It seemed appropriate after Mother’s Day to talk about Jesus’ mother, Mary.
In Mark 14:36, Jesus calls His Father God, Abba. This is significant
because it happened in the Garden of Gethsemane when Jesus was asking
His Father to remove “this cup of suffering.” Abba was the word young
Jewish children would call their fathers and was never used in relation to
God until this time. It indicated Jesus’ intimacy and familiarity with His
Father. What did Jewish children call their mothers? Imma and is like
saying, “Mommy!” Jesus surely called her “Imma” although we never see
this in Scripture. In looking at this passage in John 2, it is the only time
we get to see an intimate, though short, conversation between them. In
fact, after the details in Matthew and Luke surrounding the Nativity, we
only read about Mary specifically three more times in the Bible and this is
one of them.
What can we learn from Mary as the mother of Jesus from this event? A
little background may be necessary about weddings in those times; they
often lasted seven days and it would bring shame on the family to run out
of wine. This was serious in a shame culture! Here we see Mary’s concern
for the family when she sees that the wine is gone. She goes to Jesus and
makes a simple statement, “They have no more wine.” That is akin to a
mom saying, “The dishes are still in the sink” or “The trash hasn’t been
taken out.” Just a statement, nothing more needed, she knew her son.
When He called her “Dear woman” it was a polite, kind expression not in
anyway diminishing who she was to Him. Scholars are not certain that she
fully understood his answer nor even that He was about to do a miracle.
Her next words showed that she trusted Him whatever He did. She tells
the servants, “Do whatever He tells you!” What an affirmation of her son
in front of the servants. And, of course, we know that Jesus does His first
recorded miracle by turning the water into the best wine inside six huge jars.
In my imaginative reading, I can just see Imma standing quietly aside
smiling with a twinkle in her eyes!
She was a mom concerned about others and observant of needs. She did
not argue with Jesus or tell Him what to do. She trusted Him and
submitted to whatever might happen. John 2:5 says “…Do whatever He tells you.”
That is certainly a message for us today to obey and trust Him in whatever happens!
We might get to see a miracle!!!
Read imaginatively John 2:1-11. Who would you be in the story? What
would it be like to see this miracle? How does this glimpse of Mary impact
You?
Francie Overstreet