Listen

S. Epiphany 2.25 John 2:1-11

“This beginning of signs Jesus did in Cana of Galilee, and manifested his glory; and his disciples believed in him.”

My old teacher Paul Holmer, after giving a paper at an Oxford philosophy conference, was asked by a notorious skeptic (Holmer was the rare actual Xn! in the world of academic philosophy) how he could believe in Jesus? The questioner clearly expected a long, erudite answer about epistemology, evidence, metaphysics, but Holmer, mischievous glint in his eye, gravel in his voice, shot back: “Because my mother told me.” The auditorium exploded with laughter. And they dared question him no further…

The last line of our Gospel I quoted to start can make you think that Jesus did miracles so that people would believe in him—that his miracles, or “signs” as John calls them, provide evidence, solid rational grounds for belief, proof on which Xn faith is based.

But is that… right? Is that why Jesus did miracles? Is that why he turned water into wine at Cana?

This is the “beginning of signs”, Jesus’ first miracle, according to St. John. And John tells us as plainly as Paul Holmer why he did it. Because his mother told him to! Which is a very good reason for doing anything! Ain’t nobody happy unless momma’s happy. Remember that, kids.

But Jesus doesn’t seem exactly… jiggy about it. Sounds much more like your 10 year old self when mom says “Clean your room.”

All translations pretty up the exchange, a bit, between Jesus and Mary. “Woman, what does your concern have to do with me? My hour has not yet come,” making it sound as if Mary’s concern is the same as Jesus’—that he’s going to have to provide us some reasons to believe in him, and no time like the present to get started! The wedding guests are thirsty and they will really bless his name if he gets the vino flowing again!

But, the Greek is much more clipped, terse. Mary says “they have no wine.” Jesus shoots back, “Aw… what’s that to me and you, woman?”

Kids: when your mother is washing up after dinner and says “I have no one to dry the dishes,” I would not recommend quoting Jesus “What’s that to me and you, woman? My hour has not yet come!” Just because Jesus or the Kings of Israel say or do something doesn’t mean you should. Cough *Abishag* cough.

“My hour has not yet come” sounds better in English than the original Greek. The Greek is basically: “I have better things to do, right now, woman!” Again, not the way you should ever talk to your mother when she asks for some help! Also, never address your mother as “woman” unless you prefer the dog’s house to your cozy room. 😉

But Jesus is in a unique situation vis a vis mom, isn’t he? Mary is his mother, and as a dutiful son, Jesus keeps the 4th commandment and does as his mother says (when it isn’t against God’s Word 😉

But, since Jesus is God, the Word made flesh, Mary’s Creator and LORD, she really needs to balance the 1st commandment (the most important of all) against her 4th commandment prerogatives as mother. First and foremost, she is an obedient child of God—but her LORD is also her son. Tricky! Most of the time, Mary gets that balance right, but maybe not always?

Like the time she and Joseph lose the 12 year old Jesus in Jerusalem (parents of the year award!) and the last place they think to look for him is in the temple, where they’re amazed that he’s acting like… God!

Or the time when Mary shows up with his brothers and sisters (thought by most of the church fathers up through Luther to be step-siblings, from Joseph’s first, deceased wife, as they held Mary to be perpetually virgin) and they’re calling to him, seemingly to come home and take a break from this Messiah gig, also could be seen as less than perfect obedience?

And here, with the wine thing at the wedding of Cana, they definitely don’t seem to be on the same page, at all, Jesus and his mother. You can hear the frustration in Jesus’ voice in the original Greek, quite unmistakably. But it’s not wrong to turn water into wine, and so—since his mother told him to, Jesus does it!

And kids, that’s an important takeaway here: if the LORD God, Jesus himself, does what his mother told him to—even when it isn’t what he sees as ideal, then how much more should you and I do what mom says, when it isn’t against the word of God?

Mary strikes a lovely balance here, though, I think, between 4th commandment prerogative and 1st commandment obedience. Faith wins out—as it always does, with Mary, in the end—as befits the Queen of Heaven! She graciously receives her Son’s (sharpish!) rebuke—“what’s that to you and me, woman? My hour has not yet come.” There’s no churlish chiding, no assertion of parental rights. She just smiles that little Mona Lisa smile and goes and tells the servants: “Do whatever he says.”

Because she knows he’s going to do what his mother told him—just because it’s his mother telling him…

Can you even imagine being God’s mother?! Picture him as a newborn baby, lying in his teen mom’s arms? “Angels and Archangels/ May have gathered there,/ Cherubim and seraphim/ Thronged the air;/ But only His Mother/ In her maiden bliss/ Worshipped the Beloved/ With a kiss.” That God puts himself down like this, kissed like this, bossed like this what is it but love?

Of course, you know how it played out. If Jesus does something—even something that’s not his first choice at the moment—he’s going to do it up. 120-180 gallons of something even better than ’00 Château Margaux! Extravagant! Which is the epiphany here, the sheer gratuitous extravagance of God’s love.

So, we’re back where we started: Jesus did his first miracle at Cana simply “because my mother told me!” Not to provide evidentiary foundations for faith—because those won’t work!

As John says: despite the obvious divine power displayed, only his disciples believe—which they did, before. The miracles never persuade the unpersuaded! Usually, they either baffle the apostles themselves, or scare the beejeebers out of them 😉

See; you believe just because you’re told!

As St. Paul says: “Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God.” Miracles have never made anyone believe! Jesus did that first one because his mother told him to; because he loves her. And he did all the rest simply because he had compassion on us; because he loves us.

Like Mr. Holmer, I believe in Jesus because my mother told me. I first heard the word through her ears when yet unborn—she was always in church. My earliest memories are mom bouncing me on her knees at St. Paul’s Decatur, reading me to sleep with the Golden Children’s Bible. God grant us our mother’s eyes, to see him as he is, so that the Peace, surpassing all understanding, will guard our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus and his love. Amen.