John 2:10Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

It is likely that the bridegroom answered something to the steward's words. But the Evangelist, hastening toward more important matters, touched only on the miracle itself and passed over the rest. It was necessary to know that Christ changed water into wine. But the Evangelist did not consider it necessary to add what the bridegroom said to the steward.

Meanwhile, many miracles, though at first little known in their details, became better known with the passage of time, because those who had been eyewitnesses from the beginning recounted them in all their details.

As Jesus then changed water into wine, so then and now He does not cease to transform the dispositions of weak and distracted people. There are, I say, there are people who differ in nothing from water. They are so cold, so fluid, and firm in nothing.

It is our duty to bring people in such a state to the Lord, so that He may be pleased to impart to their dispositions the quality of wine. Then they will no longer be scattered, but will acquire steadfastness, to the joy of themselves and others.

Who are these cold people, if not those who devote themselves greatly to the affairs of the present life? They do not despise the pleasures of this world, but are lovers of glory and power.

All these things are streams which never stand still, but constantly rush with great force into the abyss. Today a man is rich; tomorrow he is poor. Today he appears with a herald, in a chariot, accompanied by many staff-bearers. The next day he often dwells in prison, yielding this self-deception to another, even against his will.

In the same way, one given over to luxury and satiety, however much he fills his belly, cannot keep this store within himself even for one day. After it is expelled, he is compelled to gather new stores. Thus he differs in nothing from a stream.

As in a stream, one current has scarcely passed before another follows, so here also one food decays and we need another. Such is the nature of worldly things. They never stand still, but always flow and are carried along one after another.

As for the pleasures of sensuality, they not only flow and pass away, but also bring us much disturbance. When people give themselves to them with passion, they weaken even bodily strength and deprive the soul of courage.

The strong current of rivers does not so greatly wash away and collapse the banks as sensuality and satiety undermine all the supports of our health. Go to the hospital and ask about this. There you will learn that almost all diseases arise from this.

A moderate and simple table is the mother of health. Physicians also call it so, recognizing that not eating to fullness is healthy. They say that moderation in food is health, and that scanty food is the mother of health.

If moderation in food is the source of health, it is clear that satiety is the source of illnesses and infirmities. It gives birth to sufferings which exceed even the art of physicians.

Indeed, pains in the feet, pains in the head, eyes, and hands, trembling of the whole body, strokes, jaundice, prolonged acute fevers, and many other diseases usually arise not from abstinence and a prudent way of life, but from gluttony and satiety. This is not the time to list them all.

If you wish also to know the diseases of the soul that arise from this, you will see that greed, fornication, despondency, laziness, lust, and every indecency have their beginning here. The souls of those nourished by such tables are no better than donkeys, so cruelly do these beasts torment them.

Need I speak further of how many sorrows and troubles those given over to satiety receive? It is impossible to count them all. I shall show everything in one chief point: they never enjoy their table with pleasure, not even the most luxurious one.

Temperance is the mother of both health and pleasure. Satiety is the source and root of both diseases and displeasure. Where there is satiety, there can no longer be appetite. Where there is no appetite, can there be pleasure?

Therefore among the poor we find people who are not only more prudent and healthier than the rich, but also have more cheerfulness than they do.

Reflecting on all this, let us flee satiety and drunkenness, not only at the table, but also in all circumstances of life. Instead, let us rather seek spiritual delights. As the prophet says, "Delight yourself in the Lord," for he says, "Delight yourself in the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart" (Ps 36:4).

Then we may taste both present and future good things, by the grace and love for mankind of our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom and with whom be glory to the Father, together with the Holy Spirit, unto the ages of ages. Amen.

For one who spiritually discerns what is said simply and understood by many literally will undoubtedly find excellent wine in this water. This wine is drunk afterward and preserved by Christ the Bridegroom, since the Gospel appeared in the last times.

His wealth did not disdain the poverty of those who could not even provide inferior wine according to the number of those invited. If something from His abundance had not been poured out upon them, they would have risen from the feast thirsty and sorrowful.

In turn, the Lord also invited them to the wedding, just as He Himself had been invited together with His disciples. Yet, although He reclined many times at their table, their souls despised His table, just as their fathers turned away from the manna in the wilderness (Num 11:4-6).

Angels ate at the table of Abraham and Lot (Gen 18:1-8; Gen 19:1-3). So also the Lord did not disdain to eat and drink with them.

They invited Him, and He came to them. But when He invited them, they did not wish to come to His wedding. They called Him, and He did not refuse. He called them, and they refused His feast (Lk 14:15-20).

He honored those who invited Him, but they despised those who invited them. He gave joy to those invited to the wedding, but they killed His servants. He supplied what was lacking at the wedding, but they rejected His whole table.

He gladdened them with good wine. They grieved and angered Him. Instead of the most pleasant wine, they gave Him gall (Mt 27:34) and vinegar (Mt 27:48; Mk 15:36 and others).

When invited, the Lord did not come with the other guests who preceded Him, so that they might consume the first and inferior wine. He came afterward in order to bring with Him the most pleasant wine.

The Lord was invited together with others, because in outward appearance He did not differ from them. Yet He performed a wondrous sign, by which they learned that in His nature He is not equal to them.

For if His appearance led them to think Him equal to them, then at the same time His wondrous sign taught them that He is greater than they.

He silently made water wine, so that His divine silence might turn the steward of the feast into a herald, who joyfully proclaimed this gladness to those reclining at table. For wine by nature gladdens man.

Because His command quickly made wine which surpassed every kind of wine in pleasantness of taste, they asked and inquired, because of its excellence, who its master and maker was.

On the third day, the wedding received with its feast the Victor returning from battle, so as to teach that after victory, joy awaits the victors.

By this occasion it was also clearly shown that Christ, though invited as an outside guest, is in truth the Master of the wedding. For by His word, which completes all that is imperfect, He supplied what was lacking at the wedding.

Moreover, in that miracle the Lord did not produce an entirely new thing, nor did He limit His action to the same old thing as it had been before. He did not give them water to drink instead of wine. Yet He did not pass wholly beyond the bounds of that thing, since He made the wine from water that had already been created.

Thus He did not reveal there a newly created thing, but changed the same former thing. By changing it, He showed Himself to be its Master. By not making it something else, He taught them that it is not despised or rejected by Him.

Likewise, at the end of time, these same creatures will be renewed. For the will which by a single command immediately changed plain water into pleasant wine will be able, at the end of time, to restore to all creation an aspect whose goodness is ineffable.

Finally, He performed this miracle in order to teach, by changing coarse things into attractive things, that they are not evil by nature. Rather, their Creator is wise by nature. He knew that it was necessary to create things for testing and correction, that the righteous might be tried and attain a reward, and that transgressors might be corrected and so receive benefit.

For He who by His command made all-consuming fire from a destroyer into a sweet comforter for the children in the furnace (Dan 3) will at the end of time command harmful things, and they will become useful. He will command evil things, and they will produce joy.

First He accustomed men's mouths to the taste of His wine, so that afterward He might conquer their hearing also, and lead it to receive His sweet teaching.

That is, a preparation.

Literally, "to restore the taste, whose sweetness is ineffable."

That is, for the children in the furnace (Dan 3). See also Jn 6:11.

Drive away from here all evil-minded heretics, useless men who dilute Your Holy Wine with "water." Those who always dilute Your teaching with their own "water" are condemned to the fire of Hades.

But deliver us, Sinless One, from the weeping that will seize us if we hear the same sentence, O merciful God. Do this through the prayers of the holy Virgin and Theotokos, You Who made all things in wisdom.

Therefore Christ Himself did not reveal what had happened to everyone, but only to the one who could understand it better than others. He left the more exact knowledge of the miracle to a later time, after other miracles had been performed.

Then it had to become trustworthy. For that He changed the water into wine, He had the servants as witnesses. That the wine was good, He had the steward of the feast and the bridegroom as witnesses (St. John Chrysostom, Homilies on the Gospel of John, 22).

Even if the steward of the feast used the expression, "when they have drunk freely," one still cannot conclude that the guests were drunk. He was speaking only of the existing custom of not keeping the good wine until the end of the feast, but serving it at the beginning.

Moreover, the Jews were distinguished by moderation in the use of wine, and becoming drunk was considered improper among them. Wine was mostly drunk with water. The family celebrating the wedding was poor and did not have an abundance of wine.

Nor would Jesus Christ have taken part in such a celebration where there were, or could have been, drunken people.

The Evangelist says that by the miracle in Cana Jesus made a beginning of miracles. Therefore the miracle performed in Cana was the first in the series of miracles. Consequently, before this Jesus had not manifested His divine power before men.

Even if the miracle now performed remained unnoticed for the time by the guests, the steward, and the bridegroom, it could not have gone unnoticed by Jesus' disciples. They had fixed all their attention on Him and on His actions.

The Evangelist assures us of this when he says, "and His disciples believed in Him."

With Jesus' return to Galilee, His messianic ministry begins.

"Every man serves the good wine first, and when they have drunk freely, then the inferior. But you have kept the good wine until now."

Although wine was given freely at wedding feasts, excessive drunkenness was considered improper. The Hebrew people were always marked by moderation in the use of wine. One of their favorite parables was the following account of the origin of wine.

When Noah was planting his vineyard, Satan came up to him and asked what he was doing. "I am planting a vineyard," Noah answered.

"Why is that?" "Its fruits, fresh or dried, are sweet and pleasant. We make from it wine, which gladdens the heart of man."

"In that case," said Satan, "I would not mind taking part in the work." "Very well," said Noah.

Then Satan brought into the vineyard a lamb, a lion, a pig, and a monkey. He killed them there and watered the soil with their blood, beneath the roots of the vines.

For this reason, before drinking wine, a man is meek as a lamb. When he drinks moderately, he becomes like a lion and thinks that no one can equal him.

When he drinks too much, he turns into a pig and wallows in the mud. When he drinks still more, he becomes a filthy monkey, staggering from side to side and knowing nothing of what he does.

That is, in this miracle Christ visibly expressed the truth that He came to renew man. He came to regenerate us for the life of the new man, wholly different from the life of the old man.

Each of us receives that old life through natural birth, with inherited sinful corruption passing from Adam to all his descendants.

The old man and the new man do not differ at all by nature. Both have the same bodily constitution, the same outward senses, and the same soul endowed with reason, free will, and the capacity to feel pleasure and pain, love and hatred.

Yet when the life of the one and the other is compared more closely, a striking difference appears. The old man lives only for earth and for himself.

The new man, while living on earth, sighs for heaven and thinks on spiritual things. He prefers the joy of communion with God, in His holy word, in prayer, and in the Mysteries, to everything in the world.

He strives to bring his will into agreement with the will of God. In his deeds he is guided not by self-love, but by zeal for the glory of God and love for his neighbors.

The Lord Jesus has called us precisely to this life of the new man. He came to produce in us this change in our spiritual nature in all its aspects.

For this purpose, a miracle of God's grace must be wrought upon it, like the miracle of changing water into wine.

The whole account of Christ the Savior's visit to the wedding in Cana is not without deep spiritual meaning. First, by His presence at the marriage feast, He sanctified and blessed the conjugal union and the family state in general.

Blessed is celibacy, when those able to receive the unmarried life voluntarily take its vow upon themselves. They do so for greater freedom in serving God and for greater progress in the spiritual life.

The Lord Jesus Himself sanctified this way of life by His own example. Yet He also showed His favor toward married life, deeming the wedding in Cana worthy of His visit.

As the Creator's first act after creating man was to bless him to be fruitful and multiply, so one of the first acts of the Renewer of mankind was to sanctify married life.

Thus the members of a family might also be members of His Church, and the children of natural parents might also be children of God by grace.

Second, at the wedding in Cana of Galilee, Christ condescended to earthly joys and consolations. He even Himself assisted the gladness of the guests, preparing for them, by the power of His omnipotence, wine that gladdens the heart of man.

Such is the spirit of the Gospel teaching in general. It rises up against attachment to earthly pleasures that reaches forgetfulness of God. It opposes a distracted and crudely sensual life.

Yet it is by no means against innocent and quiet earthly joys. But under what conditions can our earthly joys be innocent? Under the same conditions as the gladness of the guests at the wedding in Cana of Galilee was innocent.

Christ's presence among them restrained them from excess in eating and drinking, and from immodest words and movements.

Likewise, our earthly joys will be pure and innocent if we choose them with the thought of Christ. Before allowing ourselves to take part in one amusement or another, we should ask whether it involves violating a commandment of Christ or the Church.

We should ask whether it is timely. For example, is it timely to arrange and attend entertainments on the eve of Sundays and feast days?

And we should sanctify lawful joys permitted to a Christian by the remembrance of Christ. By that remembrance we should restrain ourselves from sinful dissipation.

According to the prediction of Christ the Savior, His second coming will find men unready to meet Him. Then, as in the days before the flood, people will be eating, drinking, marrying, and being given in marriage (Mt 24:38-39).

The misfortune is not that people will eat, drink, and celebrate weddings. It is that, though Christians, they will do all this in forgetfulness of Christ, of their Christian calling, and of their eternal destiny.

They will do it with the carelessness of those before the flood, and perhaps with mockery of warnings against such carelessness.

Is it surprising if, for such careless Christians who are strangers to the fear of God, the second coming of Christ will be as destructive as the flood was for the contemporaries of Noah?

Whoever does not willingly remember Christ, and does not temper his inclination toward earthly pleasures by thinking of Him, will be made to remember Him unwillingly as the strict Judge.

Here one cannot help recalling, with bitter regret, the unchristian character of wedding celebrations in many Christian families.

One cannot but call impious the custom of holding balls after the crowning, with drinking, card playing, and immodest dances. The newlyweds themselves usually take part in these dances.

They do not consider how improper such amusement is after the great Mystery has been performed over them, by which their conjugal union has been sanctified.

Third, Jesus Christ did not immediately fulfill the desire of His most pure Mother concerning help at the wedding in Cana of Galilee. He told Her that His hour had not yet come.

If He so responded to the desire of a Being most pure and most holy, is it any wonder if He sometimes acts likewise toward us sinners when we ask Him for help?

As we make Him wait long for our repentance and conversion, so He does not always quickly heed our prayers to Him, or the prayers of others for us.

He wants us not only to nourish a humble sense of dependence on Him and to turn to Him with hope in prayer for help. He also wants us to learn patience in prayer and surrender to His holy will.

He wants us to become accustomed to loving Him not only when He shows clear signs of His favor toward us, but also when He seems to turn His face away from us.

We ourselves are not always ready to receive from God the mercy for which we ask Him. Rain is useful for the soil not when it has not yet been freed from snow and ice, but when it has been warmed by the sun's rays.

Likewise, the goodness of God finds sufficient receptivity only in hearts warmed by love for God.

Fourth, the steward of the feast at the wedding in Cana of Galilee said that guests are first served good wine, and when they have drunk freely, then inferior wine is served.

Is this not an image of the fate of those who love the world? As long as they have something to live on, the world gives them a full cup of its comforts and joys.

It surrounds them with flatterers and admirers. It clouds their heads with praise of their supposed merits, both of soul and body.

Yet it ends with the lover of the world either becoming sated and falling from satiety into boredom and despair, or falling into poverty through extravagance.

In that poverty his supposed friends abandon him. They valued not him, but his hospitality.

Like the prodigal son in the parable, brought to the necessity of feeding on swine's food, he drinks to death the bitter cup of every deprivation.

And it is still well if this poverty and grief turn him, like the prodigal son, to repentance and through repentance lead him to the Lord.

But it also happens that lovers of the world, abandoned by the world and deprived of human sympathy, do not seek consolation in God, and so they die.

Truly, after sweet and costly wine, they must drink only what is bitter and worthless.

Thus the world acts toward its pitiable worshipers. But Christ, the Bridegroom of the Church, does not act so toward souls betrothed to Him.

The more devoted they are to Him, the more they must drink from the cup of sorrows. The more crosses they must bear in the struggle against temptations from the world, the flesh, and the devil.

Yet as He Himself reached glory by the way of the cross, so glorification is prepared in the heavens, in the Kingdom of Heaven, for His followers who share with Him the sufferings of this present life.

There He promised to drink with them the new wine of eternal joy, which never diminishes (Mk 14:25).