And wine being deficient, the mother of Jesus says to him, They have no wine.
A wedding in Cana runs short of wine, and the mother of Jesus brings the problem to her Son. Why did she turn to Him? And why does the Gospel make a failed party the setting for His first miracle?
The failure looks small and social. Commentators read it as a picture of every human joy.
Apart from the teaching about God's future dealings with Israel, the marriage at Cana holds a great moral lesson: all things on earth fail to give lasting joy. Marriage is the greatest occasion in the life of a natural man. He rightly seeks to make it a time of festivity and joy. Sadly, the wine of human joy runs out. Man is incapable of securing his own happiness... In the brightest moment of life, something will spoil complete happiness. The dread of what tomorrow may bring hangs over the joy of the passing day.
One writer traces the failure back to man himself, the first Adam.
The first Adam always fails, and fails most where most is needed. But Jesus will meet every need, though His time is not yet come. Faith, however, never looks to Him in vain.
Her words are not a request in form, only a statement of the lack. One writer weighs what she was hoping for.
Why turn to Him? Surely she hoped He would act. Yet we know of no earlier display of miraculous power to encourage her to expect it. And verse 11 of our chapter seems to show there had been none. But the Lord's answer shows she did have that expectation. He, of course, read her thoughts.
Another writer looks at her character, and at whose need she carries.
The mother of Jesus was there. Her character comes out in this incident: she was observant and compassionate. Things were not going well and she sensed it. There was a great lack at that feast. The young people were beginning to feel embarrassed, and she saw it. For their sakes she speaks to the Lord. It is more than likely that she had often turned to Him in her own need; now she speaks to Him of the need of others.
The Lord's reply in the next verse throws its light back on hers. She may bring the need; she may not set the timing.
When the wine failed, His mother said to Him, "They have no wine." He replied, "Woman, what have I to do with you? My hour has not yet come." This is written for lasting profit. Anyone who reads disrespect into these words is mistaken. But so are those who fail to learn that the Son of God firmly refuses direction where the divine glory is in question. He was sent to do the will of God His Father, not to please His mother. Here she showed kind concern for a family she was clearly close to, at a moment when their trouble engaged her feelings.
She accepts the correction. What she tells the servants shows where she places herself.
And Mary understood it, saying to the servants, "Do whatever He tells you." She was still the humble servant of the Lord, even though others make her the Queen of heaven. That is blasphemy: they falsely claim for her the honour due to the Eternal Son. He, not she, is the One above all to be heard.
One writer reads the empty supply as a picture of Israel's condition, with Mary standing for the nation.
But a marriage still to come for Israel, raised as a nation from the dead, must bring up the thought of her broken vows and the long delay of blessing. The feast, which should have been continuous for her, has failed; the wine has run out. The mother of Jesus stands for the nation in the flesh. She is aware in some sense of her condition, and she appeals to Him vaguely, as we see in this Gospel.
The world's order is best first, then worse. What Christ brings reverses it.
It is a law of nature, so to speak: worldly joy decreases. At the marriage in Cana the master of the feast was astonished. He had to admit that everyone serves the good wine first, and the poor wine after people have drunk freely. The quality of the wine gets worse. By contrast, the joy that the Lord Jesus gives increases more and more.
- Failure — the wine runs out at life's happiest event; man cannot secure his own lasting joy.
- Appeal — Mary saw someone else's need and brought it to Christ, with no earlier miracle to go on.
- Limit — she may tell Him of the lack, but she may not direct Him; He guards His Father's glory.
- Submission — she accepts the correction and points the servants to His word, not her own.
- Supply — the world serves its best first, then worse; the joy Christ gives only increases.
Jesus says to her, What have I to do with thee, woman? mine hour has not yet come.
At the wedding in Cana the wine has run out, and Mary has brought the problem to her Son. His reply sounds like a brush-off, and it ends with a word about an "hour" that has not yet come.
"Woman" sounds cold in English. But the same Gospel has Him use it again at the cross:
Notice His language on the cross, when He spoke to her and said, "Woman, behold, your son!" (19:26). That will clear the reader's mind of the idea that He answered her at the marriage in any insulting way. He addressed the Syrophoenician woman the same way when He commended her faith (Matt. 15:28). The angels used it to Mary at the tomb — "Woman, why are you weeping?" — and so did the Lord (John 20:13, 15). We believe, then, that no one in that house would have thought badly of the way He spoke to His mother. ... He spoke of her as His mother, but never, as far as we remember, addressed her so.
The ESV reads "what does this have to do with me"; older translations keep the more literal "What have I to do with you?" The phrase was ordinary speech in the Greek of the day:
"What is there (in common) between Me and you?" Blass remarks that this was "frequent in colloquial Greek of the time, quite in the meaning of our let me alone."
So why did He not simply act on her word? The answer lies in where His direction came from:
Jesus had already told His mother that He must be about His Father's business. He came to do His Father's will, and He did it at every step in communion with the Father — in timing and in manner... So He could not take a suggestion from Mary about what He should do. By making it, Mary was stepping into ground that belonged to the Father and the Son alone. No one can deny that her words came from kindness, or that they showed her belief in the power of Jesus. But in the sphere of Christ's complete devotedness only one voice could be heard: the voice of Him whose will He had come to do.
Turning down her lead did not mean turning down the need:
We may be sure He rebuked her with great tenderness, in a way that would not humiliate her in front of others. But it was not for her to direct Him... "My hour has not yet come" was a mysterious word that runs through this Gospel... it reached far beyond that marriage feast, but it did not mean that He would not step in for the present need.
Commentators differ on what the hour points to. One traces it through the rest of John:
Chapter 7:30 and 8:20 give us the clue. They speak of "His hour." He said "My hour" to His mother. Should we not conclude that all three point to the same time? It is the hour when He would be subject to men's will, submitting to human control... So at that time He would not allow His mother to direct or control Him.
Another writer reads it from the end of His work on earth:
The Lord's making John the guardian of His mother explains, "what have I to do with you? My hour has not yet come." But when His hour had come, and He had done the work, He could turn to recognise the relationship, since He was no longer engaged in serving His Father on earth.
The scene also bears on the place people give Mary:
Nowhere does Scripture speak of her standing between God and sinful men, or praying for them. In the sacred records Mary asks the Lord for a favour only twice. Each time He turned her away as stepping out of her appointed place. See John 2:4; Matt. 12:46-50. Our last view of her is in Acts 1:14, as one of the praying group in Jerusalem who waited for the Holy Spirit after the Lord Jesus went on high. Not praying FOR her fellow believers, but WITH them.
There is a wider reason behind the refusal:
His mother connected the Lord with Israel and the law. By refusing to act at her word, He shows where everything He did in this Gospel came from. It flowed from His relationship as the Son with the Father — not from natural ties to His mother, and not from legal ties to Israel.
- Not scorn. "Woman" is how He also spoke to her at the cross and to others He honoured; no one in the house would have heard an insult.
- Not her call. The words were everyday speech, close in sense to "let me alone."
- Not her province. He acted only in communion with the Father. So even a kind suggestion from Mary entered ground that belonged to Father and Son alone.
- Not yet the hour. Some read the hour as the time He was handed over to men's will. Others read it as the moment His work was finished, when He could own the relationship again and give her into John's care.
- Not delayed help. Turning down her direction was not turning down the need. He would still step in — and Mary is last seen praying with the disciples, not prayed to by them.
His mother says to the servants, Whatever he may say to you, do.
At the wedding in Cana the wine has run out. Mary has told her Son of the lack, and His answer refuses her direction. Her reply is not to Him at all, but to the servants.
She does not argue with His answer. Her silence, and then this instruction, show how she took it.
The words of Jesus to His mother had their intended effect. This is clear from two things. She attempted no reply. And she still counted on Jesus stepping in and showing His power, for she said to the servants, "Do whatever He tells you." This is very beautiful. Her deep affection may have drawn her out of her proper place, and perhaps her wish to see her Son acknowledged in public. If so, she took her quiet place again the moment the Lord had spoken. She was still looking for some shining out of His more than human glory. And she told the servants to give Him unquestioning obedience.
Why could He not simply act on her word?
Jesus had already told His mother that He must be about His Father's business. He had come to do His Father's will. He did that will at every step in communion with the Father, in timing and in manner alike. As He Himself said, "The Son can do nothing of His own accord, but only what He sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, that the Son does likewise." It was impossible, then, for Him to receive a suggestion from Mary about what He should do.
Her sentence points every ear away from herself. It answers those who put her in His place.
And Mary understood it. She said to the servants, "Do whatever He tells you." She was still the lowly bondservant of the Lord. That stays true even though others blasphemously make her the Queen of heaven, falsely claiming for her the honour due to the Eternal Son. He, not she, is the One above all to be heard, as the Father's voice announced on the holy mountain: "This is my beloved Son; listen to Him." Nothing in fallen nature is more unworthy than to doubt the grace of the One in whom all the fullness dwells. Nothing is more unworthy than to imagine that He, the one Mediator, needs her intercession to stir up or strengthen His love. He Himself is full of grace and truth. She, for her part, could not save anyone, nor intercede for others in that way. She needed to pray herself, since she was a sinner like others, to be saved by faith.
Her words leave the servants one thing to do: obey.
He only looked for a willing obedience to His word; then He would work. His mother's words must have impressed these servants, and their obedience was truly admirable. "Fill the water pots," He said, and they filled them to the brim. "Draw some out now and take it to the master of the feast," He said, and they took it. No doubts or questions entered their minds. It was enough that He commanded, and they obeyed with enthusiasm. This willing and unquestioning obedience is an indispensable condition for blessing.
The servants carried the water. They also gained what the master of the feast never had.
It is the servants, and only they, who are brought into connection with the Lord. They are in His secrets, while even the master of the feast knows nothing about them... It was the servants who were brought nearest to Him in the whole scene. And so with us. Jesus, the Lord of glory, the Heir of all things, was a Servant here. He came "not to be served but to serve," and those who are humblest in service are still cast nearest to Him.
The same words appear much earlier in the Bible. Pharaoh sent hungry people to one man.
When the people cried to Pharaoh for relief, his reply was simple: "Go to Joseph. What he says to you, do." This at once reminds us of the words His mother spoke at His first miracle: "Do whatever He tells you." Does a conscience-stricken sinner cry out today for salvation? The answer in three words is, "Go to Jesus." All God's grace and bounty flows through Him.
- Word. Mary's sentence sends every listener past her to Him. Hear Him, not her. She takes the place of a bondservant, not a mediator.
- Obedience. He asked only for willing obedience to His word. No doubts, no questions. Commentators call this an indispensable condition for blessing.
- Filling. They filled the jars to the brim. Then the One who came to do His Father's will met the lack, in His Father's timing.
- Secret. Only the servants knew where the wine came from. Humble service still puts a person nearest to Him.
- Glory. What began with a lack ended in glory shining out. And three words still answer any sinner in need: "Go to Jesus." All God's grace flows through Him.