“When the wine was gone, Jesus’ mother said to Him, ‘They have no more wine.’ Jesus replied, ‘Dear woman, why do you involve Me? My time has not yet come.’ His mother told the servants, ‘Do whatever He tells you.’” (John 2:3-5)
In so few words so much is revealed between mother and Son. We find her sharing an immediate problem—is it truly a miracle she seeks? It’s not what she asks. Indeed, she doesn’t really ask for anything, but yet He grasps the import of her statement. Just on the human level we marvel at the connection between parent and Child. So many ordinary mothers have an instinct about the child she brought from conception into life beyond the womb. But the child doesn’t always—nay, dare we say rarely—have the sort of instinct of Jesus. He understands what she wants.
What is so poignant is that her request is not for herself but for her friends, and for what? Is it really a crisis, or just an embarrassment to run out of wine at the wedding reception? Jesus our Lord had just begun gathering His inner circle of disciples. As at other times, here again He is biding His time until the appropriate moment when they would be sent out on a mission of evangelizing. Actually, He was not ready, it seems, to start His public ministry. To provide a miracle, the only and obvious way to solve the discomfiture of His mother’s friend, would be spread through the village and soon across Galilee. He wasn’t eager to have that happen.
He came to accept the invitation perhaps offered by His mother, to be a guest content to watch the bride and groom in their joy. He hadn’t expected to get involved, as the French say “engage.” “Why do you involve Me?” [literally, what is it to Me and to you?] Question: Isn’t God involved in every aspect of life? Wasn’t it Jesus Himself who told us that a sparrow doesn’t fall from the sky without the Father knowing it? But to know and to do something about it is different. Whose fault was it that the organizers of the wedding didn’t take into account the number of guests invited? Should we not be accountable for our decisions and made to pay for our mistakes so that we profit by them and not repeat them? We know of people who expect others to do what they alone should be doing for themselves—we may be among them. Remember the story Jesus told of the wise and foolish bridesmaids? (Matthew 25:2)
It’s not that Jesus doesn’t know, or worse, doesn’t care about the situation at hand. She’s not pleading with Him, nor is she trying to win a subtle argument as to His intentions versus her own. She is bonding with the tenderness and compassion that she knows is His, expressing for those who were listening, likely the young neophyte disciple John, the love and mercy that she knew was in the heart of her Son.
The words directed to the servants apply to all of us: “Do whatever He tells you.” This sentence is unique in the New Testament. Nowhere else does the Mother of God give an order to Christians. But it’s enough. With her words in mind, we can read the gospels, especially if we have a red letter edition to make it easier to know what He asks, and to bear in mind that these are not suggestions, not recommendations for our edification, proposals to make our lives more meaningful; but directives for our lives that come from the voice of our Lord, God and Savior to prepare us for guidance through this world and existence in the Kingdom of the heavenly Father.