Miracle at Cana - Jesus contradicting himself?

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In the account of Jesus’ first miracle at Cana in John 2:1-5, it seems that Jesus contradicts himself:

On the third day a wedding took place at Cana in Galilee. Jesus’ mother was there, and Jesus and his disciples had also been invited to the wedding. When the wine was gone, Jesus’ mother said to him, “They have no more wine.”

“Dear woman, why do you involve me?” Jesus replied, “My time has not yet come.”

His mother said to the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.”


Jesus states to Mary that it’s not yet time for him to manifest himself, yet it seems that Mary overrules him. He then goes ahead and performs his first miracle anyway, right after stating that it was not yet his time.

Can anyone help me with the interpretation of this passage? Thanks!​
 
Sure, Jesus’ Mom asked Him to help, He loves her so much that He would not deny her.
 
The same as the story of the trip to Jerusalem when He was twelve years old. Jesus had trouble getting His timing right. That’s part of being human.

Matthew
 
Maybe Jesus was obeying the commandment: Honor Your Mother and Father.
 
It was also His time to be obedient to the request of His Mother. Jesus is showing us obedience.
 
Hi Panther,

This is one of the most important passages of the New Testament. Jesus has not yet decided to begin his mission, but AT THE REQUEST OF HIS MOTHER, he decides to do so at this moment.

This passage shows us the important role that God wants Mary to play in our salvation. Just as she played a major role in the incarnation, she now plays a major role in the process that leads to Jesus’ death and resurrection and our salvation.

Jesus does not contradict Himself. He states that he has not yet begun his mission, and then, at Mary’s request, he begins it.

Verbum
 
I do not understand it to mean Jesus was obeying his mother. Jesus was explaining to her his purpose was far from being a wine maker for merry drink. Yet he did for the comfort of others, to include his mother, generate some wine.
 
I agree with you Texas Roofer. Mary **does **not **tell **Jesus to provide wine; she **doesn’t even ask **Him if He will. She merely states that they’ve run out.

Jesus reply, “What to Me and to thee. My hour has not yet come.” points more to the end of His public mission than the beginning. His public mission had begun - public baptism by John and John’s recognition and announcement of who He was; He had chosen at least some of His apostles already.

When Jesus refers to His “hour” it almost always means the events leading up to and including His passion and death. That is when He would provide the new wine of the Eucharist.

Nita
 
The translation is rough. What he actually saying is “Do you know what this will mean to me and to yourself?” I will no longer just be your son. I will have to begin my public life ending in sacraficing myself. She shows she understands this by telling the servents to do whatever he says.
 
The way my priest put it was that ‘my hour’ actually refers to his passion and death, not his ministry. As in John’s Gospel when he says ‘it was for this hour that I am come’ - referring to the passion, not to the Wedding at Cana.
 
I am always curious as to what Mary expected Jesus might do about the lack of wine. Run down to the local liquor mart? Give the groom’s man money and send him? Tell the guests to go home the party was over? She must have had more than a slight clue.:confused:
 
There are so many things going on here.

A) It is nearing the Passover. Jesus is introducing us to one of the key elements of the Eucharist, the wine which He would turn into His Blood. The next Passover, Jesus introduces us to the other key element, the bread which He will turn into His Body.

B) This is the 7th day of John’s Gospel. It began with “In the beginning…”, which brings us all the way back to Genesis. In John’s Gospel, the author is introducing us to the 7 days of the New Creation.

C) Who are the only two people named in this scene? Jesus and Mary. No one else is named. Who got married on the 7th day of the first Creation? Adam and Eve. John is extending his New Creation narrative to introduce the 2nd Adam and the 2nd Eve. And yes, I know Jesus is not marrying his mother, but Mary is a symbol of the Church. Who is the bride of Christ? The Church.

D) The jars of purification are stone. There’s got to be some imagery on why Jesus instructs them to use the purification jars and water to create the miracle of wine. We’ve got two elements that represent baptism in the New covenant. For we are baptized (with water) into Jesus death (wine signifies His Blood). In the OT, several prophets said that God would break our hearts of stone…
 
NotWorthy said:
There are so many things going on here.

A) It is nearing the Passover. Jesus is introducing us to one of the key elements of the Eucharist, the wine which He would turn into His Blood. The next Passover, Jesus introduces us to the other key element, the bread which He will turn into His Body.

B) This is the 7th day of John’s Gospel. It began with “In the beginning…”, which brings us all the way back to Genesis. In John’s Gospel, the author is introducing us to the 7 days of the New Creation.

C) Who are the only two people named in this scene? Jesus and Mary. No one else is named. Who got married on the 7th day of the first Creation? Adam and Eve. John is extending his New Creation narrative to introduce the 2nd Adam and the 2nd Eve. And yes, I know Jesus is not marrying his mother, but Mary is a symbol of the Church. Who is the bride of Christ? The Church.

D) The jars of purification are stone. There’s got to be some imagery on why Jesus instructs them to use the purification jars and water to create the miracle of wine. We’ve got two elements that represent baptism in the New covenant. For we are baptized (with water) into Jesus death (wine signifies His Blood). In the OT, several prophets said that God would break our hearts of stone…
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This is a good description of how in Jesus the end meets the beginning. How events in Salvation history echoed the past and foreshadowed the future, how in Christ that history in it’s entirety become an eternal moment that proceeds from God.

NotWorthy, I liked the deep connection with the beginning in your analysis. It inspired me to share something of the same. St John must have, like his Mother in Jesus, pondered these things in his heart, or maybe it was Mary sharing the ponderings of her heart with her new son. In any case John reveals the wedding at Cana as a foreshadowing of Heaven.

On the third day there was a wedding, and Mary was there. There is much more but for me that say’s it all. Besides you posted that picture as it reveals the Eucharist and the Mass, which as I’m sure you know is also a picture of heaven.

NotWorthy, kudos!👍
 
NotWorthy said:
There are so many things going on here…

D) The jars of purification are stone. There’s got to be some imagery on why Jesus instructs them to use the purification jars and water to create the miracle of wine. We’ve got two elements that represent baptism in the New covenant. For we are baptized (with water) into Jesus death (wine signifies His Blood). In the OT, several prophets said that God would break our hearts of stone…
Click to expand...
The purification jar changed roles as an important Temple vessel. So our change from washing for the Temple to consuming the body in the Temple. Another of many signals of our need to change with a direct example of what to change to.
 
Texas_Roofer said:
The purification jar changed roles as an important Temple vessel. So our change from washing for the Temple to consuming the body in the Temple. Another of many signals of our need to change with a direct example of what to change to.
Click to expand...
Good point. There are some purification rights that were to take place every 3rd and every 7th day. It’s too much of a coincidence (or “God”-incidence as I call them) for John to establish that the wedding is occurring on the 3rd day, as well as the 7th day.
 
panther said:
When the wine was gone, Jesus’ mother said to him, “They have no more wine.”

“Dear woman, why do you involve me?” Jesus replied…
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They have lived together in perfect harmony and love for 30 years. Mary doesn’t waste words, so she is not just making a passing comment. Also, we know Jesus knows she does not just make passing comments, because Jesus sees her statement as “involving” Him. She knows that Jesus will do anything to serve/help/please her (which is honoring her perfectly), so she shares with him her compassion for the people of the house who have no more wine, knowing he will be moved to remedy it.
panther said:
, “My time has not yet come.”
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I can see him saying this with a smile of love and a twinkle in his eye.

There are traditions concerning Mary that she brought Jesus here a little before His time, and that she shortened his 3 days of death, because of her ferverent prayeers. Also there is a current tradition that Mary’s prayers for peace in the world are staving off mass destruction. So Mary changing the course of events, or the timing of events, seems to be a theme. Perhaps Jesus is referring to this.
panther said:
His mother said to the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.”
Click to expand...
What confidence she has! It is, in fact, perfect faith. Which makes perfect sense, that she who is Full of Grace, and is the Spouse of the Holy Spirit, would be perfect in the gifts of faith, hope and love. So in her confident and perfect faith, she surely knew her desire was “done” with her mere coment.

St. Louis de Montfort says that the Holy Trinity loves the Blessed Mother so much that all the has to do is “sigh” and the Holy Trinity rushes to accomplish her desire. Since God is the same yesterday and today and tomorrow, this that de Montfort says fits with this passage.

 
panther said:
In the account of Jesus’ first miracle at Cana in John 2:1-5, it seems that Jesus contradicts himself:

On the third day a wedding took place at Cana in Galilee. Jesus’ mother was there, and Jesus and his disciples had also been invited to the wedding. When the wine was gone, Jesus’ mother said to him, “They have no more wine.”

“Dear woman, why do you involve me?” Jesus replied, “My time has not yet come.”

His mother said to the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.”


Jesus states to Mary that it’s not yet time for him to manifest himself, yet it seems that Mary overrules him. He then goes ahead and performs his first miracle anyway, right after stating that it was not yet his time.

Can anyone help me with the interpretation of this passage? Thanks!
​
Click to expand...

Hello Panther, this first miracle at Canna needs to be read on many levels, but there is no contradiction.
I believe that Jesus shows His obedience to His mother in this miracle (Honour your Father and Mother) and in the garden of Gethsemane He shows His obedience to His Father.
I really believe that this incidence concludes and exposes what is hidden in the Old Testament story of Abraham and Sarah and Isaac.
In the Isaac story only Abraham is aware of the requested sacrifice of his son Isaac and Sarah is not. Abraham gives sad assent to the request from from God (human male yes to sacrifice) whilst Sarah is unaware that it has been asked.
At the Cana story it is the woman who gives assent (human female yes to sacrifice). Mary knows that the moment Jesus is exposed (miracle) that His time with her is come to an end. From now on He must be about “His father’s business”
Why this particular place and setting? I suspect because it (marriage) is a place of covenant. Through Jesus a new covenant will be made between the human person and God and this time because the person representing the Human is God Himself, then the covenant wont fail. The covenant conditions will be met.
This is my understanding of this miracle.
Grace Angel.​
 
NotWorthy said:
There are so many things going on here.

A) It is nearing the Passover. Jesus is introducing us to one of the key elements of the Eucharist, the wine which He would turn into His Blood. The next Passover, Jesus introduces us to the other key element, the bread which He will turn into His Body.

B) This is the 7th day of John’s Gospel. It began with “In the beginning…”, which brings us all the way back to Genesis. In John’s Gospel, the author is introducing us to the 7 days of the New Creation.

C) Who are the only two people named in this scene? Jesus and Mary. No one else is named. Who got married on the 7th day of the first Creation? Adam and Eve. John is extending his New Creation narrative to introduce the 2nd Adam and the 2nd Eve. And yes, I know Jesus is not marrying his mother, but Mary is a symbol of the Church. Who is the bride of Christ? The Church.

D) The jars of purification are stone. There’s got to be some imagery on why Jesus instructs them to use the purification jars and water to create the miracle of wine. We’ve got two elements that represent baptism in the New covenant. For we are baptized (with water) into Jesus death (wine signifies His Blood). In the OT, several prophets said that God would break our hearts of stone…
Click to expand...
NotWorthy, that is so good! Excellent summary!!! 👍

I would add that this is also a type of how the Blessed Virgin Mary intercedes for us with her Son as queen of Heaven when we pray to her.
 
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