Tuesday, October 20 –
We have begun reading the books that the Apostle John was
inspired to write. We began in John’s
Gospel yesterday, and today we continue our reading in John 1:19 – 2:25. This is a longer reading but should be kept
together. Please come back after you’ve
finished reading it.
John the Baptist is front and center as we begin. He’s baptizing people in the Jordan River and
is faced with Temple leaders who want to find who he was. After a lengthy dialog between the two, John
makes it clear, “I am not the Messiah (the Christ)” (1:20), and then
tells them that “one who (will) come after me” will soon become
clear. Who is that one? We find out almost immediately when Jesus
arrives –
“The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, ‘Look,
the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world! This is the one I
meant when I said, A man who comes after me has surpassed me because he was before
me. I myself did not know him, but the reason I came baptizing with water
was that he might be revealed to Israel.’ Then John gave this testimony: ‘I
saw the Spirit come down from heaven as a dove and remain on him. And I
myself did not know him, but the one who sent me to baptize with water told me,
the man on whom you see the Spirit come down and remain is the one who will
baptize with the Holy Spirit. I have seen and I testify that this is the
Son of God” (1:29-34).
John the Baptist sees Jesus and says to his disciples, “Behold
the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world.” Jesus is a Person
but linked to the Passover lamb (Exodus 12:1 – 13). Here is the reason why God the Father sent
His Son – to be the Sacrifice that will take away our sin. John is linked to Jesus in his call from God
to prepare the way for Jesus’ coming.
John the Baptist makes this statement to two of his disciples who are
with him – Andrew and John (1:35-36). Jesus
sees them and asks, “what are you seeking?”
Their reply seems odd, “Rabbi, where are you staying?” Jesus
invites them to “Come and you will see” (1:38). Jesus is inviting them to observe, look at who
he is and what he does.
Notice, they refer to him as ‘Rabbi’, meaning teacher.
Eventually, Andrew tells his brother Simon (Peter) about Jesus. “We have
found the Messiah, that is the Christ” (1:41). When Simon Peter meets
Jesus, Jesus immediately renames him. “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)” (1:42). Cephas
is Aramaic and Peter is Greek, but both mean ‘rock’. Peter soon becomes the prominent leader of
Jesus’ disciples, and later in his ministry, Peter’s public confession that
Jesus is the Messiah leads Jesus to proclaim, “You are Peter (rock), and upon
this rock (the confession), I will build My Church” (Matthew 16:18).
John is rapidly moving us along. In 1:43 – 51, Jesus takes his new team to
Galilee. Jesus invites Philip to follow
him (1:43). Philip then tells Nathaniel,
“We have found the One Moses wrote about in the Law” (1:45). This is a reference to Moses’ words in
Deuteronomy 18:14-20, where God promises to send another prophet like Moses.
Nathaniel is a bit skeptical asking, “Can anything good come out of
Nazareth?” Philip said to him (as Jesus had previously said to him),
“Come and see” (1:46). When Jesus sees Nathanael, he astounds him and makes
Nathanael wonder “how do you know me?” (1:48). When Jesus tells Nathaniel what he saw
(1:48), and tells him what he (Nathanael will someday see) (1:50-51), we get a
glimpse of Jesus shielding his identity, yet displaying his ability. In the
course of 3 days, Jesus has called five men to be his disciples.
We turn the chapter page and the five disciples go with
Jesus to a wedding in Cana, which interestingly is the home village of
Nathaniel. Cana is close to Nazareth,
about four miles, and Jesus’ mother, and most likely his brothers and sisters
are present also. A Jewish wedding could
last up to seven days and it is not unusual for guests to stay throughout the
time period. So, as the days went on, the wine ran out (aghast!). Running out of wine was a way to turn away all
of the guests – forcing them to leave.
It was an embarrassment and Mary turned to her Son for help –
“When the wine ran out, the mother of Jesus said to him,
“They have no wine.” And Jesus said to her, “Woman, what does this have
to do with me? My hour has not yet come.” His mother said to the
servants, “Do whatever he tells you” (2:3-5).
Every time I read that; I cannot help but smile. Jesus didn’t take orders from people, except
for Mom! His appeal “Woman, why do
you involve me? My time has not yet come”, seems impolite, harsh to us, but
quite the contrary. “Woman” is more or less a formal way of saying “Ma’am”. Jesus asks her a question that literally is “what
to me and to you?”, i.e. Jesus is asking his mother is “why does
this pertain to us?” – this was a problem that pertains to the host. When
Jesus says, “my hour has not yet come” (2:4), it is the first of seven
times he will use that expression of “his hour”. Mary knew from the beginning who Jesus, her
earthly son, really was. The angel
Gabriel had told her before she conceived (Luke 1:31). Jesus doesn’t want to create a scene, nor try
to “wow” crowds with a miracle – there was a time and place for things
later. Yet, I can see the smile on
Mary’s face when she turns to the servants and instructs them to “do as he
says”. She knows who He is, and
Jesus knows who she is!
The servants poured 20-30 gallons of water into each of the
six stone containers suggesting a huge gathering of people. The water turns into wine – great wine –
bypassing the fermentation process. John is a brand-new disciple, and when the
master tasted the wine and proclaimed it better than the first batch, John sees
the first of many miracles. Writing from
a distance of, perhaps, fifty years, John writes:
“This, the first of his signs, Jesus did at Cana in
Galilee, and manifested his glory. And his disciples believed in him” (2:11).
This
is the first of seven miraculous signs that John records for the purpose of
helping us believe in Jesus just as his disciples needed to believe. We’ll
continue to unpack those signs as we progress through John’s Gospel. Each sign
either initiates faith or builds existing faith, and reveals Jesus’ glory,
which is veiled for now.
In our
reading today, John took us from Cana and Capernaum in Galilee, seventy miles
north of Jerusalem, to Temple where Jesus makes his first visit as a Rabbi with
his disciples. It is the Passover celebration, so the time period would be
mid-March to early April. This is the first of three Passovers that John
records for us. There is a dramatic
encounter and confrontation as Jesus takes a whip or leather strap and drives
out the cattle, sheep, pigeons, and turns over the money-changing tables,
ordering the merchants out of the Temple area.
What they were doing was not necessarily wrong for Moses had allowed for
such selling to take place for those who traveled long distances. The problem
was where they were doing the selling. The
merchants set up shop in Gentile Court. Gentiles were not allowed in the inner court
of the Temple but they were permitted to come close so they too could worship
God. By setting up shop there, the Jews
were not allowing the Gentiles to have access to God. Jesus saw the Temple as the Sacred place for
God’s presence. His disciples “remembered
that it was written, ‘Zeal for your house will consume me” (2:16-17).
Jesus laid
down a divine principle based on his authority.
The religious leaders confront him with their own authority. In a confrontive exchange, Jesus prophesies
the demise of the Temple and his body, risen and glorified, as the new Temple
of God in heaven –
“So,
the Jews said to him, “What sign do you show us for doing these things?”
Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise
it up.” The Jews then said, “It has taken forty-six years to build this
temple, and will you raise it up in three days?” But he was speaking about the
temple of his body. 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. Now when he was in Jerusalem at the
Passover Feast, many believed in his name when they saw the signs that he was
doing” (2:18-23).
The
Apostle John is writing this near the end of his life, and he is looking back,
probably in awe and wonder with all that he had seen. He’s the only one of the four Gospel writers
who makes his own commentary from time to time.
After the encounter at the Temple, John sums it all up nicely:
“Now
when he was in Jerusalem at the Passover Feast, many believed in his name when
they saw the signs that he was doing. But Jesus on his part did not
entrust himself to them, because he knew all people and needed no one to
bear witness about man, for he himself knew what was in man” (2:23-25).
Jesus
is no ordinary religious guru. He had
power and authority that was veiled, and only those who Jesus wanted to show it
to, got a glimpse of his divinity. The
corruption of religion, as in the Temple leaders, is controlled by Satan, who
blinds the minds of those who do not see or believe. Jesus doesn’t hate these leaders, but he is
also not going to pretend when he was around them. God owned the Temple, they didn’t. Interestingly, now WE are the temple of God
(1 Cor. 6:19)!
Peace
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