John 2 - NIV Quest Study Bible

In Jewish society, wine was closely associated with prosperity, celebration and joy (Dt 14:26; Ps 104:15), and certainly a wedding was such an occasion. Running out of wine was an embarrassing social blunder that did not bode well for the marriage being celebrated.No. Jesus was reminding her that it was not yet time for people to know his true identity. Her reply and her directions to the servants indicate that she understood his desire to keep his identity concealed and that she trusted his sense of timing.My hour refers to Jesus’ coming death. Both here and later in John, Jesus clearly stated that the time for him to be revealed as the Messiah and crucified as the sacrificial Lamb had not yet arrived. Completely in tune with the will of God, Jesus was waiting for the right moment to fulfill the purpose for which God had sent him into the world.All the Gospels give details of Jesus’ cleansing of the temple (Mt 21:12 – 16; Mk 11:15 – 18; Lk 19:45 – 47), but the first three seem at odds with John’s chronology. Some suggest Jesus cleansed the temple twice, although others say the controversy stirred by his actions would have ensured that the incident was not repeated. Some believe John was less concerned about the accuracy of the chronology and more interested in portraying Jesus as the Messiah. See the article Why do details sometimes differ from one Gospel account to another? (Mk 1:12 – 13).Everyone who worshiped in the temple at Jerusalem was required to present an unblemished sacrifice and pay the annual head tax using temple currency. The priests refused to accept foreign currency so that they could exchange travelers’ money at exorbitant rates. They also regularly rejected any animal that wasn’t purchased at the temple (at inflated prices). Such exploitation under the guise of proper worship of God rightly made Jesus angry. See How had the temple (God’s house) become a den of robbers? (Mt 21:13).It was common in Old Testament times for prophets to prove their authenticity by performing a miracle. This established that they were sent by God. Yet Jesus was reluctant to perform miracles for skeptics. Instead he offered a puzzling statement about destroying and raising this temple (i.e., his body), which referred to his future death and resurrection, as the only miracle they needed to see to believe he was the Messiah (vv. 19 – 21).Jesus’ ability to perform miracles made him popular with the people. But he knew that his plans would ultimately not line up with their expectations. The people expected the Messiah to be a political and military figure who would lead Israel to independence from Rome. Jesus’ purpose was to establish an everlasting spiritual kingdom (Lk 17:20 – 21). He didn’t want people thinking of him merely as an earthly ruler or political activist.