A Johaninne Study (John 2:1-5)

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.”

“Woman” is not an adulatory address. Even in our contemporary times, we do not speak to our mothers that way. Was Jesus being rude? Not exactly. There are far worse things that can be said in Greek that are more offensive than “woman.” Jesus is not condoning crassness or disrespect to mothers by way of example. The semantic tone is one of gentle rebuke.

Why would Jesus rebuke his mother? Apparently, she thought that Jesus would have a solution to the current problem: the wedding party has no more wine. His response is corrective. Jesus wants his mother to know that there is a greater problem that he is ultimately concerned with. The key is in the word hour.

• Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. John 4:21

• Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming, and is now here, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live. For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself. And he has given him authority to execute judgment, because he is the Son of Man. Do not marvel at this, for an hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear his voice John 5:25-28

• So they were seeking to arrest him, but no one laid a hand on him, because his hour had not yet come. John 7:30

• These words he spoke in the treasury, as he taught in the temple; but no one arrested him, because his hour had not yet come. John 8:20

• Now before the Feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart out of this world to the Father, having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end. John 13:1

• The hour is coming when I will no longer speak to you in figures of speech but will tell you plainly about the Father. John 16:25

• When Jesus had spoken these words, he lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, “Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you John 17:1

Thus, Jesus foreshadows what will happen on the cross when his hour has come. The lack of wine at the wedding at Cana is small potatoes when it comes to the problem of sin. Jesus will eventually deal with both. But the material solution to the problem of absent wine does not take precedence over the cross. The gospel is of paramount importance, even before it happens!

Past, present or future, the cross a watershed moment.