[446] John i. 31. “And I knew him not; but that he should be made manifest to Israel,” &c. This may seem strange that John did not know Jesus, seeing the families were so related; Elisabeth, his mother, being cousin to the Virgin Mary, and they were intimately acquainted one with another, and at the very time of their pregnancy, when the child of each had been already conceived, and both were thoroughly acquainted with the miraculous circumstances of each other’s conception, and what the children were that they had conceived, and to what end they were to come into the world; and conversed together of these things. Soon after Christ’s birth, he was conveyed away privately by his parents into Egypt, for fear of Herod, and probably nobody knew where they were gone, or what was become of them. There it is supposed that he remained in Egypt until the death of Herod; and Archelaus his son, reigning in his stead in the province of Judea, and manifesting by some bloody acts in the beginning of his reign, the like tyrannical disposition with his father, Joseph and Mary returned from Egypt, we may suppose, as privately as they could, into Nazareth, an obscure city in Galilee the province of Herod Antipas. And as to John the Baptist, when Herod massacred the infants at Bethlehem, his malice proceeded as far as the hill-country; for having heard great things of John, the son of Zechariah, he sent one of his messengers of death to despatch him. The care of his mother prevented the design, by flying with him into the wilderness, or unfrequented parts of the country, on the south side of the river Jordan. It is recorded by Nicephorus, lib. i. cap. 14. that he was about eighteen months old when he was conveyed into this sanctuary, that forty days after his mother died, and near the same time his father Zechariah was killed in the court of the temple. [There is an account of these things in Reading’s Evangelical History of Christ, chap. vii. viii ix. x.] However, thus much seems manifest from the Scripture, that John’s parents were both old when he was born, and therefore we may well suppose that they did not live long after, so that he could not be led by them into personal acquaintance with Jesus; and it is also manifest that John was from his infancy in the desert, in a hidden, secret state of life, even unto the day when he began his public ministry; (Luke i. 80.)and that there he lived so much separated from the rest of the Jews, and from the society of mankind, that he lived on the spontaneous productions of the uncultivated desert, his meat being locusts and wild honey, and his garment nothing but camels’ hair, girt about him with a girdle of skin, Matt. iii. 4. Mark i. 6. And so when he began to preach it was in the borders of the wilderness, where he had lived all his days, Matt. iii. 1, 3. Mark i. 4. Luke iii. 2, 4. Therefore Christ says to the multitudes concerning John, “What went ye out into the wilderness for to see?” Matt. xi 7. Luke vii. 24.
Things being thus, it is not to be wondered at that John had never seen Jesus, who lived obscurely so remote from him, and that he knew not where he was, or how to find him, till God showed him to him.
[368] John ii. 1, 2. Concerning the marriage at Cana of Galilee. The company here at this wedding may represent the church of Christ, who are often represented as the guests called together to a marriage feast. Jesus, and his mother, and his disciples were there; thus it is in the church. The former circumstances of the marriage, wherein they wanted wine, represent the state of the church before Christ came, or rather before the evangelical dispensation was established. The latter state of the wedding, wherein they had plenty of wine, represents the latter state of the church after the glorious pouring out of the Spirit at Pentecost, and especially after the fall of antichrist. The wine represents the spiritual supplies of his church, the grace and comforts of the Holy Spirit, which are often represented by wine in Scripture. Their wine ran low and was just out; so formerly the Old-Testament church had a supply of wine; but when Christ came into the world it was just out, they had in a manner no wine. But when Christ came and ascended up to heaven, he soon gave his church plenty of wine, and much better wine than ever the Jewish church had enjoyed, as it is said, “Thou hast kept the best wine until now.” So again, before the glorious times of the church commence, the church’s wine runs very low, and is almost out; what they allay with is water; human learning, sapless speculations and disputations, and dead morality. Formerly the Christian church had wine, as in the times of the primitive church, and in the times of the reformation, but now their wine is just gone. But after the beginning of these glorious times their water shall be turned into wine, and much better wine than ever they had before. The mother of Jesus may represent the more eminent ministers of the gospel, or the public ecclesiastical authority as exercised in synods, public schools, &c. They in a dark and dead time of the church complain to Christ of their unsuccessfulness, of the want of wine in the church, and look to him for a supply, but must not expect an answer till Christ’s time is come; their prayers are not answered till then, and then they shall be fully answered; their prayers are not rejected, they are offered up with incense, the cries of the souls under the altar that cry, “How long, Lord, holy and true!” are not rejected; but yet it is said to them that they should wait till God’s time comes. The servants represent gospel ministers, they have a command from Jesus’s mother, i. e. from the church in her public authority, to do whatsoever Jesus commands. Whence we may note that the way to have a plentiful effusion of the Spirit with his word and ordinances, is to be faithful in their work. They are to fill up the water-pots of purification with water; that is all that they can do. They can in the use of the ordinances of God’s house, and the appointed means of grace and purification, be instant in season and out of season; they can fill the water-pots up to the brim; they can be abundant in preaching the word, which as it comes only from them is but water, a dead letter, a sapless, tasteless, spiritless thing, but this is what Christ will bless for the supplying of his church with wine.