This passage goes back and forth between two simultaneously occurring stories. You have Jesus arrested and taken before the high priest meanwhile Peter tries to follow Jesus, gets cold feet, and denies Jesus three times. It’s a contrast between Jesus standing up to the authorities to the truth of who he is and Peter folding and denying even knowing Jesus. It’s a passage about faith, our fallenness, and the savior who forgives.
Tag: Gospel of John
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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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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.
- 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.
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We have found the Christ. Studying John 1:41-45
- Jesus is the Christ
I’m doing a study in John 1. In John 1:35-51, we see a series of affirmations about Jesus made by his first disciples.
In this section, Andrew has been pointed to Jesus by John the Baptist and has spent time with Jesus and he tells his brother “we have found the Christ” (John 1:41).
The words Messiah and Christ mean the same thing. Messiah is Hebrew, Christ comes from Greek but they both mean anointed. This anointing referred to Old Testament offices such as the king, the high priest, and some of the prophets. They were anointed with oil at the beginning of their ministries. And the promised one who God would send was also said to be anointed, and so Andrew goes to his brother and says that they have found the anointed one.
That’s not saying that Andrew knew everything that the ministry of Jesus would entail or that he yet understood the sacrificial death which Jesus would die. He just sensed a special anointing in Jesus.
Kings, the high priests, and prophets. People did not understand in the first century that Jesus would come and fulfill all three of those offices. But through his ministry, that’s what we see.
Jesus is a king
Jesus is the king in the line of David.
The kingdom of God that Jesus ushers in is a theme in the gospels.
In the Gospel of Luke, when the angel appears to Mary and tells her that she is going to give birth to Jesus, the angel talks of Jesus in Luke 1:33 and says: he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.
Revelation 21:15 speaks of Jesus and says:
The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever.
A king is one who rules, and Jesus is the king of kings who rules and reigns with eternal sovereignty.
Jesus is a priest
Jesus is also the high priest. The priest in the Old Testament was the mediator between God and man who offered sacrifices. Jesus is the ultimate and great high priest. He is the one who is worthy to bring us to God and who is able to offer the true sacrifice. Himself.
Jesus is a prophet
And Jesus is a prophet. A prophet is one who speaks the Word of God, one who foretells the future, and one who speaks with authority. Jesus does all three of those things in his ministry.
He speaks with authority. His ministry shows that he has authority over nature and over life and death.
There’s a passage in Deuteronomy 18 which foretells of the greater prophet.
Deuteronomy 18:15: “The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your brothers—it is to him you shall listen—
Jesus fulfills that text and he comes in fulfillment of all three of those offices.
One thing that’s important to understand about these anonited offices in the Old Testament is that hey were fulfilled in separate people.
The king was not a priest or a prophet. The priest was not a king or prophet. The prophet was not a king or a priest. The first king of Israel, a man named Saul, did irreversible damage to his reign by trying to take on a priestly function.
But all three of these offices converge on Jesus.
The anointed one, the messiah, the Christ.
Jesus meets Peter. Verse 42. He brought him to Jesus. Jesus looked at him and said, “You are Simon the son of John. You shall be called Cephas” (which means Peter).
Another disciple. The words “cephas” and “Peter” both mean rock. This is a foretelling of the leadership that Peter will have. Right from the outset of of his ministry, Jesus is stating this of Peter, although there’s no further elaboration here.
John 1:43 says: The next day Jesus decided to go to Galilee. He found Philip and said to him, “Follow me.” Now Philip was from Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter.
That’s the only person in this passage to whom Jesus says “follow me.” We also find out that Philip is from the same town as Andrew and Peter. Just as Andrew was quick to tell Peter about Jesus, Philip will tell someone else about Jesus.
Philip found Nathanael and said to him, “We have found him of whom Moses in the Law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph” (John 1:45).
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Come and you will see. Studying John 1:39-42
In John 1:37, Jesus is early in his ministry and two men (who would become two of his disciples) are following him. Jesus asks “What are you seeking?” (John 1:38).
Considering who’s asking the question (Jesus), that’s a pretty important question that we must all ask ourselves. What are we seeking? What are we looking to Jesus for? What do we do make of Jesus?
But the two men instead answer his question with a question.
And they said to him, “Rabbi” (which means Teacher), where are you staying?” (John 1:39).
They don’t answer the question.
As they try to follow Jesus, perhaps it’s too difficult to spell out exactly what they’re seeking but they ask where he’s staying in the hopes of being with him and being able to talk to him and be in his presence.
He said to them, “Come and you will see” (John 1:39).
The response that Jesus gives is so much more than pointing out his lodgings. He’s answering the question the two men didn’t know how to ask. And in being his disciples, and following Jesus, they would have the answer to what they were seeking in the coming years,.
Jesus invites them in. He invites them into a relationship. He invites everyone into a relationship, into knowing him.
In the immediate context of John 1, Jesus does invite them to stay with him.
So they came and saw where he was staying, and they stayed with him that day, for it was about the tenth hour (John 1:39).
So they go and spend time with Jesus. The text says that they stayed with him that day for it was about the tenth hour. That’s not saying it was 10 o’clock. In this ancient reckoning of time, it was actually around 4pm. In our timeline, that also brings day 3 to a close.
They stay with Jesus. It’s the ancient world. They don’t have cars or lights. They spend the night wherever Jesus is staying.
John 1:40 says:
One of the two who heard John speak and followed Jesus was Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother.
We’re given a name of one of these men who follows Jesus. It’s interesting the author only gives us one of their names. We don’t know for sure the identity of the second of the two men. It is a commonly held belief that the other man is none other than the Apostle John who is the author of this gospel. He never mentions his name in the book.
But we’re given the name Andrew and we’re told he’s Simon Peter’s brother.
Simon Peter, best known as Peter, would become one of the best known of the disciples, a leader within this group, a part of Jesus’ inner circle. And so Andrew is actually identified by his relationship to Peter. They’re brothers. Even though Peter has yet to be mentioned in this gospel, the Apostle John assumed that his audience would be familiar with Peter.
Verse 41 we see that Andrew actually evangelizes his brother and tells him about Jesus: He first found his own brother Simon and said to him, “We have found the Messiah” (which means Christ).
