And so it happened that Jesus became more and more estranged from Nazareth.  Only poor folk and little children were attracted to him:  he cheered the former and played with the latter.  But otherwise men drew apart from him, considering him an eccentric creature and perhaps a little dangerous.  His mother sometimes tried to defend him:  he had grown up in a foreign land among strange customs and ways of thought.  At bottom he had the best of natures, so kind and helpful to others and so severe towards himself.  How like a mother!  What mother has not had the best of children?  They despised her remarks and pitied her because her son was so unlike other boys and caused her anxiety.  There was nothing to complain of in his work when he stuck to it.  What a carpenter he might be with such aptness!  Only he should not interfere in things he could not understand, and should not disturb people’s belief in the religion of their fathers.

One day there was a marriage in the neighbouring town of Cana.  Mary and her relatives were invited, for the bridegroom was a distant cousin.  So far as Jesus was concerned, there would have been no great grief had he stayed away.  Possibly he would not take any pleasure in the old marriage customs and the traditions to which they still held.  Jesus understood the irony, but it did not hurt him, and so he went to the marriage in order to rejoice with the joyful.  When the merriment was at its height, Mary drew her son aside and said:  “I think it would be well if we went home now; we are not regarded with favour here.  They would be glad of fewer guests, for I hear the wine has given out.”

“What matters it to me if there’s no more wine,” answered Jesus, almost roughly.  “I do not want any.”

“But the other guests do.  The host is greatly embarrassed.  I wish someone could help him.”

“If they are thirsty, have the water jugs brought in,” he said.  “If the drinker has faith in his God then the water will be wine.  He will be well content.”

The host, in fact, saw no other way of satisfying his guests’ thirst than in ordering large stone pitchers of water to be brought in from the well.  He was vastly amazed when the guests found it delicious, and praised the wine that had just been poured out for them.  “Usually,” they said, “the host produces his best wine first, and when the carousers have drunk freely, he brings in worse.  Our good host thinks differently, and to the best food adds the best wine.”

But Jesus and his relations saw how the pitchers were filled at the well, and when they tasted their contents, some declared that things could not be all right here.  Jesus himself drank, and saw that it was wine.  Much moved, he went out into the starry night.  “Oh, Father!” he said in his heart, “what dost thou intend with regard to this son of man?  If it is thy will that water shall be turned into wine, it may then be possible to pour new wine into the old skins, the spirit and strength of God into the dead letter!”