Daily Meditations on the Bible / We stand with Israel
John 2: 23
“Now while he was in Jerusalem at the Passover Festival, many people saw the signs he was performing and believed in his name.”
Let’s take a second look at this verse. It states that people saw the signs Jesus performed and “believed in his name.” As we have seen just in the first two chapters of John’s gospel, Jesus is referred to by many names.
Q: What does it mean to you to believe in his name?
John 2: 23
“Now while he was in Jerusalem at the Passover Festival, many people saw the signs he was performing and believed in his name.”
To have been alive in the days that Jesus walked the earth would be both amazing and confusing. What Jesus said and did was being praised by sinners and at the same time decried by the religious authorities. Who would you believe? Then, to see Jesus stand up to the authorities, cast out demons, or raise the dead; who would you believe?
Q: What sign comes to mind when you think of Jesus?
John 2: 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.”
John fast forwards the narrative ahead three years for a moment to a time after Jesus had been raised from the dead. The disciples remember what Jesus had said about the temple, “Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days.”
Q: What scripture is John referring to that might have referred to the words Jesus had spoken?
John 2: 20-21
“They 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.”
The temple had always been the focal point of Jewish worship. Originally, at God’s instruction, the Israelites built a mobile temple they called a tabernacle. Then, in the time of Solomon, God allowed a stationary structure to be built; the First Temple. This temple was destroyed when the remainder of Israel was sent into exile for 70 years. The second temple was constructed about five centuries before the birth of Jesus and “rebuilt” by Herod beginning about 20 years before Jesus was born. The “forty-six years” mentioned to this passage refers to what was known as “Herod’s Temple” because Herod financed the project.
The Glory of God had been seen in the First Temple (1 Kings 6, 8), but not in the second. Not until Jesus arrived did the Temple see the Spirit of God again.
Q: If Jesus’ body was the new temple of God, what was in the temple that Herod had built?
John 2: 19
“Jesus answered them, ‘Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days.’”
The setting for this verse is this: Jesus and the Jews are standing in the courtyard of the Temple. Jesus has just finished clearing out all of the merchants and money traders who had taken to doing business that should have been done outside of the Temple inside of the Temple courts. The Jews demand a “sign” that would “prove” Jesus had the authority to do what he had done. Jesus responds with the words in today’s verse, “Destroy this temple…” John explains in verse 21 what Jesus meant, but the question remains:
Q: Why did Jesus choose to be so obscure in what he said?
John 2: 17
“The Jews then responded to him, ‘What sign can you show us to prove your authority to do all this?’”
After clearing the temple courts (a huge job, physically), using a whip to drive the animals out, and physically overturning table after money changing table, Jesus must be sweating and breathing hard. Looking over the now near empty courtyards his zeal abates, satisfied for the moment that his Father’s house has been purged of the marketplace. Turning, he sees an envoy of Jews approaching. They had not seen anything wrong with doing a little business in the temple courts so they approach the sweating carpenter while he is still catching his breath and demand a “sign” that will prove he has a right to do what he did.
Q: What kind of sign might the Jews have been expecting in this situation?
Bonus Question: What does it say about the mindset of the Jews in Jesus day, or their subconscious view of Jesus, that they would even think to ask for a “sign?”
John 2: 17
“His disciples remembered that it is written: ‘Zeal for your house will consume me.’”
The zeal described in this verse is like a fire, it “consumed” Jesus. Clearly it was a holy zeal. Obviously it was a God-honoring zeal. Of all the word pictures of Jesus that we see in Scripture, this one is unique. This Jesus is a man of action, a man intent on making a point, one who is driven by an unrelenting sense of righteousness.
Q: What do you have zeal for?
John 2: 15-16
“So he made a whip out of cords, and drove all from the temple courts, 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! Stop turning my Father’s house into a market!”
This is not the typical picture of Jesus that we see in the children’s Bibles! No little lambs here. No smiling Jesus. This is Jesus unleashed. And yet, there is a sense of waiting, too. Jesus doesn’t just run into the temple courts yelling and turning over tables. He stops to find some cords and then weaves them into a whip. Only after doing this does he very purposefully clear the temple courts.
Q: If God himself had appeared at the Temple as he did before the Israelites in the days of Moses, what would have been the outcome based on Jesus’ reaction to what was going on in the temple?
John 2: 13-14
“When it was almost time for the Jewish Passover, Jesus went up to Jerusalem. In the temple courts he found people selling cattle, sheep and doves, and others sitting at tables exchanging money.”
Jesus is not a stranger to the temple in Jerusalem when he goes there. He had been to the temple for Passover before. Luke 2:41 says that “Every year Jesus’ parents went to Jerusalem for the Festival of the Passover.” Something was different this year. Jesus is no longer primarily responsible for his earthly family. His “hour” has come to devote himself fully to his father’s will.
Q: What do you suppose was going through his mind as Jesus look out over the large courtyards of the temple and saw people engaged in buying and selling everywhere?
John 2: 12
“After this he went down to Capernaum with his mother and brothers and his disciples. There they stayed for a few days.”
This single verse paints a picture of Jesus as he transitions from head of household to head of a theological revolution. As the eldest, after his father passed on, he became head of the household taking on the responsibility for his mother’s welfare making the family’s decisions. As a Rabbi with disciples, he takes on the role of prophet, one responsible for conveying God’s word to oftentimes unwilling listeners. In this verse we see both roles in play. Jesus has officially started his ministry with the miracle of changing water to wine, and yet his family still travels with him.
Q: What do you suppose the conversation might have been like between Jesus’ disciples and his family members while they were staying in Capernaum?