Questions about John 2:1-11: The Wedding at Cana

[ItrustJesus]

Hi there.

Could someone help me with these 2 questions from the Wedding at Cana:

1. Mary said to the servants “Do whatever he tells you” (John 2:5). How can you know what Jesus wants you to do?
2. The Lord said “My hour has not yet come” (John 2:4). What does Jesus mean by these words?

 

[NotWorthy]

ItrustJesus:

Hi there.

Could someone help me with these 2 questions from the Wedding at Cana:

1. Mary said to the servants “Do whatever he tells you” (John 2:5). How can you know what Jesus wants you to do?
2. The Lord said “My hour has not yet come” (John 2:4). What does Jesus mean by these words?

1. Read the Bible!!!
2. His hour is His Passion and Death. You’ll read further in John, where Jesus and John refer to His Passion. “They sought to arrest Him, but His Hour had not yet come**”.
   Note: In Catholic for a Reason III, there’s a great article, where Jesus was using the term, “His Hour” to implicitly refer to the Mass. I’ll paraphrase:
   Besides the obvious literal meaning - the historical event of the Cross - what else have we learned about Jesus’ understanding of the hour? In the hour:
   
   Ø We gather together as “Greeks” and “Jews” to celebrate the new Passover (cf. Jn. 4:23, 12:20, 13:1).
   
   Ø We hear God’s Word in order to receive new life (cf. Jn. 5:25).
   
   Ø We are empowered to worship in a new way: in spirit and truth (cf. Jn. 4:23-24).
   
   Ø We will see the Lamb of God lifted up, drawing all men to Himself (cf. Jn. 12:32).
   
   Ø We receive wine, the best wine (cf. Jn. 2:1-11)
   
   Ø We receive the living bread, the fruit borne of the grain of wheat that has died (cf. Jn. 12:23-24).

Let’s take another look at the list: bread and wine, the Word of the Lord, spiritual worship, a new Passover for Jews and Greeks, and we are lifted up with God. What does this add up to? Of course, it’s the Mass! The Mass is the hour when all this takes place - and Jesus knew it from the start.

NotWorthy

 

[TEME525]

As I see it, the answer to your first question is rooted in the Immaculate Conception. I think many times when we consider the Immaculate Conception we tend to think of Mary as a “Super-Human”. But I look at it rather than maker her this way what this gift from God did was to make her a true human.

In her humanity, she lived in perfect harmony emotions and intellect and reason. So I think that we may consider that she had a special insight due to the graces she had received, which she did, but humanily speaking should the greatest insight between two people exist between a mother and child?

I think this human bond was displayed especially in the trust Mary had in her son. This trust would allow her to do what she did here. Also, we find displayed through out the Synoptics Mary’s absolute trust in her Son, even when it seems she hadn’t grasp the full meaning of Christ’s life and mission (how could she really). But the trust and also confidence was always there which allowed her to tell the servants “To do what ever He tells you”.

You know, because we are seeing things after the fact, we tend to assume that she knew what Jesus was going to do, but I do think that was the case. I think she had no idea what Jesus was going to do, but I go back to that complete trust she had in Him and had Jesus said to the servents “go away” she would have accepted it, again her massage was to do “Whatever” he tells you. A message, unfortunately, she has found necessary to repete even to this day.

 

[John-the-Seeker]

Hi,
I hope this will answer the questions that you pose as I share my experience around the Wedding Feast of Cana.

This story always troubled me by the seeming indifference of a loving Godman and the apparent ‘pulling of rank’ by the humble sinless virgin Mother of God.
Both actions, the perceived indifference of Jesus and The Blessed Mother’s seeming ignoring of Jesus’ will to not to do something by in effect pulling rank and forcing Jesus to act by telling the servants to do whatever my son tells you, would seem to constitute sin to me and not be in keeping with the nature of either Jesus or Mary. But try as I might, I could not reconcile their sinless natures with the facts of the story.
I’d even heard priests chuckle about how even Jesus had to obey mom and be told what to do from time to time when He ‘forgot’ his mission. A forgetful Jesus or a disobedient Son does not agree with who we know Jesus to be.
Therefore I finally went to the source. I asked God to let me hear the tone of Jesus’ “Its not My Time yet.” I hoped I would then understand. I got better than I asked for. Here is what was revealed to me as I remember it.
It was not by accident that this event happened at a wedding feast as we are all called to be brides of Christ. The wedding guests had forgotten the solemnity of this union and the purpose for which the gifts they had been given, the wine, were to be used. They had spent their graces, their wine, in earthly pursuits and pleasures and now were living lives without the awareness of or the giving of the credit due to God. The Blessed Mother, seeing her children in such an impoverished and terrible state said to her Son,“Son, they have no wine.” Jesus’ reply was amplified beyond what we see in recorded scripture. It was “What is that to do with Me? No one has asked for My help and it is not yet My time to perform a public miracle without first being asked.” The Blessed Mother then turned to the humble in spirit, the servants and said,“Do whatever my Son tells you.”
I now understood the scripture in today’s context. We, the people alive today, are being called to our own wedding feast, to be brides of Christ, but in general terms, we have turned our backs on Jesus and His Church. We struggle day to day as we try to live without God and turn to everyone else but Christ to ask for help. We try to depend on ourselves and other men.
The Mother appearing today in approved apparition sites and in many unapproved sites all over the world is appealing to the humble servants of God, to “do whatever My Son tells you.” She does this so that the world in general, the guests at these humble servants’ wedding feasts, might ‘taste’ the ‘new wine’, the new infusion of old truths and be called back to God.
She asks us to pray, especially the Rosary, to confess sins, to attend mass, to read the scriptures and to fast and do penance.

That is my offering for what is meant by “It is not yet My Time” and “What are we to do”. I hope it helps.

 

[TEME525]

In regards to Jesus’ answer to Mary that His time has not come, I think this is one of the most important lines we find in the Gospels, because it reflects probrably the one or greatest temptation Jesus faced through out his entire ministry.

The temptation being to act or use his full power to “Prove” who he was so that there wouldn’t be any doubt by anyone. But this would have completely defeated His ministry.

Scripture scholars, many if not most that is, often teach that the main message of Jesus, the reason for His ministry, was to proclaim that the Kingdom of God was present and always active amoung us and He, Himself was the ultimate proof of this. But Jesus’ message was always pointing to the Father, it was totally selfless.

So the temptation Jesus faced was to act in such a way that would cloud this message and make Him the focus of His teachings and actions. This would undoubtly cause, as we see it did cause, people to miss the point and think that Jesus was about to filfull their expectations of a messiah - a king who would remove the Romans and establish a kingdom along the line of David - Israel would be the political Nation amoung all the Nations of the world once and for all. Or as a religious Messiah, would be the Judge of the Nations and again establish the Kingdom of David.

There was a tention in Jesus’ ministry in that He was driven to proclaim and show that God was actively present through His works but at the same time, as I wrote above, not have his works misunderstood. Plus we know that the Devil was always present leading people to this misconception and tempting Jesus - the Devil would often acknowledge that Jesus was the “Son of God” to add to this misconception of Jesus’ ministry.

So when Jesus told his mother His hour had not come, I think this really reflects this constant concern of Jesus - He was there to proclaim the Kingdom of God, nothing else.

 

[steve99]

I recently heard a very interesting interpretation of this and I offer it for comment (and hope I relate the interpretation correctly). In Jewish life the son was considered as a slave until his bar mitzvar and had no inheritance rights (hence St. Paul’s references to slaves and heirs in Galations 4:1-7).

Until the bar mitzvar (which would be when he was about 12) he would be under the authority and tutelage of his mother. At the bar mitzvar he would be hander over by his mother to the authority of his father. At this point the son would decide whether he wanted to go into the family business or not. If he did, he became a son and heir rather than a slave and took on inheritance rights. Perhaps this is why Jesus remained in the temple when he was 12, being about his Father’s business.

However this was not the time when this happened as Jesus remained under the authority of his mother (and Joseph).

At Cana his mother gave him the sign that she was now releasing him to be about his Father’s business. The NAB footnotes says of “My hour has not yet come” that the translation “Has not my hour now come?” is preferable grammatically and supported by Greek Fathers (although it doesn’t actually support this translation itself). So Jesus was querying whether his mother was giving him over.

It was after this that Jesus was baptised in the Jordan, accepted by the Father and came under his authority. Apparently the words used “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased” are the words used by a father at the bar mitzvar ceremony.

 

[Al_Masetti]

With all due respect, to some extent, I think it is a good idea not to “read too much into this incident”. Re-read it with a sense of humor.

They were at a party. The wine was flowing. Everyone was having a good time. It was an innocent time, before things got really serious. Jesus was displaying the proper behavior of a loving son to his loving mother.

Mary was a Jewish Mother. She talked like a Jewish Mother. She uses the Standard Guilt Trip employed by EVERY mother “against” her son(s).

Jesus’ mother says to him: “they are out of wine”. [Meaning: our friends will be embarrassed. And you know YOU CAN FIX THIS MESSY AND EMBARRASSING SITUATION. SO FIX IT. THIS IS YOUR MOTHER TALKING. I GAVE BIRTH TO YOU. I NURSED YOU. SO FIX IT. ]

Jesus replies, “My time has not yet come”. [Meaning: it is not yet the right time for me to announce to the world that I am the Messiah, the Salvation of all mankind, the Hope of the Jewish People, the Son of the Living God. ]

Mary behaves like a Typical Jewish Mother. She doesn’t even look at her son. She ignores him. “Motherly Contempt”. She KNOWS her son so well, she knows he will do what she says. *

[Keep in mind that much later on, as the Queen of Heaven, Mary has pretty much the same role… if Mary says to Jesus in Heaven …" take good care of Al – his is a family friend" – then you can take that to the bank… Jesus is still the Obedient Son. Also it’s a reminder … be VERY respectful of and nice to Mary… she is God’s MOTHER !!! ]

Anyway, she turns to the headwaiter of the catering hall and says, “Do what he tells you.”

At this point, Jesus buries his head in his hands and shakes his head. Visualize a scene and a script line spoken by an actor like the guy [John Ratzenberger} who played the character Cliff Klaven in the TV show “Cheers”: “Maaaaaa!!!”

So, the obedient son, says “go fill up some jars with water.”

“Now taste it.”

Jesus now turns to his mother and doesn’t say anything, he just looks at her in a sonly, lovingly, smilingly exasperated sort of way as if to say “are you happy now? you made me blow my cover.”

And then he laughs, sort of at himself, how pretentious… and has a drink.

Things are going to get really serious, really soon. It’s ok to lighten up once in a while.

[Remember that God does have a sense of humor… He created the aardvark, the platypus, the camel… and He braided the rings of Saturn.]*

 

[steve99]

Al Masetti:

With all due respect, to some extent, I think it is a good idea not to “read too much into this incident”. Re-read it with a sense of humor.

They were at a party. The wine was flowing. Everyone was having a good time. It was an innocent time, before things got really serious. Jesus was displaying the proper behavior of a loving son to his loving mother.

Mary was a Jewish Mother. She talked like a Jewish Mother. She uses the Standard Guilt Trip employed by EVERY mother “against” her son(s).

Jesus’ mother says to him: “they are out of wine”. [Meaning: our friends will be embarrassed. And you know YOU CAN FIX THIS MESSY AND EMBARRASSING SITUATION. SO FIX IT. THIS IS YOUR MOTHER TALKING. I GAVE BIRTH TO YOU. I NURSED YOU. SO FIX IT. ]

Jesus replies, “My time has not yet come”. [Meaning: it is not yet the right time for me to announce to the world that I am the Messiah, the Salvation of all mankind, the Hope of the Jewish People, the Son of the Living God. ]

Mary behaves like a Typical Jewish Mother. She doesn’t even look at her son. She ignores him. “Motherly Contempt”. She KNOWS her son so well, she knows he will do what she says. *

[Keep in mind that much later on, as the Queen of Heaven, Mary has pretty much the same role… if Mary says to Jesus in Heaven …" take good care of Al – his is a family friend" – then you can take that to the bank… Jesus is still the Obedient Son. Also it’s a reminder … be VERY respectful of and nice to Mary… she is God’s MOTHER !!! ]

Anyway, she turns to the headwaiter of the catering hall and says, “Do what he tells you.”

At this point, Jesus buries his head in his hands and shakes his head. Visualize a scene and a script line spoken by an actor like the guy [John Ratzenberger} who played the character Cliff Klaven in the TV show “Cheers”: “Maaaaaa!!!”

So, the obedient son, says “go fill up some jars with water.”

“Now taste it.”

Jesus now turns to his mother and doesn’t say anything, he just looks at her in a sonly, lovingly, smilingly exasperated sort of way as if to say “are you happy now? you made me blow my cover.”

And then he laughs, sort of at himself, how pretentious… and has a drink.

Things are going to get really serious, really soon. It’s ok to lighten up once in a while.

[Remember that God does have a sense of humor… He created the aardvark, the platypus, the camel… and He braided the rings of Saturn.]*

Great story and fun to read, but total rubbish of course. St. John spent many years meditating and pondering on all that he had seen and heard, and then made a small selection of all his memories, each incident packed with meaning for us to tease out.
Cana is one of his seven great “signs”, not a human angle story in the local rag.

 

[Magicsilence]

Al Masetti:

With all due respect, to some extent, I think it is a good idea not to “read too much into this incident”. Re-read it with a sense of humor.

They were at a party. The wine was flowing. Everyone was having a good time. It was an innocent time, before things got really serious. Jesus was displaying the proper behavior of a loving son to his loving mother.

Mary was a Jewish Mother. She talked like a Jewish Mother. She uses the Standard Guilt Trip employed by EVERY mother “against” her son(s).

Jesus’ mother says to him: “they are out of wine”. [Meaning: our friends will be embarrassed. And you know YOU CAN FIX THIS MESSY AND EMBARRASSING SITUATION. SO FIX IT. THIS IS YOUR MOTHER TALKING. I GAVE BIRTH TO YOU. I NURSED YOU. SO FIX IT. ]

Jesus replies, “My time has not yet come”. [Meaning: it is not yet the right time for me to announce to the world that I am the Messiah, the Salvation of all mankind, the Hope of the Jewish People, the Son of the Living God. ]

Mary behaves like a Typical Jewish Mother. She doesn’t even look at her son. She ignores him. “Motherly Contempt”. She KNOWS her son so well, she knows he will do what she says. *

[Keep in mind that much later on, as the Queen of Heaven, Mary has pretty much the same role… if Mary says to Jesus in Heaven …" take good care of Al – his is a family friend" – then you can take that to the bank… Jesus is still the Obedient Son. Also it’s a reminder … be VERY respectful of and nice to Mary… she is God’s MOTHER !!! ]

Anyway, she turns to the headwaiter of the catering hall and says, “Do what he tells you.”

At this point, Jesus buries his head in his hands and shakes his head. Visualize a scene and a script line spoken by an actor like the guy [John Ratzenberger} who played the character Cliff Klaven in the TV show “Cheers”: “Maaaaaa!!!”

So, the obedient son, says “go fill up some jars with water.”

“Now taste it.”

Jesus now turns to his mother and doesn’t say anything, he just looks at her in a sonly, lovingly, smilingly exasperated sort of way as if to say “are you happy now? you made me blow my cover.”

And then he laughs, sort of at himself, how pretentious… and has a drink.

Things are going to get really serious, really soon. It’s ok to lighten up once in a while.

[Remember that God does have a sense of humor… He created the aardvark, the platypus, the camel… and He braided the rings of Saturn.]*


Um, all i can think of is this little smiley -

 

[Della]

When looking at passages like this it is very tempting to interpret it according to our personal understanding or culture. This is a big mistake. Some of us here have fallen prey to that temptation, although such interpretations can be entertaining, they aren’t really very helpful.

I think steve99 has come the closest to understanding the cultural dynamics involved and Notworthy the devotional understanding of it.

In any case, we can know from Sacred Tradition, from which Sacred Scripture came, that Jesus would never have dishonored his mother and she would never have tried to back him into a corner in order to get him to do what she wanted. These notions are completely contrary to what we know of both Jesus and Mary. They show in those who think that was the scenario a lack of knowledge, understanding, and true belief.

And I say this with great warmth of affection that those who do not know or understand that they will seek to know and understand. And, that they will seek the gift of faith to believe what the Church teaches about these things instead of merely grasping at what seems logical to them or what others, who know no better, think.

 

[TEME525]

I think Steve99 brings out an important aspect about the culture of Jesus’ time, however, I want to make one correction which I believe is very important not only for this passage but to help us understand the NT.

Steve99, was correct about a son being almost a slave to a parent but it was to the Father not the mother. A child owed complete fedility to his father even after his Bar Mitzava.Actually a mother, or any women for that matter, had very little rights in that society and she certainly had no control over a son especially if she was a widow and the son was the first born.

But Steve99 post brings out the the relationship factor and as he referenced it gives us a better understanding of Paul’s letters. It also gives us a better understanding of Jesus’ use of ‘Abba’. Often we see it translated as “Daddy” the name a young child uses for his father. Sentimentally, this is pleasing but it is not accurate. Abba was a name used for ones father, but, in the use was the acknowledgement of the Father/Son role again the son’s obligation to be totally obedient to his father. This, and let me stress, doesn’t imply the lacking love-relationship between and father and his child, and in Jesus’ use of Abba it clearly shows the great extent of our Father’s love for Jesus and us.

I realize that this is a bit off the thread’s theme, but I hope it will allow us a little more insight to this passage and the NT as a whole whenever we hear or read of God as our Father.

 

[steve99]

TEME525:

I think Steve99 brings out an important aspect about the culture of Jesus’ time, however, I want to make one correction which I believe is very important not only for this passage but to help us understand the NT.

Steve99, was correct about a son being almost a slave to a parent but it was to the Father not the mother. A child owed complete fedility to his father even after his Bar Mitzava.Actually a mother, or any women for that matter, had very little rights in that society and she certainly had no control over a son especially if she was a widow and the son was the first born.

I beg to differ on this. It’s an obvious argument that a child must be reared by its mother, firstly to be weaned, then to be educated. The father cannot educate because he’s at work, so the child learns the language and the bible from his mother. Luke 3:51 says quite clearly 'he (Jesus) was obedient to them (Joseph and Mary). The infancy narratives are quite clear that most of the communication was between Jesus and Mary, no words of Joseph are recorded. It’s also worth bearing in mind that marriage to the Jew is not a duality, ‘they are one flesh’. Thus to be obedient to one parent is to be obedient to both. The son cannot partake in his father’s work until the bar mitzvah because he is not considered mature enough, nor does he share in the inheritance until that date so that he would have been left with the mother when the father went to work.

As for women having very little rights, they did not have equal rights as we would consider them today, but clearly they had enough rights to follow Jesus around Galilee and care for his needs (Mark 15:41 and Luke 8:1-3); to buy costly spices for his body, and to get up early and go off to the tomb without a man with them.

 

[TOME]

Steve99, (please note sometimes - depending on the computer I’m on I sign in as TOME or TEME525)

First century Palestinian Jewish was extremely male dominated Patriarchic society. Women (including wifes) were listed amoung tax roles along with cattle and slaves.

In the custome of the time the role of a wife and mother was first to bare children (preferably male offspring) teach the children and to manage the house hold. By law she was under the total domination of the head of the house the Father. If she became a widow then she became the responsibility of oldest living male relative - normally the son. If not the son then the oldest living male relative along the husband line. But she was the responsibility of others, she was never in charge.

As far as the education of children (male and female) as I wrote above, it was the wife’s responsibility, but this was an education of training the the child in manual labor and teaching moral principles. Around the age of 6 or 7 children began to go work in the fields with the father or if the father was an artisan, then the son would begin to stay with the father and gradually learn the father’s skill and trade.

But once again at the time of Jesus, Jewish women had no legal authority over her children, it was the role of the Father or the male head of the house hold.

 

[awalt]

? I think there is a much simpler explanation of the first question. They went to Mary, she got Jesus to help, she tells them do what Jesus says. This is teaching us the power of Mary’s Intercession! This is where we learn it from!

1. Pray to Mary to intercede to Jesus for us
2. Mary will say in return, “Do what Jesus tells you to” (in must be in God’s graces to get the help of Jesus)