John 2:12

“After this he went down to Capernaum, with his mother and his brothers and his disciples, and they stayed there for a few days.”

            This strange sentence comes at the end of the miracle at the wedding at Cana. The reason why I say that it is strange is because it seems to have no connection with what comes before and what comes after—at least in terms of importance. What John just wrote about was Jesus’s first known miracle where He seems to make water from wine without so much as a wave of a hand or a word spoken. Now, after this wedding John seems to be making a point to mention that Jesus, His disciples, and His mother go down to Cana. This establishes a couple things. First off, it establishes where Jesus’s ministry would be headquartered for the rest of His ministry, and it also gives more life to the gospel as location is used multiple times to give weight to what is said. These are not just stories in a vacuum but actual places where Jesus would stay which helps connect what time period we are in. This is helpful considering John’s gospel is not linear and some of the things that happen are not in order as we will see in the next passage.

            Throughout Jesus’s life there were multiple prophecies being fulfilled, and even in these small sentences that seem to have no bearing on the good news of Jesus, this is fulfilling prophecy from the beginning of Isaiah chapter 9 where it is prophesied that the Messiah would come out of a place like Capernaum. This is John’s way of connecting those prophesies to Jesus—such things as the great light breaking darkness and the joy of the nations. This symbolizes the physical and spiritual start of His earthly ministry.

            These are always important things to look for when reading the Bible which can help us to understand the context. As Jesus moves around it is important to keep Capernaum in mind. He has already been here in chapter 1—this is where He met Peter, Andrew, James, and John the author of the book. This will be where He does much of His healing and this is where we get the first “I am” statement later in the gospel. This sentence gives us a chance to step back and look where John has led us so far in the gospel. He started by showing Jesus before He came to the earth in the form of man and how He was with God and was God. Then we saw how His cousin, John the Baptist, prepared the way for His coming baptizing people in the wilderness like a new Elijah. Then we saw how He came to be baptized and John recognized Him as the son of God. We need to look back and remember those moments when He spoke only a couple words to get those men to drop everything and follow him and didn’t need to say anything to change water to wine. These are not just stories but things that happened which is important to keep in mind as what Jesus does gets even more fantastical.