Mary the Mother of Jesus II: The Wedding Planner

John 2:1-11

When seen from the vantage point of Mary, the miracle at the Wedding of Cana becomes an interesting read. We’ve already learned from the Luke passages (1:26-56, yesterday’s reading, and 2:41-52, the search for Jesus when he was lost from the family), that Mary is no softy. In this passage, Mary’s role is assertive, getting Jesus to help with the wine shortage and then telling those there to do whatever Jesus tells them. While it is a stretch to see spiritual gifts in this passage, it may be a worthwhile one. First, Mary does belief that her son is quite able to take care of the problem, again the gift of faith. In the musical, The Witness by Jimmy Owens, a production on the life of Peter, one of the songs sings for Mary, “Whatever he wants, do it.” It then invites the audience to be people who do whatever Christ wants. The Bible never presents Mary as timid, but instead confident, a woman of steady and resilient faith.

A further stretch is noticing how Mary connects those at the feast to deal with the problem. She’s a good delegator. When Jesus, at the feeding of the 5,000, had the people sit in groups of fifty to better aid in the food distribution, I wonder if he might have learned it from mom (the gift of administration?). It’s pure conjecture, but when we start to see Mary more as a daring and active participant than a passive victim of the gospels, she seems more like the woman that could survive a miraculous birth, the loss of a husband, the departure of her son to be a miraculous and controversial preacher continually on the move, and finally, the violent crucifixion of that son.

I have invited you to stretch and see spiritual giftedness in what, aside from the miracles that were present in each one, were normal events that happen to people - pregnancy and wedding problems. God was supernaturally using Mary in the normal events of her life. How might God be doing the same for you? The more I study them, the more I realize that spiritual gifts are not spooky, but rather amazingly practical.