Wedding Feast at Cana
Christ’s First Public Miracle as an Affirmation of his Marital Covenant to Mankind
Greetings Folks, and Happy Feast Day of Saint Josemaria Escriva!
We are in the midst of what some might call the “wedding season”. I am at that time in my life when many of my friends are getting married (including our very own John Jakubisin!). As such, I have heard the typical marriage passages from the Bible multiple times over the past couple of months. “Love is Patient, Love is Kind” and all of the good stuff. However, one question has jumped out at me that hasn’t particularly struck me before around the wedding at Cana: why was Jesus’s first public miracle performed at a wedding? The fact that it was his first public miracle is nothing new to many of us, but the question of “why” had never arisen in my mind. When I realized the deep correlation between Christ’s covenant with us and the covenant between a man and woman in marriage, then the setting of the Cana wedding appears to be the most fitting place for Jesus to make his glory known.
There are many articles and exegeses out there interpreting the actual passage itself, but few of them seemed to answer in much depth the significance of Jesus’s first public miracle being performed at a wedding. Aspects of the Cana Feast, such as the turning of the water to wine and the language around the third day, all add power to the intersection of meaning, and as such, will be points of context for us. But beyond those powerful motifs, I would like to understand why marriage, being a covenant in itself, is a powerful setting for the beginning of Jesus’s public ministry. Why it is that the Cana passage is a “depiction of a greater event that is yet to come: God marrying humanity.”1
As for the passage itself, there are several allusions that foreshadow future events and the culmination of Jesus’s death and Resurrection, the most central point revolving around Jesus turning the water into wine. However, let us begin with the intercession of Mary. In response to Mary’s concern about the lack of wine, Jesus states “Woman, what concern is that to you and me? My hour has not yet come.” (John 2:4) A somewhat perplexing line at first, especially when Jesus then goes on to do Mary’s bidding. Why would Jesus seemingly speak one thing and then do another? It doesn’t seem to make much sense in the moment, but when one understands the fulfillment of Christ’s coming, it becomes clear that Jesus was referring to his death and resurrection; the “hour” for which Christ had become man in the first place.
To add emphasis to this connection, John 2 beings with “On the third day there was a wedding.” (I haven’t discerned if there is any connection to the third day of creation, when dry land and plants were created, but besides grapes falling under the creation of plants, I don’t think we need to go that direction!) The language around the third day should immediately take the reader to the Resurrection, when on the third day, Jesus rose from the dead.
The reference to the “hour” is substantiated further when Jesus then performs the miracle of turning the water into wine. I think it is fair to say that there is a connection to the Institution of the Eucharist, when on the night before his death, Jesus would take the wine and turn it into his blood. As he did so, Jesus proclaimed “this is the blood of the covenant” (Matthew 26:28), thus evoking covenantal language. So too, in the marriage vow, the priest states “it is your intention to enter into the covenant of Holy Matrimony.” The connection to the Institution of the Eucharist is especially poignant in the context of Jesus as the Bridegroom. By consuming his body and blood, we participate in a sort of consummation with Christ.
Regarding the aforementioned interaction between Jesus and Mary, another important point to illustrate is the title by which Jesus addresses Mary. Instead of the expected “Mother” Jesus refers to Mary as “Woman.” Jesus uses this title one other time in reference to Mary as he hung from the cross: “Woman, behold your son.” (John 19:26) It is significant to note that these two references to Mary (as woman) bookend the beginning of Jesus’s public ministry, at Cana, and the culmination of it, at Calvary, thus tying the two moments together once again in a meaningful way.2 Further, Jesus himself is even referred to as “the man” by Pilate. (John 19:5) These titles corroborate the roles of Jesus and Mary as the new Adam and Eve. (Gen. 5:2) As such, when Jesus refers to Mary as woman, he is not speaking from his relationship as a son, but as the new Bridegroom to humanity, who will reestablish his covenant through the Institution of the Eucharist.
The institution of marriage is then a beautiful representation of Divine love. It is by it that we have the ability to participate in the greater covenant that God has established with us. In the world today, there has become a disconnect in this regard; marriage is no longer an entering into and participating in God’s covenant, but has become more of a contractual license between two people. The wedding feast at Cana serves as a powerful reminder that Christ has come as the Bridegroom to humanity and that we are called to an eternal wedding feast. Of course, it is also God’s blessing on alcohol, but we can save that for another article.
“Thus the Christian family, which springs from marriage as a reflection of the loving covenant uniting Christ with the Church, and as a participation in that covenant, will manifest to all men Christ's living presence in the world, and the genuine nature of the Church. This the family will do by the mutual love of the spouses, by their generous fruitfulness, their solidarity and faithfulness, and by the loving way in which all members of the family assist one another.”
- Gaudium et Spes, 48
https://bustedhalo.com/questionbox/why-does-jesus-refer-to-mary-as-%E2%80%9Cwoman%E2%80%9D-at-the-wedding-feast-at-cana