The Wedding at Cana

John Chapter 2 begins with Jesus’ first miracle: “1 On the third day there was a wedding at Cana in Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there. 2 Jesus also was invited to the wedding with His disciples. 3. When the wine ran out, the mother of Jesus said to Him, ‘They have no wine.’  4 And Jesus said to her, ‘Woman, what does this have to do with Me? My hour has not yet come.’  5 His mother said to the servants, ‘Do whatever He tells you.‘ 6 Now there were six stone water jars there for the Jewish rites of purification, each holding twenty or thirty gallons. 7 Jesus said to the servants, ‘Fill the jars with water.’ And they filled them up to the brim. 8 And He said to them, ‘Now draw some out and take it to the master of the feast.’ So they took it. 9 When the master of the feast tasted the water now become wine, and did not know where it came from (though the servants who had drawn the water knew), the master of the feast called the bridegroom 10 and said to him, ‘Everyone serves the good wine first, and when people have drunk freely, then the poor wine. But you have kept the good wine until now.’ 11 This, the first of His signs, Jesus did at Cana in Galilee, and manifested His glory. And His disciples believed in Him.“

There is a lot I have learned from this simple story. First: that Mary is the master of the “assumptive close.” The assumptive close is a sales technique whereby the sales person– after his/her presentation– acts as if the client has already bought the merchandise: e.g. “So, do you want that in black or do you prefer white?” It is also called “Thinking past the sale.”

I’m not saying Mary manipulated Jesus, but she appealed to His character and nature. The take away for me is seeing, by example, a successful way to pray to the Lord. After all, if we pray against His nature there is no way we’re going to get a positive answer to our prayer. In contrast, praying according to His will and nature will get a positive answer. Abraham did this when he appealed to the Lord to save Sodom from destruction: negotiating again and again, and finally reaching an agreement to save the city if just ten righteous men could be found in it.

Mary knew Jesus could provide wine. He was an invited guest to the wedding so He must have cared for the bride and groom, and certainly He loved His mother. Where faith enters in is where she says to the servants. “Do whatever He tells you.”

The decision was still Jesus’s to make. I believe Mary would have been OK either way it went, but she had a pretty good notion of how it would go. It’s interesting to me how different Jesus is from what my pre-Christian notion of who God was. He is someone you can talk to, even argue with, without being vaporized by the lighting bolt of His wrath. This certainly makes Him more approachable.

A similar story, in Matthew 15, describes how Jesus was appealed to by a Canaanite woman. The Canaanites were not Israelites, they were pagans and natural enemies of the Israelites. But, undaunted, this woman appealed to Jesus for her daughter:

Matthew 15: 21 “And Jesus went away from there and withdrew to the district of Tyre and Sidon. 22 And behold, a Canaanite woman from that region came out and was crying, ‘Have mercy on me, O Lord, Son of David; my daughter is severely oppressed by a demon.’  23 But He did not answer her a word. And His disciples came and begged Him, saying, ‘Send her away, for she is crying out after us.’ 24 He answered, ‘I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.’  25 But she came and knelt before Him, saying, ‘Lord, help me.’  26 And He answered, ‘It is not right to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs.’  27 She said, ‘Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table.’  28 Then Jesus answered her, ‘O woman, great is your faith! Be it done for you as you desire.’  And her daughter was healed instantly.“

It reminds me of the wedding story because Jesus at first seems reluctant to acquiesce to the request; and His reluctance draws out one of the most profound acts of wisdom, faith, and humility in the Bible.

The second and more profound observation about the marriage miracle in Cana is that we could have no better advice than Mary gave to the servants at the wedding: “Do whatever He tells you.” We can’t do better than that.

A couple of things interfere with that, however. One, I have to be in communication with Jesus. To do that I have to know Him and I have to talk with Him; and by talking to Him, I mean I have to listen as much or more than I speak. He will answer me if I listen: in order to listen properly, I have to want to hear what He has to say.

I don’t always want to hear what He has to say, because reading the Bible every day has led me to get to know the Author pretty well. When you know His character pretty well, you know that from time to time He will ask you to do something uncomfortable. You can try ignoring Him. He’s patient most of the time, but you may find yourself in the same boat, figuratively, as Jonah. Like Jonah, I don’t always agree with Jesus, I don’t always like what He does, but I know when I disagree with Him I’m the one that’s wrong. And I really don’t want to spend three days and nights in the belly of a fish. So I will do what He wants, eventually.