My first thought was that John 2: 12 is a short, insignificant, meaningless verse in the Bible.
It’s like that computer screen with the twirling circle or the hourglass that appears while you’re waiting for the real work screen to appear. Or in the context of an airline trip, it’s that layover time between flights.
It’s simply a transition from one story to another, in this case from the changing of water into wine story in John 2: 1-11 to the cleansing of the temple story in John 2: 13-17. It’s not the sort of story you’d include in a Bible filled with stories of creation, and mass migrations, and battles, and end of time prophecies.
Which raises an important question: “Why include this little bit of nothing story? It’s a walk with friends from Cana in Galilee to Capernaum on the Sea of Galilee and it’s the 22nd of 229 events in Jesus’ life.”
“After this, He went down to Capernaum, He and His mother, and His brothers and His disciples; and they stayed there a few days.”
— John 2: 12
But this is the Word of God and there are no insignificant stories in the Word of God.
The walk from Cana in the Galilean highlands to Capernaum on the shore of the Sea of Galilee drops 1,700 feet. Cana is 1,000 feet above sea level and Capernaum is 700 feet below sea level.
It’s a bit over 20 miles and about a day’s walk for a healthy traveler. It’s also part of the “Jesus Trail,” which runs 40 miles from Nazareth to Cana and then down to Capernaum.
The section from Cana to Capernaum is the most scenic and challenging part of the trail over the Arbel Cliffs through the Arbel Pass and then past the Horns of Hattin, an extinct volcano, offering a natural pass to the Sea of Galilee across the Plain of Gennesaret.
Then you’d turn northeast through Magdala and Tabgha to Capernaum. Today, it’s about 45 minutes by car down Routes 77 and 90.
But still, “Why tell this insignificant story in the midst of so many significant stories?”
Jesus turned water to wine, walked from Cana to Capernaum, and then drove the moneychangers out of the temple in Jerusalem.
Maybe you remember “Immanuel” from Christmas; it means “God with us.” Jesus didn’t come to change water to wine, feed the crowds, or entertain them with miracles. God took on flesh to live with us, to walk with us, to talk with us, to know us, to save us, and to heal us.
And all that is summed up in John 2: 12!
Charles “Buddy” Whatley is a retired United Methodist pastor serving Dawson Street Methodist Church in Thomasville, Ga. With wife, Mary Ella, they are missionaries to the Navajo Reservation.
