John 2:1-12

Sisters and brothers in Christ,

This evening’s Bible passage is John 2:1-12:

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. ¹² After this he went down to Capernaum, with his mother and his brothers and his disciples, and they stayed there for a few days.

This is another passage—like yesterday’s—about a mother and child. Observance of Mother’s Day lingers. It’s also a passage that—like yesterday’s—benefits from a theatrical imagination.

Jesus’s response to his mother reads on the page like something of an out-of-character, grumpy rebuff: “Woman, what does this have to do with me? My hour has not yet come.” So, let’s try imagining how we might stage this incident as a short play and see if there’s a better way of entering into Jesus’s words.

We can start by listening to the same friendly Greek consultant as we did yesterday. This time, she’ll tell us that the Greek word translated as “woman” (gunai) has none of the harshness it suggests in English. She’ll remind us that Jesus used the same term with obvious affection when, from the cross, he commended Mary to the apostle John’s care (Jn 19:26). So, perhaps we need to modify the script at this point, finding a better English equivalent for the affectionate Greek gunai. We’ll get to that later. 

In the meantime, we might also notice that Mary takes no offense at Jesus’s words, but simply turns to the servants and says, “Do whatever he tells you.” And then there’s the fact that after the wedding Jesus spends a few days hanging out “with his mother and his brothers [and sisters].” There’s no suggestion of family tension here. How can our little play bring all these elements together in a coherent whole?

Let’s try to flesh things out by experimenting with various tones of voice, gestures, actions, and props. Grumpiness doesn’t work. Nor does deadpan disinterest. Finally, we try something radically different, even daring. We envisage Jesus turning to his mother with a grin on his face, a twinkle in his eye and a full cup of wine in his hand, and saying with good humor, “My good lady, what’s that to us? I’m not on call right now.” (Our friendly Greek consultant confirms that this is a colloquial but fair paraphrase of the Greek.) If Mary were then to laugh, looking at her son with love and full confidence in his ebullient generosity, and tell the servants to do whatever her son says, the exchange would lead very nicely into the jovial miracle that follows. We decide that this captures the spirit of the episode so much better.

We even consider injecting a little comedy into what follows. Near the entrance stand six huge stone jars, from which water has earlier been poured into basins so that wedding guests can ceremonially wash their hands before eating. Jesus chooses these as his props, telling the servants to refill them. Dubious, perhaps, but fond of Jesus’s mom, the servants enter into the spirit of the occasion and hurry water to the jars while trying their best to evade guests demanding more wine. Perhaps some of the water spills. The floor gets slippery. Dare we try a little slapstick? Maybe not. Jesus sits calmly. Some of the fresh supply water is drawn from the stone jars and taken to “the master of the feast.” Astonishment! The water has become good wine. So much of it, too! The master commends the bridegroom for saving the best till last. The groom’s no cheapskate, trying to get away with cheap wine once his guests are a bit tipsy. The bridegroom is bewildered, but takes the credit anyway. The servants know better, but say nothing. Perhaps one of them winks surreptitiously at Mary and Jesus. Jesus grins broadly at his mother. And, in this way, the apostle comments, “Jesus manifested his glory. And his disciples believed in him.” No wonder they believed in him! And what a splendidly generous and human glory! How very different from the grumpy Jesus we started out imagining!

If we read the Bible to ourselves in a pious monotone, we can too easily end up with a false image of God as distant, ill-tempered, and lacking any sense of humor. It helps sometimes to imagine, as I have just done, how you might stage incidents in Jesus’s life. Yes, there are episodes of terrible agony and horror, but there are also moments of good humor, laughter, spontaneity, and compassion. There is death, but there is also resurrection. There is betrayal, but there is also a resurrection appearance as a gardener among the tombs, there are 153 large fish and breakfast on the beach, and there is the glorious good humor and generosity of the wedding at Cana.

May we discover this side of Jesus, too, and so worship the God who not only loves us but also laughs with us in our celebrations no less than he weeps with us in our sorrows.

Your brother in Christ,

Max