This Sunday sees the first of Jesus’ miracle when at a wedding he turns water into wine (John 2:1-12). It is also the only occasion that John records Mary as saying anything. She asks the steward to do whatever Jesus tells him. John never refers to Mary by name, designating her either as ‘woman’ or ‘the mother of Jesus’. Given that John was ‘the disciple whom Jesus loved’, that he stood with Mary at the foot of the cross and left with her after Jesus’ death, he gives less prominence to her role than one might have expected. Mary was the ultimate go-between girl and an attitude of deferential submission does not crave the spotlight. In the American sitcom Frasier says that if ‘less is more think how much more more is’, demonstrating the acquisitive nature of our contemporary society. In the Gospel story the wedding guests get an extra 150 gallons of wine to drink but Mary gets the real prize, which is an early recognition of the public authority of her son. If one were just to have a single sentence recorded for posterity then ‘just do whatever he tells you’ cuts to the heart of the matter

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