Jewish Mothers

I just finished reading the story of Jesus’ first miracle again today.  Weddings were a big event in the Jewish culture, and from the sound of this one that Jesus was at it was no different.  The wine flowed freely and everyone was in high spirits.  Then, somebody notices “whoops, were out of booze!”  The danger here being that the party animals would leave and things would be a big flop.

Then along comes Mary (hmm…sounds like a good song title!)  Now, I don’t know if you’ve had a lot of experience with Jewish mothers or not, but I have.*  They can be pretty firm with their kids when they want to be…which is most of the time!  Mary’s kid was Jesus…doesn’t matter that he was 30 or so years old at the time, he still was subject to her wishes.  She apparently was keenly interested in the wine not running out and told Jesus to do something about it.  It is odd how Jesus answered her “it is not time for me to show who I am.”  What is not odd is that he took care of the problem anyway…you don’t disobey a Jewish mother!  He takes two huge stone pots filled with water and turns them into wine (do you think this was overkill maybe…I’ll show you mom, you want wine, here it comes as a gusher!)

Why do I say it was odd for Jesus to say what he did?  Because it implies some sort of timetable -- and that I find the biggest unanswerable mystery, and it also implies through the whole scenario that Jesus apparently had been doing miracles that at least his mother knew about all along (and yes, I know, you can’t keep a secret from a Jewish mother…they figure out everything!)  Now maybe he just mowed the lawn with a wave of his hand, cleaned his room with a word, or cured her bursitis with a touch, but apparently his ability to do miracles was no secret to Mary!

Apparently the “vintner gig” remained a secret because no one at the party had a clue about what Jesus did (except maybe the guys who served the wine out of the water pots, and apparently they didn’t tell anybody from what we read in the texts.)  The master of ceremonies (think Bob Barker here) just gushed over how good the wine was, not how miraculous it was that Jesus took dishwater and turned it into Pino Grigio. 

But, I still want to know why Jesus said “It is not time yet….”   That one really makes me ponder.

*Ladies, I truly mean no offense.  You love your kids and you work hard to make them turn out well.  Besides, I’m kinda teasing and stereotyping here.  Forgive my taking those liberties.