Time Out - Mary At The Wedding Of Cana

John 2:1-12

Water to wine. It’s the first recorded miracle of Jesus. He was attending a wedding with his mother and his disciples. It must have been quite a celebration because the hosts ran out of wine.

Socially, this would have been a disaster for the groom’s family, which was responsible for providing the food and drink for the party. In that day, Jewish weddings were a community event, and the festivities lasted for days. It was a badge of honor to be able to provide enough for everyone who chose to celebrate with your family. And it brought personal and social shame if you couldn’t.

Mary understood this. When she noticed that the wine had run out, she simply told Jesus, “They have no more wine” (John 2:3).

This is a fascinating exchange. Surely Mary knew her son’s potential. If anyone could save the day, he could—but would he? Was this an important enough problem for him to fix?

Jesus’ response was cryptic. He wondered why she was involving him. “My time has not yet come,” he told her (John 2:4). That seems like a no, but Mary wasn’t buying it.

She simply went to the servants, pointed to her son, and said, “Do whatever he tells you” (John 2:5). Did she have an inkling that his “time” would be coming any minute now? Apparently it did. Jesus saved the day. He turned jars full of water into jars full of choice wine.

In the process, we learn something valuable about Mary’s faith—and our own. Even though there’s no evidence that she had ever seen him perform a miracle, Mary knew her son, and she had faith that Jesus could do something amazing about this situation. She brought the need before him and prepared for him to act upon it. It was still his call. He didn’t have to change the water into wine. He could have chosen to solve the problem a different way, or not at all.

That’s the point of faith. We can’t know for sure that God will do something, but we do have knowledge of who he is. We have faith that he’ll do something when we ask him for help, even if we don’t know what that something will be.

This miraculous sign at Cana in Galilee was the first time Jesus revealed his glory. And his disciples believed in him.

John 2:11