Where: Cana, which is very close to Jesus’ hometown of Nazareth, just west of the Sea of Galilee
When: On 3rd day after his baptism/kick-off of his public ministry – so this must be immediately after his being tempted by Satan in the wilderness
Verse 11 says this is the beginning of his signs/miracles. John 20:30 (next to last chapter in John) just after the last recorded miracle, says “Many other signs therefore Jesus also performed in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book;” so everything between 1:11 and 20:30 are a list of Jesus’ miracles given for the purpose of the next verse:
John 20:31 “…but these have been written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing you may have life in His name.”
So the purpose of John is to tell people how to have eternal life – which is by believing Jesus’ promise to give it. Gee, that is so much simpler than the man-made “plan of salvation” or “being good” or “not being TOO bad.” Those aren’t even measurable, so using those ideas mean nobody would ever know if they have eternal life!
1:3-4 has puzzled me. Jesus’ mother wants Him to perform a miracle, something that He’s never done as a man (that’s recorded anyway). So she must know that His public tour has begun. Jesus acts like He doesn’t want to do it, but then does it anyway. Why doesn’t He want to do it? Why does He give in if He doesn’t want to do it? The other side of the coin is that God usually doesn’t force Himself on people, so maybe He was waiting on a request in order to begin?
Then his family goes to Capernaum, which is on the north side of the Sea of Galilee. The Passover is at hand – so Jesus’ public ministry began with a Passover, had 2 more, and ended with a Passover = 3 years. He clears out the temple on this first Passover and another gospel records that he cleared out the temple on His last Passover. He has passion for his Father’s house! And at this point the temple still had the presence of the Holy Spirit.
