And the third day there was a marriage in Cana of Galilee; and the mother of Jesus was there: And both Jesus was called, and his disciples, to the marriage. And when they wanted wine, the mother of Jesus saith unto him, They have no wine.

Jesus saith unto her, Woman, what have I to do with thee? mine hour is not yet come.

His mother saith unto the servants, Whatsoever he saith unto you, do it. And there were set there six water pots of stone, after the manner of the purifying of the Jews, containing two or three firkins apiece.

Jesus saith unto them, Fill the water pots with water.

And they filled them up to the brim.

And he saith unto them, Draw out now, and bear unto the governor of the feast.

And they bare it.

When the ruler of the feast had tasted the water that was made wine, and knew not whence it was: (but the servants which drew the water knew;) the governor of the feast called the bridegroom, and saith unto him, Every man at the beginning doth set forth good wine; and when men have well drunk, then that which is worse: but thou hast kept the good wine until now.

Jesus provides the significance of His actions with His reply to Mary. The phrases, “mine hour”, “my time”, “the time”, “the hour”, are all used by Jesus at various times to signify that God’s time is or is not the present moment in question. Here, Jesus is telling Mary that the revelation of God’s power by Him was not appropriate at this time, and that she was being presumptuous in asking for this miracle. This is one of the problems which we have as Christians. More often than not, we have no inkling of God’s timetable for accomplishing things in our lives, much less, the lives of others. So, we ask presumptuously, hoping that God will condescend to our wishes. This is the basis of the doctrine of “the permissive will of God” as contrasted with “the center of God’s will”. I am sure those around them had no idea what the object of this discussion might be, having never witnessed a miracle; nor knowing that Jesus had the power to accomplish one. Also, we can be sure that the intervening discussion between Jesus and God was not audible to the others, as in some instances, in later miracles. In fact, the only ones immediately aware of the miracle being performed were Mary, the disciples, and the servants. Since “mine hour is not yet come”, this was exactly as Jesus wanted it to be.

There is spiritual significance in the number of water pots (6 being the number of Man). The use of the water pots for purification has two applications. One, was for the settling of solids from the water, which was often quite muddy. A chunk of alum would be swirled around a few times inside the water, which would precipitate out the solids. Obviously, this water was not used for drinking. Secondly, the purification process was that applied to cleansing the body after the manner prescribed in the Mosaic Law, and the rules of the priests. This was not bath water per se. Baths were had in an inside pool (in the case of the rich) or in public pools around the city. It is a small leap of imagination from the cleansing according to the law, to the cleansing by the Holy Spirit. The first removing only the evidence, the latter changing the nature; the first being man’s limited ability, the second being God’s infinite power. The governor of the feast testified to the superiority of God’s work.

And, we are just as ignorant of the workings of the Holy Spirit, today, as they were of the means of accomplishing these miracles in Jesus’ day. The platitude, “that’s just the supernatural power of God” says no more than, “we don’t know”.