John 2:1-5 On the third day there was a wedding at Cana in Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there. 2 Jesus also was invited to the wedding with his disciples. 3 When the wine ran out, the mother of Jesus said to him, “They have no wine.” 4 And Jesus said to her, “Woman, what does this have to do with me? My hour has not yet come.” 5 His mother said to the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.”
John Piper, in a sermon “Obedient Son, Ultimate Purifier, All-Providing Bridegroom”-
That is a surprising response. I think Jesus knew it would be surprising when he said it, and John knew it would be when he recorded it. There was nothing cultural that says a man can’t call his mother by the title “Mother”—“Mother, what does this have to do with me?” (see 1 Kings 2:20). But Jesus says, “Woman.” His response isn’t disrespectful, but it is abrupt. It may be like calling her “Ma’am” in some contexts today.
Doubly Abrupt
This seems brusque not only because Jesus calls her “Woman,” or “Ma’am,” but also because he says, “What does this have to do with me?” That phrase (ti emoi kai soi) is used five other times in the New Testament, and every time it is spoken by a demon to Jesus. When Jesus intrudes in their domain and starts to exert power where they were in control, they say, “What have you to do with us, O Son of God?” (Matthew 8:29). The gist of this phrase seems to be: “I don’t want you pressing in here. You shouldn’t be coming to me like this. This is not your affair.”
So Jesus is doubly abrupt with his mother: He calls her “Woman,” and he says, “This is not your place to be calling out my power.” It does seem that his mother expected him to do something. We are not told what she expected, but we are told that Jesus did not approve of what she said.
Why the Stiff-Arm?
What makes this so significant is that Jesus goes right ahead and takes care of the problem by doing a miracle. So he could have said very gently, “Yes, Mother, I know. I’ll take care of it immediately.” That’s what he did, but that’s not what he said. That makes us ask why he spoke to her this way. If you are going to do what your mother has in mind anyway, why don’t you simply agree with her and then do it? Why the off-putting words?
I think the answer is that Jesus felt a burden to make clear not only to his mother and his brothers and sisters, but to all the rest of us, that because of who he was, physical relationships on earth would not control him or oblige him. His mother and his physical family would have no special advantage to guide his ministry. And his mother and physical family would have no special advantage to receive his salvation.
The reason is that Jesus was absolutely bound to his Father’s will in heaven and to no one on earth. This was the lodestar in his sky, and there could be no competing controls on his life. John 8:28: “I do nothing on my own authority, but speak just as the Father taught me.” John 5:17–19: “My Father is working until now, and I am working. . . . [T]he Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, that the Son does likewise.” His miracles are not at his mother’s disposal—or anyone else’s. He is entirely in the sway of his heavenly Father. He and the Father are one, and they have one will.
Followers, Not Family
Jesus had to work against the assumption of his day that his physical family had an inside track of influence and blessing. Recall the time that a “woman in the crowd raised her voice and said to him, ‘Blessed is the womb that bore you, and the breasts at which you nursed!’ But he said, ‘Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and keep it!’” (Luke 11:27–28). In other words, people thought there would be a special spiritual advantage in being the mother of Jesus, but Jesus cut off that assumption, and focused attention not on physical relations, but spiritual relations.
Or another time the people called to him while he was speaking in a house: “‘Your mother and your brothers are outside, seeking you.’ And he answered them, ‘Who are my mother and my brothers?’ And looking about at those who sat around him, he said, ‘Here are my mother and my brothers!’” (Mark 3:32–34). In other words, followers, not family, have a saving relationship with Jesus.
Faith, Not Pedigree
This is what we are seeing in John 2:4. “They have no wine. . . .” “Woman, what does this have to do with me?” (John 2:3–4). Your relationship with me as mother has no special weight here. You are a woman like every other woman. My Father in heaven, not any human being, determines what miracles I perform. And the pathway into my favor is faith, not family.
This is very good news for us. It doesn’t matter what family line we come from. Your parents may be the most ungodly people you know. That will not keep you from the favor of Jesus. Faith, not family, makes you his friend.
So first we see the glory of an obedient Son. Part of Jesus’ glory is his radical freedom from family partiality and his radical allegiance to his Father in heaven. “We have seen his glory, glory of the only Son from the Father” (John 1:14).
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