The Wedding at Cana: Part 2

The Purpose of the Wedding Sign in John

What I'd like to do is conclude this two-part series here on the wedding of Canaan. And what we have before us is a wonderful story of a wedding, but it's more than just a story that's being told. It is a reality, and it's also a great picture of a wonderful wedding that is to come in the near future, as the Lord wills.

There's so many spiritual meanings behind this, and I'd like for us to look at that today as we look into God's Word. As we continue our brief series here, the wedding at Canaan, this particular section in the Gospel of John stretches all the way from 2 chapter 12, I should say, beginning right here in chapter 2.

This particular section is known as the Book of Signs. The Book of Signs, after Jesus calls his first disciples, as which we've already looked at, he takes them along to a wedding in Canaan of Galilee, which is not far from his hometown, Nazareth, a small town very similar to Canaan here.

It is roughly, it was around, Nazareth was about 10 miles away, so it was pretty much in walking distance for them in those days. It is here in Canaan where he performs, our Lord performs his first miracle.

And this miracle is very significant. It provides his followers with an initial glimpse of his messianic identity, of who he is. And really that is what miracles are for. They always point to the Lord Jesus Christ, his person and his works.

Always, that's the purpose of a miracle. So Jesus is the Messiah. He's the Son of the Living God. He's the King of Israel. The Christ, the Anointed One, that's what Christ means. Yet, the question arises, do we really know what that means?

Do we really know what that means? Well, keep in mind also that the evangelist desires for us to behold the glory of God in Jesus Christ. Also, as we behold him, the King in all of his beauty and in his glory, he desires, he desires us to place our trust and faith in him.

To believe in him. To love him. To obey him. Beloved, this is the very purpose of this wonderful gospel. John chapter 20 verse 30 and 31 says,. And truly Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book, but these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.

So actually, this is the whole point of the signs which Jesus performed. That we may believe in the Lord Jesus Christ as Savior and have life in his name. That's the purpose of this wonderful book. So, now we come to the wedding at Canaan and Galilee.

There's a lot of details I'd like to bring out, so I'm going to backtrack a little bit. We're going to begin at the first of it and I'm going to kind of run through it and kind of refresh our minds. Because we're so forgetful to forget, aren't we?

We forget from day to day and we need to be reminded. That's why we need to preach the gospel to ourselves, because we forget it. Someone asked Luther one time, Why do you constantly preach on justification by faith alone?

And he says, because people forget that constantly. That's why I preach it every Lord's Day. He preached it constantly. It was the pillar of the gospel. And without it, we don't understand what salvation is.

But I'm going to remind us of details here in this wonderful wedding. And it begins his public ministry. So let me read it to you starting in verse 1 of chapter 2. Chapter 2, verse 1, and we'll read through verse 12.

I'm reading from the New King James Version. In the third day there was a wedding in Canaan of Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there. And now both Jesus and his disciples were invited to the wedding.

And when they ran out of wine, the mother of Jesus said to them, They have no wine. Jesus said to her, Woman, what does your concern have to do with me? My hour has not yet come. His mother said to the servants, Whatever he says to you, do it.

Now there were set there six water pots of stone, according to the manner of purification of the Jews, containing 20 or 30 gallons apiece. Jesus said to them, Fill the water pots with water. And they filled them up to the brim.

And he said to them, Draw some out now and take it to the master of the feast.

And they took it.

And when the master of the feast had tasted the water that was made wine and did not know where it came from, but the servants who had drawn the water knew, the master of the feast called the bridegroom.

And he said to him, Every man at the beginning sets out the good wine. And when the guests have well drunk, then the inferior. You have kept the good wine until now. This beginning of signs, Jesus did in Canaan of Galilee and manifested his glory.

And his disciples believed in him. And after this he went down to Capernaum. He, his mother, his brothers, and his disciples, and they did not stay there many days. Please bow with me in prayer as we seek God's face and his blessing within this hour of worship.

The Wedding at Cana, Mary, and the Crisis of No Wine

Our Father and our great gracious Lord, we do thank you for your word this morning. Father, we thank you for the revelation that you have so wonderfully preserved down through the ages. Such a bloodstained book.

Such a bloodstained book. It's all about yourself. It's all about your glory. It's all about your son Christ. So Lord, the story really is all centered in you. Even this wedding of Canaan is not about the couple here.

It's not about necessarily the wedding here in Canaan, even though you chose it, to use it in your providence and time. Because your glory was manifested. But Father, we just pray that as we hear your word, Lord, Lord, that you would give us fresh fire from heaven.

Open our understanding and open our ears, that we may hear what the Spirit is saying to the church. Create, Lord, faith within us,.

That only you could do,.

As you turned the water into wine. Lord, create in us a new heart. A clean heart. Lord, give us faith, because faith comes by hearing and hearing by your word. That faith within us, that we may lay hold of Christ, and as Christ has laid hold of us.

So Lord, teach us your ways, through your blessed Holy Spirit, so that we may see Jesus and Him alone. Father, I pray, hide me behind the cross. May your word be proclaimed in power and truth. My prayer, Lord, is be exalted, O God, above the heavens, and let your glory be above the earth.

Satisfy us only in Jesus. Sanctify us in your truth this morning. And we'll be careful to give you all the glory and honor. And we ask this in Jesus' name. Amen. Verse 1 gives us the event. On the third day, there was a wedding in Cana of Galilee.

The mother of Jesus was there, as we looked at last Lord's Day. The marriage actually took place on the third day, after Nathaniel. Nathaniel was also known as Bartholomew. After he had his encounter with Jesus.

Verse 43 tells us this, chapter 1. That the following day, Jesus wanted to go into Galilee. He found Philip and said to him, follow me. So we do not know exactly where Canaan was situated. It doesn't tell us the exact location.

But we do get a hint from verse 12 of this chapter. That it was near Capernaum. And Capernaum was on a higher ground of elevation. At this wedding in Canaan of Galilee, on this particular day, the third day, which actually ends up to be the seventh day after the Sabbath.

The mother of Jesus was there, Mary. Interesting to note that, was brought to my attention, which I really appreciate, that Joseph was not mentioned here. Joseph is not mentioned. Where's Joseph? Stalked by most commentators that he was already dead.

In fact, most commentators that I've read on this subject, including Alfred Ederschein, which is a wonderful Jewish historian, thinks that he had been dead for many years. Jesus, being the older child, had stayed home to take care of his family.

Until the other children were old enough to go out on their own. So we see Jesus and his disciples attending the wedding at Canaan. Marriage was a very, very joyful occasion, as it is for us, but it was a bigger deal in those days.

And as Pastor John MacArthur says this, and I quoted a lengthy quote last week, but I want to give you a small quote from him today. Marriage, he says, is a condition of life designed by God, ordained by God, authenticated in an open public covenant.

It is the highest and noblest and best of all human relationships. No other human relationship is as wonderful as marriage. End quote. Sad to say, let's go on. He goes on in the lengthier part of that quote, but it's between a man and a woman.

I have to say that very clearly today because the abomination that has been legalized in our country that it's okay for two men to marry and two women to marry, we know that is absolutely an abomination to God.

But God, and I tell people this all the time, they look at me and say, well, I never thought of it this way, but I heard it years ago in my marriage and family class and seminary the first time I heard it by a wonderful teacher.

But he said, God created Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve. And that's well put. But it is between one woman and one man. And Jesus is always the one that makes a marriage honorable because he's the one that is invited.

Jesus is honored. He honored marriage. He demonstrated his approval and he honored it in two ways. Number one, by attending the marriage. He comes to the marriage and he attends it. He attends the marriage feast.

He wasn't a recluse like John the Baptist, so to speak. He loved to mingle in with people because he was there to reach people. They came to seek and save the lost. So he mingled in with people. So he goes to this wedding here.

And second, by meeting the urgent need of the bridegroom, as Jesus attended this wedding. So Jesus graced and blessed the marriage because he was called to the marriage feast.

He was called there.

Jesus has to be genuinely invited into a marriage before he can bless it. And a Jewish wedding in those days was a very, very big deal. A very big event. Let me give you some of the details here that takes place in a wedding in the East.

And the ceremony actually included three major events. Let me give you briefly these three major events that took place at a marriage feast. The marriage feast and ceremony, which were held on the same evening, was the first thing.

It was all held on the same evening. Second, there was the escort of the couple through the streets to their home. The procession usually took place at night. Flaming torches were used. And the longest route to the home was taken to attract more attention and to allow the whole community to share within that joyful event.

So the whole community was actually involved or to share within that wedding feast. Could you imagine that? Wherever you are located and we are located within this particular place, the whole community and surrounding place would invite and so many people would show up.

Third, there was an open house event, which lasted for an entire week. Could you imagine that? A Jewish wedding ceremony involved a large and long celebration. It was a big event. And let me give you a little footnote here.

It wasn't the bridegroom that would prepare and pay for it as it is in our culture. The groom had to pay for all of it. He was the one that was responsible and that has more of a biblical spiritual meaning, doesn't it?

Remember when Jesus says to His disciples, I go to prepare a place for you and I will come again. He is actually telling His disciples, I am the groom. You are the bride. And I am going to go prepare a place for you to live forever and eternity.

He is the one that does it all.

It has a biblical spiritual meaning, doesn't it? So there was a happy, festive spirit that swept through the entire community here and surrounded the couple. All week long, the couple would actually wear their wedding garments.

You know, here we do it only just for a few hours. The groom and the bride would wear their garments for an entire week before they changed. Robe and gown. And as they entertained all their guests, the whole community was expected to participate and celebrate within the couple, with the couple, I am sorry, and their new found happiness as they entered into this marriage.

So the wedding in those days were big, big events. Verse 2 says, Now both Jesus and His disciples were invited to the wedding. Now if you think about that for a second, this suggests to us that Jesus and His disciples were invited because of Mary.

There is a hint there that more than likely it was Mary. And as we looked at last Lord's Day, that Mary felt responsible when the wine ran out. So she is the one that is trying to do something. Her forwardness in asking Jesus to help when they ran out of wine may indicate that she was in some way related to the family, possibly.

Holding the wedding. Look at verse 3. When they ran out of wine, the mother of Jesus said to them, They have no wine.

They have no wine.

So here we have a problem. It was running out of wine at a wedding party that was a big deal and it was a catastrophe. It was a crisis. Why? Because in those days and even today, hospitality was a very big deal in the East and was a sacred duty according to the Jewish culture.

A wedding feast often lasted for an entire week as I said. And to run out of that much wine to entertain the guest at such an important event would have been really not only a catastrophe, in a crisis it was humiliating.

It was humiliating for the bride and for the groom. So Mary informs Jesus of the problem. And I'm sure he's aware of it. He's God, right? But in the process of disturbing the male guest, as I was reading this, it was interesting.

I didn't think about this, but there were separation rooms in a wedding. You had the men in one room and the females, the ladies in the other room. One commentator says this, by the name of commentator Williams, comments that there is no indication that Mary enters into the public space of the main dining room where the men were feasting or that Jesus enters the private space of the women in which the bridegroom's house were.

Though some transitional space near a door or a porch is most likely here in the physical location for this private and discreet interaction as well as for storing the water jars. Now that's interesting.

I didn't think about that, but Mary comes to the Lord Jesus and it's at a wedding here, and so you're thinking, she's not doing something dishonorable, so it had to be possibly, like the commentator says, more than likely a location near the door or the porch.

A very embarrassing situation if they ran out of wine. The whole community not having wine to drink is actually an important part of the wedding because this is how they make Mary. Nothing there about getting drunk is just a cultural thing that wine is to be used that's not fermented, but it's actually like, in our day, like very sweet, pure grape juice.

This is a very, very big deal because it could have been very embarrassing to the bride and the groom. So Mary did not come to Jesus with a manner of just a minor inconvenience. She came with a serious crisis, didn't she?

Again, the question arises, why did Mary even go to Jesus at all? Did you ever think of that? Why did Mary go to Jesus? Well, let's look at that. Jesus wanted to know that too. Woman, he says in verse 4, Woman, what does your concern have to do with me?

My hour has not yet come. My hour has not yet come. Beloved, think of this. I'm sure she didn't understand this and notice how he addresses her, woman. Let's look a little bit more into this. Alfred Edershein, again, I got a quote from him.

In his wonderful book, Jesus the Messiah, I highly recommend you to read that. It's got some very good details because he's a Jewish historian. He asked the question this, quote, How are we to understand the implied request of the mother of Jesus and how his reply and what was the meaning of the miracle?

He says this, Although we have no absolute certainty of it, we have the strongest internal reasons for believing that Jesus had done no miracles these 30 years in the home of Nazareth, but lived the life of quiet submission and obedient waiting.

That was the then part of his work, end quote. So we got good reason to believe right here that this is Jesus' very first miracle because all those years up until this point, there was no miracle. So really, as Mary approaches the Lord, I don't believe that she's expecting him to do a miracle.

We could believe that. And Jesus' response to Mary is really very interesting. In verse 4, Jesus said to her, Woman, what does your concern have to do with me? And again, I like to mention the word term woman is not necessarily impolite.

He's not being rude, but it does have the effect of Jesus giving some distance to his mother because his public ministry is just beginning and now he's concerned about his father's business, not his mother's business.

His business is the will of the father. The will of the father. A transition is actually taking place right here and a very meaningful one. The reply of the Lord to his mother seems to be cold and distant to us, but it's not.

It is not a strong rebuke as would seem to us. The word woman, as we looked at last Lord's Day, is used here of a title of respect similar to the word ma 'am or lady. When the Lord asked his, to Mary, Woman, what does your concern have to do with me?

It means that we really have, what do we have in common? And the answer is implied, right? Nothing. What do we have in common? Nothing. MacArthur notes here, let me give you a quote from him. The phrase, ask what is shared in common between the parties, is the thrust of Jesus' comment was that he had entered into the purpose for his mission on earth.

So that his subordination of all activities to the fulfillment of that mission, Mary had to recognize him so that not so much as the son that she raised, but as the promised Messiah and the Son of God.

That's the importance here. That Jesus is the Messiah. Verse 5, his mother said to the servants, whatever he says to you, do it. Do it. Keep in mind that Jesus just told her the answer to his question.

As he questions her, what does your concern have to do with me? Nothing, nothing. Jesus is commissioned to do the Father's will. So he gives Mary the answer, my hour has not yet come. His hour, his hour.

His hour was God, the Father's divine schedule and his sovereignty. That was actually decreed before the foundation of the world. And this is what's so incredible. And this is in itself, in of itself shows and proves that he is God in the flesh.

This is decreed.

This has already been decreed before the foundation of the world. It's the eternal decree of God. And what was that? Jesus Christ came to die on a Roman cross to become sin for us. That's the point. That's what really needs to be said and that's what is being said here.

2 Corinthians 5 .21 Paul says, For he made him who knew no sin to be sin for us that we might become the righteousness of God in him. And in eternity past, Jesus Christ was slain before the foundation of the world would become history in time.

And Christ our Passover, as Paul says, his death, his burial, his resurrection, his exaltation, all together.

This is his mission.

And he's focused on this.

This is where his mission begins here in his public ministry. So that's why he is saying this to Mary. Even though Mary did not truly fully understand everything in detail or know the revelations that we know of about his coming death, she did understand that Jesus was her Messiah.

So in that sense,.

As we looked at,.

He becomes,.

The relationship changes. It's not like as a mother that raised him, but now she becomes the believer to look to the Messiah. So even Mary needed a Savior. That's why the teaching of Catholicism is so blasphemous.

Because they actually worship Mary. She's a created being from God.

She bore the Lord.

She is honored, but she is not to be worshipped. We tell our Catholic friends that, right? Nothing in Scripture supports that. So she instructs the servants to do whatever he commands them. In verse 6 to 8, we see the resolution.

The Stone Water Pots, Purification, and the New Wine of the New Birth

Now we reach the story's climax where Jesus' glory is revealed and a miracle is performed. The details that John includes are very important. Look at verse 6. Verse 6. Now there were set there six water pots of stone according to the manner of the purification of the Jews, containing 20 or 30 gallons apiece.

Now these jars of stone were a symbol of Old Testament law and ritual.

This is very important.

There's a reason.

Everything here has a purpose and a reason for us to understand. They were stone because it was believed that stone could not contract uncleanness. Also this made them suitable to the ceremonial washing.

These ceremonial washing jars were used by the Jews as they went into the worship of God. They were symbolically washed with water proclaiming their sinfulness as they have need for cleansing, as water always represents a need for cleansing.

So in the story's context, they represent the old ways of Jewish law and a ritual that Jesus is about to change something here. A change is about to take place.

This is wonderful.

Everything that Jesus does points beyond just the mere facts of the story. We need to keep this in mind. So in other words, out with the old and in with the new. This is actually what's taking place. The water pot symbolizes this, and Jesus came not to destroy the law, as the scripture says, but he came to fulfill the law.

But a transition takes place, and as you well know, when Jesus died on the cross, God the Father tore the veil from top to bottom, and telling the world that there is a change that takes place here. No need to sacrifice all animals no more.

Jesus is the one sacrifice once and for all. A change takes place. Out with the old, in with the new. Jesus came not to destroy the law,.

But to fulfill the law.

A lot of people think here, yeah, it means we throw out the law altogether. No, Paul said the law is good.

It's holy.

There's a purpose for the law.

The law cannot save us. It only condemns us. But it does show us a need of a Savior because it's holy, and it shines upon us because it shows us our sin. And as the law of God is preached, and the beauty of God's holiness is expounded, it shows us we need to run to the cross.

For the remedy.

That's the purpose of the law.

We do not throw it out. That's why we still have the Old Testament, the 39 books. Christ has fulfilled it, but everything in the Old Testament points to Christ. Jesus is about to give us and show us our great need of a new birth, that we must be born again.

That's the purpose of changing the water into wine. Wine symbolizes the new birth, the blood of Christ. Only the blood of Christ can bring us into the kingdom. A miracle was a parable, and miracles are parables, always intended, always intended to instruct us, to guide us, to show us as a sermon to the eyes, a sermon to the eyes.

And Spurgeon said this, whereas spoken sermons, discourses to the ear, but the sign always points to Christ. It's a sermon to the eyes. The sermon today, verbally, is to the ears. Now Jesus is going to give a sermon by demonstration,.

By changing the water into wine.

Look at verse 7. Jesus said to them, fill the water pots with water, and they filled them up to the brim. Fill it to the brim, he says. Keep in mind that this water in these jars, these pots, were not for drinking.

The water is for purification. Now if you read Mark 7 verses 3 and 4, you read that the Jews always would purify everything. Right? Everything. Everything. They would literally wash everything externally.

They were big on the external washings. They would literally wash, we would call them the OCDs of washing habits. They would wash their hands, utensils, and their plates, and their pans, and the copper pots.

Literally everything had to be washed and cleansed. But yet this is not about cleanliness, is it? It's about ritual. It's about ritual. Purification rites and rituals and ceremonies that they had developed.

So the water, the H2O here, was literally used for that because people were going to be there, and it was a custom, and they would go through ceremonial ritual washings before every single meal. So Jesus gives the instructions to fill the water pots to the brim.

He said, fill them up. Now here's a practical lesson for us, beloved. The Lord used the facilities. He used the means that were available when He was about to perform this miracle. It kind of reminds me also, when you go all the way to John chapter 11, what does Jesus instruct them to do at the gravesite of Lazarus?

What does He say before He does the miracle? You remember? He says, remove the stone. He has them to remove the stone. Here He has them to fill the water pots. Don't you love that? There's a means. There's the lesson that He allowed the men, the servants, to provide the water pots and to fill them with the water.

God is sovereign, but God does the miracle. God does what men cannot do. But He gives them the duty to do what they can do. There is a responsibility to us on our end, as it is said and commanded, that we are to go into all the world and preach the gospel, to make disciples.

We are to do that. And as we do that, God does the miracle of new birth. God does the miracle. He does what we cannot do, but He allows the servants here to do what they can do. God does the impossibilities.

And He makes sure that they know this. But most important, Jesus did what no man could ever do. He changes the water into wine. No man could do this. Only Jesus.

He's the Messiah.

He shows that He's the Son of the living God. So interesting, it was the servants here.

And not the disciples.

Notice that.

It wasn't the disciples necessarily that filled the vessels of water. It was the servants. So in this way, the Lord avoided the possibility of any change of trickery. That's the reason why He did not have the disciples to do it, because some people might have said, oh, the disciples somehow played a trick and changed that water into wine.

And they said it was no miracle at all.

He had the servants to do it.

Also the water pots were filled to the very brim so that no one could say that wine had been added to the water. Verse 8. He said to them, draw some out now. Take it to the master of the feast. The master of the feast is mentioned several times here.

They took it. Who's the master of the feast? Who's the master of the feast? The master of the feast is like really the head waiter. He's the head waiter. He's the head chef. He's the man that is the main servant here.

He tasted it and he was amazed. He knew what good wine was. He knew what bad wine was. He was the guy in charge of arranging the tables and the food. It's like you hire, we hire somebody to orchestrate or be in charge of a wedding.

He was the man that was in charge pretty much. He's the head waiter. He's the master of the feast. Verse 9. When the master of the feast had tasted the water that was made wine, the scripture says, and did not know where it came from, but the servants who had drawn the water knew the master of the feast called the bridegroom.

Now right here, I'm going to give a small portion of time and let me ask a very important question since wine is mentioned time and time again here. Let's talk about wine, okay? This is a very controversial issue among Christians, among evangelicals, and I know a lot of conservative, godly Christians that are okay with drinking wine.

And let me ask the question, what should be our attitude as Christians toward wine today? That's a good question, isn't it? What should be our attitude toward wine? You know, because there's several scriptures that actually, it does not condemn the drinking of wine, such as Psalm 104 .15 says this,.

And wine that makes glad the heart of man, oil to make his face shine, and bread which strengthens a man's heart. What about Proverbs 31 .6? It actually says, Give strong drink to him who is perishing, and wine to those who are bitter of heart.

And actually, if you read the New Testament, I believe it was the Apostle Paul that says, Give a little wine for sickness. So, the drinking of wine is not condemned. What is condemned is the drunkenness of it.

It's overconsumption. It's taking too much of it. Even Ecclesiastes 10 .19 says, A feast is made for laughter, and wine makes merry. But money answers everything. Now, a lot of people could take that out of context.

The scripture tells us the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil, but here it says, For the feast, for laughter, wine makes merry. It makes a merry heart. So, the drinking of wine is not condemned.

So, we are to use wine and not abuse wine. Just like anything else that can become abused. It's not condemned. Do these verses concern wine, condone it? Does it condone drinking alcohol? Well, let me answer that question in this way.

Regarding its use at the table, Christians ought to act prudently, in moderation, in all situations, in all cultures, by the way, if you are in another culture, because there are some cultures that do drink wine, such as we drink water at a restaurant.

Seeking before all, beloved, the one thing I would highly recommend for any Christians, and I wish this place was full to hear this, because so many people I've heard of, down through the ages, and down through my years, has always tried to condone drinking alcohol, beverages, and they always go to this, and I say, yes, the Lord does not condemn it, but the one thing I would ask them is, does the glory of the Lord, is the glory of God the most important thing to you?

It's one of these gray areas, right? The glory of the Lord and not self-centered gratification of their own desires should not be in focus here. Never rejecting the good gifts of God, because it is a gift of God, we don't reject that, but the believer should always remember the warnings of Scripture that speak against drunkenness, that even drinking a little wine can cause a problem of addiction, and especially people that have been, that I know believers that have been delivered out of a terrible lifestyle of drinking and drunkenness, that it could be a temptation for them to drink a little in moderation.

Best thing you know,.

They're back into slavery to it. That's a problem. You see this addressed in Romans 13, 13, Galatians 521, Ephesians 518, 1 Peter 4, 3. So the Scriptures are very prevalent and very clear about these against all lack of moderation in general, actually.

So finally, the saints of God are saints of God. We need to remember that. We're separate from the world. We're in the world, but we're not of the world. We are to be a different breed of people. While holy ones, we're separate from the world, but yet, we're to reach the world.

And we're not to be legalistic and pharisaical. I always tell my good friends and brothers in Christ, always, never compromise the truth. And the truth stands firm. But let's be gracious about it. Let's have Christ-likeness and gentleness and grace,.

As the Scripture says.

We're to give an answer to the hope. That's where we get the word apologetics. We are to give grace and an answer for the hope that's within us in a gracious way, in a loving way, in a gentle way. Not to beat people over the head.

So, even though we are to refrain from such behavior that would cause someone else to stumble and sin, that's the point. And you see this in Romans 14. Go with me to Romans 14 very quickly. I like to just look at this very, very quickly since we're here at the topic of drinking wine.

Look at verse 21 -23. Very important. Actually, Paul is covering grounds here on Christian liberty in the right context. He says, It is good neither to eat meat nor drink wine, notice, nor do anything by which your brother stumbles or is offended or is made weak.