Wedding Feast at Cana (John 2)

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I was thinking about this passage today and I wondered if anyone had any insights as to why the stewards would have mentioned running out of wine to Mary. Shouldn’t they have gone to the host?
 
garysibio said:
I was thinking about this passage today and I wondered if anyone had any insights as to why the stewards would have mentioned running out of wine to Mary. Shouldn’t they have gone to the host?
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It has been speculated that the family was a friend of Mary’s and she was assisting in the preparation.

By the way, my pastor of many years ago suggested that they were running out because Jesus brought all those young seminarians with Him. :rolleyes:
 
No doubt there was some friendship involved or they mightn’t have been invited to the wedding thus Mary may have heard the parents whispering concern.
Alternately, as a warm kind person, she may have noticed some concern amongst the servants.
Any of us who are mothers know we’d notice these things and be concerned, and done what we could to rectify the problems. It’s what we do! And Mary is the best of us! 🙂
 
Trishie said:
No doubt there was some friendship involved or they mightn’t have been invited to the wedding thus Mary may have heard the parents whispering concern.
Alternately, as a warm kind person, she may have noticed some concern amongst the servants.
Any of us who are mothers know we’d notice these things and be concerned, and done what we could to rectify the problems. It’s what we do! And Mary is the best of us! 🙂
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Considering the view of women in general at that time, it seems unlikely. Men usually avoided talking with women in public. That’s one of the reasons I wondered about it.
 
garysibio said:
Considering the view of women in general at that time, it seems unlikely. Men usually avoided talking with women in public. That’s one of the reasons I wondered about it.
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I think that men avoided talking with women of equal rank. If Mary was there to help her friend run the party, she would have had an authoritative role.
 
garysibio said:
Considering the view of women in general at that time, it seems unlikely. Men usually avoided talking with women in public. That’s one of the reasons I wondered about it.
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ok, I never really thought about it. DO we know if the servants were male or female? It might be obvious in the Greek, I’m not sure I’ve noticed in the English translation. (Google, Google, search, search…)— It looks like it uses deaconos which I think would be male (or a group of males and females).

Actually, it doesn’t say that they talked to her. It says that she noticed they had no wine (or just “when the wine failed”) and mentioned it to Jesus. Then she spoke to them. I don’t know if male servants actually get to ignore female guests at a wedding. I would think that they would have listen to her. Especially, if she were part of the host family.
 
garysibio said:
I was thinking about this passage today and I wondered if anyone had any insights as to why the stewards would have mentioned running out of wine to Mary. Shouldn’t they have gone to the host?
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my personal feeling, with absolutely nothing official to back it up, is simply that she was the kind of person a servant would instinctively go to for help, especially if it had been responsibility to order the wine and he was afraid of being reprimanded for his misjudgment. I just think there was something about her that would invite people to ask her for help.
 
jbarbaretta said:
ok, I never really thought about it. DO we know if the servants were male or female? It might be obvious in the Greek, I’m not sure I’ve noticed in the English translation. (Google, Google, search, search…)— It looks like it uses deaconos which I think would be male (or a group of males and females).

Actually, it doesn’t say that they talked to her. It says that she noticed they had no wine (or just “when the wine failed”) and mentioned it to Jesus. Then she spoke to them. I don’t know if male servants actually get to ignore female guests at a wedding. I would think that they would have listen to her. Especially, if she were part of the host family.
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Good points. I don’t know Greek so I don’t know the gender of the servants. Unless they were bond servants I would think they would be male since women didn’t work outside the house.

That Mary just noticed is a possibility that I never considered.
 
RSD said:
I think that men avoided talking with women of equal rank. If Mary was there to help her friend run the party, she would have had an authoritative role.
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You might be on to something here. The servants did listen when Mary told them to do whatever Jesus told them to do.
 
garysibio said:
I was thinking about this passage today and I wondered if anyone had any insights as to why the stewards would have mentioned running out of wine to Mary. Shouldn’t they have gone to the host?
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Where is it claimed that they went to Mary with their problem?
 
NotWorthy said:
Where is it claimed that they went to Mary with their problem?
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  1. Mary knew the problem existed.
  2. The servants - or, at least, one of them - was near enough for Mary to tell them to do whatever Jesus told them.
It’s not unreasonable to assume that the servants told Mary although, as someone pointed out, she might just have noticed there was a problem.
 
Observation. Mary may simply have observed the consternation on the part of the servants when they were unable to pour more wine freely. There does not seem to have been the gender separation that one finds in today’s observant weddings, so a servant, male or female, would treat every guest with deference, even that thirsty crew of fishermen from Galilee and that remarkably lovely lady sitting with them
 
garysibio said:
  1. Mary knew the problem existed.
  2. The servants - or, at least, one of them - was near enough for Mary to tell them to do whatever Jesus told them.
It’s not unreasonable to assume that the servants told Mary although, as someone pointed out, she might just have noticed there was a problem.
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Perhaps:
  1. Mary was simply observant
  2. The servants were doing what servants do - serving. That would have brought them close enough to Mary to hear anything orders she may pass on.
 
One of the things that I really like about this miracle is how unnecessary it was. Nobody’s life was at stake, no country was saved from a foreign invader, or anything like that. If there was some part of the story that made it terribly important for someone there, we are not told that part. All we know is that Jesus provided 180 GALLONS of the best wine, for people who had already been drinking for 3 days. I just love this extravagant gift.
 
garysibio said:
Considering the view of women in general at that time, it seems unlikely. Men usually avoided talking with women in public. That’s one of the reasons I wondered about it.
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Actually, Gary if this was absolutely true, then why did Mary speak to Jesus, and to the servants in public? That she did proves that women did in fact speak to men in public…not only her son, but to someone else’s servants in someone else’s house not her own, directing the servants to do as He would tell them! Before any man present, she, in others eyes a mere ordinary woman, did so…Jesus hadn’t officially begun His public life as He said at the time. There are other instances of women speaking out in the gospel and the Old Testament. Take for instance Martha. And even had Mary not spoken to the host, why with to the hostess, who was likely her friend? Mary’s kindness would have been well known, and women are quite likely then as now to whisper their distress…“my husband is so worried and ashamed, we’re nearly out of wine! What will people think.!”
These were real people and so their lives had richness and layers that we may not be familiar with.

All the best in your reflections regarding the gospels, Gary. God’s kindest blessings to you. 🙂
 
RSD said:
One of the things that I really like about this miracle is how unnecessary it was. Nobody’s life was at stake, no country was saved from a foreign invader, or anything like that. If there was some part of the story that made it terribly important for someone there, we are not told that part. All we know is that Jesus provided 180 GALLONS of the best wine, for people who had already been drinking for 3 days. I just love this extravagant gift.
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I agree. It shows that God cares even about the little details of our lives. We should discuss them with Him once in a while!
 
I love knowing that this is Jesus’ first miracle. It is so cool on so many levels. I am wondering, though… who’s wedding was it? Or does nobody know? I think that Mary was probably observant (just like most women) and/or knew the host/hostess who spoke her concerns to her. They were worried about being embarrassed about running out of wine… which would have been quite embarrassing!! 😃
 
I love the Wedding Feast at Cana. So deep.

If you note the way John words it, the central character of the story is NOT Jesus. It’s Mary.

He very clearly tells us in John 2:1 that “the mother of Jesus was there” and then in v. 2–almost as an afterthought that “Jesus and his disciples were also invited to the wedding.”

I had always envisioned that the servants went to Mary for help but never noticed that the text doesn’t explicitly say that.

With John’s wording from v. 1, it’s reasonable to believe that Mary was central in the planning of the wedding.
 
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