Narrative Lectionary Key Verse for Today
“His mother said to the servants, ‘Do whatever he tells you.’”
NL Daily Devotion for Sunday, January 11, 2026
by Pr. Matthias Lorimor, Clergy Stuff
Main Idea: The Lord who sees an “hour” of redemption in our lives will not miss chance to bless our lives as redemption unfolds.
I’ve never understood why this passage is used so often at weddings. Let’s be clear, Jesus doesn’t explicitly bless the anonymous couple or their wedding. He helps a panicked wedding planner who didn’t expect the bar would be hit so hard. More importantly, Jesus doesn’t want to help at all at first. Instead, he protests “my hour has not yet come!” So, what’s really going on in Cana?
To start with the question of time, “the hour” is a powerful symbol in the Gospel of John for the time of Jesus’ resurrection and ascension. In a grander sense, “the hour” symbolizes God’s cosmic plan to redeem us in Jesus. That Jesus is concerned throughout John’s Gospel with the “hour” shows that Jesus’ actions and decisions are always determined by God’s timing and plan, not by ours. So why does Jesus make an exception to God’s timing and perform his first miracle at Cana? While too many explain Jesus’ actions away with a cheap joke about how even Jesus knew to say “Yes, ma’am” to his mother, the more likely answer is because Jesus doesn’t have an “hour” so that our reasons to rejoice might end. Rather, Jesus has an “hour” because God has a plan for us to have life and have it abundantly (Jn. 10:10). As Gail O’Day and Susan Hylen observed, that may be the great symbolism behind Jesus turning an immense quantity of water into the best of wine; that Jesus has come to give us more of the best blessings than we can handle.
So, what really happened in Cana? Perhaps Jesus didn’t so much bless a simple ceremony, as he demonstrated that the Lord who sees an “hour” of redemption in our lives will not miss a single opportunity to bless our days as the plan unfolds to bless our lives.
