Let us turn again to the Word
of God and the portion that we read. I'll read once more the
opening words in the second chapter of the Gospel according to St. John. In John chapter 2, and
I'll read the first four verses. We read, 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 said unto him,
They have no wine. Jesus said unto her, Woman, what
have I to do with thee? Thine hour is not yet come. And I want really to consider
that fourth verse for our text. You might think it's rather a
strange verse in that the Lord speaks, it would seem, quite
sharply to his own mother, Mary. Jesus said unto a woman, What
have I to do with thee? Mine hour is not yet come. And of course the context that
we have here is the first of all the miracles that the Lord
performed and His life was one that was full of many mighty
works and miracles. But this is the first according
to what we're told there in verse 11, the beginning of miracles.
In Cana of Galilee where Christ changes the water into wine. but what of the significance
of what we have here at the beginning of the chapter as we are introduced
to this particular incident where the Lord speaks to his mother
in this fashion Jesus saith unto her woman what have I to do with
thee mine hour is not yet come Christ refuses his mother he
appears even to rebuke her but then he does go on to perform
this remarkable miracle, and of course in the course of the
miracle, he is revealing himself, he is declaring himself. we see the blessed truth of his
deity that this is none other than God's manifest in the flesh
the end of verse 11 he manifested for his glory it says and his
disciples believed on him well as we come to consider the verse
for a while this morning I divide what I'm going to say into two
simple parts really first of all to say something of Christ
and His mother and then secondly to consider Christ and His hour.
Woman, what have I to do with thee? Mine hour is not yet come. But first of all to say something
with regards to the first parts of what the Lord
is saying in response to the request that Mary has made of
her son. He has a great respect for her
really. He addresses her as woman, but
that is not disrespectful. He uses the same word of course
later, when we come to the end of his life, even there upon
the cross, one of the sayings of the Lord upon the cross, the
seven sayings of the Saviour, is that one that's recorded here
in chapter 19 at verse 26 when Jesus saw his mother and the
disciple standing by that disciple whom the Lord loved what does
he say unto his mother? Woman! Gali addresses him in
that fashion, that term woman he says, behold thy son And then
turning to John he says, Behold thy mother, and John takes her
to his own home. He uses the word again in there
at the end. Now what is the significance
of simply referring to her as woman? Well, Dr. Gill says that the Jews say that
this signifies a woman known by a man. we would think in terms
of a woman married to a man, and the intimacy of married life.
In other words, when he uses the expression woman, it indicates
that she's not a virgin. He uses this word, doesn't he,
on other occasions when he speaks to various women. In chapter
4, for example, where he must need to go through some area,
And the purpose, of course, the reason why he must go through
Samaria is that he must meet with this woman of Samaria. And there in chapter 4 verse
7 there cometh a woman of Samaria to draw water. Jesus is sitting
there at Jacob's well. And Jesus begins to enter into
conversation with this particular woman. You're familiar, I'm sure,
with the chapter. and throughout she is simply
referred to as the woman verse 17 the woman answered and said
I have no husband Jesus said unto her thou hast well said
I have no husband for thou hast had five husbands and he whom
thou now hast is not thy husband in that thou sayest truly The
woman said unto him, Sir, I perceive that thou art a prophet. Throughout
she spoken of as a woman. This was a woman who had been
with many men. This woman certainly was not
a virgin. And then again we have another
incident later in the 8th chapter where we read of the woman taken in
adultery. And how there are those, you
see, who are trying to catch the Lord out with regards to
this particular woman but out of the Lord's silent system and
again there in that 8th chapter of verse 10 when Jesus had lifted
up himself and saw none but the woman, they'd all dispersed he
saw none but the woman, he said unto her, Woman! where are those
thine accusers? have no man condemned them? To
use the term woman is not disrespectful. It indicates that his mother
has known a man. Now of course, with regards to
her first born son, the Lord Jesus Christ, she was then a
virgin. the prophecy of the Old Testament,
the language of Isaiah chapter 7. Behold, a virgin shall conceive,
and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel. And then we have the detail recorded,
don't we, in the Gospel, certainly in the language that we find
in the first chapter of the Gospel according to Saint Luke. We see
clearly there that this woman is blessed among all women, that
she should give birth to him who is God manifest in the flesh
and the language that's used in that chapter, that first chapter
of Luke's Gospel. And verse 26, in the sixth month
the angel Gabriel was sent forth from God onto a city of Galilee
named Nazareth, to a virgin, espoused to a man whose name
was Joseph, of the house of David, and the virgin's name was Mary. And the angel came in unto her
and said, Hail thou that art highly favoured. The Lord is
with thee. Blessed art thou amongst women. And what does the angel go on
to say? verse 35 the angel answered and said unto her the holy ghost
shall come upon thee and the power of the higher shall overshadow
thee therefore also that holy thing that shall be born of thee
shall be called the son of God or that holy thing what is being
conceived in her virgin womb by the holy ghost is going to
be joined to the eternal son of God God's manifest in the
flesh. She was a virgin when she bore
her first child. She was espoused to a man called
Joseph. Subsequently, they clearly were
married and she had other children by her husband. Again, when we
compare the Gospels, and we do well to compare the Gospels,
in His goodness and mercy God has given us a fourfold Gospel.
Four different accounts. And how these accounts complement
one another. And we learn certain things in
one that we find not recorded in another. Though there is a
certain emphasis, of course, upon the importance of the life
that is being recorded in these Gospels. The miraculous birth,
the ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ and His death upon the
cross and then His resurrection. The fourfold account of these
things and in Mark's Gospel. And there in Mark 6 and verse
3. Is not this the carpenter, they say, the son of Mary, the
brother of James and Joseph and of Judah and Simon, and are not
his sisters with us all? After the birth of Christ Mary
evidently bore other children to her husband Joseph. And the Roman Church is wrongly
erroneous in asserting her perpetual virginity. That's what they say.
She was a perpetual virgin. Well Christ knew that his mother
was not a perpetual virgin. How does he address a woman he
says? Woman what have I to do with
thee? Mine hour is not yet come. She was aware, you know, she
would often ponder these things in her heart. You think of what
she had experienced. The message of the angel. The
birth of this child. The Lord has a great respect
for his mother. And yet in a sense we have to
acknowledge there is some rebuke here. There is some reproof in
the words that he is speaking to her. But there's nothing of
sin. There's nothing sinful in what
the Lord is doing here. He's not blind worthy. No, He
is holy, and He's harmless, and He's undefiled, and He's separate
from sinners, and He's made higher than the heavens. He is that
one who is the sinless man. Of course Adam was created a
sinless man, Eve was created a sinless woman, but Adam and
Eve sinned. And who can bring a clean thing
out of an unclean? All the sinners. All those who
are descended by natural generation from that first pair, but this
one, the Lord Jesus Christ, is very conception, you see. His virgin birth, and how the
Holy Ghost must have so worked in Mary that though she herself
was a sinner yet there was no taint of sin in his human nature
it's referred to there in Luke 1.35 as that holy thing that
holy thing that's his human nature not a person that holy thing
that that body, that soul is joined to the person of the eternal
son of God and he is the only sinless one Mary is not without
fault here Mary is not free from sin we must recognize that in
fact she acknowledges herself as a sinner doesn't she? again
there in what we call the Magnificat in that opening chapter of Luke's
Gospel. My spirit hath rejoiced, she
says, in God my Saviour. Now God is her Saviour, she needs
a God who will save her just as every other human being needs
to know the salvation of the Lord, so too this woman. Now
With regards to the son, that first-born son, as a child we
see how the Lord Jesus was very much subject to the discipline
of his own home, subject to his own parents. We're told that,
aren't we, again, in Luke's account. Luke gives a much fuller account
of the childhood of the Lord Jesus than any of the other Gospels. Very little is said concerning
those formative years of his life, but there is some account
particularly in the Gospel according to St. Luke, and there in chapter
2. Remember at the end of that chapter we are told about when
he was 12 years old. They had gone up to Jerusalem
after the custom of the feast. And after the feast had finished,
the days had been fulfilled, they returned, but Jesus has
stayed behind. And the parents think He's somewhere
in the company. That's what we're told here at
the end of Luke chapter 2. And then they've gone three days
and they realize He's not in the company. So they hurry back
to Jerusalem and there He is is sitting amongst the doctors,
it says, in the midst of the doctors, both hearing them and
asking them questions. And all that heard him were astonished
at his understanding and answers. And then when his parents find
him, what do they say? Some, why hast thou thus dealt
with us? Behold, thy father and I have sought thee sorrowing.
and he says unto them, how is it that ye sought me? wist ye
not that I must be about my father's business? he was obviously conscious
of who he was, he was aware of who he was even as a 12 year
old child, it's amazing really and they don't understand what
he's saying at all but then we read these words and we went
down with them and came to Nazareth and was subject unto them as
a child he was subject unto them but his mother kept all these
sayings in her heart and then we are told how Jesus increased
in wisdom and stature and favour with God and man he grew and
as a man he grew in stature from a child to a youth to a man,
and he grew in knowledge. And yet, at the same time of
course, he's never anything less than the Eternal Son of God and
he knows all things. This is the mystery. The mystery
of the Incarnation. But though he was subject to
his parents as a child, and though he was subject to them, as their
son, certainly the son of Mary, the supposed son of Joseph also.
And yet, as the Eternal Son, He was ever and always their
God. How can we explain these things?
Now that remarkable verse of Paul in 2nd Corinthians, Yea,
though I have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth
know I Him no more. Not after the flesh. Oh, it was necessary then that
the Lord here should speak to his mother in this fashion. He's
now beginning to enter more fully into his ministry. And so he speaks to her and reproves
her with these words. What have I to do with they?
mine hour is not yet come." It's interesting the comment that
John Calvin, the great Protestant reformer, makes on this verse.
He says it's a necessary rebuke in view of gross and abominable
superstitions that would come. That's the comment of Calvin. He's thinking of the Mariolatry,
of course, which became so prevalent in the medieval church. And Calvin relights the Lord's
words to Mary here, reproving her. It was necessary rebuke
in view of gross and abominable superstitions that would come. and so there is a word in scripture
which indicates to us that this woman was not a perpetual virgin
and she was not a sinless woman and so the Lord himself speaks to her
in such a fashion, it's not disrespectful Christ and his mother, she was
his mother, yes but he was and always will be, of course, her
God and her Saviour, and she herself acknowledges that. She
herself clearly acknowledges that. That's a wonderful passage,
isn't it, what we call the Magnificat. The song of Mary there in Luke
chapter 1, in verse 46. Mary said, My soul doth magnify
the Lord, and my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour for
he hath regarded the lowest state of his handmaiden for behold
from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed for he
that is mighty hath done to me great things and holy is his
name and his mercy is on them that fear him from generation
to generation he hath showed strength with his arm he hath
scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts He hath put down
the mighty from their seats, and exalted them of low degree.
He hath filled the hungry with good things, and the rich hath
sent empty away. And he hath holpen his servant
Israel in remembrance of his mercy, as he spake to our fathers,
to Abraham. and to his seed forever. Oh, let us not despise this woman. She is the Blessed Virgin, highly
favoured amongst women. We are not to overreact, you
see, to all the superstitions of Romanism. We are to recognise
who this woman was, and the Lord recognises her and respects her,
even though reproves her. But the real key I would say
to the verse is not so much what we've said concerning the Lord
Jesus and his mother, but more especially what he says there
with regards to his hour. He says unto her, Woman, what
have I to do with thee? Mine hour is not yet come. And what does he do here? He
declares the truth of his sovereignty. mine now he says, it's mine but
first to say something more with regards to his willing subjection you know the way in which he
went down with them from Jerusalem back to Nazareth as a 12 year
old and was subject to, he must be so of course because he's
not only made of a woman, he's made under the law isn't he?
As we're told there in Galatians 4.4 when the fullness of the
time has come God sends forth his son made of a woman made
under the law and he is subject to all the law of God and he
obeys all the law of God and he is as a child mindful of that
fifth commandment, honor thy father and thy mother. He never broke one commandment
throughout all his life. James tells us, doesn't he, if
a man should keep the whole law and offend in one point, he's
guilty of all. If the Lord was to break that
holy law of God, that commandment which is holy and just and good,
If he was to disregard one of the commandments, he's guilty
of all. No, he's obedient. And we're told, aren't we, how
he was obedient unto death. Even the death of the cross. He's obedient in dying. And of
course, in dying, as we've already said, we see him still aware
of the needs of his mother making provision for her no longer a
child of course but now a fully grown man and occupied with that
great purpose of his coming to make one sacrifice for sins forever
and yet amidst all those sufferings he is aware of her need and so
he speaks to John Behold thy mother and he says to his mother
Woman woman behold thy son or if any provide not for his own
house especially those of his own family he hath denied the
faith which is worse than an infidel that's not the Lord Jesus throughout his life the person
of the Lord Jesus Christ in all things of course we have to remember
this in everything he is God-man very wrong to think well in his
human nature he is subject to his parents in his divine nature
he is sovereign over his persons we are not to think like that
in every deed that he performs it's the person and who is the
person? the person is God and man it's the person we have to
concentrate on one person and two distinct natures in that
one person that's the mystery what the theologians call that
hypostatic union in everything he's God-man even when he's subject
to them and yet also as God-man we see his sovereignty mind our
he says is not yet come now When the Lord uses such an expression
as this throughout the Gospels, He is usually referring to the
matter of His death. We see it, don't we, on at least
two other occasions, here in chapter 7, at verse 30, and again
in chapter 8 at verse 20. There were those occasions when
the Jews, particularly the scribes and the Pharisees, were so offended
when he manifested forth anything of his glory, when they saw anything
of his deity, when he refers to himself as the Son of God,
they're offended, they would stone him. They accuse him of
blasphemy. That was the great charge of
course that they laid against him before Pontius Pilate. We have a law, and by our law
he ought to die, because he made himself the Son of God, there
in chapter 19 and verse 7. Blasphemy! He's saying he's God. Well, there were other occasions,
and as I say, we see it there in chapter 7 at verse 30 and
chapter 8 at verse 20, but it says then, Isaiah was not yet
come. His hour was not yet come. But
then, oh, the hour would come. The hour would come. In chapter
12, in verse 23, Jesus answers saying the hour is come that
the Son of Man should be glorified. Now is my soul troubled and what
shall I say Father save me from this hour but for this cause
came I to this hour. Father glorify thy name and there
came a voice from heaven saying I have both glorified it and
will glorify it again. Oh when the hour came you see.
Again in chapter 13 before the feast of Passover when Jesus
knew that his hour was come that he should depart unto the Father,
having loved his own which were in the world." He loved them
unto the end. He's conscious of that time that
has come, the appointed time. And again, it's not just in John
that we have reference to the hour or the time in relation
to what was appointed concerning his death. but also in Luke,
in Luke 9.31 when the time was come that he should be received
up we're told how he steadfastly sets his face to go to Jerusalem
he was aware that there was a time to everything there's a season,
a time to every purpose under heaven, a time to be born a time
to die, the time of his birth was determined when the fullness
of the time was come God sends forth His Son, made of a woman,
and made under the law, and likewise with regards to His dying. He knows the purpose. My meat,
He says, is to do the will of Him who has sent me and to finish
His work. The Father had given Him a work
in the eternal covenant He is the Son of God, He is the
Christ, the Promised One, the only Saviour of sinners, and
He must accomplish all that work. And this is what He is referring
to, my hour, He says, is not yet come. However, in the context
here, can we not also say that it's not just a reference
to the hour of his death, but there's some reference here to
the truth of his deity, that he is truly God. What have I to do with thee? Mine hour is not yet come. He asserts is that he shows something
really of his glory, he is doing that in the miracle as we are told there at verse
11 the beginning of miracles and how he manifested forth his
glory and his disciples believed on him he will manifest himself
when he will when he will And that will of his is ever
subject to the will of the Father. When we see him there in the
Garden of Gethsemane, in all the agonies of his soul, as he's
going to make the great sacrifice for sins, one sacrifice for sins
forever. And what does he pray? If it
be possible let this cup pass from me, nevertheless not my
will, But thy will be done. Not his mother's will, but what God wills. Now time and again you see, his
people are impatient. We see it in chapter 7. They want Him to manifest something
of His glory there in the opening verses of chapter 7. What does
He say? My time is not yet come, but your time is ever ready.
And isn't that true with us? So often we're so impatient with
the Lord and with His will. And we ask something of Him.
We pray to Him, we make a request to Him. and we conclude he's not answering
our prayers when he delays his answer. It doesn't mean that he's inactive. It doesn't mean that he's not
hearing prayer. No, he regulates his work and
he acts to the right time. He is that one who is sovereign.
And this is what the Lord is reminding His mother of. Oh what
a revelation we have when we come to the Gospel of our Lord
Jesus Christ and the life that He's living. We see here His sovereignty,
we see His authority, and yet at the same time we see
His humility, his respect for his mother, we see his submission to God,
the father, it is that work that he must be occupied in, he must
be about his father's business all his life. All the wonder then of the Lord
Jesus Christ. Lord that we might be those who
know what it is to At least desire that we might
have that mind, let this mind be in you. It says Paul there
in Philippians 2, let this mind be in you which was also in Christ
Jesus. And you know the passage, that
great passage. He thought it not robbery to be equal with
God, but made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of
a servant, and was made in the likeness of men, being found
in fashion as a man is obedient. is obedient to his parents in
life, has a respect for all the commandments of God. We don't
look to our keeping of the commandments for salvation, but surely if
we are those who are the followers of the Lord Jesus we will recognize
the truth of the commandments of God. The Lord is holy, the
commandment holy and just and good, there's nothing wrong with
the Lord of God. The wrong is all with us. We
know what the purpose of the law is. It shows us what we are. It's a ministry of condemnation,
a ministry of death in that sense. But it's God's law. But more
than that, we have all the holy precepts of Christ in the Gospel.
Surely we're to be those who would desire to live as he lives
and to look to him not only as our great saviour, the one who
has accomplished all righteousness for us. The end of the law for
righteousness is poor. Here's our justification, it's
the righteousness of Christ. And yes, We would look to Him
also as that One who to us is a glorious pattern. We call ourselves His disciples,
we'll follow all His teaching and walk with delight in the
way of all His holy precepts. Oh, the Lord then be pleased
to grant us such an understanding even of this incident in these
words which as we read them may be sound so strange how the Lord
speaks to his own dear mother when he says unto her woman what
have I to do with her mine hour is not yet come but then the
meekness of his mother and isn't she here an example to us his
mother said unto the servants whatsoever he said unto you do
it well the Lord bless his word to us Amen. We're going to conclude
our worship as we sing the hymn 709. The Lord that made both heaven
and earth and was himself made man lay in the womb before his
birth contracted to a span behold from what beginning small our
great salvation rose the strength of God is owned by all who his
weakness knows. We sing the hymn 709.