Jesus' First Miracle: Turning Water into Wine at Cana
1. Cana would become the site of Jesus' first two miracles in Galilee. In the first, He would provide wine for a wedding (John 2:1-11). (See In-Depth Article: Water into Wine at Cana in Galilee) In the second, Jesus would heal a boy in Capernaum, home of John and James, twenty miles away on the shore of the Sea of Galilee, while remaining in Cana (John 4:46-54).
2. From Capernaum, Jesus went up to Jerusalem for the first Passover of His public ministry (John 2:13-25). There, He evicted the moneychangers and others who were occupying the Court of the Gentiles, the only part of the Temple Mount that Gentiles could enter to worship. Here He performed His first public sign miracles. One evening He had a remarkable conversation with Nicodemus, a notable Pharisee and member of the Sanhedrin (John 3:1-21).
3. After ministry with His disciples in Judea (John 3:22-30), He led them back to Galilee. To their surprise, He took the direct route up north on the old "Patriarch's Highway" to those historic mountains, Ebal and Gerizim. After two-days of cross-cultural evangelism and teaching among Samaritans (John 4:5-43), they continued northwards, probably passing through Ginae and then out onto the Plain of Megiddo. Perhaps they stopped in Nazareth on the way, then continued northward across the Bet Netofa Valley to Cana. If Jesus' interest in this town had seemed unusual before, now His disciples would be doubly bewildered. This time, there was not even a wedding scheduled!
Jesus' Second Miracle in Cana: Healing of an Officer's Son (in Capernaum)
1. Meanwhile, an official of the court of Herod Antipas, who lived at Capernaum, was faced with an impending tragedy: his son was dying (46-49). The Galileans who had just returned from Passover had brought back amazing reports of how a Galilean Rabbi had healed people in Jerusalem (John 4:43-45). Although this Rabbi had left Capernaum for Jerusalem some weeks before, it became apparent that He was not going to return there. When the official heard that the Healer had been seen on His way to Cana, he hurried there and waited for the Rabbi to arrive. John records the Capernaum-Cana connection, "He came therefore to Cana of Galilee where He had made the water to wine. And there was a certain royal official, whose son was sick at Capernaum" (John 4:46). When they met, the Servant of God and the servant of Herod, Jesus responded to the plea of the distraught father and healed his son in Capernaum.
2. In a scenario reminiscent of the water-to-wine miracle, Jesus simply said, "Go your way; your son lives" (John 4:50). In neither case was the miracle visible to the immediate audience, the water changing to wine and the son rising from his bed. As Jesus had demonstrated in His first miracle at Cana that He was Lord of time, now He showed that He was Lord of space. As He could create good wine in a moment, so He could reverse a fatal disease twenty miles away with a word! Again, Jesus had chosen this little town of Cana, Nathanael's home, in which He performed two very different, but significant signs. The first He did for the benefit of wedding guests who never knew who did it nor why; the second He did for a government official in Capernaum where he could not immediately see the result. There was a planned sequence in Jesus' self-revelation, first to His disciples and then to the people of Capernaum, where He would soon be living.
http://www.ancientsandals.com/overviews/cana.htm.................................
question is : how will the fundies spin this one....
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