My Hour Has Not Yet Come

 

Of all the Gospels, the Wedding at Cana is unique to John’s and is the first of the evangelist’s seven signs.  John referred to Jesus’ “miracles” throughout his ministry as signs pointing to the Lord’s divinity. Yet, while the scene conjures up a beautiful image of Jesus as a young man accompanying his mother to a wedding feast, it reminds us that the mystery of God’s incarnation in Jesus, has as much to do with Jesus’ humanity as his divinity. That God could do miraculous things is easily understood. After all he is God. But that he could live fully human just like us with all our fears and joy, is still amazing. He is one of us… and that’s the point.

The exchange between Jesus and his mother is personally familiar and humorous. Mary, who John never calls by name, senses the embarrassment of the wedding hosts and advises Jesus that they have run out of wine. (Jesus’ might well have answered they should have hired a better wedding planner.) But without paying him any mind, Mother Mary tells the servants to do whatever he says.

I remember my mother encouraging me on the high diving board in Steeplechase pool in Coney Island: “Come on, you can do it! I know you can!” “But, Ma, I’m not ready yet, it’s too high and I’m scared.” “Don’t be afraid, I’m here, you can do it, I know your can do it.”

Or a time much later time in my life when in the throes of an ongoing job interview process I really wanted, my mother comes home with the telephone number of a “big shot executive” son of a friend who is expecting my call. “Ma, this is not how it’s done” I protested; “it’s embarrassing. You don’t get a job just because you work with someone’s mother.” Oblivious to my response, she replies “Never mind, just call him at 10:00 AM tomorrow; he’s expecting you.” 

I wonder what my mother or Mary saw in their sons at that moment. Why did my mother know that I could dive off the high board or that I could get the job of my dreams?  Mary had faith in her son and believed that such a miracle was possible? How did she know that this was his time? How did my mother know that I was ready and just needed a little push? 

And can we relate to the unspoken “dialogue” between Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King. In many ways the exchange between Mary and Jesus is somewhat reminiscent of that unspoken “dialogue,” characterized by Rosa’s refusing to yield her seat. Could this well-publicized event have provoked King, whose time he thought had not yet come to transform history. His time had come.

It is more than coincidence that Jesus’ mother surrounds his earthly ministry. She is there at his birth, the very beginning of his ministry and at his painful death. She is the nurturing force and the earthly mother of the Word of God made flesh as she shares parenthood with God. Perhaps this sign in John 2: 1--11 serves to remind us that whenever Jesus reveals his divinity, he is simultaneously revealing something about his humanity. Could this also serve to remind us of transformative changes in our faith as God’s incarnation in Jesus is about his ever-present incarnation in us. Are we ready or do we need a little push?