In chapter 2 of St. John, there is a story
of Jesus attending a marriage ceremony. His mother was also in attendance and
takes note that there is no wine for the marriage. She tells Jesus about it. Jesus responds to her, “Woman, what wilt thou
have me to do for thee? That will I do;
for mine hour is not yet come.” I love
that he responded to his mother so quickly, and in turn she faithfully asks the
servants to do whatever he says. His
instruction is for them to fill the waterpots with water. Then he causes them to become wine. This is astonishing for those present. It is
a miracle. The scriptures tell us that
each waterpot is two or three firkins apiece. A firkin is about 9 gallons, so
this was no small thing. This wedding
celebration was quite large, and he was able to perform a miracle that would
provide wine enough for all the people in attendance. I think I always just thought it was a few
cups, just a small token of kindness, when in reality it was a big service to
provide.
In
that passage, the Savior refers to his mother as ‘woman.’ At this time, calling someone ‘woman’ was a
term of respect and endearment and was spoken out of pure love for the mother
who cared for him.
The
Savior makes a visit to the temple, sometime following the marriage. He drives out all those who were seeking for
personal gain within the temple. I think one of the lessons we learn from this
is that the Savior wants us to be clean and attend the temple with a pure heart
and righteous intentions, seeking after the will of our Father. We have to be prepared to worship, and then
take care to treat the temple as a holy place and leave behind the things of
the world.
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