Signs:God's Son Has Come!


In John 2:13-33, Jesus does things we don't expect him to do!  He makes a whip of cords, and apparently uses it to drive animals out of the temple courts.  He turns over the tables of moneychangers and cries out that they have made his Father's house a marketplace!

I can't think of another story of Jesus in which he does something like this!  As his followers observe him, they remember Psalm 69:9, in which the writer speaks of a consuming zeal for God's house.

The Jewish leaders were upset at what Jesus did.  They confronted him with the question, "Who gave you the authority to do this?  What miraculous sign will you give?" 

Jesus responded by saying, "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will build it again!"  Nobody understood what he meant at the time, but later, after Jesus rose from the dead, his disciples would know what he meant.

This is Jesus' first public act in the gospel of John.  It's almost violently passionate.  But it reflects Jesus' revulsion of corruption in the religious system at the time.  He was grieved at activity that was taking people away from God.  It also shows what his mission was.  He didn't come to destroy Judaism.  He came to cleanse and fulfill it.

What does Jesus find revolting in the "temple" of God's church today?  Materialism?  Racism?  Politics?  What would he want to drive out from us?

The only way we can find that out is to open ourselves to him and let him show us what needs to go!  Then we let him cleanse and transform us. 

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