John 2:3

‘And when the wine failed, the mother of Jesus says to him, ‘They have no wine.'

We do not know at what point the wine failed, whether at the marriage feast or in the later festivities, but either way it was a shameful thing for the families concerned. They could have suffered reproach for many years to come. So, when the wine began to run out it would be seen as a catastrophe. It would signify that the poverty stricken families had been unable to live up to requirements. Thus when Jesus' mother learned what had happened, she would realise immediately what it would mean for the families and her thoughts thus turned immediately to her eldest son Jesus, and she went to Him and indicated to Him that ‘they have no wine'.

The fact that the wine did run out would suggest that the family concerned were very poor and had not been able to fund the wedding fully (the ‘servants' may well have been volunteers), but it would make their shame clear to all. If their means were very limited this could easily happen as the feasting during a wedding was not restricted to close relatives, and there would be many friends and acquaintances there, not to mention strangers taking advantage of what was on offer. Outwardly this is just Mary consulting Jesus about whether anything can be done. But to John, and possibly to Jesus at the time, the words are more poignant. John sees it as a picture of the world. The world indeed has religious ceremony galore, but it lacks that which floods the heart with joy, it lacks the wine that satisfies (Isaiah 55:1). The world too ‘has no wine'.

The lack of mention of Joseph, who would normally have attended such an affair, and the fact that Mary turned to Jesus as ‘the head of the family', suggests that Joseph was dead.