THEOSISJohn Chrysostom
Why, then, after saying, "My hour has not yet come," and so refusing, did He nevertheless do what His Mother had said to Him? Above all, He wished to show sufficiently to those who contradicted Him and considered Him bound by the conditions of time that He is not subject to time.
If He were subject to it, how would He have done what He did when the proper time for it had not yet come? He did this also out of honor for His Mother. He did not wish to appear as contradicting Her in everything, or as unable to do this. Nor did He wish to shame His Mother in the presence of so many people, since She had brought the servants to Him.
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In the same way He said to the Canaanite woman, "It is not good to take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs" (Mt 15:26). Yet after these words He granted her request, overcome by her persistence.
He also said, "I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel" (Mt 15:24). But even after these words He healed that woman's daughter.
Why did He not perform the miracle before the vessels had been filled with water? That would have been far more astonishing. For it is one thing to change a ready substance only in quality, and another to produce the substance itself from nothing.
Of course the latter is more astonishing, but to many it would have seemed less credible. Therefore Christ often voluntarily lessens the greatness of His miracles, so that they may be more easily received.
Why, you ask, did He not Himself produce the water and then turn it into wine, but commanded the servants to pour it in? Again, for the same reason. It was so that those who drew the water themselves might be witnesses of the miracle, and so that it might in no way seem an apparition.
If anyone shamelessly denied it, the servants could say, "We ourselves drew the water." Moreover, by this miracle He also overthrows a doctrine which later arose against the Church.
There are those who say that there is some other creator of the world, and that the visible world was not made by Him, but by some other god hostile to Him. This is the false teaching of the Manichaeans.
To restrain such madness, Christ performed most of His miracles from already existing substances. If the Creator of the world were hostile to Him, He would not have used another's works to prove His own power.
So now also, to show that He Himself is the One who changes water into grape juice and turns rain into wine through the root of the vine, He does in an instant at the wedding what takes place in the plant over a long time.
But why did He say, "Fill the vessels with water"? Could not He who by His word created heaven, laid the foundation of the earth, and made all that is in them, fill the vessels by His word?
Could not He whose glance dries up the abysses, and before whom every creature in heaven, on earth, and beneath the earth trembles and fears, fill the vessels by His word? Yet He says, "Draw water." Why? I shall tell you.
It was so that, if they denied it, their hands which drew the water and their shoulders which carried it would convict them. He did the same with Lazarus.
Before He came to the place, He says to the disciples, "Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep" (Jn 11:11). Then, when Lazarus' sisters came and told Him that Lazarus had died, He says to them, "Where have you laid him?" They say, "Come and see" (Jn 11:34).
O new and extraordinary deeds! A little earlier You told the disciples that Lazarus had died, and now You say, "Where have you laid him?" You announce his death beforehand to Your disciples, and do You not know the place of burial?
He knew, but He spoke because of the Jews, since they were ungrateful. Thus the saying, "Where have you laid him?" was not a sign of ignorance. In paradise He likewise said to Adam, "Adam, where are you?" (Gen 3:9).
Did He not know where Adam was? But since the devil had told them, "On the day you eat of the tree, you will be like gods" (Gen 3:5), and they supposed they were about to be gods, God therefore said to him, "Adam, where are you?" He meant: after you have eaten, and have remained a man.
For this reason God said to him, "Adam, where are you?" So He also did with Lazarus. When He approached the tomb, He says to the Jews, "Take away the stone from the tomb," and they took it away.
Lazarus' sister says to Him, "Lord, by now he smells, for he has been in the tomb four days" (Jn 11:39). And "He cried with a loud voice, Lazarus, come forth" (Jn 11:43). And he came out, bound with gravecloths.
Could not He who moves mountains into the depths of the seas have moved the stone by His word? Could not He who broke the sting of death and destroyed the gates of Hades have torn even the gravecloths? Yet "He says to them, Unbind him" (Jn 11:44).
Why? So that, if they denied it, their hands and eyes would convict them. Therefore He said, "Unbind him." At the wedding He did the same. He said to them, "Fill the vessels with water." They filled the vessels, and He made the water wine.
For this reason He confirmed them from every side, since the Jews were always ungrateful and shameless.