John 2. In chapter 1 John made bold statements about the identity of Jesus as the Son of God, divine and human, the King of Israel, and the one who would take away the sins of the world. Those are big claims, but John will support his statements through the stories in chapters 2-12. They all follow the same basic pattern. Jesus performs a sign or makes a claim about his divine identity, resulting in misunderstanding or controversy, and in the end, people are forced to make a choice about who they think Jesus is.

Chapters 2-4 show Jesus encountering four classic Jewish institutions, and, in each case, Jesus shows how he is the reality to which that institution points.* Jesus is first placed at a wedding party where the wine runs out. Jesus takes huge jars of water, totaling about 120 gallons, and he turns them into the best wine ever. The head waiter then says to the groom, “You saved the best wine for last!” (2:10) While this is true on a literal level, John also calls this miracle the first of his signs… that manifested his glory (2:11). These signs are symbols that reveal something about Jesus. The Kingdom of God is like a huge banquet or wedding party with good wine. This first miraculous sign reveals the generosity of Jesus’ Kingdom.

Next, Jesus goes to the Jerusalem temple, the place where God meets with his people. Jesus marches in and asserts his authority over the temple, calling it my Father’s house (2:16). He then runs out all the money changers and stops the sacrificial offerings. The religious leadership asks him, “What sign do you show us?” (2:18). Jesus responds by saying, “Destroy this temple and I’ll raise it again in three days.” Jesus was speaking about his own death and his body as the temple, but they did not understand what he meant at that time. This sign revealed that the Jerusalem temple was a temporary institution that would no longer be necessary after the death and resurrection of Jesus; Jesus was the reality to which the Jerusalem temple pointed. Therefore, when he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this and they believed the scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken (2:22).

If you had been one of Jesus’ first followers, how would you have reacted to the miracle of the water turned into wine at the Cana wedding? How might that have shifted your thinking about who Jesus was? And then how would you have reacted to the ruckus at the temple? Would you have wanted Jesus to be quiet and not make a scene? Would you have wondered why he was being so confrontational?

*The Bible Project video on the Gospel of John covers this topic very well!