John 2:3Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

What is that? It is what John says: "I did not know Him; but for this purpose I came baptizing with water, that He might be revealed to Israel" (Jn 1:31). If Christ had worked miracles in His childhood, the Israelites would not have needed another man to reveal Him.

When Christ came to manhood, He became known by His miracles not only in Judea, but also in Syria and beyond. He did this in only three years. Indeed, He did not need even that number of years to reveal Himself to the world, since the report about Him spread everywhere at once from the beginning.

If, I say, He became so renowned in a short time through the multitude of His miracles, so that His name became known to all, then much less could He have remained unknown for so long if He had begun working miracles from His earliest years.

Miracles performed by a child would have aroused still greater wonder. And in that case He would have had twice, three times, and even more time for miracles. But in childhood He performed no miracles, except only what Luke relates, that at the age of twelve He sat among the teachers, listened to them, and amazed them by His questions.

Yet it was not without reason, but by design, that He did not begin working miracles from His earliest years. Otherwise His miracles might have been thought to be apparitions. If many suspected Him of this even in full maturity, how much more would they have done so if He had worked wonders in youth?

Moreover, the Jews, consumed by envy, would have lifted Him to the Cross still sooner, before the proper time. In this way the whole work of our salvation would not have been received by faith.

From where, then, you ask, did His Mother come to suppose something great in Him? He had already begun to reveal what He was, both through John's testimony and through what He Himself said to the disciples. Before all this, His very conception and everything that followed His birth inspired His Mother with a lofty understanding of Him.

"And His Mother kept all these words in Her heart" (Lk 2:51). Why, you ask, did She not express this earlier? Because, as I said, He Himself only then began to reveal Himself. Until then He lived as an ordinary man.

For this reason She did not say this to Him earlier. But as soon as She heard that John had come for His sake and had given such testimony about Him, and that He already had disciples, She asked Him with confidence. When the wine failed, She said, "They have no wine."

She wished both to please the guests and to be glorified through Her Son. Perhaps She had something human in mind, like His brothers, who said, "Show Yourself to the world" (Jn 7:4), wishing to gain glory for themselves through His miracles.

For this reason Christ answered Her so strongly: "What is that to Me and to You, Woman? My hour has not yet come" (v. 4).

That He greatly honored His Mother is clear from many other things, and also from the fact that He fulfilled Her request.

He reproved Her, teaching Her not yet to demand miracles, but to leave their performance to the proper time. Yet He obeyed Her, honoring Her as His Mother.

He had not gathered grapes, and He had never before performed a miracle, as the God-inspired holy Evangelist John bears witness.

Teach us how, when Thou hadst never before seen or experienced His miracles, Thou nevertheless callest Him to perform this miracle.

The question we set before Thee concerning this is not simple. What moved Thee to say to Thy Son: 'Give them wine, Thou who hast made all things in wisdom?'

Ikos 7: Let us learn the words which the Mother of the God of all spoke to us: 'Attend,' She said, 'my friends. Learn and know the mystery.

'Yes, I saw my Son working miracles even before this miracle. John was not yet His disciple. John had not yet become a disciple of Christ when He performed those miracles.

'But the miracle which John saw in Cana was the first public miracle, the very beginning of His signs, as my Son knew how to perform them, He who made all things in wisdom.'

Ikos 8: Since no one among men has complete faith in things not written in the books of those writers who were not eyewitnesses of His grace, I pass them by.

But I shall touch on greater things which I know. I know that I did not know a man, and yet I gave birth to a Son beyond the laws of nature and beyond comprehension.

I know that I remained a Virgin, as I had been before His birth. Dost thou seek, O man, a miracle greater than this birth?

Gabriel came to Me and announced how He would be born, He who made all things in wisdom.

Ikos 9: After I had conceived Him, I Myself heard Elizabeth call Me the Mother of God, and this was before the birth occurred.

After the birth, Simeon praised Me in song. Anna greeted Me with joy. The Magi from Persia hastened to the manger, because the heavenly star had announced to them beforehand the birth of Christ.

The shepherds proclaimed joy together with the angels, and all creation rejoiced with them. Could I ask of Him anything greater than these miracles?

Truly, on the basis of them I believe that this is my Son, He who made all things in wisdom.'

This whole conversation proves that when the Most Holy Virgin said, "They have no wine," She hoped that Her divine Son would rescue the poor hosts from their difficult situation.

But why did She count on His miraculous power, when He had not yet performed a single miracle and had lived as an ordinary Man, though without sin? From the words of the angel who had announced the good tidings to Her, She knew Her Son's calling.

She knew that His conception and birth were supernatural, and that His whole life was under God's special protection. Keeping all this in Her heart (Lk 2:19), and revealing this mystery to no one, She did not doubt that the time would come when Her Son would appear as the Messiah, the Christ.

Therefore She gave Herself wholly to the will of God and calmly awaited the coming of that time. But now the report reached Her that the new Prophet John had proclaimed the imminent coming of the Deliverer.

She heard that he had refused to baptize Her Son, considering himself unworthy even to loose the strap of His sandal. Then he publicly testified that at His Baptism he had seen the Holy Spirit descending upon Him, and had heard the voice from heaven: "This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased" (Mt 3:17).

Listening to these reports, the Theotokos understood that the long-awaited time had now come. The disciples who had now come with Jesus, Andrew and John, may also have already told Her that the new Prophet at the Jordan had directly pointed out their Teacher as the Messiah, the Christ, to those sent from the Sanhedrin.

The first meeting with Her Son after such events, the feeling of compunction before Him, the joy that the long-awaited time had already come, the poverty of the wedding hosts. And sincere compassion for their trouble, all moved the Most Holy Virgin to turn to Her Son with undisguised confidence that He would help these poor people and perform a miracle.

"What is that to Me and to You, Woman? My hour has not yet come." Thus Jesus answered His Mother.

Some interpreters see in this answer a rebuke of His Mother for Her interference in what was not Her affair. They think He wished to show Her that from now on He was for Her the Messiah, the Christ and God, and not the One who until then had remained in obedience to Her.

But in the word "Woman," addressed to His Mother, one cannot suspect even a hint that the Theotokos must from now on consider Him Her Lord, and not Her Son. The word "woman" was used among the Jews and other peoples of the East even when addressing a mother, and was considered entirely respectful.

We know that Jesus called His Mother by the very same name when, in terrible torments on the Cross, He entrusted Her to the care of His beloved disciple: "Woman, behold your son!" (Jn 19:26). Then He showed Her particular care and particular love.

"What is that to Me and to You, Woman? My hour has not yet come." Chrysostom explains these words as follows: "Those present do not yet know Me. They do not even know that the wine has failed. Let them first feel this. Nor was it fitting that I should hear this from You. You are My Mother, and therefore You make the miracle itself suspect. Rather, those in need should have come to Me with the request, not because I needed this, but so that they might receive the event with greater confidence" (Chrysostom, Homilies on the Gospel of John, 22).

Having already begun to fulfill the will of Him who sent Him, Jesus Christ could not say that the hour of His activity had not yet come at all. If, in answering His Mother, He said that His hour had not yet come, He wished only to make Her understand that there should be no haste.

The time for manifesting His divine authority in this house, at this feast, had not yet arrived, though it might soon arrive.

In this answer the Most Holy Virgin Herself heard neither rebuke nor refusal of Her request. Otherwise She would not have said to the servants, "Whatever He says to you, do it."

She wishes to remove this lack by the divine power of Her Son. God the Word, in His ineffable mercy, came down in the form of man to fallen humanity.

That humanity was perishing on earth from lack of spiritual food and drink. He brought humanity its daily bread and new drink: His Body and Blood, Himself.

By His love for mankind, He was ready immediately to bestow this nourishment. He alludes to the table prepared by God and already very near, saying: 'Mine hour is not yet come.'

'Mine hour is not yet come!' The hour of saving sufferings had not come. The hour had not come for the shedding of the life-flowing Blood, which would heal mankind from intoxication with eternal death.

The Lord desired this hour as the hour of salvation for men. It was the hour in which He would reveal all the abundance of His love, the hour for which He came into the world (Jn 12:27).

The petition of the Theotokos contained nothing blameworthy in itself and was fulfilled. From this it is clear that the initial rejection of the loving intercession of the New Testament Eve only effaced Adam's consent to the sinful proposal of the Old Testament Eve.

The meaning of the Lord's words may be interpreted thus: 'Thou carest for the corruptible food of men, but I have loved them with incomprehensible divine love.

'Guided by this love, I am ready and desire to give them as food and drink My very Body and My very Blood.

'Yet this too will be accomplished in its own hour, that is, in its own time, appointed and determined by the incomprehensible counsel of God.'

Perhaps this had happened more than once within Mary's family circle, known to Her alone. The apocrypha speak of this, while the Gospels are silent.

The Gospels aim to recount the public deeds and teaching of Jesus Christ, not family mysteries.

She knew who Her Son was. She had probably seen much in His life that surely assured Her that He could help the needy in some extraordinary way.

Compassionate toward all who lacked, She gives the first example of intercession before Her Son, asking Him to help the needy. She desired that they not grieve on the bright day of pure joy.

The address gynai, 'woman,' which sounds rather ungentle in our language, is in Greek a respectful address to noble women. It expresses not hostility, but love (Jn 19:26; 20:15).

In Dio, Augustus says to Cleopatra: tharsei, o gynai, kai thymon eche agathon. Likewise in Xenophon, Cyropaedia 7.3.4. In Sophocles, verse 370 has gynai, while verse 374 has despoina.

Thus the Savior says: 'Leave Me for now, beloved of Me.' The same spirit of love is expressed by the following words: 'Mine hour is not yet come.'

The Savior promises to care for the need in His own time, according to His Mother's desire. But the time for it has not yet come.

He delays His help so that the lack of wine may become better known. Then no later suspicion could arise that water had been mixed with the remaining wine.