<p>2:1 <em>On the third day there was a marriage in Cana of Galilee</em>- I suggested on 1:43 that the Lord went to preach in Galilee because He wanted to take His new disciples back to their home areas and help them make public identification with Him before their families and friends. Chapter 1 closed with the conversion of Nathanael, who was from Cana (21:2). So the Lord's visits to Cana would have been to help Nathanael make a public witness and identification with the Lord.</p><p><em>The mother of Jesus was there</em>-The incident at Cana shows her lack of perception of the true nature of her son&rsquo;s work at that time. The <em>mother of Jesus</em> is said to be <em>there,</em> and not to be <em>called,</em> as Jesus and his disciples were (Jn. 2:1,2), which suggests that she was following Him around, fascinated and prayerfully concerned as He began His ministry. He hadn't done any miracles before, so was she asking Him to begin His ministry with a miracle? She knew He had the power to do them- she had perceived that much. When the Lord speaks about His hour not having yet come, He is clearly alluding to His death. For this is how &ldquo;the hour&rdquo; is always understood in John&rsquo;s Gospel (Jn. 4:21, 23; 5:25, 28, 29; 7:30; 8:20; 12:23, 27; 13:1; 16:25; 17:1). So Jesus replies to Mary&rsquo;s nudge &lsquo;make them some wine&rsquo; by saying that the time for His death has not yet come. He assumes that by &lsquo;wine&rsquo; she means His blood. He assumes she is on a higher level of spiritual symbolism than she actually was. He wouldn&rsquo;t have done this unless He had previously communed with her on this level. But apparently she was no longer up to it. She was correct in expecting Him to do a miracle for Cana was His beginning of miracles; and she was right in thinking that the need for wine was somehow significant. But she didn&rsquo;t see the link to His death. Her perception was now muddled. Yet even at this time, she is not totally without spiritual perception. When she tells the servants to do whatever Jesus says (Jn. 2:5), she is quoting from the LXX of Gen. 41:55, where Joseph&rsquo;s word has to be obeyed in order to provide food for the needy Egyptians. The world had ground her earlier spirituality away, but not totally. For it would in due time revive, to the extent that she would risk her life in standing by the Lord&rsquo;s cross, and then later join the early ecclesia (Acts 1:14).&nbsp;</p>