John 2:18-25

After Jesus had cleared out the outer court of the temple, the Jewish leaders demanded to know by what authority he had done such a thing. In fact, they asked for a miracle to prove his credentials:

Then the Jews demanded of him, “What miraculous sign can you show us to prove your authority to do all this?”


Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days.”


The Jews replied, “It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and you are going to raise it in three days?” But the temple he had spoken of was his body. After he was raised from the dead, his disciples recalled what he had said. Then they believed the Scripture and the words that Jesus had spoken. (John 2:18-22)

Jon Courson points out that they did not ask why He had turned over the tables and taken a whip to the money changers. Apparently they knew the place was corrupt - they just wanted to know who had given Him the authority to do it!! That cracks me up! So often when someone points out our sin, we don’t deny it, but rather we will want to know who gave that person the right to judge us! Forget that there is a problem - what gives them the right to point it out???

It looks like Jesus isn’t answering their question directly when he responds, but truly, when He says, “Destroy this temple and I will raise it up again in three days,” He is declaring His authority. He is the One with the resurrection power. Verse 22 tells us that after the resurrection, the disciples remembered that Jesus had made this claim and they believed.

The Jewish leaders completely misunderstood and looked at Him like He was crazy. It had taken Herod 46 years to construct this temple. Who was this man who thought he could build in it three days?

The last verses in this chapter show that Jesus did, indeed, display His authority:

Now while he was in Jerusalem at the Passover Feast, many people saw the miraculous signs he was doing and believed in his name. But Jesus would not entrust himself to them, for he knew all men. He did not need man’s testimony about man, for he knew what was in a man. (vs. 23-25)

Even though many believed in Jesus because of these signs, He did not commit Himself to them. He knew their hearts and knew that they wanted His miracles, but they did not really want Him. Their “faith” was based on seeing these signs. Sometimes we can be like that. We’ll believe as long as He keeps answering our prayers in the way we expect and in our timeline. The minute things get tough we figure He has deserted us. That is why our faith needs to be based on the truth of His Word, and the assurance that He keeps His promises and loves us, even when things are tough and we are facing trials and persecutions.

While the people only sought what He could do for them, in the next chapter, we will meet someone who wanted to know more. Stay tuned!

 

John 2:12-17

After this he went down to Capernaum with his mother and brothers and his disciples. There they stayed for a few days.


When it was almost time for the Jewish Passover, Jesus went up to Jerusalem. In the temple courts he found men selling cattle, sheep and doves, and others sitting at tables exchanging money. So he made a whip out of cords, and drove all from the temple area, both sheep and cattle; he scattered the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. To those who sold doves he said, “Get these out of here! How dare you turn my Father’s house into a market!”


His disciples remembered that it is written: “Zeal for your house will consume me.” (John 2:12-17)

What a contrast in scenes in this chapter! In Cana we saw a very quiet Jesus unobtrusively performing his first miracle at a celebration. Then, in this next scene in Jerusalem, Jesus went on a rampage, overturning tables and using a whip to clear the temple court of money changers who were ripping off the people. The disciples must have been alarmed to see this other side of the Gentle Carpenter! But the reality is that while God is surely a God of love, He is also holy, holy, holy. And His holiness requires righteous judgment.

How offended Jesus must have been to see these men hawking animals for sacrifice in the very place where His Father should have been honored and glorified. The temple had four courts, and the outer court, where these money changers did their business, was the court of the Gentiles. This was the only place Gentiles were allowed. It was a place where they should have been drawn to God. This was where they should have witnessed the glory and power of Jehovah God. Instead, it had become a corrupt marketplace, where money changers would defraud those who had come to offer sacrifices to God. Worshippers would be told that the animals that they had brought were blemished and not good enough to offer for sin. So they were forced to buy the animals from these merchants.

Courson says that up to this point we have only seen Jesus as the Lamb of God, but in this scene He shows Himself as the Lion of Judah! When we turn to Christ, He is going to cleanse our temples as well. Whatever is offensive to His Holiness must go! He will not be satisfied until He has overturned every area in our lives that is held by sin. What would He find in our temples? Would He want to overturn our TV viewing habits? Would He take a whip to our tongues that wag in gossip? Would He scatter our pride, our tempers, our bitterness, the grudges we are keeping? And what kind of witness are we displaying in our outer courts? Do those who don’t know God feel drawn to Him or shocked by what they see in us?

As we cluck our tongues in disgust over the money changers, let’s remember that we are the temple of God. His Holy Spirit lives in us! What about our own temples needs to be cleansed? The good news is that Jesus is just the One to cleanse us!  "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us ours sins and purify us from all unrighteousness."  (1 John 1:9)  PHEW!


 

John 2:1-11

Today we come to chapter 2 and witness the first miracle of Jesus: changing water into wine at the wedding at Cana. There is so much to just this little passage! And, once again, I’m grateful to Jon Courson for pointing out some things that I have missed! This wedding took place only three days after his baptism by John according to the first verse:

On the third day a wedding took place at Cana in Galilee. Jesus’ mother was there, and Jesus and his disciples had also been invited to the wedding. When the wine was gone, Jesus’ mother said to him, “They have no more wine.”


“Dear woman, why do you involve me?” Jesus replied. “My time has not yet come.” (John 2:1-4)

As Mary saw that the host had run out of wine, she turned to Jesus. Jon Courson asks us to think about the possibility that Mary was maybe thinking more about just filling a need for wine when she made this request of Jesus, because Jesus actually gives her a mild rebuke. When he says, “Dear woman...” the term for Greek word used for woman here is gune, which is a term of respect but not warmth. The King James Version translation makes the rebuke a little more apparent: Jesus saith unto her, Woman, what have I to do with thee? mine hour is not yet come.

Courson speculates that Mary may have wanted Jesus to finally show Himself to the world as the Messiah, because, for more than thirty years, she had been living with the tarnished reputation of being pregnant before she was officially married to Joseph. She wanted people to know what she knew so that she might be vindicated. Jesus told her that His hour had not yet come. In other words, He would not fully glorify the Father until his death, resurrection, and ascension.

Undeterred, even though rebuked, Mary turns to the servants, and, in her last recorded words in scripture, she tells the servants to obey Jesus. She did not act as a mediator between Jesus and the servants, but sent them directly to Him. Jesus did not exalt Mary at any time. He loved her and cared for her (giving her into John’s care at the cross), but she did not receive special treatment. In Luke 8:21, when He was told His mothers and brothers wanted to see Him, His response was, “My mother and brothers are those who hear God’s word and put it into practice.” 

Later, in Acts 1, when the disciples are all in the Upper Room praying, Mary is not a leader at the meeting, nor is she given any special recognition. She is just one of the disciples mentioned along with the others. Now, that is not to say that Mary is not a most special woman, because of ALL women in history, SHE was the one chosen to be the mother of Jesus. I can’t wait to meet her one day! But I think Mary knew that her job was not to be glorified, but to also glorify her Savior, even as that is also our job.

The behavior of the servants is amazing and has lessons for us.

Nearby stood six stone water jars, the kind used by the Jews for ceremonial washing, each holding from twenty to thirty gallons.


Jesus said to the servants, “Fill the jars with water”; so they filled them to the brim.


Then he told them, “Now draw some out and take it to the master of the banquet.”


They did so, and the master of the banquet tasted the water that had been turned into wine. He did not realize where it had come from, though the servants who had drawn the water knew. Then he called the bridegroom aside and said, “Everyone brings out the choice wine first and then the cheaper wine after the guests have had too much to drink; but you have saved the best till now.” (vs. 6-10)

Jesus did not tell the servants, nor did they ask, what the plan was ahead of time. Jesus gave them directions one step at a time, and that’s how they obeyed Him. He told them to fill the jars with water - and they filled them to the brim! He then told them to take some to the master of the banquet, and they did. Only then, when the master reacted, did they understand what Jesus had done. Courson writes, “Too often I want to know what steps two through five are going to be before I follow step one.” Oh my goodness! Isn’t that our way??? But like the servants, we are just to trust and obey at each step, one step at a time. The result of their obedience was that they got to be part of an exciting work of God. They knew something that the master of the banquet did not know about that wine: Jesus had performed a miracle!

Oh, that we would have the patience and faithfulness of these servants to participate in what God is doing by just faithfully obeying one step at a time! Great stuff, eh?