Anchor My Faith

Travel to Cana

Scripture: John 2:1-2

With this lesson we begin a new section of study which will focus on the wedding that took place at Cana in Galilee, but before we go there, let us travel along with Jesus and the disciples from where John was baptizing to where Jesus lived in Nazareth.

Looking at the map above, imagine that we are going to travel with Jesus from just north of the Dead Sea up to Nazareth and then to Cana. From the map we can see that our walk will not be on level ground and will require some effort. As we travel with Jesus, who else will be with us?

In previous lessons we kept track of days. On day 3 John the Baptist identified Jesus as the Lamb of God to two of his disciples. They immediately left John and went and followed Jesus. One of the two was Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother. The other unnamed follower is assumed to be John the gospel writer. Andrew goes to get his brother Simon and brings his to Jesus. Jesus renames him Peter. We now have three men with Jesus: Andrew, John and Peter. The four of them are probably staying at the home of a friend of Jesus, someplace north of the Dead Sea.

The next day, which is day 4, Jesus finds Philip and decided to travel to Galilee. It is assumed the four disciples of Jesus travel with him because they will attend the wedding with him and Philip, Andrew and Peter live further north in Bethsaida. After several days of travel, they arrive in Cana. Philip finds Nathanael and brings him to Jesus. Jesus now has five unofficial disciples.

We are now ready for the wedding. “On the third day there was a wedding at Cana in Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there. Jesus also was invited to the wedding with his disciples” (John 2:1 – 2 ESV). The “third day,” appears to be day 7 on our count, with days 4, 5 and 6 being travel days. Philip probably finds Nathanael on day 6 or early on day 7.

In our next lesson, we will join Jesus, his five disciples and Mary and see some unusual things happen. Rest well tonight; our journey along the gospel path has been tiring the last few days.

Prayer

Father, after several days of praying and thinking, I hope the story of Jesus traveling to Cana is accurate and meaningful. I pray that the timeline in the story is accurate and that the map helps see the difficulty of travel from north of the Dead Sea to Cana. Before now I have not understood how the story flows so smoothly from meeting the first two disciples to being at the wedding with five. I feel like I have experienced this adventure with Jesus as a result of this study.