Quote for the Day
“Then they believed…”
Today's Prayer
This week surrender your relationship to Jesus, ask Him to fully control all you are and desire.
John 2:12-25
John 2:12-25 (NIV)12 After this he went down to with his mother and brothers and his disciples. There they stayed for a few days.13 When it was almost time for the Jewish Passover, Jesus went up to . 14 In the temple courts he found men selling cattle, sheep and doves, and others sitting at tables exchanging money. 15 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. 16 To those who sold doves he said, “Get these out of here! How dare you turn my Father’s house into a market!”17 His disciples remembered that it is written: “Zeal for your house will consume me.”18 Then the Jews demanded of him, “What miraculous sign can you show us to prove your authority to do all this?”19 Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days.”20 The Jews replied, “It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and you are going to raise it in three days?” 21 But the temple he had spoken of was his body. 22 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.23 Now while he was in at the Passover Feast, many people saw the miraculous signs he was doing and believed in his name. 24 But Jesus would not entrust himself to them, for he knew all men. 25 He did not need man’s testimony about man, for he knew what was in a man.
Message
In just a few days the narrative goes from turning water into wine to chasing the money changers and merchants from the temple. Many have used this passage to discuss righteous anger, others to show the confrontation between Christ and the Pharisees, drawing conclusions about the meaning and intention of rebuilding the temple in three days. While it seems clear that this is a reference to the resurrection of Christ, it also seems to me that rebuilding the temple would be a very simple task for someone who actually created the Universe, much like turning water into wine.However I would like to consider two other items in this passage. First it seems very peculiar that the actions of Christ only produced a mild request by the temple leaders asking Him to prove His authority in the matter of clearing the temple. I wonder why the Jewish leadership did not arrest Him then and there and accuse Him of capital crimes. This was their temple, under their rules and their control! This would have avoided a lot of future problems for the leaders. I suppose it was too early in His career to give Him much credit, and they simply treated Him as a nuisance. More of these encounters would soon change their attitude.The second item that piques my interest begins earlier in the chapter where we see how the existing relationship between Jesus and the disciples was strengthened by the miracle of the water to wine. Here we see people believing in Jesus BECAUSE of the miracles He was performing (and His standing up to the religious authorities). These people believed BECAUSE of the miracle not because they had or desired a relationship with Jesus. They saw something that would save them from their slavery to the Romans and the Jewish leaders, not someone who held their very soul in His hands. Jesus was not inclined to defend Himself to these believers or to the authorities. He knew that the Father alone needed to be obeyed and never defended.I believe God saves all those who call on Him, and all who call on Him call for very different reasons. I am seeing more and more though, that for those who call on Him because they desire a relationship, He responds with a real relationship, a relationship that gives more than simply salvation or eternal life. He gives them a relationship with the Creator of the Universe, one that pales in comparison to all other relationships and even to life itself.