On the Third Day

‘On the third day there was a Wedding at Cana in Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there (John 2).’

An enormous amount of water – the equivalent of over 900 bottles of 750ml – is miraculously transformed into wine.

Psalm 103 tells us that ‘God made wine to cheer our hearts.’ Do we need any more convincing that our salvation should make us the most joyful of people?

In John 1 we have a ‘countdown of days’:

Day 1, John the Baptist denies that he is the Messiah.

Day 2, John the Baptist points out Jesus, the Lamb of God.

Day 3, Andrew and John follow Jesus at the Baptist’s prompting. Andrew communicates the ‘good news’ to his brother Peter. He, too, follows.

Day 4, Philip follows Jesus and Philip finds Nathanael and he becomes a disciple.

Then John 2 opens with, ‘On the third day.’

What are we to make of this?

Maybe John is wanting us to add four to three to get the biblically perfect number of seven? His prologue in John 1 has the same accent as Genesis 1. With Christ, we have a new creation. A possible, plausible interpretation. Hold it in the heart.

Most commentators direct our attention to Exodus 19. God commands Moses to climb Mount Sinai and ‘on the third day’ God promises to appear. The phrase, ‘on the third day’ is repeated four times.

God goes ahead and appears ‘on the third day.’

John has given us four days of partial revelation and then ‘on the third day’ the fullness of revelation – through the intercession of the Mother of Jesus – so much so, that upon the transformation of water into wine, we have the exclamation:

This, the first of his signs, Jesus did at Cana in Galilee, and manifested his glory. And his disciples believed in him.

Whereas the revelation to Moses was in a remote place and fantastically terrifying, Jesus reveals himself in an intimate setting, one that is profoundly human.

That we should be attentive to ‘intimate and human’ revelations during the course of our days is reinforced in the Gospel of John.

On Day 3, Andrew and John ask Jesus, ‘Where are you staying?’ He says, ‘Come and you will see.’

On Day 4, Philip says to Nathanael, ‘Come and see.’

Hardly remote and terrifying.

Then, if we move to John 20 and John 21, we witness the resurrection scenes.

They, too, are intimate and profoundly human.

Thus ‘on the third day,’ we are offered an invitation from Jesus.

Best to respond immediately.

Amen.