Honor Thy Mother

John 2:3: And when they wanted wine, the mother of Jesus saith unto him, They have no wine.
John 2:4: Jesus saith unto her, Woman, what have I to do with thee? mine hour is not yet come.
John 2:5: His mother saith unto the servants, Whatsoever he saith unto you, do it.

The above account is the story of the first miracle performed by Jesus during His earthly ministry. But follow along with me in the account of those three verses. Jesus & His followers, aka disciples, were invited to a wedding. Jesus' mother was already there. They run out of wine at this wedding. It seems to me that Jesus had never before done a miracle, even in private. It could be that is not the case, but verse 11 says, "This beginning of miracles did Jesus in Cana..." Whether that just refers to public miracles or private, I can't say for sure.

Mary knew Jesus. Mary knew Him better than any other human being on earth. IF, in fact, this is the very first miracle Jesus did on earth, then Mary was kind of stepping out by faith here. She could not have known what Jesus was going to do. I expect that it was simply a case of, Hey, Jesus can fix this problem - not expecting that a miracle was to follow.

What catches my attention today is Jesus' answer to her: "Woman, what have I to do with thee, mine hour is not yet come." First of all, when I call my wife, Sarah, Woman, I don't see why she should have a problem with it. That's what's Jesus called His mom - and we are supposed to walk in His steps, right?! Anyway, the other thing I see to this is that He essentially was telling His mom, Hey, it's not time for me to go to the cross yet, and by doing miracles, it is kind of the kick-off of this whole thing, and it won't be stopped.

But, even though Jesus said that it wasn't the best time for this, what seems to happen in the next verse, His mother saith unto the servants, Whatsoever he saith unto you, do it. She, for some reason, assumed that her Son was going to obey her wishes, even though He said it was not the best time for it. It seems to me that Mary had such confidence in the honor that Jesus had showed to her all of His life, that she had no reason to doubt that He would honor her here and solve this problem. This 30 year old man, honored His mother's wishes, even though it may not have been the best timing. And this wasn't even obedience, it was honor. The difference: Obedience is doing what somebody else says. Honor is doing what somebody else wants.

Honour thy father and thy mother. Jesus did. It seems to me that He began all of His miracles as a result of His honoring His mother.

Just a thought...