“Jesus said to her, [Dear] woman, what is that to you and to Me? [What have we in common? Leave it to Me.] My time (hour to act) has not yet come.” John 2:4 (Amp)
Many of us in the West cannot fully appreciate the impact of this story, especially when viewed from our modern perspective. While still an expensive undertaking at any time, unlike our modern era when a wedding takes the better part of one day, the weddings of Jesus’ time were weeklong affairs where guests and family invited from far and near have to be sumptuously wined and dined for the whole period. To fail to keep up with this expectation is to suffer a ruin to your reputation. The fact that His family were also present indicates that the celebrant was a close relation of Jesus and in this context, Mary’s forceful intervention becomes understandable. Any failure to keep the wine flowing means all of them being tarred with the same brush of disgrace; hence something had to be done.
Mary was not unaware of her son’s potential, so Jesus was the natural person to turn to in time of trouble. The only problem was that Jesus did not come to bail anyone out of trouble. He only wanted to enjoy Himself and chill out with His disciples. So, when Mary approached Him with the need and the implication of the wine running out, He was not too enthusiastic and Mary wisely did not press the issue but did the womanly wise thing by directing the servants in charge of wine to do whatever He told them. So, you can just imagine a situation where the servant expectantly stood before Jesus waiting for His instruction, thereby forcing Him to finally act to salvage the situation.
Mary refused to give up haranguing Jesus to meet a pressing need, but she did it in a subtle faith-way. She wasn’t angered by His rebuff, but kept up the pressure of faith by presenting Jesus with a fait accompli – she would embarrass Him into acceding to her request. To Jesus’ protest that His time had not yet come, Mary simply turned a deaf ear and so forced Jesus to move out of time, but still in line with the will of God. Her response to a desperate situation was to determinedly engineer a situation where Jesus had no choice but to resolve the problem and save the day.
The simple truth is that Jesus finds the call of faith irresistible. This is because acting in faith pleases God immeasurably and consequently always elicits His favourable response. Mary exhibited strong faith in a subtle manner, which kept up the pressure on Jesus and ultimately elicited His favourable response. So, has sweetness gone out of your life or has the impact of the new wine in your life begun to recede? Has your oil of joy run dry? Well, it will do you a world of good if you were to heed Mary’s instruction to that house servant – “Do whatever He tells you.” In line with His word, ask so that your joy may be full. Then keep the pressure of faith up on Him and don’t stop until your life starts overflowing with the new wine of the Holy Spirit. The reality is that God is never inconvenienced by our faith pressure. In contrast, He positively relishes it. So, make His day and you shall be drunk in the Spirit.
Prayer:
Lord, you are the One who transformed an impending social embarrassment into a positive embarrassment – you turned a no-wine into a new-wine situation. Father, embarrass me with your blessing today. Transform my liabilities into assets for your kingdom and cause your name to be glorified through me in Jesus name. Amen.