“The Wedding at Cana (2:1-11) John 2:1-11 is the opening event in Jesus’ ministry. In 1:35-51, Jesus gathers his first disciples, and in 2:1-11 he attends a wedding with them (2:2). Jesus’ mother is also in attendance (2:1). This is the first mention of Jesus’ mother in John.

John 2:2 indicates that Jesus “was invited” to the wedding. He is not the host of the wedding feast but a guest like everyone else. Jesus’ ministry thus opens with Jesus as the recipient of a gesture of hospitality. The beginning of his ministry is played out in an intimate, personal, familial setting.

Jesus’ mother is the catalyst for the miracle in this story. When the wine at the wedding feast runs out, Jesus’ mother informs him of this lack.

The conversation between Jesus and his mother is important. When Jesus’ mother speaks to him in 2:3, she asks nothing explicit of him, but Jesus’ response in v. 4 makes clear that her words contain an implied request. She assumes that her son can remove the scarcity.

Jesus’ words to his mother in 2:4 seem harsh to the modern ear: “Woman, what concern is that to you and to me? My hour has not yet come.” His words are not an act of rudeness to his mother, however, but are an important assertion of Jesus’ freedom from all human control. Verse 4 insists that Jesus’ actions will not be dictated by anyone else’s time or will. Not even Jesus’ mother can control what he does or who he will be.

That one should not read 2:4 as rudeness is confirmed by Jesus’ mother’s response in v. 5. Despite Jesus’ seeming rebuff of her, his mother tells the servants with utter confidence that Jesus will do something. His mother is thus a model disciple: she trusts that Jesus will act and allows him to act in freedom.

The miracle that Jesus performs is appropriate to the personal setting of the wedding. Turning water into wine is an act of turning scarcity into abundance, of repaying the initial hospitality offered him. Jesus’ first miracle in John takes place in the presence of friends and family, not in the presence of powers and authorities.

This opening to Jesus’ ministry shows that the miraculous life-giving power of God is at work even (and perhaps, especially) in the intimate daily places of human lives.”
(Women’s Bible Commentary, Carol Newsom & Sharon Ringe eds., John Knox Press, 1992, p.383)

“It is noteworthy that on the general question of Jesus’ relationship with his family, John stands, as it were, between Matthew and Mark, on the one hand, and Luke on the other.

• Matthew and Mark give the impression of a complete rift,
• Luke of complete harmony between Jesus and his relatives.
• John has a more complex picture: Jesus’ mother and brothers at first accompany him as disciples (211-2, 12); later his brothers do not believe in him (7:5); but finally his mother and his aunt are among the few who stand by him at the cross (19:25).

The probability is that, after an early breach, on which Mark and John agree, the relatives of Jesus -— his mother, his brothers, Clopas, and Mary — had by the end of Jesus’ ministry joined the circle of his disciples.

This is suggested not only by the agreement of Luke and John, but also by the tradition of the resurrection appearance to James (1 Cor. 15:7), which most probably presupposes that James was already a follower of his brother.”

‘Gospel Women: Studies of the Named Women in the Gospels, Richard Bauckham, Wm.B.Eerdmans Publishing Co., 2002, p.221′

“Khirbet Qana was located about fifteen kilometers from Nazareth. The closeness of the two villages explains the presence of Jesus, his mother, and his brothers. The wine failed, probably because there were more guests than had been expected.

There was standing there some jars each holding two or three measures; a measure was about forty litres, so that each jar held up to one hundred and twenty litres. Jesus had the servants fill the jars with water, but the water then became wine.

The capacity of the jars underscores the sheer size of the miracle. In the context of the beginning of Jesus’ ministry, the miracle “signified” that God had accredited Jesus as his emissary, just as he had formerly accredited Moses by the signs which he enabled him to accomplish in the sight of Israel. Jesus is the new Moses (Dt 18:18)….

…The words spoken by the steward of the feast are clearly symbolic. Jesus is the Bridegroom who brings a wine superior to that of Judaism. According to Origen, Cyril of Alexandria, and Ephrem the wine symbolizes the supreme revelation given by God to humanity, given by the Logos himself. The revelation communicated through the law, the prophets, and wisdom was undoubtedly good, but the revelation of Jesus is better still: “The law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ” (Jn 1:17)….

There has been much juggling with the number three in v. 1, and many hypotheses have been offered to explain it. The most probable is that the evangelist wishes to remind the reader of the resurrection, which likewise took place “on the third day.” This first manifestation of glory, which attests to the mission of Jesus, anticipates the decisive manifestation of this glory, namely, his resurrection. The fleeting glory of Cana is an anticipation, in the form of a miracle, of the definitive glory that is slowly brightening like the dawn.”

The Miracles of Jesus and the Theology of Miracles, Rene Latourelle, Paulist Press New York, p.210-11.

The use of the term ‘woman’ (gunai) to refer to his mother sounds harsh, though it is to be remembered that nowhere in the Gospel does John identify her by name.

However, this word is used elsewhere in John (4.21; 8.10) in contexts where Jesus had initiated a relationship with the women concerned, as a result of which they had benefited. Also, it is used twice in conversations with his mother (19.26) and Mary Magdalene (20.13, 15) in very caring contexts.

It is possible that John here specifically identifies Mary, not by name but as Jesus’ mother, and on three occasions, to indicate her relationship with him. As his mother, she knew her son; she may not know what he will do, but she knows that he will do something.

The statement of Jesus, ‘My hour has not yet come’ is also worthy of consideration. It refers either to the miracle that occurs next or to something else, perhaps his death, in which he will be glorified.

However, a reference to his death seems out of place in this context. It is more likely that Jesus was unwilling to appear to respond to the situation as if his mother had offered him with guidance when, in reality, he always followed an agenda set by God.

The Miracles in the Gospels, Keith Warrington, Henderickson Publishers.

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‘And then at this critical time when his (the father’s) faith was beginning to wilt, there came the cry, “Why trouble to go on any further?” Some of his friends had been at the house. And their report was that the child was dead and it was too late and it seemed sensible to them to come and stop him from bringing this Teacher all the way now. “There came from the ruler’s house some who said, ‘Y our daughter is dead. Why trouble the teacher any further?”

These were wise sane men, full of common sense. This was their considered opinion, for they wanted to help him. And this considered opinion of these wise sane practical decent men was calculated to shatter his last shred of hope and faith, and to put him forever off the track he had started on with Jesus. And their advice was so sensible that he would now be holding himself up for ridicule if he did not take it.

Why continue stupidly to hope? Why not now face up to the finality of the world’s practical judgment, and the reality of death, when death is death?

If Jesus had not been with him this would have been the end of all hope for Jairus.

But now a wonderful thing happened. Jesus stepped in to interfere and rescue Jairus’s faith from being destroyed by the world’s common sense and sanity. A battle began, a battle for faith against sensible decent public opinion. “Ignoring what they said,Jesus said to the ruler of the synagogue, ‘Do not fear, only believe.”

Jairus is told to ignore common sense, sanity, the wisdom of all his friends. “Do not fear, only believe.” Who is he to listen to? To which word has he to give place in his heart?’

Extract from The Gospel Miracles, Studies in Matthew, Mark & Luke, Ronald S. Wallace, Oliver & Boyd, 1960

In speaking of death Jesus uses a euphemism, as in the case of Lazarus: “She is sleeping.” In raising the child to life he uses only a gesture (“taking her hand”) and a command (“Arise”). Instead of looking for showy publicity, he imposes silence.

The evangelists, who are writing long after the event and are therefore not bound by any such command, nonetheless retain the simplicity. They are conscious that here more than elsewhere they are reporting something utterly extraordinary….

There is no doubt in the minds of the evangelists, the members of the ruler’s family, and Jesus himself that they are confronted with a real death.

• In Matthew the ruler says: “My daughter has just died” (Mt 9:18);
• in Mark the little girl, initially described as dying, is subsequently said by the messengers from the household to be “dead.”
• Luke describes the situation in the same way.

Death is so certain that by the time Jesus arrives the ceremonial of weeping and lamentation is already in full swing. And when Jesus, according to all three evangelists, uses the euphemism: “The child is not dead but sleeping,” he is greeted with mocking laughter (Mk 5:40; Lk 8:53; Mt 9:24). Jesus and this man who is a ruler of his fellows are convinced that they are dealing with a real death.

If Jesus had played out a comedy by exploiting the everyday occurrence of a seeming death for his own ends, he would have discredited himself, and the tradition would not have dared to retain the story. When, then, he says: “The child is not dead but sleeping,” he does so in order to put a preventive damper on messianic excitement. In the case of Lazarus, who is not only dead but already decomposing, he will likewise say: “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep” (Jn 1=1:11). But the evangelist immediately explains: “Now Jesus had spoken of his death, but they thought that he meant taking rest in sleep” (John 11:13). The language is the same in both stories, and each time there is a reason for the euphemism…

Anyone who makes the unsupported claim that what we have here is a simple story of healing which has been transformed in the course of tradition into a resurrection story, and who goes on to say that it is a fictive resurrection symbolizing the resurrection of Christ, must either be reading the Gospels backward or be ignoring the rudiments of historical criticism.

Bultmann claims that it is impossible for a modern mind to speak of the raising of the dead to life.

I, on the contrary, believe that if the Absolute breaks through into the history of the race in order to save it, it is completely intelligible that this extraordinary goodness should find expression in unparalleled saving gestures such as healings, exorcisms, and raisings from the dead. Miracles are simply the good news of grace and salvation made visible: humanity made new, the world made new. That is how the apostles thought who were witnesses to Jesus.

The Miracles of Jesus and the Theology of Miracles, Rene Latourelle, Paulist Press, New York, p.126-7

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What’s on this page?

• Key points about the Temptation of Jesus, quoted from books about the Life of Jesus

Who’s in the gospel story of the Temptation of Jesus?

• Jesus – a teacher from Galilee now facing a decisive moment in his life
• the Devil – Evil

Jesus certainly took for granted the reality of Satan and spoke about him, sometimes in a poetic manner (Luke 10:18). It is, therefore, possible that he described his inward experience of temptation in dramatic form, as here…

Commentary on Luke

Jesus underwent temptation on other occasions, and that the temptations described here reflect the experience of one who was tempted to prove the reality of his calling by signs and to adjust his ideas of his calling to those of his contemporaries.

Throughout his ministry he was engaged in conflict with the forces of evil. It is by no means impossible that he communicated something of his inner experience to his disciples, and indeed highly likely that he did so.

It is also probable that at the outset of his work he had to face up to the question of the nature of his vocation. The theory that the account of the temptation rests on a historical experience of Jesus fits in with what we know otherwise of his ministry and remains the most satisfying explanation of it.

It has often been argued that the narrative shows Jesus being tempted to be a political Messiah. This interpretation does not do full justice to the narrative which is much more concerned with the personal relation of obedience between Jesus and his Father and thus reflects the attitude of Jesus himself rather than of the early church about him. Behind the story lies the experience of Jesus.

Commentary on Luke, I. Howard Marshall, New International Greek Testament Commentary, Paternoster Press, Michigan, 1978

Jesus is tempted (1:12—13)  This is no minor moral skirmish but Satan’s full-frontal attack on Jesus to capture his soul.  Jesus had been addressed first by God (1:11), now by Satan.

In the baptism, God had reassured Jesus and called him. But now Satan, the enemy of God and his Son, seeks to destroy Jesus before he can begin his assault on the demonic kingdom.

The struggle that begins here will rage throughout the Gospel, reaching its climax when Jesus is on the cross; the cosmic character of that final battle will be symbolized by the day becoming night (see 15:33 — ‘when darkness came over the whole land’). The presence of the wild animals here signals the grave danger facing Jesus in the loneliness of the desert. At Golgotha he will again be alone, abandoned by his friends and, so it will seem, even by God; then, instead of wild animals, ferocious men will bay at the crucified man (15:29—32; of Psalm 22:21-22).

Alongside Jesus’ temptation, however, is his triumph.  The angels attend Jesus in the desert, and he does not succumb to Satan or to the wild animals. Jesus is a new Adam. Like Adam, Jesus is Lord over the beasts (cf Genesis 1:26; 2:19-20) or, in the language of Daniel, a ‘son of man’ who prevails over the evil, beast-like kingdoms (Daniel 7:1-13; cf Revelation 13-14).

Unlike Adam, however, Jesus resists temptation, remaining obedient to God. Thus, implicit in Mark but explicit in Paul is the notion that Jesus is the first man of a new race, the leader of a new humanity (see Romans 5:12-21, Corinthians 15:21-24).

Extract from Paul Barnett’s The Servant King: Reading Mark Today, Aquila Press, 1991, p.23-24

THE FIRST TEMPTATION

The evil archangel approached a hungry, starving man. Jesus was thin and weak. His skin was blistered by the scorching wilderness sun. He probably looked as if He had not bathed in weeks.

Jesus, A Theography, by Leonard Sweet and Frank Viola

Using the Lord’s hunger as a point of temptation, Satan said to Him, “If You really are the Son of God, turn these stones into bread and eat.”

Notice that the temptation was to lure Jesus into drawing on His Divine power. Consider Jesus’ response: “Man shall not live by bread alone but by every word that God speaks.””

Look at the dialogue carefully. Satan said,

“If You’re the Son of God . .”  Jesus responded with the word man, as if to say: “I am a man. I am the real human——the new Adam. And by being a real human, I will defeat you. For Adam, who was also a man, was defeated by you. I am God . . ”

As Paul put it, Jesus laid aside, or emptied, Himself, of His divine power, but took upon Himself the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men.“

Jesus rejected being a Muscle Messiah. Instead, He truly became human and participated in the limitations and frailty of our humanity. Even to the point of death.

The temptations that Satan leveled against Jesus in the wilderness were targeted at obliterating His true humanity and His solidarity with humans.

If Jesus had taken the bait and drawn on His divine powers as the Son of God, He would have ceased living as a human being. And He would have ceased being the Second Adam, “Adam-gone-right.” Satan wanted Jesus to dedicate His ministry to changing the world, not saving the world.

• Jesus could inhabit His divine self to save people from their hungers.
• Or He could inhabit His human self to save people from their sins.

As Paul put it, Jesus laid aside, or emptied, Himself, of His divine power, but took upon Himself the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men.

Jesus was living as man anointed by the Spirit of God and living by God’s words and God’s life. In these words, “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God,”79 Jesus gave us an insight He would repeat over and over again: that He was a man who was living by the indwelling life of His Father——the very thing Adam was called to do by eating from the Tree of Life in the Garden.

Extract from Commentary on Luke, I. Howard Marshall, Paternoster Press, 1978, p.165

A detail recorded only by Mark is that Jesus was with the wild beasts in the wilderness.

The Gospel of Mark, Lane

Jesus in the midst of the wild beasts signifies the victory of the New Adam over Satan and temptation so that paradise is restored in which man is at peace with the animals.

As soon as it is recognized that the dominant motif of the prologue is the wilderness, Mark’s distinctive reference to the wild beasts becomes intelligible. In the OT, blessing is associated with inhabited and cultivated land; the wilderness is the place of the curse. In the wilderness there is neither seed nor fruit, water nor growth. Man cannot live there. Only frightening and unwanted kinds of animals dwell there.

Significantly, when the wilderness is transformed into a paradise no ravenous beast will be in it (Isa. 35:9; Ezek. 34:23-28). Mark’s reference to the wild beasts in Ch. 1:13 serves to stress the character of the wilderness. Jesus confronts the horror, the loneliness and the danger with which the wilderness is fraught when he meets the wild beasts.

Their affinity in this context is not with paradise, but with the realm of Satan.

The Gospel according to Mark, William L. Lane, William B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1974. p.61

Jesus according to Scripture, Darrell L. Bock

Each temptation challenges Jesus’ faithfulness.

• Will he provide for himself independently of God’s direction and draw on his power in self-interest (bread)?
• Will he insist that God protect him by putting God to the test of his protection of the Son (temple)?
• Will the Son defect from the Father and worship someone else for his own gain (kingdoms)?

In each text Jesus stresses his loyalty to the Father as he cites Deuteronomy.

• There is more to life than bread: obedience is more important than food (Deut. 8:3——bread; only Matthew’s version cites the whole verse; Luke leaves the note about obedience unexpressed but implied).
• Testing God’s faithfulness implies a doubt of him and should not be done (Deut. 6:16—Temple).
• Worship and service should be given only to God (Deut. 6:15—kingdoms).
• Honoring God drives Jesus, not self-interest or self-benefit.

In this way Jesus succeeds against Satan where the previous representative of humanity (Adam) failed.

Jesus according to Scripture, Darrell L. Bock, Baker Academic, p.90, 2002

Questions for Bible study groups

1. Who was this miserable, tormented man? Where did he live? What was his life like?
2. What did Jesus do to help him?
3. How did people react to the healing?

The man with an unclean spirit

The healing of the man possessed by a demon showed Jesus’ power over Nature. He transformed a man who could not function as a normal person into a rational, fully human man. But Jesus’ power over Nature frightened people, and they rejected him.

The man whose body housed the demons was suffering from what today would be called a manic-depressive psychosis associated with demonic possession.

At that time this sort of classification was unknown, and there was no treatment except physical restraint and expulsion from the community.

We are told this man ‘lived among the tombs‘. The dead could not be buried within the limits of a village or town; they had to be buried outside it. So there were spaces hollowed out of the ground on the edges of each village. Here the bodies of the dead were kept until all the flesh had rotted; then the bones were collected and placed in a box.

So we can guess that the place the demented man lived in was stinking and unfit for human habitation. For a Jew, the idea of living in such a place would have been even more horrifying, since it implied perpetual uncleanness.

The wretched man was kept tied up like an animal. Even so he could not be controlled. He must have been physically strong, his strength reinforced by his belief that he was possessed by 5,000 demons.

He must also have been terrifying to the villagers who knew him, or knew his family. There was little understanding of mental illness at that time. People struggled with this particular man the way they would struggle with an animal.

This miserable, tormented man was

• unable to live a normal life
• unable to rest or sleep
• unable to control his own voice or what he said
• unable to sleep
• unable to control the urge to lacerate himself.

See blue text at end of this page

Jesus heals the man

Everyone was terrified of this man, and he was terrified of himself. Yet when he saw Jesus he immediately recognised someone who could him. If Jesus could cast out the demons, they would no longer control him.

He shouted out to Jesus, calling him the ‘Son of the Most High God’. This was a term used in Scripture by Gentiles; this man must have been Gentile or lived in a mixed community, since the villagers kept pigs, something forbidden to Jews.

Jesus called out a question to the man, or to the force that controlled him: ‘What is your name?’ People in the ancient world believed that knowing a person’s name gave you power over them. But more importantly, Jesus was reminding the man of who he was, that he had his own identity separate from the demons within him.

Jesus addressed the demons as ‘Legion’, a Latin word which people under Roman control would associate with power and oppression. Notice in the gospel passages below that when Jesus spoke to the man he used alternating singular and plural pronouns, as if he was addressing a divided personality.

Jesus told the demons to leave the man but they, through the man, asked Jesus to give them another ‘home’. Jesus agreed, allowing them to enter a herd of pigs grazing nearby. This seems a strange thing to do, but there was a reason: if the man believed the demons had entered the pigs, and the pigs were destroyed, then he would think himself safe from them. He would believe the demons had truly left him, and this would confirm and strengthen his belief that he was healed.

The poor pigs rushed over the nearby cliff to their destruction.

How? In the paroxysm/fit of his deliverance from the demons, the man may have panicked the animals into stampeding over the cliff. A Jewish audience would not have found this much of a loss since pigs were ritually unclean, but the owners of the pigs would not have welcomed it.

Why did the pigs meet this particular fate? In traditional lore, demons are destroyed by drowning.

See green text at end of this page

Reactions of different people

The man: when the demons left him, the healed man’s nature changed in three ways:

• he was sitting, not restlessly roaming around
• he was clothed, no longer naked – clothes are the sign of a civilised man
• he was quiet and in his right mind, not distraught and shouting.

With Jesus’ help, he had returned to his better self, and was no longer dominated by the spirits of greed, anger, violence and selfishness.

The townspeople were filled with alarm at the power of Jesus and the transformation he wrought in the possessed man. They realised something supernatural had intruded into their daily lives, and they did not like it. Moreover, they sensed that if Jesus stayed, other things might have the go. They too might be transformed, and so they begged Jesus to go, which he did. Jesus will never stay where he is unwanted.

See red text at end of this page

What happened next? See Jairus’ Daughter lives

What the Gospels say

1. The man with an unclean spirit. Read the blue text

2. Jesus heals the man. Read the green text

3. Reactions of different people. Read the red text

Mark 5:1-20 1 They came to the other side of the sea, to the country of the Gerasenes.

2 And when he had come out of the boat, there met him out of the tombs a man with an unclean spirit, 3 who lived among the tombs; and no one could bind him any more, even with a chain; 4 for he had often been bound with fetters and chains, but the chains he wrenched apart, and the fetters he broke in pieces; and no one had the strength to subdue him. 5 Night and day among the tombs and on the mountains he was always crying out, and bruising himself with stones.

6 And when he saw Jesus from afar, he ran and worshiped him; 7 and crying out with a loud voice, he said, “What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I adjure you by God, do not torment me.” 8 For he had said to him, “Come out of the man, you unclean spirit!” 9 And Jesus asked him, “What is your name?” He replied, “My name is Legion; for we are many.” 10 And he begged him eagerly not to send them out of the country. 11 Now a great herd of swine was feeding there on the hillside; 12 and they begged him, “Send us to the swine, let us enter them.” 13 So he gave them leave. And the unclean spirits came out, and entered the swine; and the herd, numbering about two thousand, rushed down the steep bank into the sea, and were drowned in the sea.

14 The herdsmen fled, and told it in the city and in the country. And people came to see what it was that had happened. 15 And they came to Jesus, and saw the demoniac sitting there, clothed and in his right mind, the man who had had the legion; and they were afraid. 16 And those who had seen it told what had happened to the demoniac and to the swine. 17 And they began to beg Jesus to depart from their neighbourhood. 18 And as he was getting into the boat, the man who had been possessed with demons begged him that he might be with him. 19 But he refused, and said to him, “Go home to your friends, and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and how he has had mercy on you.” 20 And he went away and began to proclaim in the Decapolis how much Jesus had done for him; and all men marvelled.

Matthew 8:28-34

28 And when he came to the other side, to the country of the Gadarenes, two demoniacs met him, coming out of the tombs, so fierce that no one could pass that way. 29 And behold, they cried out, “What have you to do with us, O Son of God? Have you come here to torment us before the time?”

30 Now a herd of many swine was feeding at some distance from them. 31 And the demons begged him, “If you cast us out, send us away into the herd of swine.” 32 And he said to them, “Go.” So they came out and went into the swine; and behold, the whole herd rushed down the steep bank into the sea, and perished in the waters.

33 The herdsmen fled, and going into the city they told everything, and what had happened to the demoniacs. 34 And behold, all the city came out to meet Jesus; and when they saw him, they begged him to leave their neighbourhood.

Luke 8:26-39

26 Then they arrived at the country of the Gerasenes, which is opposite Galilee. 27 And as he stepped out on land, there met him a man from the city who had demons; for a long time he had worn no clothes, and he lived not in a house but among the tombs. 28 When he saw Jesus, he cried out and fell down before him, and said with a loud voice, “What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I beseech you, do not torment me.” 29 For he had commanded the unclean spirit to come out of the man. (For many a time it had seized him; he was kept under guard, and bound with chains and fetters, but he broke the bonds and was driven by the demon into the desert.)

30 Jesus then asked him, “What is your name?” And he said, “Legion”; for many demons had entered him. 31 And they begged him not to command them to depart into the abyss. 32 Now a large herd of swine was feeding there on the hillside; and they begged him to let them enter these. So he gave them leave. 33 Then the demons came out of the man and entered the swine, and the herd rushed down the steep bank into the lake and were drowned.

34 When the herdsmen saw what had happened, they fled, and told it in the city and in the country. 35 Then people went out to see what had happened, and they came to Jesus, and found the man from whom the demons had gone, sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed and in his right mind; and they were afraid. 36 And those who had seen it told them how he who had been possessed with demons was healed. 37 Then all the people of the surrounding country of the Gerasenes asked him to depart from them; for they were seized with great fear; so he got into the boat and returned. 38 The man from whom the demons had gone begged that he might be with him; but he sent him away, saying, 39 “Return to your home, and declare how much God has done for you.” And he went away, proclaiming throughout the whole city how much Jesus had done for him.