The Gospel of John: John 2.13-25

Read and meditate on John 2.20-22.
They didn’t know He was talking about His body? Wow! How could they have missed that? Of course they didn’t know! Their mistake was in not knowing the Scripture nor the power of God (Matt. 22.29). As with John 1.51, brief statements like this show us how deeply immersed in Scripture Jesus was, and how Scripture permeated His thoughts, plans, and life. Read Isaiah 53, then immediately go on to Isaiah 54. No wonder Jesus thought of Himself as the new dwelling place of God!

            ²⁰The Jews said, “It has been
now nearly fifty years since men began
to build this temple, and You will in three
days raise it up?” ²¹They did not know that He
was speaking to them of His body. ²²His
disciples would recall that He said this,
when, later, He had risen from the dead.
Then they believed the word which Jesus said,
and all the Scriptures.

- John 2.20-22

Reflect
1.  John is a master at sowing questions, pointing us ahead, and assuring us all along that everything’s going to work out just fine. How do you see that here? Complete this prayer: Lord Jesus, You do all things well. You work all things together for the good of those who love You. Even the trials and difficulties I’ll face today are…

2.  This passage illustrates what will be a major bone of contention between Jesus and His adversaries and detractors: He’s always thinking in spiritual and eternal terms, while they’re always thinking in self-centered, temporal, and material terms. They want Jesus to conform to their way of thinking and living. But He will have none of it. Jesus, you see, has His own agenda. Which agenda do you seem to follow most of the time? Explain. Help me to see what You see, Lord, and to do what will contribute to…

3.  John mentions “when He had risen from the dead” as a fait accompli. It just came out as naturally as anything to him, because this was the reality he had come to know, and in which he lived. Are you as natural and at ease talking about Jesus and the resurrection as John seems to have been? Explain. Lord Jesus, be in my mind, be in my heart, be my highest priority at all times, so that…

4.  Jesus has just made a spiritual statement. His interlocutors come back at Him with a temporal and material question. Jesus doesn’t even respond. He just leaves them hanging. Do we always have to try to answer every challenge or objection, or satisfy someone’s demand for a reason or explanation? Why or why not? Lord, I’m usually not willing to risk having some objection or challenge to my faith come up. Today, give me boldness to…

5.  John mentions that he and the other disciples “believed the Scripture and the word which Jesus had said.” He seems to put the Scripture and the words of Jesus on a par. Is he justified in doing this? Explain. Bring together your prayers from questions 1-4 into one prayer.

Summary
“By the power to take his soul again and to raise the temple up, he declares himself God and the resurrection his own work: yet he refers all to the authority of his Father’s command. This is not contrary to the meaning of the apostle, when he proclaims Christ, the ‘power of God and the wisdom of God,’ thus referring all the magnificence of his work to the glory of the Father. For whatever Christ does, the power and the wisdom of God does.… Christ was raised from the dead by the working of God, for he himself worked the works of God the Father with a nature indistinguishable from God’s. And our faith in the resurrection rests on the God who raised Christ from the dead.” Hillary of Poitiers (ca. 315-367 AD)

John has as much as said, “Here’s where all this is going: a temple will be destroyed, but a new one will be built, because Jesus is going to rise from the dead.” No details, no reason why, just enough of the end of the story to keep us reading. John the fisherman, inspired by the Holy Spirit, is an excellent story-teller. He gives us big bursts of revelation, then subtle hints and mysteries, followed by big action and confrontations, then foreshadowings and retrospectives. What can we learn from John the apostle about sharing the story of Jesus with others?

Closing Prayer
Let not those who wait for You, O Lord GOD of hosts, be ashamed because of me;
Let not those who seek You be confounded because of me, O God of Israel.
Because for Your sake I have borne reproach;
Shame has covered my face.
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.
When I wept and chastenedmy soul with fasting,
That became my reproach.
I also made sackcloth my garment;
I became a byword to them.
Those who sit in the gate speak against me,
And I amthe song of the drunkards.
But as for me, my prayer is to You,
O LORD, in the acceptable time;
O God, in the multitude of Your mercy,
Hear me in the truth of Your salvation.
Deliver me out of the mire,
And let me not sink;
Let me be delivered from those who hate me,
And out of the deep waters.
Let not the floodwater overflow me,
Nor let the deep swallow me up;
And let not the pit shut its mouth on me.
Hear me, O LORD, for Your lovingkindness is  good;
Turn to me according to the multitude of Your tender mercies.

Psalm 69.6-16

Psalm 69.5-15 (Greensleeves: What Child is This?)
O God, our folly all You know, our wrongs from You are not hidden;
Let those who in Your mercy go not by our shame be smitten.
“Let none dishonored be because, O Lord, because of Me!
You make Me dishonor see; on Me reproach is written.”

O Lord, we make our prayers to You; receive our words, O Savior!
Let lovingkindness see us through, and answer us with favor!
Lord, lift us above the mire; deliv’rance is our one desire!
Let not the floods conspire to swallow us forever.

T. M. Moore

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Except as indicated, Scripture taken from the New King James Version. © Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved. All psalms for singing adapted from The Ailbe Psalter. All quotations from Church Fathers from Ancient Christian Commentary Series IV a and b: John, edited by Joel C. Elowsky, General Editor Thomas C. Oden (Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 2006. Verse translation of John by T. M. Moore.