The Wedding at Cana

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John 2:1-13

On the third day a wedding took place at Cana in Galilee. Jesus’ mother was there, 2 and Jesus and his disciples had also been invited to the wedding. 3 When the wine was gone, Jesus’ mother said to him, ‘They have no more wine.’

4 ‘Woman, why do you involve me?’ Jesus replied. ‘My hour has not yet come.’

5 His mother said to the servants, ‘Do whatever he tells you.’

6 Nearby stood six stone water jars, the kind used by the Jews for ceremonial washing, each holding from eighty to a hundred and twenty litres.

7 Jesus said to the servants, ‘Fill the jars with water’; so they filled them to the brim.

8 Then he told them, ‘Now draw some out and take it to the master of the banquet.’

They did so, 9 and the master of the banquet tasted the water that had been turned into wine. He did not realise where it had come from, though the servants who had drawn the water knew. Then he called the bridegroom aside 10 and said, ‘Everyone brings out the choice wine first and then the cheaper wine after the guests have had too much to drink; but you have saved the best till now.’

11 What Jesus did here in Cana of Galilee was the first of the signs through which he revealed his glory; and his disciples believed in him.

12 After this he went down to Capernaum with his mother and brothers and his disciples. There they stayed for a few days.

This miracle takes place "On the third day"

Compare the passage to the following, from Matthew 12:38-40:

 38 Then some of the Pharisees and teachers of the law said to him, ‘Teacher, we want to see a sign from you.’

39 He answered, ‘A wicked and adulterous generation asks for a sign! But none will be given it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. 40 For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of a huge fish, so the Son of Man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.

Christ rises from the tomb on the third day. In the Gospel of John (sounds like "Jonah", almost has the same letters), his empty tomb is discovered by Mary.

"Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the entrance." (John 20:1)

Mary Magdalene - "wicked and adulterous" "Woman"

Stone and empty tomb - Empty stone jars

Six empty jars - Six days of creation from Genesis 1

Third day - Resurrection

AT DAWN HE APPEARED AGAIN in the temple courts, where all the people gathered around him, and he sat down to teach them. 3 The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught in ADULTERY. They made her stand before the group 4 and said to Jesus, “Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. 5 In the Law Moses commanded us to STONE such women. NOW WHAT DO SAY?” 

6 They were using this question as a trap, in order to have a basis for accusing him.

But Jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with his finger. 7 When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, “Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.” 8 Again he stooped down and wrote on the ground.

9 At this, those who heard began to go away one at a time, the older ones first, until only Jesus was left, with the woman still standing there. 10 Jesus straightened up and asked her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?”

11 “No one, sir,” she said.

“Then neither do I condemn you,” Jesus declared. “Go now and leave your life of sin.”

At the Wedding at Cana, Mary identifies a problem. The wedding has run out of wine. She tells Jesus about it. Jesus responds by telling her this hour has not yet come.

Mary says or does nothing to convince Jesus that his hour has come.. She does tell him what to do. She merely turns to the servants and says:

"Do whatever he tells you."

Christ has the option of deciding his hour still has not come. Or of deciding not to help with the problem at all. Mary simply empowers Jesus  by placing the servants at the wedding at his disposal.. It is left to Christ to decide whether to do anything, and what should be done.

But the power Jesus has to correct the situation  is dependent on Mary's power to place the servants at his disposal. This represents shared power.

Christ spent his earliest years in Egypt, a place that had a history of both female deities and female pharaohs.. Christ leaves for Egypt after being born because Joseph has a dream. They leave during the night The episode can again be considered as yet another metaphor for the cycle  of day and night.

Like birth, life and death, a shared, universal human experience.

"Joseph got up, took the child and his mother during the night and left for Egypt, There he stayed until the death of Herod. And so was fulfilled what the Lord had said through the prophet: “Out of Egypt I called my son.”  - Matthew 2:14-15

Taoist philosophy involves aligning oneself with the natural order. Not manmade order. 

The NATURAL order.