Ponder and Act

In those days, Peter said to the people, "Repent and turn again, that your sins may be blotted out, that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that he may send the Christ appointed for you, Jesus, whom heaven must receive until the time for establishing all that God spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets from of old. Moses said, 'The Lord God will raise up for you a prophet from your brethren as he raised me up. You shall listen to him in whatever he tells you. And it shall be that every soul that does not listen to that prophet shall be destroyed from the people.' And all the prophets who have spoken, from Samuel and those who came afterwards, also proclaimed these days. You are the sons of the prophets and of the covenant which God gave to your fathers, saying to Abraham, 'And in your posterity shall all the families of the earth be blessed.' God, having raised up his servant, sent him to you first, to bless you in turning every one of you from your wickedness." Acts 3:19-26 At that time, there was a wedding at Cana in Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there; Jesus also was invited to the wedding, with his disciples. When the wine gave out, the mother of Jesus said to him, "They have no wine." And Jesus said to her, "O woman, what have you to do with me? My hour has not yet come." His mother said to the servants, "Do whatever he tells you." Now six stone jars were standing there, for the Jewish rites of purification, each holding twenty or thirty gallons. Jesus said to them, "Fill the jars with water." And they filled them up to the brim. He said to them, "Now draw some out, and take it to the steward of the feast." So they took it. When the steward of the feast tasted the water now become wine, and did not know where it came from (though the servants who had drawn the water knew), the steward of the feast called the bridegroom and said to him, "Every man serves the good wine first; and when men have drunk freely, then the poor wine; but you have kept the good wine until now." This, the first of his signs, Jesus did at Cana in Galilee, and manifested his glory; and his disciples believed in him. John 2:1-11

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, One God. Amen.

The Mother of God, the blessed Theotokos, we are told by the divine evangelist Luke, “kept all these things in her heart,”[1] after she had found the twelve year-old Christ in the Temple teaching the teachers. What had changed in the meantime, my dear brothers and sisters in Christ, until the Wedding at Cana? We are told by St Luke that the Lord was obedient to his mother and step-father, could not they have commanded him to work a sign beforehand? Why was this wedding the moment of action?

The Lord was invited to a wedding feast not as a great teacher nor wonderworker, more likely as one who knew the couple. Something was different, though, on this occasion: the blessed Theotokos felt moved to action, to intercede on behalf of those in need.

This, we are told by John the beloved disciple, was the first sign performed by the Lord but to understand these signs we must first look at the purpose of his Gospel. Although at the end of the Gospel, his justification for it was read in the Gospel reading yesterday, “And truly Jesus did many other signs in the presence of His disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name.”[2] St John constructs his Gospel quite differently from the other three evangelists: he does not include a narrative of a trial[3] before the High Priest Caiaphas because the whole Gospel is a trial: the seven signs he chooses is, so to speak, “evidence for the defence,” in other words a defence of faith in Jesus as the Christ.

So in this piece of evidence something new has happened, something which would make the Mother of God act differently. The difference is in the first chapter of John’s Gospel, it is the witness of John the Forerunner.

And John bore witness, saying, “I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and He remained upon Him. I did not know Him, but He who sent me to baptise with water said to me, ‘Upon whom you see the Spirit descending, and remaining on Him, this is He who baptises with the Holy Spirit.’ And I have seen and testified that this is the Son of God.”[4]

Word of this testimony, this evidence for the defence, has come to the Theotokos and she ponders these things not only in her heart but knows the time has come. The Lord responds with love, testing her, “O woman, what have you to do with me? My hour has not yet come.” She could have turned away and doubt the revelation she had been given yet, in her eternal love and humility was able to find a way through which did not contradict her son and God yet showed her great Faith in him.

Do we, my brothers and sisters in Christ, turn away when the smallest obstacle comes before us in the spiritual life? Do we allow a knockback to prevent us from making progress or do we see it as an opportunity for love and humility? Do we let the Mother of God be an example to us of how we are to behave before the All-Mighty? “Behold the maidservant of the Lord! Let it be to me according to your word.”[5]

And the Lord performs the miracle, the sign. The miracle is not transforming water into wine – this we can perform by watering the vine, cutting the grapes, crushing and fermenting the juice – the miracle is not the transformation of water into wine but of performing this process immediately and at will.

This is the first sign, we will read six more in John’s Gospel culminating in the Raising of Lazarus and these pieces of evidence point us towards Christ being our Lord and God.[6]

Read, my brothers and sisters in Christ, the Gospel of John. Let its beauty fill your hearts with joy. Consider the signs which the beloved disciple has chosen for us as evidence of Christ’s divinity. Consider in your heart the evidence before you and live your life according to that conclusion: let the Mother of God be our guide to humbling ourselves before the Lord and look for our own time where we do more than ponder, to when we act.

To our risen Lord be the glory, honour and worship, together with his Father who is without beginning with the All-holy, Good and Life-giving Spirit. Amen.

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[1] Luke 2:51, cf. v. 19.
[2] John 20:30-31.
[3] Matt. 26:57-68, Mark 14:53-65, Luke 22:66-71; cf. John 18:19-24.
[4] John 1:32-34.
[5] Luke 1:38.
[6] John 20:28.