Reflection on John 2

John 2 gives witness to Jesus' power to transform and authority to cleanse by recording two incidents. The first one is turning water into wine; the second is clearing the Temple.

On the third day after Jesus talked with Nathanael, He and His disciples were attending a wedding feast at Cana, in Galilee. "Jesus' mother was there." It is very likely Jesus' family was very close to the wedding couple's so they were all invited to the banquet, even including the disciples.  At some point during the wedding, "the wine was gone". This could be a disaster for the host family. Few things humiliated a family more than to run out of food or wine for guests at wedding festivities. Jesus' mother noticed this potential disaster. She wanted to go out of her way to help because she was a kind and caring lady. Without bothering anyone else, she said to her son but also her Lord, "They have no wine." No doubt as Jesus was living with her, Mary often went to Him to solve household problems.  But it is unlikely Mary was requesting a miracle since verse 11 states clearly Jesus had not yet performed any miracle. Jesus' disciples and Jesus' mother had not seen any miracles performed by Jesus yet. Notice here, Mary simply told Jesus the problem without demanding an answer.

Looking at His mother, Jesus replied, "Dear woman, why do you involve me? My time has not yet come."

"Dear woman" is a very courteous common expression for a man to call a woman. But this isn't a usual way for a son to address his mother. There is a sense in which Mary would now be no more closely related to Him than anyone who through faith has been reborn into a spiritual family relationship with Him. Jesus was reminding Mary to treat Him as her Lord only, reminding her that she should not try to influence Him as a mother used to do. It must be a painful experience for Mary to lose the closeness with her son. But it would be a much bigger gain for Mary to have the most precious and intimate relationship of believer with the Lord and Savior.

"Why do you involve me?" This shows Jesus had different concerns with Mary. At least they had different timing since Jesus said His time "has not yet come". Whenever Jesus spoke of "My time" or "My hour", He talked about His Father's timing. At this moment, He told Mary to wait. It was not His Father's timing for Him to perform miracles publicly yet. Not because the Son of God was not ready to do so, it is because the general audience was not ready to see it. But Jesus is always available to the one who seeks His help. There is no timing issue about this.

There is no mentioning of what kind of tone Jesus used when He answered His mother. But I think there must be great tenderness in His tone which made Mary laugh in her heart. She knew her son and her Lord was always ready to help. She hurried to the servants and said to them, "Do whatever He tells you." She left the authority to her Lord and told others to do the same. How might our life change if we, in faith, tell our Lord our daily burden like Mary did and take Mary's suggestion "Do whatever He tells you" for ourselves?

At the door of this house "stood six stone jars, the kind used by Jews for ceremonial washing, each holding from twenty to thirty gallons". Jesus told the servants, "Fill the jars with water. Draw some out and take it to the master of the banquet." The servants obeyed instantly, filling the heavy jars "to the brim." They did not hesitate to bring the water to the banquet master. How much the servants would have missed had they not dared to obey Jesus fully!

Jesus turned the water into wine before it reached to the mouth of the banquet master. "The master of the banquet tasted the water that had been turned into wine. He did not realize where it had come from, though the servants who had drawn the water knew." He called the busy bridegroom aside and said, "Everyone brings out the choice wine first and then the cheaper wine after the guests have had too much to drink; but you have saved the best till now." The poor bridegroom must be very confused because he had no idea at all.

Jesus chose to transform plain water into choice wine as "His first miraculous sign". He did it quietly to show His care for His own. He did not want to draw public attention. Nevertheless, "He revealed His glory, and His disciples put their faith in Him." All glory belongs to Him. He is the Creator who can create wine out of water, like He created man out of dust. His power of transform knows no limit. He can bring true transformation to all who trust in Him with new birth, new life.

When it was almost time for Passover, "Jesus went up to Jerusalem." Countless God-fearing people who lived far away journeyed to Jerusalem to celebrate Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread which followed Passover. Since it was not practical for them to bring Passover Lambs and other animals to be used as sacrifices, they brought money to buy those animals. In addition, they needed to pay temple tax. Before the cross, the sacrifices were God's way for His repentant people to enter a limited restored relationship with Him. The Temple and its sacrifices pointed to the true sacrifice of the Lamb of God for the sin of the world. Through those practices, God was preparing His people to recognize His Son Jesus and His mission. Through Jesus, God grants His repentant people to enter a totally restored relationship with Him.

The sale of animals probably began as a service for those who journeyed long and could not travel with the sacrificial animals. But now, the animals were sold at highly inflated prices and money changers charged high fees. The trade put profit before the need of people to know and worship God. The merchants were in the Temple courts every day, yet God was not central in their lives in any way. They seemed to think God existed to serve them. The religious authorities who claimed to know the Scriptures best allowed the merchants to do business in the outer court of the Temple in order to get a fat share of profit. They totally failed to apply God's principles to their own lives and to their worship of God.

The outer court was the first place for worshippers to enter the Temple, and the only part of the Temple compound where the gentiles were permitted. It should have set an atmosphere of welcome and worship. But when Jesus entered, "He found men selling cattle, sheep and doves, and others sitting at tables exchanging money." Imagine the noise of the animals and the shouts of buyers and sellers, how could people pray and prepare their hearts for worship? Jesus "made a whip out of cords, and drove all from the Temple area, both sheep and cattle; He scattered the coins of money changers and overturned their tables. To those who sold doves He said, “Get these out of here! How dare you turn my Father's house into a market!”

Godly people might have complained about the corrupted practices, but only Jesus took the action to clear the Temple. The disciples saw how Jesus' zeal burned for God's holiness and for justice for the oppressed. A verse from Psalm 69 came to their minds, "Zeal for your house will consume me." This verse talks about what Messiah would do so the disciples' conviction that Jesus was the long awaited Messiah took deeper root.

Jesus cleared the Temple court but hurt no one. He restricted His holy anger to show His mercy. No merchants dared resist His holy anger and majestic authority on the spot. But they quickly resumed their highly profitable business after Jesus left. Apparently, they got full permission from the religious authorities to trade again. Maybe they never lost their permission. Matthew, Mark and Luke all recorded that a few days before the cross Jesus confronted a similar situation at the Temple. This time Jesus' words were even stronger, "My house will be called a house of prayer, but you are making it 'A den of robbers'." From "God's house" to "a market", then to "a den of rubbers", it did not only talk about what happened in the Temple court. It described how people's hearts got even more callous. They became more and more rebellious.

Both Zechariah 14 and Malachi 3 foretold how the Messiah would sweep the Temple clean. Jesus did sweep the Temple clean with authority mentioned by the Scripture. Why did the Jews who claimed to know the Scripture not ask a reasonable question, "Are you the Messiah?" We could expect Jesus to say "yes". The whole conversation would turn the other way around. But the Jews demanded of Jesus, "What miraculous sign can you show us to prove your authority to do all this?" At the root of the men's request for a sign was an attitude that really said, "We do not care what Scripture says. We do not believe you can perform miracles. Who are you to tell us we cannot do our business? If you find fault in us doing business, we will find fault in you." They deliberately challenged the Lord because their callous hearts refused to soften at Jesus' rebuke.

Jesus knows. He uses parables and word pictures instead of simpler language when speaking to those who have willfully refused to believe. But our Lord shows His mercy and grace in His judgment towards these scoffers. In one sentence, Jesus told those who doubted His capability of performing any miraculous sign the greatest sign of all: His death and resurrection which served as the proof of His sovereignty. Jesus answered them, "Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days." 

These scoffers were intelligent enough to realize Jesus was not speaking of the physical Temple, since they said themselves, "It has taken forty six years to build this temple, and you are going to raise it in three days?," There was no way for them to believe this could happen considering they didn't believe Jesus at all. But they didn't ask Jesus, "What do you mean? Which temple you are talking about?" They chose not to understand Him because they thought they could use Jesus' answer to accuse Him. They did it later. At Jesus' trial, His enemies used His words spoken here to condemn Him. They twisted a little out of their evil intention. They accused Jesus, "This fellow said, 'I am able to destroy the temple of God and rebuild it in three days." Jesus never said what they said. First Jesus did not put a subject in front of the verb "Destroy". Second, Jesus said it in a command sentence with sure sense. He did not suggest any possible alternative.

We have to admit, it was difficult to understand what Jesus meant at that time. Even His disciples had to wait until His resurrection, "recalled what He had said", then realized "the temple He had spoken of was His body." He died for us, and in three days He rose from death for us. He is the one and only way to our salvation. If we dig deeper, we can read the gospel message coded in this one short sentence. Since we have the whole Bible in front of us, we might do that. 

The Lord did not put a subject word in front of "Destroy" since different subject word reveals different prospect. If He put "I" there, He would mean He sacrificed voluntarily for us, as He said, "No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again."(10:18) If He put "you" there, "the temple" could mean our hearts or our bodies. Because God desires to make our hearts a dwelling place, a holy place for Him. He would mean to call people to repent from sin, to get rid of the old hearts or old selves and He is able to give us new ones after His death and resurrection. The true presence of God is never a building. So "Destroy this temple" points to the demolition and reconstruction of our hearts.

It always takes faith to understand God's Word or Jesus' talking. True faith starts from repentance of heart instead of being entertained by miracles. This explained why "many people saw the miraculous signs He was doing and believed in His name. But Jesus would not entrust Himself to them, for He knew all men. He did not need man's testimony about man, for He knew what was in a man." When people stubbornly refuse to respond to the call of repentance, they would look no further than the signs He performed. They would fail to look at His unique identify, to which the signs pointed. They simply want all the blessings, but have no desire to know the One who blesses them. Jesus wants nothing to do with them. Jesus needs no fans. He wants disciples or committed followers. He knows who His enemy is, who His fan is, and who His disciple is. Do we know who we are? All of us were His enemies to start with, but where are we now? Still an enemy, a fan, or a disciple?