John 2:13-25
When the Passover Feast, celebrated every spring by the Jews, was about to take place, Jesus traveled up to Jerusalem. He found the temple teeming with people selling cattle and sheep and doves. The loan sharks were also there in full strength. Jesus put together a whip out of strips of leather and chased them out of the temple, stampeding the sheep and cattle, upending the tables of the loan sharks, spilling coins left and right. He told the dove merchants, “Get your things out of here! Stop turning my Father’s house into a shopping mall!” That’s when his disciples remembered the Scripture: “Zeal for your house consumes me.” But the Jews were upset. They asked, “What credentials can you present to justify this?” Jesus answered, “Tear down this Temple and in three days I will put it back together.” They were indignant: “It took 46 years to build this Temple, and you’re going to rebuild it in three days!” But Jesus was talking about his body as the Temple. Later, after he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered he had said this. They then put two and two together and believed both what was written in Scripture and what Jesus had said. During the time he was in Jerusalem, those days of the Passover Feast, many people noticed the signs he was displaying and, seeing they pointed straight to God, entrusted their lives to him. But Jesus didn’t entrust his life to them. He knew them inside and out, knew how untrustworthy they were. He didn’t need any help in seeing right through them. John 2:13-25 (MSG)
Today is the Feast of the Epiphany, traditionally when we recall the story of the Wise-men seeking Jesus, whom they believed to be the next “King of the Jews.” Still in his infancy and found in a lowly and homely setting, this would have been a surprise to them. But if they were truly wise (men or women), they would have been able to see beneath these circumstances to realize God was often full of surprises but always fulfilled the promises made. As the story unfolds in Matthew, they had followed a star to the right place, had knelt and worshiped the Child whom God had fore-ordained, and then had been warned not to return to Herod who would have put the Child in danger. Their wisdom came from knowing how despots rule and from listening to God.
In our Scripture today, Jesus is now a man. He has been baptized by John whom he knows to be the God-Revealer* and calls him the Son of God. Those who are following John, and now Jesus, are a mixed bunch; some clearly aware of the traditions and scripture of their faith, some not so much. So when Jesus enters the temple and begins to lash out with a whip, upsetting and destroying everything the people valued, there were a lot of different responses to Jesus: confusion, anger, fear, and loss. And so his response to them did not make sense. Instead of straight talking, Jesus chose to use a metaphor...(a phrase used of one thing but applied to another)….a more circular kind of talking in which one is stretched to understand what is meant on a whole different level than the literal. To most folks the Temple was a literal building in which God dwelt. And for them to understand that what Jesus meant now was that God dwelt within him was much too much to fathom. Thankfully the disciples were beginning to understand that Jesus was bringing to them a whole new perspective on God at work in the world.
Questions for Reflection:
- When have you experienced a time when something more was happening than what you might have initially thought, and there was something much deeper and more important going on you needed to pay attention to, that God was working in your life or in someone else in new ways??
- Can you see in a baby the possibility of God living in him/her? Can you see that God lives in each one of us? What does that mean to you?
- What do you hold on to as holy that if it were desecrated or destroyed would hurt you and make you question how God is working in this?
Prayer:
Great and Gracious God – I know I am limited in my understanding of You and how You are at work in this world. This is especially true when I know of things happening that are hurting others and I don’t know why or how to change it. It is too much and too big for me; but I trust there is something You want me to do and to be, so I ask for Your Spirit to teach me, guide me, use me to live out Your will in my corner of this world. You are always doing “a new thing” so help me to understand and recognize it even as it happens. In Jesus’ name, Amen
*from The Message translation
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