03.06. THE RESTORATION OF MARRIAGE - John 2:1-11
THE RESTORATION OF MARRIAGE - John 2:1-11 THE FALL INTO SIN AND MARRIAGE BREAKDOWN
After their fall into sin, Adam and Eve soon learned that the effects of sin were all pervasive. Not a single created thing declared good by God remained unaffected. The high ideal of marriage as described in Genesis 2:1-25 was no exception.
Immediately in Genesis 3:1-24 we learn something about how devastating the effect of the fall was on marriage. Before their fall, Adam and Eve had worked side by side. But directly after their fall, when God called them to account for their disobedience, they no longer found themselves standing side by side; rather, they stood over against each other. As Adam spoke to God those offending words – “The woman whom You gave to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I ate” - we can see in the eye of our mind his accusing finger directed at his wife. All unity and communion between husband and wife was broken. Here was only disunity.
We live as sinful people in a broken world. To our bitter disappointment, we experience in our marriages the same accusing finger described in Genesis 3:1-24. In view of that brokenness we wonder whether the ideal of Genesis 2:1-25 is still normative for us today. Truly, are God’s principles for marriage as taught in Genesis 2:1-25 still relevant for our marriages today?!
CHRIST’S REDEEMING WORK AND THE RESTORATION OF MARRIAGE
Directly after quoting from Genesis 2:1-25, the Marriage Form makes mention of the Lord Jesus Christ. We read: “Also, our Lord Jesus Christ honoured marriage when He revealed His glory at the marriage feast at Cana.” The reference here is to John 2:1-11, The Form would have us know that Jesus Christ, by honouring marriage in Cana, upholds the norm of Genesis 2:1-25 - despite the fall of Genesis 3:1-24. The relevant passage from John’s gospel reads like this:
“On the third day there was a wedding in Cana of Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there. Now both Jesus and His disciples were invited to the wedding. And when they ran out of wine, the mother of Jesus said to Him, “They have no wine.” Jesus, said to her, “Woman, what does your concern have to do with Me? My hour has not yet come.” His mother said to the servants, “Whatever He says to you, do it.” Now there were set there six water pots of stone, according to the manner of purification of the Jews, containing twenty or thirty gallons apiece. Jesus said to them, “Fill the water pots with water.” And they filled them up to the brim. He said to them, “Draw some out now, and take it to the master of the feast.” And they took it. When the master of the feast had tasted the water that was made wine, and did not know where it came from (but the servants who had drawn the water knew), the master of the feast called the bridegroom. And he said to him, “Every man at the beginning sets out the good wine, and when the guests have well drunk, then the inferior. You have kept the good wine until now!” This beginning of signs Jesus did in Cana of Galilee, and manifested His glory; and His disciples believed in Him. After this He went down to Capernaum, He, His mother, His brothers, and His disciples; and they did not stay there many days. “
John writes that this was the “beginning of signs Jesus did” (John 2:11). One wonders why Jesus chose a marriage feast as the setting and focus of His first sign. From Genesis 1:1-31 and Genesis 2:1-25 it is clear that marriage is a fundamental component of human life; God created man male and female and united the first Man and the first Woman in holy wedlock. Sin placed the husband and wife, over against each other, and so corrupted that fundamental component of society. The Son of God came to earth in order “to save His people from their sins” (Matthew 1:21), and that includes undoing the devastating consequences of sin. As marriage is mentioned directly in the beginning of God’s work with man (Genesis 1:1-31 and Genesis 2:1-25), so marriage receives a place directly in the beginning of Jesus’ redeeming work among men (John 2:1-25). Through His work at the marriage in Cana, the Lord Jesus Christ demonstrated that He was restoring life -including marriage- to its original glory. That message is evident on two fronts.
1. The Fall into Sin and Shortage
Wedding feasts in Jesus’ day were lengthier and more elaborate than the marriage celebrations with which we are familiar, sometimes lasting a full week. Towards the end of this particular celebration, there was no more wine to be served; supplies had run out. Shortage, a lack, can only be contributed to sin, for Paradise knew no shortage. Here is a practical taste of God’s curse on man after the Fall: “Cursed is the ground/or your sake; in toil you shall eat of it all the days of your life. Both thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you ... In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread...” (Genesis 3:17-19). From: now on there’s a struggle to get adequate; shortage underlines the reality of the Fall. At the wedding in Cana there was a shortage. Here was concrete evidence of the effects of the fall into sin. What, now, does the Lord do? He turns water into wine. Note first the quantity of wine: there were six water vessels, each containing twenty to thirty gallons (90 - 130 litres) of water. Jesus turned no less than 550-800 litres of water into wine! Why such an abundance of Wine, one wonders?
2. The Messianic Era and Abundance In the Old Testament, the Messianic era is characterised as a time of abundance. The following Scripture texts express this abundance by way of plentiful supplies of wine:
Genesis 49:10-11 The passage relates Jacob’s blessing upon Judah, that favoured son from whom the Saviour (Shiloh) would come. Notice how His time would be characterized by abundance; wine would be so plentiful that it would be used to wash clothes.
“The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh comes; and to Him shall be the obedience of the people. Binding his donkey to the vine, and his donkey’s colt to the choice vine, he washed his garments in wine, and his clothes in the blood of grapes.”
“Behold, the days are coming,” says the LORD, “When the plowman shall overtake the reaper, and the treader of grapes him who sows seed; the mountains shall drip with sweet wine, and all the hills shall flow with it. I will bring back the captives of My people Israel; ... they shall plant vineyards and drink wine from them....” So abundant shall the crop be that the harvesters cannot get it off the land before the plowman wants to put the next crop in.
“Therefore they shall come and sing in the height of Zion, streaming to the goodness of the LORD- for wheat and new wine and oil, for the young of the flock and the herd; Their souls shall be like a well-watered garden, and they shall sorrow no more at all.”
People will come streaming to God’s goodness and it goes without saying that to cater for many people one needs plentiful supplies. And the supply will meet the need: Jeremiah prophesies of a time of rejoicing, laughter and abundant supplies of wheat, new wine and oil; these are all signs of God’s goodness. The Lord made so much wine at the wedding reception because He wanted to drive home that the time of the Messiah had come. What Jesus did at that marriage feast served as a fulfilment of the Old Testament prophecy concerning Him. The Saviour had arrived. He had come to undo the results of sin! This becomes even more evident when we note the quality of the wine Jesus supplied. In John 2:10 we read how the Master of Ceremonies dresses down the bridegroom for having saved the best wine till the end: “Every man at the beginning sets out the good wine, and when the guests have well drunk, then the inferior. You have kept the good wine until now!” This is a throw back to God’s evaluation of His creative deeds at the beginning: Every day He assessed what He had made and “saw that it was good” On the last day, the sixth day, when God created man and woman and instituted marriage, God saw that “indeed it was very good.” Jesus got to work at the marriage feast in Cana and directly His work was characterized as being as good as God’s work at creation. That is to say: Christ repaired the damage caused by the fall into sin, and His work was assessed as “good” Christ’s recreating work is as good as God’s creating work!
Christ’s Gospel for Marriage In Christ’s actions at the wedding feast in Cana lies the gospel for marriage (an institution foundational to life) and hence the gospel for all of life. At the beginning of His work, Christ showed what He was going to do on the cross; He would conquer sin. Indeed, He would wash sin away by His blood and renew sinners by His Holy Spirit. His work would affect marriage also so that the unity between husband and wife (Genesis 2:1-25), once destroyed by sin (Genesis 3:1-24), could be restored. That is why the Scriptures, though they know so well of the damage done to marriage by the fall into sin, continue to insist that husband and wife live according to the norms of Genesis 2:1-25. Consider the high ideal set out by Paul for the husband:
“Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her, that He might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word, that He might present her to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she would be holy and without blemish. So husbands ought to love their own wives as their own bodies; he who loves his wife loves himself” (Ephesians 5:25-28).
Equally, Christ enables the wife to submit to her husband. Consider the virtuous wife portrayed in Proverbs 31:12, “She does him good and not evil all the days of her life.” Her attitude is one of self-denial for the benefit of her husband: the unity of Genesis 2:1-25 restored. The instruction of Paul gives the same message: “Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord. For the husband is head of the wife, as also Christ is head of the church; and He is the Saviour of the body. Therefore, just as the church is subject to Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in everything” (Ephesians 5:24).
Thanks to Christ’s work on earth, the standard of Genesis 2:1-25 remains. In the strength of the Spirit of Christ, husband and wife can begin to live together again according to the wonderful ideal as God intended it in the beginning. In the midst of the brokenness we see and experience in marriage, this is the gospel to which we may cling.