According to Roman Catholicism, Mary, the Blessed Mother, has some influence over Jesus. They derive this from John 2, where Mary told Jesus that they had run out of wine at the wedding reception in Cana of Galilee, expecting him to do something about it. The Biblical account states that Jesus, in reply, said to his mother, “Woman, what have I to do with you? My hour is not yet come.” Nevertheless, Jesus subsequently performed a miracle to supply the guests with wine anyway. According to Roman Catholic interpretation, this proves Mary’s influence over Jesus, suggesting that when Catholics have a hard time getting through to Jesus, they should ask his mother to intercede on their behalf. Well, we know that the Scriptures interpret themselves, so let us see where they lead us. Jesus taught his disciples to pray to the Father in his name (John 16:23-24). He mentioned this several times in the Gospel of John; but in none of those instances did he even remotely suggest that we should ask or say anything through his mother or through anyone else! Neither do we find such anywhere else in the Bible. The Scriptures also confirm that Jesus is the ONLY mediator between man and God (1 Tim. 2:5), that he is the ONLY way to the Father (John 14:6), and that he ever lives TO MAKE INTERCESSION for us (Heb. 7:25). Although these scriptures alone would be more than enough to obliterate the Roman Catholic argument, there is yet more. Now, why would Jesus say to his mother, “Woman, what have I to do with you? My hour is not yet come,” and then turn around and work the miracle anyway? In order for us to find the answer to this question, we must go to Luke 2:49, where Jesus, then 12 years old, says to his parents, “did you not know that I must be about my Father’s business?” Jesus had to be about his Heavenly Father’s business, even from the age of 12. In fact, everything Jesus did and said was according to his Father’s will. He said that he could do nothing of himself, except what he saw the Father do (John 5:19); he said he sought not his own will, but the will of the Father (John 5:30, 6:38); and he spoke not of himself, but only what the Father told him to say (John 8:28, 12:49). The Holy Spirit conveyed every word of the Father to him. Now, since he was EXCLUSIVELY about his Heavenly Father’s business, and not even about his own business, then he could NOT have been influenced by his mother either! This is why he said to her, “Woman, what have I to do with you? My hour is not yet come.” He was, in effect, letting us know that he did not operate according to Mary’s promptings and nudgings, but only according to what his Heavenly Father told him! Therefore, one has to surmise that when he actually performed the miracle, a few moments after this conversation with his mother, it was because the Father, through the Holy Spirit, had, by then, given him the “go ahead,” and NOT as a result of his mother’s “influence,” as Roman Catholic interpretation suggests. Jesus never said anything in vain; every word was uttered and recorded for a reason and purpose. Thus, if one concludes the Roman Catholic interpretation to be correct, then one must also conclude that Mary influenced Jesus to perform the miracle at the WRONG time, clearly deviating from the Father’s will, because he knew his “hour was not yet come,” but he did the miracle anyway! The implication of such a premise is that Mary would have inadvertently succeeded in accomplishing the very thing that Satan had failed to do earlier in the wilderness, namely, to get Jesus to disobey the Father, and then our redemption would have been severely compromised! What we see here, in both of these episodes (Luke 2:49 and John 2:4) is Jesus speaking to Mary, not as a man addressing his mother on a merely human level, but rather as the Incarnate God, communicating with a member of the human race, who would later be redeemed by his death on the cross! Redemption was the “Father’s business,” the ultimate mission the Father had sent Jesus to fulfill, and everything had to follow a precise plan and timetable established by the Father, even “before the foundation of the world” (1 Peter 1:20; Gal. 4:4), and superintended by the Holy Spirit (Heb. 9:14). There was absolutely no room for error, so thank God, Mary did not influence Jesus at all, although she was a bit early, as many of us also tend to get ahead of God sometimes!
Posted on: Mon, 16 Sep 2013 17:45:49 +0000
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