John 2 - Righteous Indignation
It's not sinful to be angry; in fact, it's sinful to not be angry when our God is insulted.
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John 2 (ESV)
1 On the third day there was a wedding at Cana in Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there.
2 Jesus also was invited to the wedding with his disciples.
3 When the wine ran out, the mother of Jesus said to him, “They have no wine.”
4 And Jesus said to her,
“Woman, what does this have to do with me?
My hour has not yet come.”
5 His mother said to the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.”
6 Now there were six stone water jars there
for the Jewish rites of purification,
each holding twenty or thirty gallons.
7 Jesus said to the servants,
“Fill the jars with water.”
And they filled them up to the brim.
8 And he said to them,
“Now draw some out and take it to the master of the feast.”
So they took it.
9 When the master of the feast tasted
the water now become wine,
and did not know where it came from
(though the servants who had drawn the water knew),
the master of the feast called the bridegroom 10 and said to him,
“Everyone serves the good wine first, and when people have drunk freely, then the poor wine.
But you have kept the good wine until now.”
11 This, the first of his signs,
Jesus did at Cana in Galilee,
and manifested his glory.
And his disciples believed in him.
12 After this he went down to Capernaum,
with his mother and his brothers and his disciples, and they stayed there for a few days.
13 The Passover of the Jews was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.
14 In the temple he found those who were selling oxen and sheep and pigeons, and the money-changers sitting there.
15 And making a whip of cords,
he drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and oxen.
And he poured out the coins of the money-changers and overturned their tables.
16 And he told those who sold the pigeons,
“Take these things away;
do not make my Father’s house a house of trade.”
17 His disciples remembered that it was written, “Zeal for your house will consume me.”
18 So the Jews said to him, “What sign do you show us for doing these things?”
19 Jesus answered them,
“Destroy this temple,
and in three days I will raise it up.”
20 The Jews then said,
“It has taken forty-six years to build this temple,
and will you raise it up in three days?”
21 But he was speaking about the temple of his body.
22 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.
23 Now when he was in Jerusalem at the Passover Feast,
many believed in his name when they saw the signs that he was doing.
24 But Jesus on his part did not entrust himself to them,
because
he knew all people
25 and needed no one to bear witness about man,
for he himself knew what was in man.
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Previous DIG DEEPER posts on John
John 2 Summary
The first miracle that John records is Jesus turning water into wine. Theories abound as to whether or not this particular miracle involving wine has some sort of allegorical meaning. I don't think it does.
Jesus is reluctant to get involved, because at this point in His ministry, He doesn't want attention. Besides, we don't need to look for some mysterious meaning behind each miracle, for John tells us exactly why Jesus performed the miracles (signs) that John records: they were meant to reveal His glory (v11).
The 'wine making miracle man' persona of Jesus doesn't last long once Jesus enters into Jerusalem.
Remember yesterday as we dug deeper into chapter 1, we learned that John put emphasis on the fact that Jesus came to dwell among us (1:14) just as God dwelled with His people in the temple.
This temple cleansing scene reinforces the fact that God was no longer dwelling in the temple, but that He'd been replaced by a profitable religious system run by the establishment.
Dig Deeper
The disciples remember the first half of Psalm 69:9 in the aftermath of Jesus upending the money making sham that the temple of God had become:
for zeal for your house consumes me...
Certainly Jesus' display of righteous indignation coupled with this reminder from David ought to renew your own zeal for coming to God's house each Lord's Day, as you anticipate stepping out of the noise and chaos of the world and into our Father's grace, mercy and peace.
But David's psalm continues in the second half of v9:
the insults of those who insult you fall on me.
The anger Jesus displayed in the temple was directed at much more than the broken religious system of His day; every part of life had become an insult to God, and Jesus justly responded to that insult.
In most circumstances, you are not being called to physically lash out against the insults our society lofts against God in the way Jesus did, but neither are you to simply ignore them.
Instead, channel your zeal toward prayers for salvation as David did further on in Psalm 69, as you pray that those who insult God will know the true power of Christ's passion on the cross.
AAA Prayer :
ACKNOWLEDGE WHO GOD IS: Jesus is the image of the Father's glory (v11)
ALIGN YOUR LIFE WITH GOD'S WILL: Pray for the strength and wisdom to respond appropriately to those who insult God.
ASK GOD FOR WHAT YOU NEED: