John 2:1-11

Joh 2:1 Three days later there was a wedding in the village of Cana in Galilee. Jesus' mother was there.
Joh 2:2 Jesus and his disciples were guests also.
Joh 2:3 When they started running low on wine at the wedding banquet, Jesus' mother told him, "They're just about out of wine."
Joh 2:4 Jesus said, "Is that any of our business, Mother--yours or mine? This isn't my time. Don't push me."
Joh 2:5 She went ahead anyway, telling the servants, "Whatever he tells you, do it."
Joh 2:6 Six stoneware water pots were there, used by the Jews for ritual washings. Each held twenty to thirty gallons.
Joh 2:7 Jesus ordered the servants, "Fill the pots with water." And they filled them to the brim.
Joh 2:8 "Now fill your pitchers and take them to the host," Jesus said, and they did.
Joh 2:9 When the host tasted the water that had become wine (he didn't know what had just happened but the servants, of course, knew), he called out to the bridegroom,
Joh 2:10 "Everybody I know begins with their finest wines and after the guests have had their fill brings in the cheap stuff. But you've saved the best till now!"
Joh 2:11 This act in Cana of Galilee was the first sign Jesus gave, the first glimpse of his glory. And his disciples believed in him.

Billed as Christ's first miracle, the turning of water into wine. Throughout his short ministry healings and other events accounted as miracles because they defied obvious explanation crop up and are reported upon by his Disciples even though he often adjures the recipients of his beneficence to thank God in the Temple, or show themselves to the Priest but otherwise not publicize the event. Great significance seems to be attached to Christ's ability to perform signs and wonders but Our Lord did not feel the need to prove himself by so-doing, rather he responded in love to a perceived need. Even in his final hours Pontius Pilate asks to see him perform miracles and indeed it is told that he reattached the ear of a centurion struck off by one of his disciples during the arrest.

Christ and his disciples are invited to a wedding feast at Cana and his Mother is there as well. One assumes the Bridegroom was a close relative but there is no record of his name. Given his age Christ must have come in for some not so gentle ribbing as the wine flowed. As a Jewish Rabbi he would have been expected to take a wife though we have no record of his ever having been married.

When the wine runs out it is his Mother Mary who intercedes with Christ on the Host's behalf. Significant to me is the fact that she has every confidence in His ablility to rectify the situation and although He as much as tells her to mind her own business she forces the issue by going to her host's servants and telling them to do his bidding. Also significant is the fact that Mary has sufficient standing in this household and Christ's reputation is such that these servants do their bidding rather than tell them to quit bothering them. (I hesitate to use the phrase, 'go to hell'.)

The ability of the Messiah to perform signs and wonders is a hallmark of the prophetic tradition. Whether or not Christ felt it necessary to fulfil this tradition his Disciples apparently attached great significance to these events and recorded them for posterity.