Christ Church Sermon, Questions Jesus Asked: Why Do You Involve Me? May 03 2026

You're listening to a message from our

weekly worship at Christ Church in Bethl

Park, Pennsylvania. We're a United

Methodist congregation with the mission

of building inclusive community, sharing

Christ's transforming love. To learn

more about the church, including how you

can join us for worship online or in

person, visit christyouumc.net.

Thank you for listening.

The scripture reading today is from the

book of John chapter 2:es 1-5.

On the third day, a wedding took place

in Canaa in Galilee.

Jesus's mother was there, and Jesus and

his disciples had also been invited to

the wedding.

When the wine was gone, Jesus's mother

said to him, "They have no more wine."

"Woman, why do you involve me?" Jesus

replied, "My hour has not yet come."

His mother said to the servants, "Do

whatever he tells you."

Thanks be to God.

>> Thank you, Alexandra. So, I have read

that passage that she just read for you

probably dozens of times in the last

couple of weeks in preparation for this

sermon. And every single time I read it,

there is one thing that sticks out to

me. And that is this. Even the savior of

the world has to listen to his mother.

No one is immune when their mama talks,

even Jesus. And before we go any

further, I don't want you to miss the

humor in that moment. I think we are

remiss as Bible readers if we don't see

the humorous moments that are sprinkled

all throughout scripture. It really

brings the stories to life. And I think

that it helps us remember that at the

end of the day, the Bible is full of

stories that are about real people who

live real lives even and especially

Jesus. And there were funny things that

happened.

If we take what we just heard at face

value, I think the temptation is to

write off Mary as a nebby mother. She

inserts herself into a situation and

then she tasks her son with fixing it.

But there's so much more to this

seemingly really simple exchange. And as

we examine this scripture today to see

what it teaches us, and in particular

how the question, why do you involve me?

continues to speak to us today. I want

to look closer at that interaction

between Jesus and his mother. And today

I want to examine it more from the

perspective of Mary and try and

understand what she was thinking when

she went to Jesus and then why Jesus

responded the way that he did. So the

first thing that happens in this

exchange is that Mary recognizes the

problem.

Jesus, the disciples, and Jesus's mother

are all at this wedding. Everything is

going fine until a crisis occurs. And

the crisis is that the wedding hosts

have run out of wine. Today, that would

be a questionable and maybe dubious use

of the word crisis. We tend to use the

word crisis to refer to war and world

hunger and poverty, things that happen

on a much larger scale. But back in

Jesus's day, this was indeed the very

definition of a crisis. Weddings were a

week-long affair. They were filled with

food and drink and fellowship and

continuous celebration. And if you ran

out of wine during that time period, it

was social disaster.

The bride's family and the groom's

family, much like today, would have

invited people from all over to come to

the wedding. In Jesus's time, it was

customary for the groom's family to foot

the bill for this entire week. And image

was everything. If they couldn't keep

the party going for an entire week, the

groom's family would be subject to

social shaming by those who were at the

wedding and those who were there in the

community who just heard about it

happening. They would lose their

reputation.

And that impact would actually then

spread to the bride and the groom,

running out of wine. That was something

would that would not only taint the

beginning of their marriage, but it

would haunt them for the rest of their

lives.

Knowing that, getting that historical

perspective, calling running out of wine

a crisis makes a little bit more sense.

But Mary was attuned to her surroundings

at that wedding. She saw that they were

running out of wine. She recognized the

problem for what it was, for the

magnitude of it, and she knew she had to

take action. And that takes us to our

second thing that's happening in this

interaction, which is Mary goes to Jesus

with a problem. Mary gives that problem

to Jesus. When she saw that there was no

more wine, Mary knew that it would spell

disaster. She didn't have a solution,

but she did have a son. So when she took

action, that action was to go to Jesus.

She found Jesus in the crowd and she

pulled him out and she said one simple

sentence to him. They have no more wine.

But as eager as Jesus's mother seemed to

be to take action and to prevent a cat a

catastrophe from happening, Jesus seemed

equally as reluctant to take action. His

response to his mother was, "Woman, why

do you involve me? My time has not yet

come."

When we've preached on this passage

before, we've been clear, and I will be

clear here again, that the use of the

word woman in this context, even though

it rings extremely disrespectful to our

ears, was not in fact disrespectful. The

way that it was said, it could be

thought of as saying madam or ma'am at

the beginning of a sentence. So, moving

past that word, let's look at the rest

of what Jesus said.

Why do you involve me? He didn't seem

sure as to why his mother was seeking

him out as someone who could prevent

this debacle.

Maybe he was thinking that there was

surely someone else who could fix this

problem. Maybe he was thinking that he

would actually need a miracle to fix it.

After all, there were no fine wine and

spirits in Kaa circa 30 AD. And he

didn't want to be forced into performing

a miracle that would involve such a

human problem as not having enough wine.

Maybe he wanted to save his miracles for

more, I don't know, miraculous things

like healing people and raising people

from the dead. We don't know what Jesus

was thinking. But we know that he was

questioning his mother.

Jesus also said to Mary that his time

had not yet come.

He may not have been sure why his mother

was involving him, but he did know that

this was not supposed to be his time to

reveal himself to the world.

Because he was always in such close

connection with God, Jesus knew what the

plan for his life was. He knew what

God's timetable was for him. And he did

not think that performing this miracle

fit into that timeline.

And that's what he was telling his

mother when he said, "My hour has not

yet come."

But Mary is not to be stopped. She needs

to take action. And so the third thing

that happens in this interaction between

the two is that Mary trusts.

Jesus had just told her he was not

interested in getting involved, that

this was not the right time. And what

was Mary's response? She completely

ignored him. She turned around to the

servants and said, "Do whatever he tells

you to do."

And just like that, Jesus was on the

hook for saving this wedding and by

extension the reputation of the bride

and the groom and their families.

So what gave Mary the ability to just

trust, to give it to Jesus and trust?

Surely she had heard what he'd said. She

got his message.

Remember, she had been in a similar

situation before.

Roughly 30 years before this moment at

the wedding took place, some angels had

visited Mary. And he told her that she

had found favor with the Lord, that she

was going to give birth to the Messiah,

the son of the most high. And she may

not have fully understood in that moment

what that meant or what Jesus's life

would be like. But she trusted what the

angels told her.

Fast forward to the wedding. She was

once again in a situation where she had

to totally trust. Did she know what

Jesus was going to do with this

particular problem that she presented? I

don't think so. And I don't think that

the how really mattered.

She just knew that he could do something

and she trusted that he would.

And in the end, she was right. Jesus

obeyed his mother and he acted on her

request. He turned six large stone jars,

which would have held between 20 and 30

gallons of water into enough wine to

last for the rest of the wedding feast.

And not just regular run-of-the-mill

wine, but the really good stuff.

So, why did Jesus say yes to Mary in our

story today, even if he felt like it

wasn't his time?

Biblical scholars believe he did it to

honor his relationship with his mother

as an acknowledgement of her faith in

him and also as a way of beginning to

reveal himself to the disciples without

drawing public attention to himself. We

read in verse 11 that because of this

miracle, his disciples believed in him.

It's easy for us to get lost in the

miracle of this story and spend all of

our time looking at the jars and the

wine and focusing on the abundance of

what was provided in that moment. And

that's a really important piece of the

story.

But what I don't want us to miss is that

as important as the miracle was, it

would not have happened without Mary

taking the problem to Jesus and trusting

him to do something about it.

I was listening to a podcast recently

where a pastor and the host that was

interviewing him were talking about

spiritual movements where God is

working. And in the course of that

interview, the pastor said something

that really struck me. It stayed with me

when he was talking about spiritual

movement. He said this, "Those movements

start without moving."

Movements start without moving. In other

words, Jesus starts working when we

trust him with our problems and then we

step back and we allow him to do what he

is going to do.

When she agreed to become the mother of

Jesus, Mary didn't know all the details.

She just trusted the plan. When she told

Jesus about the wine running out, she

didn't know the details of what he would

do. She just trusted he would do

something about it.

Mary placed the problem in Jesus's

hands. and then she walked away.

We don't hear anything else about her in

the rest of the story. She believed

Jesus was going to do something.

Remember, she told the servants to do

whatever he told them to do. But that is

where her involvement stopped. She

didn't pepper Jesus with questions or

tell him what she thought would work.

She didn't seem to even raise her voice

or show her anxiety with this whole

situation, which would have been a

pretty anxietyfilled

situation.

She just turned the issue over to Jesus

and she waited to see what he would do.

Movements start without moving.

They start with trust and prayer and

handing things over to God and then

waiting to see what God can do.

That's what Mary did. And I think that

is the biggest lesson we can take from

our question today.

Jesus asked Mary, "Why do you involve

me?"

Mary involved Jesus because she knew

that whatever he was going to do was

better than anything she could do

without him.

And we need to be more like Mary. When

we give our concerns to God, we have to

really give our concerns to God. Let

them go. Stop trying to solve issues on

our own. If we want to see what God can

do, we have to turn things over to God.

trust and see what God does.

And then here's the key. We have to be

okay with whatever solution God gives.

In the meantime, as we trust and wait to

see what God's going to do, we can be

doing one thing actively, and that is

praying.

It seems like something Mary may have

been doing while she was waiting to see

what Jesus would do.

The thing is that when we're in this

holding period, we have to be careful

how we pray. I read in a commentary once

that when we pray, it's easy to forget

that it is not our place to tell God

what to do.

If I am honest, and I suspect I am not

alone in this, I spend less of my prayer

time handing things over to God and more

of it telling God how to fix the problem

that I am facing. I try to convince God

to do what I want and I sometimes

include really detailed plans in that

prayer. And then if that detailed plan

is not acted on almost immediately I

take control because clearly I have the

situation really in hand and so maybe

God can just bless it. That's the

prayer. Just bless it and I will

actually make it happen. So basically

the opposite of Mary.

Someone once said there are three

fundamental answers to prayer requests.

Yes, no, or wait.

In other words, if you boil down every

answer to prayer that you have ever

gotten, if you take away the details and

you really get to the heart of that

answer, the basic answers are always one

of those three things. Yes, God has done

or will do what you asked. No, what you

asked is not a part of God's plan. Or

wait, and the answer will one day be

revealed. You may not know how long you

have to wait, but one day the answer

will be given to you.

All three of those answers are God

taking action. All three of those are

God directing our paths and

acknowledging our requests. And in all

three of those answers, contrary to what

we may think, God is still moving.

It's easy to see God moving in the yes.

We saw it in today's story. Water turned

into wine. weddings and reputations were

saved. And although she didn't say it,

knowing what we know about what was

going on, it's pretty clear that that

was Mary's desire when she gave Jesus

the problem and she walked away.

But God is also moving in the no and in

the wait.

And the key to understanding that is the

same for both answers.

We have to trust.

In the no, we don't see God do what we

asked. But scripture tells us that God's

plan is always, always for our good. And

God is moving to bring that plan to

completion in our lives. And that plan

may be radically different from what we

think we need.

So when the answer is no, our prayers

shift from God, please do this specific

thing

to God, please show me your better plan

and use me in the places you are going

to put me even if I would not have

chosen those places for myself.

In the wait, we are called to continue

to trust that God is moving even when we

can't see it, even when it seems like

nothing is happening.

It's in those times, I think, that we

are called to trust that God is working

on changing our hearts instead of

actively changing a specific situation.

And in those moments, our prayer can be,

"God, you turned water into wine. Change

me while I wait on you. Change my sorrow

into joy, my restlessness into peace, my

confusion into clarity, my desperation

into hope. Change my heart

The bottom line is this. Whether your

answer is yes, no, or wait to your

prayer, when we trust God, the ordinary

becomes extraordinary, even if

extraordinary is not what we thought it

should be.

Why do you involve me? Why did Mary

involve Jesus? She involved Jesus

because she knew that he was going to do

something extraordinary with that

situation.

Why do you involve Jesus? That's our

question for today.

Do you involve Jesus only in the hopes

that you will get exactly what you want?

Or do you involve Jesus and invite Jesus

into your life because you trust that

when you turn everything over to him, he

has something extraordinary waiting for

you. Even if it's not the extraordinary

that you dreamed.

Let's pray.

Holy God, it is a challenge to trust. It

is a challenge to give everything over

to you. To trust. to trust that you are

still moving no matter what the answer

to prayer is.

It is hard to wait. It's hard to hear

no.

We thank you for those times in our

lives, even when they are hard. And we

pray that we might be better at trusting

you with what is going on in our lives,

giving it all over to you, and then

stepping back and seeing what you are

going to do, believing.

believing that you have something

extraordinary planned for us.

In Jesus name we pray. Amen.