Bible Quandary

I'm reading through the Reese Chronological Bible right now and I've moved into the New Testament. As I was reading in John 2, I noticed something that caught my eye.

It's the old water-into-wine miracle, but actually reading it brought something new to me. Let's pick it up in verse three.

3 When the wine was gone, Jesus' mother said to him, "They have no more wine." 4 "Dear woman, why do you involve me?" Jesus replied. "My time has not yet come." 5 His mother said to the servants, "Do whatever he tells you." 7 Jesus said to the servants, "Fill the jars with water"...8 Then he told them, "Now draw some out and take it to the master of the banquet."

My question lies in between verses 4 and 7. Jesus told Mary that it wasn't his time in verse 4, but three verses later he was performing the miracle. You'll notice that Mary never gives Jesus a command to obey. She makes a statement about there being no more wine, obviously implying that He needs to do something. Then she instructs the servants to do what He tells them to do.

Since Jesus could not sin and go against His Father's will, I can only assume that the Father gave Him permission during this time. Jesus couldn't do this to placate His mother, because that would be a wrong motive; He obviously even then would have wanted His mother to be brought to full maturity, and giving her what she wanted wouldn't achieve that objective.

I guess a clue may lie in verse 11b: "He thus revealed his glory, and his disciples put their faith in him." Maybe He knew what was coming afterward when He cleared the temple. Putting myself in their shoes, I wouldn't want the religious leaders ticked at me, which, by identifying themselves as His disciples, could only bring about the same ridicule that He endured. So possibly they needed this event to not only put their faith in Him, but to steel them for the persecution to follow.

Since He came to save that which was lost, the Father probably wanted the servants to see it, too. The servants should have been Gentiles, since it was not right for Jews to hold their brothers in slavery. Those servants most assuredly would've told their families about this miracle and his renown would've spread through their communities as well.

Also, since Jesus is the bridegroom, it would be appropriate for Him to show Himself at a wedding. The master noted that while most people serve the cheap wine after people are drunk, this wine tasted better. Is this a metaphor for the Messiah being better than the Law & Prophets? Because the Law was good since it pointed to the Christ, but He came to fulfill the Law.

This passage has been ruminating in my head the past four days. There are so many different things that could be going on in just these eleven verses. Am I over-thinking it? If you have thoughts, please feel free to leave me a comment and we can discuss.

Thanks,

R