situation doesn’t mean the timing of His mission has changed, or that his mother has persuaded him to work out of time. As John explains in the second section, the big thing, the mission itself doesn’t come until the temple is destroyed and a new one is built.
The sign of the wine could be taken as a thought rhyme of the Torah’s “fourth of a hin of wine”. It was a drink offering and was part of the sacrifice of a one-year-old lamb without blemish – a burnt offering to the LORD.
You feel the liberty to have these thoughts because John mentions the destruction of the temple (Jesus’ body) immediately after the sign of the wine – the sacrifice of the Lamb of God.
We may also think about the sign of the wine as yet another ‘becoming’. The Word became flesh; it also became light. The water becomes wine by the power of the Word. It emphasizes the transforming power of the Word.
We can draw an understanding that wine is not created out of nothing. The “Let there be…” power becomes the power to transform the existing worthless soul into a valuable product. Ponder.
Transformation underlines the ministry of Jesus. One detail remains important: the process shall involve the clearing or cleaning the human soul. Let these temples become places of worship and not a market.
This chapter has two separate ‘questions’ about signs. The first concerns wine. It is not Jesus’ time but the sign is nevertheless given. At an appropriate time, the LORD would give His disciples wine to drink. It represented His blood. The blood answers or helps all situations for humanity. The second concerns the authority of Jesus. The answer resides in the death (destruction of the Temple) and the resurrection (raising up of the temple in three days).
The huge statement is that death is occasioned by men (engineered by Satan as was the case in the Garden of Peace and Tranquility), but the resurrection is occasioned by the Creator God. Men will destroy the temple but Jesus will raise it up in three days.
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