Zeal for Your house has eaten Me up

 

 Now the Passover of the Jews was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.  And He found in the temple those who sold oxen and sheep and doves, and the money changers doing business.  When He had made a whip of cords, He drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and the oxen, and poured out the changers' money and overturned the tables.  And He said to those who sold doves, "Take these things away!  Do not make My Father's house a house of merchandise!"  Then His disciples remembered that it was written, "Zeal for Your house has eaten Me up."  

 

So the Jews answered and said to Him, "What sign do You show to us, since You do these things?"  Jesus answered and said to them, "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up."  Then the Jews said, "It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and will You raise it up in three days?"  But He was speaking of the temple of His body.  Therefore, when He had risen from the dead, His disciples remembered that He had said this to them; and they believed the Scripture and the word which Jesus had said.

Now when He was in Jerusalem at the Passover, during the feast, many believed in His name when they saw the signs which He did.  But Jesus did not commit Himself to them, because He knew all men, and had no need that anyone should testify of man, for He knew what was in man. 

 

- John 2:13–25 

 

Yesterday we read that there was a wedding in Cana of Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there.  Now both Jesus and His disciples were invited to the wedding.  And when they ran out of wine, the mother of Jesus said to Him, "They have no wine."  Jesus said to her, "Woman, what does your concern have to do with Me?  My hour has not yet come."  His mother said to the servants, "Whatever He says to you, do it."  Now there were set there six waterpots of stone, according to the manner of purification of the Jews, containing twenty or thirty gallons apiece.  Jesus said to them, "Fill the waterpots with water."  And they filled them up to the brim.  And He said to them, "Draw some out now, and take it to the master of the feast."  And they took it.  When the master of the feast had tasted the water that was made wine, and did not know where it came from (but the servants who had drawn the water knew), the master of the feast called the bridegroom.  And he said to him, "Every man at the beginning sets out the good wine, and when the guests have well drunk, then the inferior.  You have kept the good wine until now!"  This beginning of signs Jesus did in Cana of Galilee, and manifested His glory; and His disciples believed in Him.  After this He went down to Capernaum, He, His mother, His brothers, and His disciples; and they did not stay there many days.  Yesterday's reading gave us the sixth and seventh days of the beginning of Christ's earthly ministry, corresponding to the sixth and seventh days of creation in Genesis 1.

 

  Now the Passover of the Jews was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.  And He found in the temple those who sold oxen and sheep and doves, and the money changers doing business.  When He had made a whip of cords, He drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and the oxen, and poured out the changers' money and overturned the tables.  And He said to those who sold doves, "Take these things away!  Do not make My Father's house a house of merchandise!"  Then His disciples remembered that it was written, "Zeal for Your house has eaten Me up."  In the synoptic Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke, this event occurs at the end of Christ's ministry (it is His first act after the Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem beginning what we know as Holy Week).  But here in John's Gospel, it is placed at the beginning.  There are some patristic commentaries that Christ performed this act twice.  Those who sold oxen and sheep and doves traded in live animals which were to be used for sacrifices. Those who sold doves are profiting from the smallest animal for sacrifice, the one the poorest would purchase.  The money changers were trading Roman coins for Jewish coins; Roman coins had the image of Caesar on them (treated as a god) and so were considered to be defiling in the temple.  My study Bible comments that the cleansing of the temple also points to the necessity that the Church be kept free from earthly pursuits.  In the verses that follow, Christ will speak of His body as a temple.  But we are reminded that each person is considered to be a temple of God (1 Corinthians 3:16; 6:19), and so the cleansing of the temple is also a sign that our hearts and minds should be cleansed of earthly matters that draw us away from the love and guidance of God.

So the Jews answered and said to Him, "What sign do You show to us, since You do these things?"  Jesus answered and said to them, "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up."  Then the Jews said, "It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and will You raise it up in three days?"  But He was speaking of the temple of His body.  Therefore, when He had risen from the dead, His disciples remembered that He had said this to them; and they believed the Scripture and the word which Jesus had said.  As Jesus is not a Levitical priest, my study Bible explains, His authority to cleanse the temple is challenged by the religious leaders in the temple.  The term the Jews, some say, is more properly translated as "Judeans."  In this context, we remember that the temple is in Jerusalem (in Judea), and Jesus is from Galilee, where His ministry is based.  Moreover, by the time this Gospel was written, persecutions had begun of the followers of Christ.  So, this term "the Jews" when it appears in John's Gospel is used most often to indicate the religious leaders.  Here it refers to the chief priests and the elders (see Matthew 21:23).  We need to recall that Jesus, His family, and His disciples (including John the author of this Gospel) are all Jews.  My study Bible also comments that as Christ is careful not to reveal Himself to scoffers, He answers in a hidden way:  the ultimate sign will be His death and Resurrection.  

Now when He was in Jerusalem at the Passover, during the feast, many believed in His name when they saw the signs which He did.  But Jesus did not commit Himself to them, because He knew all men, and had no need that anyone should testify of man, for He knew what was in man.  In John's Gospel we find three Passover feasts reported that were attended by Jesus, between His Baptism and Passion (see also John 6:4; 11:55).  This is how we know His earthly ministry lasted three years. 

 

 It's interesting that today's passage ends with this statement:  But Jesus did not commit Himself to them, because He knew all men, and had no need that anyone should testify of man, for He knew what was in man.  Over the course of the past several readings -- in particular the readings of Wednesday and Thursday, when Christ was choosing His first disciples -- we have seen Christ repeatedly using this characteristic, that He knew all men, and had no need that anyone should testify of man, for He knew what was in man.  This is part of His divinity, and He is known as the Discerner of Hearts.  In the Book of Acts, there is a particular Greek term applied to Christ, a noun used when the disciples, now founding the Church, seek Christ's discernment through prayer.  That word in Greek is καρδιογνώστης/kardiognostes ("heart-knower").  It's usually translated by invoking an address to Christ, using the term Lord, or God, referring to One who knows the heart (see Acts 1:24; 15:8).  But the term "heart-knower" as direct translation from the Greek, is important, as it gives us a solid and foundational identity of the Lord, and this expression manifest in the person and ministry of Jesus Christ, as experienced and witnessed by the disciples.  For this is part of the power of faith, a kind of experience that they who knew the human Jesus Christ have witnessed directly, but that all believers can witness through prayer and worship in spiritual experience, if you will.   With the experience of living our faith, we come to perceive that Christ knows our hearts before we do, and we continually witness through the stories in the Gospels that Jesus manifests this ability; it is characteristic of Him.  There are times when He will assertively draw out from people their heart's desire by asking, for example, "What do you want Me to do for you?" (Matthew 20:32 and other locations).  But in John's Gospel, we have already understood it clearly established that this is part of who Christ is; it is part of the manifestation of His divinity even in the human Jesus in the world.  It is in John's Gospel that Jesus explicitly tells us (in His final address to the disciples at the Last Supper), "If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also; and from now on you know Him and have seen Him" (John 14:7).  This is such an important tenet of our faith that we must remember it when reading the Gospel, for it is one of the purposes of the Incarnation, that through Christ we know God the Father.  We are given explicit knowledge of God's desire to save, to heal, to restore, together all of us to God.  This is God's love explicitly expressed for us, so that we know God's love, and we learn love as well.  Again, it is John the Evangelist who will also tell us, "He who does not love does not know God, for God is love" (1 John 4:8).  The "heart-knower" then, we can be assured, is also love, and the author of love, the One who teaches us love -- and we need love to know God.  So when we read in today's reading that Christ also fulfills the prophesy of the Psalmist, "Zeal for your house has eaten Me up" (Psalm 69:9), we should know also that this zeal is a zeal born of love, a compassionate, rigorous love for human beings who need God and God's love.  The full text of that psalm verse reads, "Because zeal for Your house has eaten me up, and the reproaches of those who reproach You have fallen on Me."  This is surely true of Christ, who out of love bore those reproaches Himself.  Let us consider today that zeal, the love that motivates Christ to cleanse the temple for it is the place where the people are cared for and nurtured by God, but unfortunately can also become a place of corruption, where people are led astray.  May we all carry and experience Christ's love for ourselves, and grow in that love in response.

 

Zeal for Your house has eaten Me up

 

 Now the Passover of the Jews was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.  And He found in the temple those who sold oxen and sheep and doves, and the money changers doing business.  When He had made a whip of cords, He drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and the oxen, and poured out the changers' money and overturned the tables.  And He said to those who sold doves, "Take these things away!  Do not make My Father's house a house of merchandise!"  Then His disciples remembered that it was written, "Zeal for Your house has eaten Me up."  

So the Jews answered and said to Him, "What sign do You show to us, since You do these things?"  Jesus answered and said to them, "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up."  Then the Jews said, "It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and will You raise it up in three days?"  But He was speaking of the temple of His body.  Therefore, when He had risen from the dead, His disciples remembered that He had said this to them; and they believed the Scripture and the word which Jesus had said.

 

- John 2:13–22 

 

Yesterday we were given the sixth and seventh days of Christ's beginning ministry:  There was a wedding in Cana of Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there.  Now both Jesus and His disciples were invited to the wedding.  And when they ran out of wine, the mother of Jesus said to Him, "They have no wine."  Jesus said to her, "Woman, what does your concern have to do with Me?  My hour has not yet come."  His mother said to the servants, "Whatever He says to you, do it."  Now there were set there six waterpots of stone, according to the manner of purification of the Jews, containing twenty or thirty gallons apiece.  Jesus said to them, "Fill the waterpots with water."  And they filled them up to the brim.  And He said to them, "Draw some out now, and take it to the master of the feast."  And they took it.  When the master of the feast had tasted the water that was made wine, and did not know where it came from (but the servants who had drawn the water knew), the master of the feast called the bridegroom.  And he said to him, "Every man at the beginning sets out the good wine, and when the guests have well drunk, then the inferior.  You have kept the good wine until now!"  This beginning of signs Jesus did in Cana of Galilee, and manifested His glory; and His disciples believed in Him.  After this He went down to Capernaum, He, His mother, His brothers, and His disciples; and they did not stay there many days.

 

  Now the Passover of the Jews was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.  And He found in the temple those who sold oxen and sheep and doves, and the money changers doing business.  When He had made a whip of cords, He drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and the oxen, and poured out the changers' money and overturned the tables.  And He said to those who sold doves, "Take these things away!  Do not make My Father's house a house of merchandise!"  Then His disciples remembered that it was written, "Zeal for Your house has eaten Me up."   John's Gospel has just given us the first seven days of Christ's ministry, beginning with the preaching of John the Baptist preparing the people for the Messiah.  In the Synoptic Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke, this event of cleansing the temple comes near the end of Christ's ministry, at the beginning of what we know as Holy Week, the final week of Christ's earthly life.  But here in John, this event is placed at the beginning.  All together, John's Gospel includes three Passover feasts attended by Jesus in Jerusalem.  My study Bible notes that certain Church Fathers teach that, in fact, Jesus performed this act twice.  It is significant that, after the first seven days which parallel the seven days of creation in Genesis, Jesus' first act beyond Galilee is to go to the temple in Jerusalem and attend the Passover feast.  It is also the first confrontation withe religious leaders in John's Gospel.  Those who sold oxen and sheep and doves traded in live animals which would be used for sacrifices.  The money changers would trade Roman coins for Jewish coins.  Roman coins bore the image of Caesar (considered to be a god), and so were considered to be defiling in the temple.  My study Bible says that the cleansing of the temple also points to the necessity that the Church be kept free from earthly pursuits.  It notes that each person is considered to be a temple of God in our faith (1 Corinthians 3:16; 6:19), and so it works also as a sign that our own hearts and minds must be cleansed of earthly matters.  The disciples recall the words from Psalm 69:9, testifying to Christ's cleansing of the temple as an act of ardent love for His Father's house.

So the Jews answered and said to Him, "What sign do You show to us, since You do these things?"  Jesus answered and said to them, "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up."  Then the Jews said, "It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and will You raise it up in three days?"  But He was speaking of the temple of His body.  Therefore, when He had risen from the dead, His disciples remembered that He had said this to them; and they believed the Scripture and the word which Jesus had said.  My study Bible explains that, since Jesus is not a Levitical priest, these religious leaders question and challenge His authority to cleanse the temple.  It recalls to us that John's use of the term Jews in this Gospel most frequently refers specifically to the religious leaders.  In this case, it's referring to the chief priests and the elders (see Matthew 21:23).  At the time this Gospel was written, we should recall, the followers of Jesus had begun to be persecuted and put out of the synagogues, and so "the Jews" is used as a sort of political term, like a label for one political party in a dispute.  All of the people in this event are Jews, including Jesus and His followers, among whom as witness is John the author of this Gospel.  My study Bible also notes here that Jesus is careful not to reveal Himself to scoffers, and so He answers these religious leaders in a hidden way.  Christ's ultimate sign will be His death and Resurrection.  

Here in this first Passover attendance by Jesus given in John's Gospel, and so shortly after the beginning of His ministry and the first week given the Gospel, we read the hints of the splits in the faith to come, when Christianity will branch off from Judaism in a separate path, with Christ at its center.  This is what my study Bible identifies as Christology.  That is, the center of Christianity, as it notes, is the Lord Jesus Christ Himself.  In effect, and through this split beginning with the religious leaders, Christ is seen as the centerpiece of all history, as we read the Old Testament in the light of Christ, as a many-splendored, many voiced reference to Him as Messiah.  One such reference is the quotation from Psalm 69:9, recalled by the disciples after the cleansing of the temple, "Zeal for your house has eaten Me up."  Hence the disciples give this first example here in today's reading, in which the Scripture is understood as the voice of the Coming One, Jesus.  Although central to Christ's ministry are, of course, His conflicts with the religious leaders, these conflicts reflect His zeal for the faith and His love for the Father, not a rejection of the whole religious and spiritual history of Judaism.  Quite the opposite is true, we understand Christ to be the fulfillment of what is prophesied, the Lord represented in the Old Testament Scriptures.  John makes this clear right from the beginning when He identifies Christ in the first verse:  "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God" (John 1:1).  The seven days given in the beginning of His ministry parallel the seven days of creation in Genesis 1:1-2:7.  If we understand Christology properly, we see that Christ, the Son of God and Son of Man, "energizes" human nature with divine energy, as my study Bible puts it, so that human nature is redeemed from sin and death and brought into union with God, thereby "deifying" humanity.  The whole of the Old Testament Scriptures testify to the activity of human beings after Creation, and God's interaction and leading through the patriarchs and prophets and the figures of Israel.  But Christ the prophesied Messiah comes to heal, to redeem.  The cleansing of the temple is a part of that healing and redemption, an example for us, as my study Bible noted in the notes referenced above, so that we also understand we are to be "cleansed" of what forms a stumbling block to our own spiritual healing.  Again, the Old Testament Scriptures point to humankind's wandering from God; so we also are drawn back by Christ when we go in the wrong direction.  Through Him, we are taught to put sin away and come to terms with our redemption so that we may more fully participate in His life.  Through Baptism, my study Bible says, we're given the opportunity to experience Christ's Incarnation in our lives.  Therefore our understanding of Christology (that is, Christ at the center of all things) means that because the Son of God became human, we all may participate in God.  And this is indeed the truth of redemption and grace.  Ultimately, the final sign of death and Resurrection comes out of Christ's zeal for us, His beloved -- those whom He came to redeem and to save for life with Him.

 

 

Zeal for Your house has eaten Me up

 

 Now the Passover of the Jews was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.  And He found in the temple those who sold oxen and sheep and doves, and the money changers doing business.  When He had made a whip of cords, He drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and the oxen, and poured out the changers' money and overturned the tables.  And He said to those who sold doves, "Take these things away!  Do not make My Father's house a house of merchandise!"  Then His disciples remembered that it was written, "Zeal for Your house has eaten Me up."  So the Jews answered and said to Him, "What sign do You show to us, since You do these things?"  Jesus answered and said to them, "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up."  Then the Jews said, "It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and will You raise it up in three days?"  But He was speaking of the temple of His body.  Therefore, when He had risen from the dead, His disciples remembered that He had said this to them; and they believed the Scripture and the word which Jesus had said.

Now when He was in Jerusalem at the Passover, during the feast, many believed in His name when they saw the signs which He did.  But Jesus did not commit Himself to them, because He knew all men, and had no need that anyone should testify of man, for He knew what was in man.

 

- John 2:13–25 

 

Yesterday we read that on the sixth day given in John's Gospel, there was a wedding in Cana of Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there.  Now both Jesus and His disciples were invited to the wedding.  And when they ran out of wine, the mother of Jesus said to Him, "They have no wine."  Jesus said to her, "Woman, what does your concern have to do with Me?  My hour has not yet come."  His mother said to the servants, "Whatever He says to you, do it."  Now there were set there six waterpots of stone, according to the manner of purification of the Jews, containing twenty or thirty gallons apiece.  Jesus said to them, "Fill the waterpots with water."  And they filled them up to the brim.  And He said to them, "Draw some out now, and take it to the master of the feast."  And they took it.  When the master of the feast had tasted the water that was made wine, and did not know where it came from (but the servants who had drawn the water knew), the master of the feast called the bridegroom.  And he said to him, "Every man at the beginning sets out the good wine, and when the guests have well drunk, then the inferior.  You have kept the good wine until now!"  This beginning signs Jesus did in Cana of Galilee, and manifested His glory; and His disciples believed in Him.  After this He went down to Capernaum, He, His mother, His brothers, and His disciples; and they did not stay there many days.

 

  Now the Passover of the Jews was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.  And He found in the temple those who sold oxen and sheep and doves, and the money changers doing business.  When He had made a whip of cords, He drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and the oxen, and poured out the changers' money and overturned the tables.  And He said to those who sold doves, "Take these things away!  Do not make My Father's house a house of merchandise!"  Then His disciples remembered that it was written, "Zeal for Your house has eaten Me up."   In the synoptic Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke, this event occurs at the end of the ministry of Jesus, the first action of Christ in Jerusalem during Holy Week.  Here, John puts this event of cleansing the temple right at the beginning of Jesus' ministry.  There are certain patristic writers who teach that Christ performed this act twice.   Those who sold oxen and sheep and doves are trading in live animals used for sacrifices; the money changers exchange Roman coins (considered to be defiling in the temple as they bore the image of Caesar) for Jewish coins.  My study bible comments that the cleansing of the temple points to the necessity that the Church be kept free from earthly pursuits.  Also, each person is considered to be a temple of God (1 Corinthians 3:16, 6:19), so this is also a sign that our hearts and minds should be cleansed of earthly matters.

 

  So the Jews answered and said to Him, "What sign do You show to us, since You do these things?"  Jesus answered and said to them, "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up."  Then the Jews said, "It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and will You raise it up in three days?"  But He was speaking of the temple of His body.  Therefore, when He had risen from the dead, His disciples remembered that He had said this to them; and they believed the Scripture and the word which Jesus had said.  Jesus is not a Levitical priest, and so His authority to cleanse the temple is questioned and challenged.  Only the Messiah would be one with such authority otherwise.  It is the beginning of the constant pattern of the religious leadership, that they will be demanding a sign from Christ to prove His identity to them.   John sets out parties and factions right away in his Gospel.  We should keep in mind that the term Jews in this Gospel frequently refers specifically to the leadership; in this case it is a reference to the chief priests and the elders (see Matthew 21:23).  Christ is careful not to reveal Himself to scoffers, and so He answers in a hidden way.  The ultimate sign will be His death and Resurrection.  Here we encounter the perspective of John's Gospel, the last of the Gospels to be written, where in the perspective of the Church and the events to come after Christ's death, this statement by Jesus was understood as a reference to Resurrection. 

 

Now when He was in Jerusalem at the Passover, during the feast, many believed in His name when they saw the signs which He did.  But Jesus did not commit Himself to them, because He knew all men, and had no need that anyone should testify of man, for He knew what was in man.  John's Gospel gives us the events which occur during several religious festivals, and the attendance of Christ and the disciples at three different Passover Festivals (see also 6:4, 11:55).  This is one way we know that His ministry lasted three years.  Here, John also tells us something important about Jesus, that He is the "heart-knower" (in Greek, kardiognostes/καρδιογνώστης), another property of the divine (Acts 1:24, 15:8-9).

A weekly message from a parish priest reminds me today that now is a time of preparation for commemorating the Virgin Mary on August 15th.  For the Eastern Orthodox, and traditionally in the whole of the Church, the two weeks leading to that feast are a time for fasting, almsgiving, and prayer. (See Jesus' reference to these practices in the Sermon on the Mount, in Matthew chapter 6, an important central piece of the Sermon.)  These different practices focus and center us more in the place we need to be and in relationship to God and to one another, and there are many ways of practicing each of them.  We don't just fast from certain foods (and there are no "bad" foods for Christians), but we fast from things like gossip, or too much television or internet, or friends who aren't really good for us to be around, or whatever it is that distracts us from where we really need to center in life and for what is good for us.  We might practice charity in a myriad of ways, from simple kindness to donations to work for a cause or giving time to help others.  And prayer, as we know, may take on many beautiful forms and practices.   Today's reading gives us Jesus' cleansing of the temple, and this action is front and center in John's Gospel -- right after Jesus' first sign of turning the water to wine at the wedding in Cana.   This action by Christ not only reinforces the need to refocus our lives and practices around the purpose of worshiping God and what that means for our relationships with one another.  It also teaches us to put aside what distracts from that purpose and that central "good" and what is beneficial for our lives.  It's a vivid example, as we don't necessarily think of Christ creating such dynamic scenes as making a whip of cords, and driving people out of the temple -- quite a scene of physical action!  But that should serve its purpose for us to remind us of the importance of what it teaches.  This isn't simply a prelude or backdrop to Christ's conflicts with the religious leadership.  It is an important illustration of the repeated message by Christ in the Gospels that we need to take decisive action to root out the things that really do us no good, that lead us off the path of our focus and the enrichment of the act of loving God at all times.  When something else starts to shift us away from that love, and into a place where something else becomes a higher priority, we need to refocus, and maybe we need to cut out of our lives what distracts us from our best lives, our true help in life.  Jesus' zeal isn't just a matter of having a deep purpose to fulfill or even His deep love of the Father and His true desire for all of His people.  This zeal is in the right place, shown for us as a matter of dedicated purpose, and for us to follow in our own hearts.  It's not just a temporal dramatic action to show His deep commitment.  My study bible reminds us that each of our bodies is also a temple, and so we must care for ourselves -- and the whole of what it means to be ourselves -- as Christ cares for the temple, with the same zeal, the same need to clean out what is not helpful and good, and the same purposeful refocus on what is to our best benefit in life.  All of life works as an integrated whole, and one piece of our lives isn't separate from the rest.   Just as Christ says that His Father's house should not be a house of merchandise, so our lives as well should not merely be lives of "merchandise," a pure collection of material things.  Let us remember His zeal for us, and take it to heart at this time of preparation for commemoration.  Let us cleanse ourselves from what distracts from true wholeness of life.

Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up

 Now the Passover of the Jews was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.  And He found in the temple those who sold oxen and sheep and doves, and the money changers doing business.  When He had made a whip of cords, He drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and the oxen, and poured out the changers' money and overturned the tables.  And He said to those who sold doves, "Take these things away!  Do not make My Father's house a house of merchandise!"  Then His disciples remembered that it was written, "Zeal for Your house has eaten Me up."

So the Jews answered and said to Him, "What sign do You show to us, since You do these things?"  Jesus answered and said to them, "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up."  Then the Jews said, "It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and will You raise it up in three days?"  But He was speaking of the temple of His body.  Therefore, when He had risen from the dead, His disciples remembered that He had said this to them; and they believed the Scripture and the word which Jesus had said.

Now when He was in Jerusalem at the Passover, during the feast, many believed in His name when they saw the signs which He did.  But Jesus did not commit Himself to them, because He knew all men, and had no need that anyone should testify of man, for He knew what was in man.

- John 2:13-25

Yesterday we read that there was a wedding in Cana of Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there.  Now both Jesus and His disciples were invited to the wedding.  And when they ran out of wine, the mother of Jesus said to Him, "They have no wine."  Jesus said to her, "Woman, what does your concern have to do with Me?  My hour has not yet come."  His mother said to the servants, "Whatever He says to you, do it."  Now there were set there six waterpots of stone, according to the manner of purification of the Jews, containing twenty or thirty gallons apiece.  Jesus said to them, "Fill the waterpots with water."  And they filled them up to the brim.  And He said to them, "Draw some out now, and take it to the master of the feast."  And they took it.  When the master of the feast had tasted the water that was made wine, and did not know where it came from (but the servants who had drawn the water knew), the master of the feast called the bridegroom.  And he said to him, "Every man at the beginning sets out the good wine, and when the guests have well drunk, then the inferior.  You have kept the good wine until now!"  This beginning of signs Jesus did in Cana of Galilee, and manifested His glory;   and His disciples believed in Him.After this He went down to Capernaum, He, His mother, His brothers, and His disciples; and they did not stay there many days.

Now the Passover of the Jews was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.  And He found in the temple those who sold oxen and sheep and doves, and the money changers doing business.  When He had made a whip of cords, He drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and the oxen, and poured out the changers' money and overturned the tables.  And He said to those who sold doves, "Take these things away!  Do not make My Father's house a house of merchandise!"  Then His disciples remembered that it was written, "Zeal for Your house has eaten Me up."  In the Synoptic Gospels (Matthew, Mark, and Luke), this event is reported at the end of Jesus' ministry.  But in John, it is given to us right in the beginning.  There are some patristic teachers who say that Christ performed this act twice.   Those who sold animals did so for the purpose of using them in live sacrifices.  The money changers traded Roman coins for Jewish coins.  Roman coins bore the image of Caesar and were considered to be defiling in the temple.   The cleansing of the temple, my study bible says, reminds us that the Church should be kept free from earthly pursuits.  Moreover, each one of us is considered a temple of God (1 Corinthians 3:16, 6:19).  Therefore Christ's cleansing of the temple is a signal regarding our own need for internal "cleanups" of earthly matters -- the things that are extraneous to our lives as those who understand the indwelling of spirit.   The quotation is from Psalm 69:9.

So the Jews answered and said to Him, "What sign do You show to us, since You do these things?"  Jesus answered and said to them, "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up."  Then the Jews said, "It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and will You raise it up in three days?"  But He was speaking of the temple of His body.  Therefore, when He had risen from the dead, His disciples remembered that He had said this to them; and they believed the Scripture and the word which Jesus had said.  Jesus is not a Levitical priest, and therefore His authority to cleanse the temple is challenged.  Here, we recall that the term the Jews is most often used in John's Gospel to denote the leadership.  Here, it specifically means the chief priests and the elders (Matthew 21:23).  My study bible notes that Christ is careful not to reveal Himself to scoffers; therefore, He answers in a hidden way:  the ultimate sign will be His death and Resurrection. 

Now when He was in Jerusalem at the Passover, during the feast, many believed in His name when they saw the signs which He did.  But Jesus did not commit Himself to them, because He knew all men, and had no need that anyone should testify of man, for He knew what was in man.  John will give us three Passover narratives during Jesus' ministry, and from this we understand that Jesus' ministry lasted three years (see also 6:4, 11:55). 

There are several hints of a mystical understanding in today's reading -- one that has become necessary in order to understand our faith.   In the first verses and the story of the cleansing of the temple, the disciples recall a line from Scripture:  "Zeal for your house has eaten me up" (Psalm 69:9).  The psalm verse continues, "And the reproaches of those who reproach You have fallen on me."  This recollection is an internal connection that teaches meaning and gives depth to experience.  It is a way of understanding Christ and their own experiences as His disciples.  It also interconnects the experience of faith through time, and this is the way that spiritual experience works.  This is connected with the important point my study bible makes about the cleansing of the temple:  that we, too, are temples.  We have spirit indwelling within us which makes us capable of such connections, insights, and mystical experience.  In our core, we are spiritual beings just as much as we are physical and mental beings with consciousness.  All are intertwined, but at the core is our connection with God, with Creator, which makes such experience possible.  John's Gospel reflects this collective experience of the Church within the first century.  Jesus tells the leaders, "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up."   They reply to Him, "It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and will You raise it up in three days?"  They don't have this spiritual insight or understanding, but the text does, teaching us what His disciples have come to understand.  John writes, But He was speaking of the temple of His body.   Finally, John reports again this mystical connection between people and Christ, and His understanding of what is in the depths of people, their character, their heart and their ways of thinking.  John writes that many believed in His name when they saw the signs which He did.  But Jesus did not commit Himself to them, because He knew all men, and had no need that anyone should testify of man, for He knew what was in man.   That word commit is really one that literally means "entrust," but is also the same word used for "faith."  Our Creator, it seems, not only asks for our faith in God, but must also discern where to place His faith in us.  Jesus' knowing "what was in man" as well as this mutually connected two-way faith that forms a link between Creator and creature also teaches us about the mystical reality that we step into when we live a life of faith.  There is a depth of communion and relatedness going on here that extends through a kind of network of faith or holiness.  It's not challenged by time or space; these form no barriers upon it.  What it relies on is precisely this faith, this mutual trust, a willingness in the heart for openness to what it offers us -- to the connectedness and depth we are capable of receiving.  John's Gospel opens us up to this gift that is the treasure of our faith.  Let us grow as we are capable of receiving.  

Zeal for Your house has eaten Me up

 Now the Passover of the Jews was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.  And He found in the temple those who sold oxen and sheep and doves, and the money changers doing business.  When He had made a whip of cords, He drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and the oxen, and poured out the changers' money and overturned the tables.  And He said to those who sold doves, "Take these things away!  Do not make My Father's house a house of merchandise!"  Then His disciples remembered that it was written, "Zeal for Your house has eaten Me up."

So the Jews answered and said to Him, "What sign do You show to us, since You do these things?"  Jesus answered and said to them, "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up."  Then the Jews said, "It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and will You raise it up in three days?"  But He was speaking of the temple of His body.  Therefore, when He had risen from the dead, his disciples remembered that He had said this to them; and they believed the Scripture and the word which Jesus had said.

- John 2:13-22

 Yesterday, we read that there was a wedding in Cana of Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there.  Now both Jesus and his disciples were invited to the wedding.  And when they ran out of wine, the mother of Jesus said to Him, "They have no wine."  Jesus said to her, "Woman, what does your concern have to do with Me?  My hour has not yet come."  His mother said to the servants, "Whatever He says to you, do it."  Now there were set there six waterpots of stone, according to the manner of purification of the Jews, containing twenty or thirty gallons apiece.  Jesus said to them, "Fill the waterpots with water."  And they filled them up to the brim.  And He said to them, "Draw some out now, and take it to the master of the feast."  And they took it.  When the master of the feast had tasted the water that was made wine, and did not know where it came from (but the servants who had drawn the water knew), the master of the feast called the bridegroom.  And he said to him, "Every man at the beginning sets out the good wine, and when the guests have well drunk, then the inferior.  You have kept the good wine until now!"  This beginning of signs Jesus did in Cana of Galilee, and manifested His glory; and His disciples believed in Him.  After this He went down to Capernaum, He, His mother, His brothers, and His disciples; and they did not stay there many days.

Now the Passover of the Jews was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.  And He found in the temple those who sold oxen and sheep and doves, and the money changers doing business.  When He had made a whip of cords, He drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and the oxen, and poured out the changers' money and overturned the tables.  And He said to those who sold doves, "Take these things away!  Do not make My Father's house a house of merchandise!"  Then His disciples remembered that it was written, "Zeal for Your house has eaten Me up."  John's Gospel is organized differently than the synoptic Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke.  Here in John Jesus attends the first of three Passover festivals that John reports to us, and it is here, in contrast to the other Gospels, that a cleansing of the temple takes place.  Matthew, Mark, and Luke report this event at the beginning of the last week of Jesus' life, the end of His ministry.  Certain Church Fathers teach that Christ performed this act twice.   Jesus in every report of this act goes after those who are using what is holy merely for prophet.  Those who sold oxen and sheep and doves do so for sacrifices.  The money changers exchange Roman coin for Jewish, since the Roman coins had the image of Caesar and were therefore considered defiling.  What is holy is not meant merely for trade, as a market place.  In conjunction with this cleansing of the temple, we are to understand our hearts and minds also are not to be used merely as a place of "trade" with respect to our faith, as each person is considered to be a temple of God (1 Corinthians 3:16, 6:19).  The Scripture recalled by the disciples is from Psalm 69:9.

So the Jews answered and said to Him, "What sign do You show to us, since You do these things?"  Jesus answered and said to them, "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up."  Then the Jews said, "It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and will You raise it up in three days?"  But He was speaking of the temple of His body.  Therefore, when He had risen from the dead, his disciples remembered that He had said this to them; and they believed the Scripture and the word which Jesus had said.  We have just read of the first sign in John's Gospel, the changing of the water into wine at the wedding at Cana (yesterday's reading, above).  So here, when the officials in the temple ask Him to prove identity and authority to cleanse the temple by performing a sign, we already know that this is something possible for Jesus.  He's not a Levitical priest, so on these grounds His authority is challenged.   We must also remember that in John's Gospel, the term the Jews is mostly used as a kind of political term, to indicate the leaders.  Here the term is used to refer to the chief priests and the elders (see Matthew 21:23).  Despite the fact that we know He is capable of producing a sign, he won't reveal Himself to scoffers.  Jesus answers in a hidden way that is revealed through faith:  the ultimate sign will be his death and Resurrection. 

John's Gospel has already begun to teach us that there are ways of hearing Christ's words that point beyond the words themselves.  Like the signs in his Gospel, of which the turning of water to wine at the wedding in Cana is the first, everything about Jesus points to something more, something beyond.  His words are the same.  Often Jesus will say things that have meanings far beyond the surface value that conventional understanding can give to the words.  John's Gospel teaches us this kind of looking and seeing and understanding.  When Jesus cleanses the temple in such a vivid way (we're even given the detail of Him making a whip of cords), He says, "Do not make My Father's house a house of merchandise!"  But we're to think beyond this vivid literal scene, and to understand that what is holy can't be thought of as "merchandise," as something to be bought and sold.  Our souls aren't bought and sold, and our lives aren't just commodities.  Neither is the virtue we develop through faith.  What belongs to the kingdom of God "lives" in a different place, a different kind of reality, and it is that reality that is present Incarnate in Jesus Christ.  He is the kingdom of heaven brought near, and we belong to Him as much as we do to anything or anyone else.  This is the point of the Gospel, of His ministry, of the telling of Jesus' story.  Jesus refuses to produce signs of the presence of the Kingdom on demand for those who scoff, who won't have faith in Him, who think of themselves as His (and in effect, God's) judges.  He responds to the demand for a sign by telling them, "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up."  He's speaking, of course, of His Resurrection.  But it won't be until that event happens that even Jesus' disciples come to understand what He's really saying here.  The same is true of the Scripture quoted from Psalm 69, "Zeal for your house has eaten Me up."  It is later when the disciples understand that Jesus is the fulfillment of this Scripture.  It is faith that gives us insight and discernment, that opens up perspectives and vistas we are not able to grasp if we see what is holy the same way that we see merchandise or trade.  There is something more that we must be a part of to come to see all the things that are really present here.  It is the capacity for faith that will show us what is really there, what God has to give us, the meanings and values and depth of intangibles that become a part of our souls in God's love for us.  This is why a sign won't be produced like a commodity, like a piece of merchandise on demand.  There is something more that is present here, a something more that Christ demands that we have spiritual eyes and ears to see and to discern.  It doesn't work by "worldly" rules or conventional aphorisms.  When we start to understand that, we begin to understand what John's Gospel offers to us, that something so much more than meets the eye or the ear on worldly terms.  We begin to enter into the Gospel of love, that builds up who we are, how we see, how we hear, and gives us relationship with God who is love.  This is the journey we are on, the place Christ is here to reveal to us.

Take these things away! Do not make My Father's house a house of merchandise!

 Now the Passover of the Jews was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.  And He found in the temple those who sold oxen and sheep and doves, and the money changers doing business.  When He had made a whip of cords, He drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and the oxen, and poured out the changers' money and overturned the tables.  And he said to those who sold doves, "Take these things away!  Do not make My Father's house a house of merchandise!"  Then His disciples remembered that it was written, "Zeal for Your house has eaten Me up."

So the Jews answered and said to Him, "What sign do You show to us, since You do these things?"  Jesus answered and said to them, "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up."  Then the Jews said, "It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and will You raise it up in three days?"  But He was speaking of the temple of His body.  Therefore, when He had risen from the dead, His disciples remembered that He had said this to them; and they believed the Scripture and the word which Jesus had said.

- John 2:13-22

Yesterday, we read that there was a wedding in Cana of Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there.  Now both Jesus and His disciples were invited to the wedding.  And when they ran out of wine, the mother of Jesus said to Him, "They have no wine."  Jesus said to her, "Woman, what does your concern have to do with Me?  My hour has not yet come."  His mother said to the servants, "Whatever He says to you, do it."  Now there were set there six waterpots of stone, according to the manner of purification of the Jews, containing twenty or thirty gallons apiece.  Jesus said to them, "Fill the waterpots with water."  And they filled them up to the brim.  And He said to them, "Draw some out now, and take it to the master of the feast."  When the master of the feast had tasted the water that was made wine, and did not know where it came from (but the servants who had drawn the water knew), the master of the feast called the bridegroom.  And he said to him, "Every man at the beginning sets out the good wine, and when the guests have well drunk, then the inferior.  You have kept the good wine until now!"  This beginning of signs Jesus did in Cana of Galilee, and manifested His glory; and His disciples believed in Him.  After this He went down to Capernaum, He, His mother, His brothers, and His disciples; and they did not stay there many days.

 Now the Passover of the Jews was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.  How do we understand that Jesus' ministry lasted three years?  John's Gospel gives us three Passovers, altogether, that Jesus will attend.  This is the first one during His ministry.

And He found in the temple those who sold oxen and sheep and doves, and the money changers doing business.  When He had made a whip of cords, He drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and the oxen, and poured out the changers' money and overturned the tables.  And he said to those who sold doves, "Take these things away!  Do not make My Father's house a house of merchandise!"  Then His disciples remembered that it was written, "Zeal for Your house has eaten Me up."  Unlike the other Gospels, this act of cleansing the temple occurs early in John.  Perhaps that suggests to us its significance, a kind of central importance to His ministry and teachings, and identity.  He is acting as Messiah while not openly declaring Himself otherwise.  It reminds us that you cannot serve God and mammon.  We remember also that it is John who teaches us that Judas betrays Jesus in part because he is a thief, and suffers from the sin of covetousness.  This display of vigorous action on Jesus' part is rare and unusual, and teaches us about His true zeal.  The Scripture remembered by Jesus' disciples is from Psalm 69:  "I have become a stranger to my brothers, and an alien to my mother’s children; because zeal for Your house has eaten me up, and the reproaches of those who reproach You have fallen on me"  - Psalm 69:8,9.

So the Jews answered and said to Him, "What sign do You show to us, since You do these things?"   By the time that John's Gospel was written, persecution in the synagogues had become fierce against the followers of Christ.  The term "the Jews" is used here like that of a political party, and is most frequently used in John's Gospel to denote the religious leadership.  Here, it's used for the chief priests and elders in the temple.  John's Gospel gives us seven signs of Christ's messianic identity as Son.  The leadership are asking for a sign from Jesus of His authority to cleanse the temple.  Jesus is not a Levitical priest, and therefore His authority is challenged.

Jesus answered and said to them, "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up."  Then the Jews said, "It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and will You raise it up in three days?"  But He was speaking of the temple of His body.  Therefore, when He had risen from the dead, His disciples remembered that He had said this to them; and they believed the Scripture and the word which Jesus had said.  The only sign Jesus will give will be "the sign of Jonah" (see Matthew 12:38-42) to which He alludes here.  And we're introduced to a common literary device used by John in this passage.  Jesus is speaking of the temple of His body, but the leadership understand only that He speaks of the great temple as reconstructed by Herod.  The reader is given to understand the deeper meaning.  My study bible says, "As Christ is careful not to reveal Himself to scoffers, He answers in a hidden way:  the ultimate sign will be His death and Resurrection."

There's a kind of strange whodunnit sense to the Gospels.  "Hidden in plain sight," Christ is steeped in mystery.  Who is He, really?  Even when we know Him as the Son, we still have to ask, "Who is He really?"  It's like a detective story, only in reverse.  We know who "the murderers" are -- in some sense, it's the whole of a sinful humanity, and it's the one who was a murderer from the beginning.  But the Gospels are like a detective story in that they open up to all of us the mystery of Who Christ is, and each of us, like amateur detectives -- even among the professionals -- are invited to pursue this mystery.  The ultimate answer is, of course, God.  God is the author, and this is God's story.  But that just gets us started into the mystery.  What and Who is God?  Who is the Son?  Better yet, how does the Son want me to live my life?  What is God's story telling me?  What is it I need to know now?  The mystery of Christ begins here in this story in the temple.  The leadership has a kind of mystery on its hands, and one it doesn't like at all.  Who is this Man who has taken it upon Himself to cleanse the temple?  Who is He to cast out these money changers and animal sellers?  In the context of the fullness of the Gospels, we probably get the idea that they know darn well what He's getting at, given His criticism of their methods and their way of being "shepherds."  Their question as to His authority is really like so many of their questions in this story of Jesus:  they wish to entrap and condemn.  But all of that forms the mystery into which we are invited to investigate; a better word for our action might be to discern.  God's story, in some sense told throughout all of the Scripture both Old and New, invites us in to ask our own questions, and beckons us to participate by finding the answers that are there for us, hidden in plain sight.  It's a story that continually invites us in for more, a mystery that beckons us to go deeper.  As one Christian education teacher I know is fond of saying, "This isn't your story or my story.  It's God's story."  And that's why we have to pay attention.  But God's story is the one that asks us in to participate, in relationship with Him.  And that is the whole point.  Let's begin with this first great public act of Jesus' ministry placed here in John's Gospel.  What is it telling you?  How does it invite you in to think about your life, in His light?  What do we go to His house for?  And whom do we worship there?