3 And when they wanted wine, the mother of Jesus saith unto him, They have no wine.
The wine failed, that is they ran out, but I love the KJV here, wanted wine. I mean, it means they ran out, but the picture is great, They wanted wine and there was no more.
They have no wine. It’s funny how women, especially mothers, can speak like this and men know what they mean. She doesn’t ask anything, or suggest a course of action, yet everybody who heard her say this, including Jesus, knew exactly what she meant.
4 Jesus saith unto her, Woman, what have I to do with thee?
This is a sad translation. Literally it is, What to me and to thee, woman?
This is obviously an idiomatic expression. It occurs a few times in the New Testament* as well as in the Septuagint+ . I believe the idea here is, “What is that to us? We’re just guests.” Like how we would say, “Why you telling me?”
Well, she was telling him this because she wanted him to do something about it!
Ah, but what about Jesus calling his own mother woman? This sounds disrespectful to the max. I’m pretty sure that most of us, if we ever called our mother woman would expect some kind of immediate backlash! Even as adults, there is no way we would address our mothers this way! So, was Jesus being just plain rude?
The Greek word is γυναι and refers to a woman of any age, whether a virgin, or married, or a widow: as a form of address, may be used -- either in indignation, or in admiration, or in kindness and favor, or in respect, John 2:4; 19:26 (Thayer’s Lexicon). “However, the Greek γυναι, having no synonym in our language, has a more respectful sound than ‘woman’. (John Bengel’s New Testament Commentary)
So, not only was he not being rude, he was being respectful. And notice, Mary is not offended; neither were any of those present. In fact, look at her response:
5 His mother saith unto the servants, Whatsoever he saith unto you, do it.
I can’t even express how cool this is. While we struggle with whether Jesus is being rude, she simply turns to the servants and instructs them, "Whatever he may say to you, do." This is faith. She had utter confidence in Jesus. She wasn’t begging. She made known the need and had complete confidence that he was sufficient. Wow! This is just like when she was told she would have a son, she responded “Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy word.” Mary was a woman of faith.
This is faith - utter confidence in Jesus / complete confidence that he is sufficient. If we don’t have faith as strong as Mary's, how do we grow in faith?
Read the Word. “Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God.” Time in the Word strengthens and grows your faith as you learn the ways of the Lord and see the promises of God. Begin your quiet time in the Word, let your prayers rise up from what you’ve been reading.
Read accounts of God working. Seeing how God worked in the lives of other saints and answered their prayers is very encouraging. This is also the benefit of testimonies.
Remember how God has met you in the past. There is a gospel song that speaks to this, Count Your Blessings. (I’ve included it at the end)
6 And there were set there six waterpots of stone, after the manner of the purifying of the Jews, containing two or three firkins apiece.
I love the KJV here . . . firkins! I don’t know how much a firkin is…there is a note in my Bible that says it is 9 gallons; modern translations say “twenty to thirty gallons.” I’m not making a big deal of this, I just like the word firkins !
BUT, here is something to think about – imagine how long it would take to fill these waterpots. They had no hose, so it was done by hand. And I don’t know how far they had to go to get the water. Often times, when a story is put down into words you lose any notion of time. When you read this account you get the idea Jesus said, Fill the waterpots, and just like that, it was done. Nope.
Here’s something else to think about: When did the water become wine?
In my early years as a Christian I was in churches that taught this was NOT wine, but grape juice. They said there wasn’t enough time for the grapes to ferment. He could instantaneously turn water to grape juice but needed time for it to ferment? Was it real wine? Yep. And good wine at that.
Another commentator took exception to the notion that all six waterpots were turned to wine, and suggested only that one decanter was changed. He didn’t like the idea of Jesus making so much wine, thereby encouraging people to get drunk. Seems to me one decanter of wine would not be enough to rescue the host from the embarrassment of running out of wine. I don’t know that the Jews were big on getting wasted, but they drank wine, considering it the blessing of God: “A feast is for laughter, and wine maketh merry.”
11 This beginning of miracles did Jesus in Cana of Galilee, and manifested forth his glory; and his disciples believed on him.
This miracle is about Jesus; it manifests his glory. Interestingly, it was done on the “down low”, that is no one even knew about it. As far as the guests knew, the governor of the feast simply produced more wine. That is, no one but Mary, the disciples, and the servants. He manifested forth his glory and his disciples believed on him. Amen.
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| People think of this as a “Baptist hymn” but it’s not. Johnson Oatman, Jr was an old-time Methodist. But I'm certain Mr. Oatman wouldn't mind if we sang it! |
* Matt 8:29, Mark 1:24, 5:7, Luke 4:34, 8:28, John 2:4
+ Judges 11:12, 2 Samuel 16:10, 19:2, 2 Kings 3:13, 2 Chronicles 35:21
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