Josh Benner

Category: Faith

  • Destroy this temple, and in 3 days, I will raise it up. John 2:18-25

    Destroy this temple, and in 3 days, I will raise it up. John 2:18-25

    Summary John 2:13-25: As Jesus begins his ministry, he cleanses the temple in Jerusalem. In the first century, the temple had become a commerce center during Jewish holy days and so Jesus will drive the merchants out from the temple in verses 13-17. In verses 18-22, we see the response to Jesus

    John 2:18: So the Jews said to him, “What sign do you show us for doing these things?”

    That is not an inherently absurd question. Jesus is driving people out of the temple, and so they want to know how his actions are justified. It seems like they expected some grand miracle. 

    Instead, Jesus tells them of a future sign which he will perform. 

    Verse 19:  Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” 

    Jesus says that’s the sign he can do. 

    20 The Jews then said, “It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and will you raise it up in three days?”

    The religious authorities look to how long it’s taken to build the temple and it therefore seems absurd that Jesus could possibly raise it in three days.

    They miss the point. 

    Rebuilding the temple

    At the time of Jesus, the temple in Jerusalem was actually still under construction. I always thought it was complete and when they talk about 46 years,  they’re referring to how long it took to complete the work. 

    Incorrect. 

    Little bit of history. 

    The Jewish people built a temple during the reign of Solomon. That’s the first temple. It was destroyed in 586 B.C. when Jerusalem was conquered by the Babylonians. 

    About a century later, reconstruction began of the second temple. That temple was pretty modest, and it saw a major renovation which began around the year 19 B.C.

    In other words, the major renovation BEGAN about 46 years before Jesus cleanses the temple here in John 2. 

    By the time of Jesus, they’re saying that construction had been under way for 46 years. 

    Construction would not be complete until 63 A.D. which was some 35 years after the time of Jesus. 

    I point that out because 46 years is a long time. But the actual temple renovation took more like 80 years. 

    And if it sounded absurd that someone could rebuild in just three days what had taken 46 years, imagine it from their perspective in the first century as they looked at a temple that was still being renovated. And someone saying he could build that in three days. 

    The authorities don’t challenge Jesus’ claim. But Jesus isn’t referring to the building anyway. 

    John makes that explicitly clear in the next verses. 

    Verses 21-22:

    21 But he was speaking about the temple of his body. 22 When therefore he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this, and they believed the Scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken. 

    Jesus is the temple and he’s referring to his death and resurrection. 

    Jesus died and rose on the third day.

    Jesus is the true temple

    The significance of the temple in the Bible is that the temple is the place where God is with his people. 

    That’s why the temple was so important in the Old Testament. 

    When Jesus says “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up” (John 2:19, yes, it’s referring to his death and resurrection. But it is also pointing to Jesus as the greater temple. 

    The temple was just a building. Merchants could encroach upon the holiness of the temple. But in Jesus, we have an incorruptible temple, an incorruptible savior through whom we are brought into the presence of the Lord. 

    And we are again reminded of that death that Jesus would die for sin. 

    In chapter 1, we see Jesus called the Lamb of God (John 1:29), referring to his sacrificial death. In John 2:4, Jesus pointed forward to his crucifixion. 

    This book is constantly pointing to his death. 

    Eight full chapters of John are dedicated to the final week of Jesus’ life. 

    Why so much about his death?

    Abraham Lincoln’s two secretaries John Hay and John Nicolay wrote an expansive biography about our 16th president. It’s 5,000 pages and they talk about his death on just 20 of those pages. 

    Between the four gospels, roughly one third to one half of the books are devoted to Jesus’ death. 

    Why? Why is there this constant focus on his death? Because it is the only way to redemption. It is the only way to God. It is the only way to forgiveness. It is the only way to heaven. 

    There’s no other way than through the presence of God on earth who was torn down and raised back up three days later. 

    Jesus cleanses the temple but in cleansing the temple, it points to himself as the temple who does not need cleansed. 

    The temple was always meant to point to Jesus. 

    In the Old Testament, you have all of these exact specifications for the temple, and its precursor, the tabernacle. You have dramatic Old Testament texts which talk of the presence of God filling the temple. You have Israel who continues to fall into sin and idolatry, in spite of warnings from God’s prophets. Eventually they’re conquered, they’re exiled, they lose the land, the temple is destroyed.

    They would later be freed from exile and given the command to rebuild the temple. 

    But all of that is pointing forward to the true temple. 

    In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. It was the unmitigated presence of God. And humanity sinned. Paradise was lost. 

    God gave the law through Moses. Humanity continued to sin and God continued to be faithful. 

    The temple was built and sin continued. The temple was lost. 

    And on the grounds of a new temple, we again see sin. We see people dishonoring a holy place. 

    Left to our own devices, we’ll continue to lose the temple, to squander God’s grace because we’re sinful. 

    But instead of having a building which represents the presence of God, we’re given a person. 

    Jesus Christ, the eternal God of creation himself becomes the temple. We are welcomed back into the garden because Jesus left heaven. We are welcomed into the presence of God because Jesus was forsaken. We are invited into the presence of God because Jesus is the true temple.

    We are given grace which cannot be lost because it was bought by a savior who does not sin. 

    The Word became flesh and dwelt among us (John 1:14). 

    Jesus came to be with us so that we could be with him. 

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  • Cleansing the temple. Studying John 2:13-17

    Cleansing the temple. Studying John 2:13-17

    Passover in the first century 

    In Jesus’ day, at Passover, it was a time of year when Jewish people from all over the Roman world would come to Jerusalem to observe this sacred holiday. 

    Imagine that you’re a Jewish person in the first century and you’ve gone to the temple for Passover. It’s not a temple. It’s THE temple. 

    And then you see a man you’ve never seen before. You don’t know who he is. Maybe you can’t even hear his words, but he has some sort of whip that he’s made and he’s driving the merchants away from the Temple. He’s driving the oxen and the sheep away from the temple. 

    Jesus in the Temple

    John 2:13:

    The Passover of the Jews was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. 

    The opening of this passage ties the story to a time of year. It’s Passover. Passover is an annual Jewish holiday which celebrates the Jews being freed from Egyptian slavery at the beginning of the Exodus. It would also be at the time of Passover when Jesus was crucified. 

    At this time, Passover was celebrated in Jerusalem. Jerusalem was, and is, a monumentally important city. It had been the capital city of God’s Promised Land during the Israelite Kingdom. 

    And Jesus goes to the Temple. 

    Throughout this Gospel of John, the apostle makes several references to various Jewish holidays. And he frequently makes references to Passover. We see it here in chapter 2 as well as John mentioning Jesus being part of the Passover festivities in chapters 6 and 11. 

    John is referring to different years. 

    John tells us what Jesus sees. Verse 14: In the temple he found those who were selling oxen and sheep and pigeons, and the money-changers sitting there. 

    As I mentioned, Jewish people would have come from great distances to celebrate Passover. And part of Passover involved making various animal sacrifices. 

    The sacrifices had to be animals that were healthy, without blemish, without defect. But if you were traveling from a great distance, tending to an animals and keeping them unharmed and healthy as you journeyed could be a pretty daunting task. 

    So what many would actually do was buy an animal at the temple. 

    Defiling the temple

    So that’s the first group. People who are selling the livestock. 

    The text also refers to money changers at the temple. What that’s referring to is that when people would give money to the temple, it had to be the appropriate currency and so they could exchange their coins for the appropriate coins which would be used in Jerusalem…for a fee, of course. 

    So between people selling livestock, and money-changers, the Temple grounds became an area of commerce at Passover. 

    That’s a problem. 

    Verse 15-16: 

    And making a whip of cords, he drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and oxen. And he poured out the coins of the money-changers and overturned their tables. And he told those who sold the pigeons, “Take these things away; do not make my Father’s house a house of trade.”

    So Jesus drives the merchants out of the Temple. 

    When is the temple cleansed?

    One other thing which should be noted. While we’re at the beginning of the ministry of Jesus and he’s clearing out the temple. 

    In the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke, we see Jesus clearing out the temple, cleansing the temple at the end of his ministry. 

    In Mark and Luke, Jesus’ cleansing the temple actually precipitates the religious authorities seeking to have him crucified. 

    At the end of the temple cleansing in Luke 19, it says:

    And he was teaching daily in the temple. The chief priests and the scribes and the principal men of the people were seeking to destroy him (Luke 19:47).

    Why is the story found at two different times? 

    Some scholars have argued that John moved the story up because he’s more concerned with themes than chronology and that he did this for theological reasons. 

    I think there’s a simpler solution. 

    I believe Jesus cleansed the temple on two different occasions. Jesus does it here in John 2 at the beginning of his ministry. Then he does it again a couple years later and it is that later event which is recorded in the other gospels. 

    If you compare the story in John to the story in the other gospels, the things Jesus says are different, the sins Jesus is exposing are different. John did not move up an event. He is describing an entirely different event from the other gospels.  

    Once again, John’s Gospel ends by saying that Jesus did more than could ever be recorded (John 21:25). It’s certainly possible that Jesus cleansed the temple more than once. 

    To say that John just moved the story up overlooks that John actually focuses a lot on timing.

    Do not make my father’s house a house of trade

    Jesus drives the people out and he says: “do not make my Father’s house a house of trade” (John 2:16). 

    The merchants are taking a sacred space and commercializing it. Jesus has righteous indignation at what they’re doing. It’s not that selling livestock or charging a fee to exchange currency are inherently bad things in themselves. 

    But it’s the misuse of the temple property that is an offense to Jesus. 

    Undermining the sacred 

    As a society, we often overlook the sacredness of life and institutions. 

    Marriage is sacred but nearly half of them end in divorce. Our world doesn’t treat it as sacred, set apart, and from the Lord. 

    Life is sacred. But in America, nearly a million babies are aborted every single year. More and more states are legalizing euthanasia for people who are terminally ill. In European countries who allow euthanasia, there’s an increasing push to allow euthanasia for young, able bodied people who suffer from depression. That’s not meant to criticize people who have depression, but to criticize a society who would give justification and legal legitimacy to a person opting to end their own life. Life is sacred. 

    The name of the Lord is sacred, but people throw that around and curse by it. We must have reverence for God. 

    And that’s one of the mistakes that cultural Christianity makes. We make God someone we casually approach. We couldn’t approach him at all but for the work of Christ. We were so unholy, so unworthy that it took Jesus’ death to make us worthy. 

    And for that, let us praise the Lord. 

    But may we not lose sight of the holiness of God because Jesus brings redemption. Let the work that he has done, the price that he has paid, the grace that he extends further deepen our appreciation and reverence for God’s sacred character and righteousness. 

    You can never have too high a view for the holiness and sacredness of God. Jesus is at the temple and they’ve turned it into a marketplace. 

    While churches might not do that specific thing, there are still many things which American churches do which totally undermines the sense of reverence which we should have for the bride of Christ. 

    Churches often pander to the culture to try to get people in the doors. 

    I recently asked members in a theological Facebook group of the most ridiculous gimmicks they’ve seen churches resort to. 

    One church did a guns and Jesus study where they had a brief devotional and then went shooting. 

    One church turned their sanctuary into a haunted house for halloween. 

    A pastor did an advent series where he wore a different costume every week including a Frosty the Snowman one week, Buddy from Elf another week, etc. 

    One church did a several weeks long sermon series on the Tim McGraw song “live like you were dyin.”

    There are pastors who have ridden into worship on motorcycles, hoverboards, and segways. 

    There are churches which do raffles and giveaways to get people to go. Some churches have even given cars away. 

    The list goes on and on and on. 

    None of those things would be so bad on its own, outside the context of worship and church. 

    But it’s when you feel that preaching the gospel, and teaching the Word of God isn’t enough and needs your own creativity than there’s a problem. 

    In 1 Corinthians 2:1-2, Paul says:

    when I came to you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom. 2 For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.

    Our society says “to each their own,” “live and let live,” “follow your truth,” “whatever makes you happy,” “whatever floats your boat,.”

    All of those communicate a general apathy for the world around us. 

    As Christians, we are not called to apathy. Now we can’t change what everyone does or thinks. But let us not fall into the trap of becoming apathetic to the things which are sacred. 

    Verse 17 says: 

    His disciples remembered that it was written, “Zeal for your house will consume me.”

    That phrase is taken from Psalm 69 which is a Psalm David wrote. 

    Psalm 69 is a lament of the injustices and difficulties of life and of following the Lord. Several verses in that Psalm apply to Jesus and to the church. 

    But in this place, there’s one verse in particular which would be remem

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  • Water into wine and the glory of Christ. Studying John 2:11

    Water into wine and the glory of Christ. Studying John 2:11

    In a previous post, I covered the story in John 2 of Jesus turning water into wine at a wedding feast. In this post, I’ll look at the conclusion at that story which discusses the significance of that event. 

    “This, the first of his signs, Jesus did at Cana in Galilee, and manifested his glory. And his disciples believed in him.” 

    Jesus manifested his glory. He displayed his glory. 

    In this passage, John uses the word sign instead of miracle. A sign is miraculous but it’s also meant to point to a greater meaning and purpose for why it’s being done. The Gospel of John actually records fewer miracles than any of the other gospels. For the most part, the signs in John’s gospel escalate in magnitude throughout this book. 

    He starts with turning water into wine. It escalates to healing people. That escalates to Jesus feeding multitudes and calming storms. The last miracle which Jesus does before his crucifixion is when he raises Lazarus from the dead in chapter 11. 

    But this is the first sign. 

    Something else that’s important to understand. I keep talking about different things that Mary, or John the Baptist, or the disciples probably would not have understood at the time. I talk about the theological significance of this event in beginning to show Jesus as a replacement of the Old covenant, of the Mosaic Covenant but the disciples who witnessed this miracle likely would not have understood that. 

    I don’t want to make it seem as though this event would have been insignificant to the disciples.

    The text tells us that this sign manifested the glory of Christ to his disciples. This was a game changer. In seeing Jesus do this, it led the disciples to belief in him. So two major things happen in connection with this sign. We see it as a sign pointing to Jesus’ work of replacing the Old Covenant with a New Covenant, and it was a display of his glory. 

    Both of those are important. 

    For the disciples, it would have been far more impressive to them to have been there, and saw the water, and tasted the wine, than it is to us to read about it. It was an amazing thing that Jesus did. 

    It was a glorious display of Jesus’ power. 

    Obviously mere human language doesn’t convey how truly glorious and awe inspiring these scenes would have to be. 

    Jesus’ entire ministry points us to his goodness and character, to his divinity and dominion. That he is God on earth, and that he is the Lord who takes away the penalty of our sins.

    The glory of Jesus Christ is an idea that we can take for granted. We just attach it to him. “Yes he’s glorious.” But how often do you sit down and think about that? 

    What does that word “glory” mean? To our ears, it’s a churchy word. Glory, glorious.

    The Hebrew word for glory is כָּבוֹד. Which conveys a sense of weight or heaviness, as well as importance. You don’t just casually look at God’s glory and think “oh that’s nice.” 

    It is meant to overwhelm. To cast fear into your heart at this powerful and glorious God. To realize how unworthy we are. And he makes us worthy, he gives us grace. And why? For his own glory. 

     Quoting from Psalm 29:3-4:

    3 The voice of the Lord is over the waters;

    the God of glory thunders,

    the Lord, over many waters.

    4 The voice of the Lord is powerful;

    the voice of the Lord is full of majesty.

    Are you living to bring God glory? To enjoy him? To find your identity in him? 

    Jesus revealed his glory. Turning water into wine might not even seem all that impressive compared to the other things that he did during his ministry. But that shows just how glorious the Lord is. Doing so many things throughout the gospels that such an incredible miracle could seem almost underwhelming by the end of his ministry. 

    But it wasn’t underwhelming because it was because of this that the disciples believed in Jesus. The mighty work of Christ. 

    His signs show the glory of Christ. They show why he is to be worshiped. They show that he is worthy of honor, that he is to be believed.

    Jesus turned water into wine. He changed the molecules of water and made them a different substance. 

    His miracles authenticate his identity. And the culmination is his death and resurrection. And because that happened, because his other miracles and signs happened, because he shows his power over all of life, our only acceptable response is to come to him in worship. To realize his greatness. To realize that he is Lord. To bow down before him. To trust in him and his word because of his power.

    The Lord is glorious beyond comprehension.

    And Jesus shows us that in creation. He shows that in his holiness. He shows that in his gospel. Jesus shows that in his ministry and in his power. We see the glory of God in the mighty works that he does.  

    The first miracle John records of Jesus points us to his glory. It points us to his wonder. And it points us to his hour, the hour of his death when he took the penalty of our sins for us. We, who are not holy, who are not glorious, were made holy by the glorious Lord who took our unholiness and ingloriousness upon himself. And what was his sign? 

    Turning water to wine. 

    Jesus turns water into wine. At the Last Supper, on the night before his death, Jesus takes wine and calls it the blood of the new covenant. The next day, he was crucified and it was his literal blood that was shed for sin. 

    He provided the wine for the wedding.  The wedding is significant. In Revelation 19, as the book of winds down, it talks of another wedding feast, a greater wedding feast, the marriage supper of the lamb. And at that wedding, Jesus is the groom. In our passage today, Jesus saves the wedding, but it points to the greater wedding feast and our attendance has been secured because Jesus saved humanity. 

    And it is because of the blood of that lamb, of Jesus, that he is able to sustain the great wedding feast. The groom supplies the wedding. And Jesus as the groom has provided. And that was given to you at the moment you placed your trust in him.

    That his death became your death for you because of his glory. And that no matter what you’ve done, you can be forgiven. Because God is overwhelmingly glorious.

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  • Jesus, water, and wine. Studying John 2:1-12

    Jesus, water, and wine. Studying John 2:1-12

    Summary: In John 2, Jesus and his disciples attend a wedding feast. The feast runs out of wine. Mary, the Mother of Jesus, approaches him about the situation and after saying that his time has not yet come, he performs a miraculous sign when he turns water into wine. 

    1. Conflict

    On the third day there was a wedding at Cana in Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there. 2 Jesus also was invited to the wedding with his disciples.3 When the wine ran out, the mother of Jesus said to him, “They have no wine.”

    Jesus is at a wedding feast in Cana, which is a town in Galilee. And the feast runs out of wine. This was a serious faux pas and huge social embarrassment at the time. Now the groom was responsible for the financial burden of the wedding.

    In the first century, in this region, weddings could last over a week. Many in the town would have been invited. They were huge parties. So Mary approaches Jesus, saying “they have no wine.” She seems to feel some sense of a burden to try to help out. 

    Jesus gives a seemingly abrupt response in verse 4. Jesus said to her, “Woman, what does this have to do with me? My hour has not yet come.”

    Some translations like the NIV try to soften the language by saying “Dear woman,” but what he literally says is “woman.” 

    Now if my mom had asked me for something and I said, “woman,” I would have gotten backhanded. But it’s a different culture than our culture, and this should not be taken as a sign of disrespect. 

    Towards the end of this gospel, when Jesus is on the cross, he entrusts the care of Mary to the Apostle John and he again uses the same word.  

    John 19:26: 

     When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to his mother, “Woman, behold, your son!”

    So while it may sound odd to our ears and language, Jesus is not disrespecting Mary. 

    The hour

    Back in our passage, Jesus asks “what does this have to do with me? My hour has not yet come.” 

    Throughout John, Jesus refers to his hour, and the hour is referring to the time of his death.

    To give just one example. John 17:1, Jesus is praying shortly before his arrest:

    “Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you,

    In Verse 5, after Jesus gives his response to Mary, Mary is undeterred. There’s no offense in what he’s said. 

    His mother said to the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.” 

    As I said a few moments ago, we don’t know exactly what she expected. 

    We all face situations where we have to trust in Jesus and where we don’t know exactly how he will work things out, but we have to trust him, nevertheless. 

    We have situations with our health, where we don’t know how things will work out. But we have to trust in Jesus. We have situations in our hearts where we struggle with brokenness, despair, depression, but where we must turn to Jesus, even when we may be tempted to think that even he can do nothing. We have situations in relationships where there is so much brokenness and damage that all hope seems lost, but we must turn to Jesus, and depend on Jesus, and lean on Jesus. 

    He says to Mary my hour has not yet come.

    It’s the beginning of his ministry. Everything Jesus does is building up to the crucifixion. 

    That’s the purpose of his ministry. His hour. His death for a sinful humanity. And part of that seems to also be captured in Jesus’ response to Mary. 

    This story is showing that Jesus operates based on the will of God, not of Mary. He is not here at the whims of man or of the world. He is here for the divine mission and the divine mission. 

    2. Resolution 

    The text tells us in verse 6 

     Now there were six stone water jars there for the Jewish rites of purification, each holding twenty or thirty gallons.

    So they find six stone water jars. Not just any jars, but jars that were used for Jewish rites of purification. At this wedding feast, water would be poured out onto the hands of the Jews for washing before they ate. Jesus tells them to take these jars of water and to fill them up. Six jars, 20-30 gallons. Upwards of 180 gallons, or by modern standards, roughly 900 bottles of wine or 150 boxes of Franzia. 

    And Jesus instructs the servants: 

    “Fill the jars with water.” And they filled them up to the brim.

    Verse 8: And he said to them, “Now draw some out and take it to the master of the feast.” So they took it.

    Now the story doesn’t explain the process by which Jesus turned the water into wine. We just see the result. 

    Verse 9: When the master of the feast tasted the water now become wine, and did not know where it came from (though the servants who had drawn the water knew),

    So the servants were aware that Jesus had made the wine. 

    “the master of the feast called the bridegroom10 and said to him, “Everyone serves the good wine first, and when people have drunk freely, then the poor wine. But you have kept the good wine until now.”

    What the master of the feast is saying is that they would normally use the better wine first and then go to the cheap stuff, but when he tastes the wine that Jesus made, he says that it’s the better wine. 

    Think about that for just a moment. Hundreds of gallons of water. And somehow, Jesus turns it all into premium wine.

    Out with the old, in with the new  

    And we have seen something else of theological significance. 

    Jesus is showing a transition of the old to the new. He’s using the jars of water used for Jewish purification rituals to do his mighty work. It’s symbolic of the Old Covenant and the New Covenant which Jesus is ushering in. 

    That’s not saying that he replaced the old covenant in that action. That’s not saying that the people who saw this miracle grasped the significance at the time. 

    But it’s not just about turning water into wine, Jesus does this miraculous act to point to something greater. 

    Jesus is Lord of the big things and the small things

    Something else that’s important in this passage. I mentioned earlier that running out of wine would have been a huge social embarrassment. But let’s keep in mind, that Jesus intervenes here. It’s not like this was a life and death situation. It’s not the end of the world.

    Jesus is Lord of the big things and of the small things. And of everything in between. We need to trust him in all situations and seasons of life. Big and small. And to know that there is no situation that’s too inconsequential for us to approach Jesus. It’s not like we’re nagging him, and if we come to him in the small things, we’ll wear him down in the big things. That Jesus is fully of grace and goodness.

    Obviously we turn to Jesus, look to Jesus, pray in the big things, but never feel like something is too small to bring to our Lord. 

    It’s common after a football game to hear a player thank God when talking to the media. Some people mock this and say “does God really care who wins a game?” 

    God isn’t a part-time God, he’s a full time God. 

    1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 says: 16 Rejoice always, 17 pray without ceasing, 18 give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. 

    It doesn’t say to rejoice only when things are good, to pray only for the big things, to give thanks only in the victories. But we should live a life that is devoted to Christ and is lived with a focus on Jesus to the Glory of God. Jesus is the Lord of all things.

  • What was Jesus’s first miracle? An overview of John 2

    What was Jesus’s first miracle? An overview of John 2

    Summary: In John 2, Jesus and his disciples attend a wedding feast. The feast runs out of wine. Mary, the Mother of Jesus, approaches him about the situation and after saying that his time has not yet come, he performs a miraculous sign when he turns water into wine. 

    It’s debated what Mary was expecting when she came to Jesus. At the end of our passage, John tells us in verse 11 that this was the first of Jesus’ signs at Cana in Galilee. But the best evidence from the gospels seems to be that this was the first miracle he performed, anywhere. 

    That’s the view I hold. And on that view, it seems unlikely that Mary would have expected Jesus to perform a miracle here. Jesus is her faithful son. She’s going to him for help in a time of need. The miraculous works of Jesus are done for specific purposes within his ministry. 

    The Bible doesn’t tell us very much about the early years of Jesus. Aside from his birth narratives in Matthew and Luke, there are just two other events recorded of the early years of Jesus and they’re both in Luke’s gospel. Luke 2 tells us of the baby Jesus being brought to the temple. And then we’re told a story from Jesus’s childhood where his parents go to Jerusalem for the Passover and mistakenly think he’s with them when they leave. And that’s all that we have of the younger Jesus. 

    So what was the rest of his childhood like? Was he doing miracles? 

    At the end of John, the apostle talks of how the world would not contain the books about what Jesus had done were they all to be written down (John 21:25). But I don’t think we should assume he was doing miracles his entire life. Again, the miracles are done for specific purposes within his ministry to point to his divinity and glory.  

    In Mark’s gospel, during the ministry of Christ, the people in his hometown are seeing the mighty works and hearing the teaching of Christ, and this is all new to these people. 

    On the Sabbath he began to teach in the synagogue, and many who heard him were astonished, saying, “Where did this man get these things? What is the wisdom given to him? How are such mighty works done by his hands? 3 Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary and brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon? And are not his sisters here with us?” And they took offense at him (Mark 6:2-3). 

    With the fact that the author will say that this is Jesus’ first sign, I don’t believe Jesus had done any miracles prior to this. 

    Before his ministry began, I don’t hold to a view that Jesus was just doing miracles left and right as a kid. Biblically, there’s no support for that. Theologically I think it makes more sense that he wasn’t.

    His miracles aren’t magic tricks. In the X-Men comic books and movies, the various characters are mutants who live in the natural world and are born with various powers. But they have to be trained to control their powers. 

    In the original X-Men movie, before some of the main characters wind up at the Xavier School for Gifted Youngsters, the characters are all realizing the powers they have. Rogue’s power is that she absorbs your energy just by touching you and so she goes to kiss her boyfriend and puts him in the hospital. They have these powers that they can’t even control. 

    I think it’s important not to have that image in mind for the younger Jesus. 

    He’s not a superhero. He’s God incarnate.  

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