The Gospel of John; A Wedding in Cana
Continued from the prior post on The Gospel of John: Promises and Signs. Final update 2/12/11.
Wedding at Cana, by Carl Bloch.
John 2: 1-11. Then, on the third day there was a wedding in Cana, in Galilee, and Jesus’ mother was there. Both Jesus and his students were invited as well. When the party fell short of wine, Jesus’ mother turned to him and said, “They have run out of wine.” Jesus replied, “Yes, Ma’am, but what has this got to do with you and I? It is not my wedding.”
His mother said to the servants, “Whatever my son asks of you, please do.” There were six stone waterpots sitting nearby, which were used for Jewish purification rites, and held about nine gallons each. Jesus said to them, fill the waterpots with water and so the servants filled them to the brim. Then he directed them to carry the waterpots out to the table master.
The table master tasted the wine without knowing where it had come from. (But the servants that had drawn the water knew its origin). The table master spoke to the groom saying, “Most men serve the best wine first and hold the lesser vintage back until the guests are pretty well drunk – but you have kept the best wine for last!”
This was the very first sign brought about by Jesus, in Cana, Galilee. In doing so he realized the presence of Love in himself and his students perceived this Truth within him.
So the narrative of John the disciple continues; on the third day there was a wedding in Cana, Galilee….
In the “Signs Gospel” of John the tendency out of a religious point of view is to treat its multiple sections as discreet. So here the first part of this Gospel, the Logos song, is seen as a high Christology, likely pulled from an earlier time and put to use by John as a statement of theology. The remainder of John, chapter one, then tells of the gathering of the students that are called by their master. In John, chapter two, we begin to follow the master as he teaches and is revealed as a son of God through the working of miracles. Miracles, then, are seen by the religious as the manifestation of the power of God coming from outside the world, legitimizing the Son.
For the Seeker, the power of the Gospel of John, at least in the earliest chapters, is the way in which the promise of the Song of John is revealed in signs pointing to the manifestation of Love. This is the promise of that Song, that a new way that has been made:
[We] are never separate from the Mind of God –
and this realization will unfold in his presence…
Each step of the way, the Seeker experiences the Signs Gospel as the unfolding realization that is remembering oneself as never having been separate from the presence of God. It is Jesus that carries this process of realization into fruition in the world.
At its highest level, the Signs Gospel remains the call of Love to its creation. In the impenetrable darkness of despair the Creator is not absent or outside of the self. It calls to us always, and when we cannot hear that call a new path will always be made. It takes no special skill, nor divine appointment, to perceive the presence of God in the world, in the self. When God is in the world and in us, never separate, then everything is a sign of that presence. This is why the word semeion, “sign,” is used by author of the first few chapters of the Gospel of John. He could have used the word for “miracle,” dynamis, and that he did not is critical to the understanding of this part of the gospel.
Accordingly, we read “The Wedding in Cana” in this way; it is the third day. A day of completion, when the promise of God is fulfilled. It is not resurrection that has been promised to the Seeker, rather it is realization. So how does the Seeker read the Wedding at Cana?
The simple theme is that of the celebration that is reunion with God. Even for a master, there is that last moment of doubt, that last hesitation of the small “s” self that says, “Is it my time — am I ready to take this last step?” Wine moves through this story, as it does in all mystical literature, as the metaphor for God. For the wedding party, which represents the religious individuals, one can fall short, one can run out of wine/God. There must be meticulous preparation in order to maintain the supply at a sufficient level. The mother of Jesus stands in for the nature of the demands of family and the world. She releases him from the hold of expectations, from doubts and hesitation, she hands him into service to the greater good.
Ritual water pots, which represent the external nature of the divine and the right order that religion requires for salvation in the world, have their function inverted. Now they are filled with water up to the brim and taken to the table master; the authority-in-the-world. When it is poured, the water is now wine, transformed – and not any wine, but the best wine, saved for last – the ultimate ablution. Neither the table master, nor the wedding party has any idea what the source of the wine is. The servants know the source of the wine for they have filled and carried the water pots; they have borne the burden of walking in the world as vessels of faith and service. In the presence of Jesus all now experience the wine/God, even those that do not understand its true nature. And so, just as in the parable of the Vineyard, or the Prodigal Son, all are included, accepted, loved.
This, we are told, is the arche semeion, the very first sign. Just as the Song of John begins en arche – at the very moment of creation. We remember that the kingdom of heaven is “now” and “here” — Jesus becomes himself the sign of being in that now/here that is the first step in remembering, and his students perceive within him the fulfillment of the Promise in which they now share:
Jhn 1:16 The light streaming from his presence
will seize hold of everyone; and we will remember
that His light is our own, and in this way
Love is the cause of love.
If we hold the Wedding in Cana up to the Song of John, we understand it as the sign of the manifestation of the new promise of God. This is the new arche, the new beginning, as Jesus carries within himself the Design of Love and through his presence all are able to remember that they have never been separate from God. Some will perceive the source of the wine/God, and some will not. But the celebration of finding that which was lost, of the reunion of Groom/god and Bride/self, of realization, is never ending.
There is also another level of understanding built into this metaphor which has to do with the more or less “private” nature of the Signs Gospel. Many of the miracle stories occur in a context in which only the students of Jesus really experience the fullness of the “sign.” In this aspect of the Gospel we see Jesus teaching those in the inner circle; the students who have “heard” the many levels of message they were offered. It is no different with the Wedding in Cana, but here the message speaks directly to the work these students will do.
God is not separate from the Self; this is the lesson that Jesus taught. Our eyes see stone jars filled with water, but the eyes deceive us. It is the inward sight that comes from re-union with the Divine that sees clearly. And so the water is wine, just as all individuals are part of the Divine. But for the students of Jesus the metaphor runs deeper. The stone jars are the individual human being, the body made of earth. From within the body, if you will but perceive it correctly, is the Light that is truly who we are, and just as each jar will pour out the wine, so will the self will pour forth the Light. You have only to “decant” that precious cargo and it is there for all to experience. Once the wine is served, all who attend the wedding partake of it. It is the finest vintage and each will experience its fullness without necessarily knowing the vineyard from which the grapes were harvested. But they will begin to seek that vineyard out, to taste that wine again, and they will talk about it with others.
For the students of Jesus, each is in a place of realization. Jesus has shown them that they are also part of the Divine, that they are no less filled with Light than is he. That they are able to perceive the signs around them of the Mind of God just as he does. Here, at the wedding in Cana, such perception comes of remembering that you are also part of the Divine, that the Kingdom of Heaven is always “now.” So, when you are on the hillside and there are endless baskets of fishes and loaves, this is the sign that in the Mind of God, there are no limitations, there is no lack. When Lazurus is raised from the dead, it is to say, remember, in the reality of the union with God, there is no death or decay. When the child of the Centurian, who is a hundred miles away, is cured, it is to illustrate that there is no “distance” in unity. When the boat upon which Jesus and the disciples journey moves instantly to land, there is no “time” either. These are the signs, the confirmation, of the oneness of Being. This is realization, this is remembering.
Seekers answer the call of their Ground of Being and are charged to carry the Light into the world: in this way, love continues to be the cause of love. This is the Wedding in Cana and it stands as the paradigm of realization.
This ends discourse on the Gospel of John.
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* See Endnotes: The role of the mother of Jesus.
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Copyright 2011 by Kathryn Neall . All rights reserved. Please do not reproduce these articles in whole or part, in any form, without first obtaining my written permission. Thank you.
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On The Path of the Adept 