This is one main point - we had almost called it the negative one; the other, and positive one, was the miracle itself. All else is but accidental and circumstantial. No one who either knows the use of the language, [1760] or remembers that, when commending her to John on the Cross, He used the same mode of expression, [1761] will imagine, that there was anything derogatory to her, or harsh on His part, in addressing her as woman' rather than mother.' But the language is to us significant of the teaching intended to be conveyed, and as the beginning of this further teaching: Who is My mother? and My brethren? And He stretched forth His hand toward His disciples, and said, Behold My mother and My brethren!' [1762]
And Mary did not, and yet she did, understand Him, when she turned to the servants with the direction, implicitly to follow His behests. What happened is well known: how, in the excess of their zeal, they filled the water-pots to the brim - an accidental circumstance, yet useful, as much that seems accidental, to show that there could be neither delusion nor collusion; how, probably in the drawing of it, the water became best wine - the conscious water saw its God, and blushed;' then the coarse proverbial joke of what was probably the master of ceremonies and purveyor of the feast, [1763] intended, of course, not literally to apply to the present company, and yet in its accidentalness an evidence of the reality of the miracle; after which the narrative abruptly closes with a retrospective remark on the part of him who relates it. What the bridegroom said; whether what had been done became known to the guests, and, if so, what impression it wrought; how long Jesus remained; what His Mother felt - of this and much more that might be asked, Scripture, with that reverent reticence which we so often mark, in contrast to our shallow talkativeness, takes no further notice. And best that it should be so. St. John meant to tell us, what the Synoptists, who begin their account with the later Galilean ministry, have not recorded, [1764] of the first of His miracles as a sign,' [1765] pointing to the deeper and higher that was to be revealed, and of the first forth-manifesting of His glory.' [1766] That is all; and that object was attained. Witness the calm, grateful retrospect upon that first day of miracles, summed up in these simple but intensely conscious words: And His disciples believed on Him.'
A sign it was, from whatever point we view its meaning, as previously indicated. For, like the diamond that shines with many colours, it has many meanings; none of them designed, in the coarse sense of the term, but all real, because the outcome of a real Divine Life and history. And a real miracle also, not only historically, but as viewed in its many meanings; the beginning of all others, which in a sense are but the unfolding of this first. A miracle it is, which cannot be explained, but is only enhanced by the almost incredible platitudes to which negative criticism has sunk in its commentation, [1767] for which there assuredly exists no legendary basis, either in Old Testament history, or in contemporary Jewish expectation; [1768] which cannot be sublimated into nineteenth-century idealism; [1769] least of all can be conceived as an after-thought of His disciples, invented by an Ephesian writer of the second century. [1770] But even the allegorical illustration of St. Augustine, who reminds us that in the grape the water of rain is ever changed into wine, is scarcely true, save as a bare illustration, and only lowers our view of the miracle. For miracle it is, [1771] and will ever remain; not, indeed, magic, [1772] nor arbitrary power, but power with a moral purpose, and that the highest. [1773] And we believe it, because this sign' is the first of all those miracles in which the Miracle of Miracles gave a sign,' and manifested forth His glory - the glory of His Person, the glory of His Purpose, and the glory of His Work. __________________________________________________________________