They have no wine... Do whatever He tells you. — John 2:3, 5. (Mary, the mother of Jesus, at the wedding feast in Cana)
In the gospel of John, Jesus’ public ministry begins when Jesus, His mother, Mary, and His disciples attend a Jewish wedding in a small town called Cana. Feasts and celebrations were an important part of the religious and cultural context in which Jesus grew up, so perhaps it is not surprising that Jesus’ first miracle happened at such a festivity. It was Jesus’ mother who noticed that the hosts had run out of wine and saw the need. Mary encouraged Jesus to step in and save the day, expectant that He would be able to intervene.
- Jesus, by turning water into wine, made up for what was lacking, turned scarcity into abundance, and protected the host from embarrassment and shame.
This story is familiar and beloved to many within the church. What we often don’t think about is how important the food and the wine were in creating such joyous occasions. We often don’t think that wine, in addition to being the primary drink at the time, also had significant spiritual meaning.
Have you ever wondered what Jesus, His family, and His followers would drink? Given Mary’s great concern about the lack of wine at the wedding, perhaps she was involved in growing vines and making wine for her own meals and family celebrations. Would Jesus and His family have been treading grapes in the community winepress just outside of Nazareth, the one that you can still see today? Would they have had a cellar beneath their house with leather skins full of wine stacked away in the dark and cool? Jesus’ familiarity with wineskins (Matthew 9:17; Mark 2:22; Luke 5:37–38) certainly suggests so. What would their family celebrations have been like? And do these seemingly quotidian details of Jesus’ life tell us something about God and our relationship with Him?
Stepping back into biblical times takes an act of the imagination. Most of us are so far removed from the world of the Bible and the agrarian life that it represents. It is hard to envision the farms and fruit orchards, the village wells and sheep herds, the olive groves and vineyards that Jesus would have walked by every day. Most of us live in cities and suburban neighborhoods, fenced in by garage doors and streets made of asphalt, surrounded by shopping malls, grocery stores, and golf courses. We hop into our cars and watch the world race by from the confines of our car windows, never smelling the manure on the fields and the fermenting fruit wafting from the cellars below. Jesus’ life was vastly different from ours.
Jesus grew up in Nazareth, a village nestled in the fertile hill country of southern Galilee, with wonderful views of the surrounding countryside and the Sea of Galilee below in the far distance, about fifteen miles to the east. It was an agrarian community, and most villagers, including Mary and Joseph, would have grown at least some of their own food and made their own small batches of wine. The remnants of thousands of winepresses all over Canaan attest to the widespread production of wine to serve the daily needs of its inhabitants.1 You might be surprised to read that wine became the primary drink of the Israelites. In places where fresh and clean water was at times scarce and the risk of contamination real, wine became an important source of safe fluids that could be stored in wineskins and sealed stone vessels for long periods of time.
First-century Jewish historian Josephus, a near contemporary of Jesus, tells us that the people of Galilee cultivated every inch of their soil and grew all kinds of lovely and edible things there. Olive groves, pomegranate trees, and vines grew along the surrounding hills and terraces, sprawling down into the valleys below.2 Jesus and His family would have eaten olives, fresh bread dipped in olive oil, and vinegar, honey, lamb meat, fish from the Sea of Galilee — and yes, they would have enjoyed wine on a regular basis, like most Jewish families at that time.
Wine was a staple in their diet and a safe source of liquid because the alcohol in the wine would have killed most bacteria. Water wasn’t always safe to drink, and the danger of water contamination was a very real threat. The global pandemic of COVID-19 gave the twenty-first-century world a new awareness of how important it must have been back then to keep things clean and sanitized. Wine wasn’t just drunk to quench one’s thirst safely and to enhance celebrations. It was also used to disinfect wounds (think of the parable of the Good Samaritan in Luke 10:25–37) and as a general healing agent (think of Timothy’s stomachaches in 1 Timothy 5:23). In those times wine was a multipurpose remedy.
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In Jesus’ time, wine was first of all a spiritual reality: a gift from God. |
In Jesus’ time, wine was first of all a spiritual reality: a gift from God. |
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It’s hard for us to imagine this. We think of wine as something we enjoy with a nice meal cooked at home or when going out for a special dinner at a restaurant. We might still wonder whether we should or want to drink wine at all. But Jesus grew up in a time and culture where growing vines and crafting wine was one of the major industries in Galilee and in Jewish culture. It was an all-prevalent reality seeping into every aspect of life: the home, the garden, the marketplace, family and village celebrations small and great, and — perhaps most important — worship at the temple and religious practices. Crafting wine was an ancient tradition that the Jewish people inherited from the Canaanites. The world’s oldest and largest wine cellar belonging to a royal Canaanite palace was found in Tel Kabri, a day’s walk from where Jesus grew up.3 The wines of Canaan were so famous that the upper class of Egypt imported them into their royal wine cellars.
- The Son of God grew up in a famous wine region. Who would have thought?
I often wonder what kind of wine they would have made in the first century. Certainly a range of red wines, but perhaps those cooler climates of the elevated hillsides would also have been good for growing certain white wine varieties. Pliny the Elder, a first-century Roman naturalist, devoted a whole volume to wine and mentions nearly two hundred grape varieties, mostly reds, but also some whites.4 The vines growing along the rocky hillsides made primarily of limestone would have been more stressed than vines growing on flat land within easier reach of water. Some say that makes for a better vintage. We do know that the good water drainage of the hillsides, the higher elevation, the cooler climate, and the longer sun exposure surely would have contributed to a later harvest and a more interesting vintage, probably more complex than those wines from the valleys where the blazing sun would have driven lots of sweetness into the grapes but perhaps less variation and complexity.
Though Jesus is seemingly hesitant to make this wedding the beginning of His public ministry, He gives in to His mother’s persistent pleas and moves to action. He directs the servants to fill six large stone jars with water, jars usually reserved for rites of purification customary at the time. - Somewhere in between the jars being filled with water and the servants bringing a sample of the “water” to the sommelier at the wedding, the water becomes wine, miraculously. Scarcity is turned into an abundance of choice wine.
The wine in those six stone jars would have amounted to somewhere between 640 to 960 bottles of excellent wine.
It is a lavish and quiet miracle. Only a few even notice it — maybe just Jesus’ mother, Mary, the servants, and the disciples. The sommelier at the wedding tastes the wine and exclaims in astonishment,
Everyone serves the good wine first and then the inferior wine after the guests have become drunk. But you have kept the good wine until now. — John 2:10
He does not seem to have noticed that the host had run out of wine and is puzzled. It’s counter to common sense to bring out the best wine last when people don’t pay attention to the quality anymore. Perhaps he never learned of the miraculous provision of wine. Mary, some of the servants, and Jesus’ disciples were “in the know,” but they might never have made it public because this would have brought great shame and embarrassment to the host, who should not have run out of wine in the first place.
The wedding feast of Cana happened not too far from where Jesus grew up, and the sommelier would have known how to distinguish between a choice wine and a mediocre wine. Growing up and living in a famous wine region, quite a few of the Jews of Jesus’ time would have known how to distinguish a good wine from a bad one. But their talk about wine would have been nothing like the kind of wine talk we hear today. Continue reading on our blog… |
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Excerpted with permission from Cup Overflowing by Gisela H. Kreglinger, copyright Gisela H. Kreglinger.
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Does it shock you to think of Jesus growing up in a wine region with a family that likely made their own supply? How does the miracle of the wine at the wedding of Cana change how you think of Jesus and His miraculous abundance? ~ Devotionals Daily |
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Wine invites us into a full-bodied story of our faith |
Cup Overflowing: Wine’s Place in Faith, Feasting, and Fellowship |
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Wine is the most talked-about food in the Bible, and yet western Christianity has largely neglected this important biblical theme and fragrant gift of God.
Have you ever wondered what Jesus would drink? Was his family perhaps involved in growing vines and making wine? What would their family celebrations have been like? And what might this tell us about God and how he wants us to live today? Food and wine have become such hot topics in our culture, and yet there is so much confusion and ambivalence around it as well. We are so far removed from the world of the Bible and the agrarian life that it represents. It is hard to envision the farms and fruit orchards, the village wells and sheep herds, the olive groves and vineyards that Jesus would have walked by every day.
Drawing on her upbringing in a long-standing family tradition of winemakers and her degrees in biblical studies and spiritual theology, Gisela Kreglinger introduces readers in a light-hearted way to the theme of wine in the Bible, throughout the history of the church, and in the church's feasting and fellowship today. She also addresses how many Christians are fearful or concerned about wine because of the challenges of alcohol abuse, how to nurture a culture of healing from such disorders, and how we are called to celebrate God's gift of wine to grow into a fuller understanding of the gospel as we await the return of the Bridegroom, Jesus Christ. In this book, Gisela shows Christians that wine is a gift from God that we are to receive with gratitude and enjoy in wholesome, communal, and redemptive ways.
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EARN DOUBLE POINTS THROUGH 1/10 |
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Features include: -
Instructions for holding a wine tasting as a spiritual practice.
- A biblical and theological reflection on the "True Vine" of John 15.
- A discussion guide for developing a healthy drinking culture.
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I Want to Trust You, But I Don't Online Bible Study |
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