If you’re looking for a sign, is this it? (2)

The Passover of the Jews was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. In the temple he found those who were selling oxen and sheep and pigeons, and the money-changers sitting there. 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. And he told those who sold the pigeons, “Take these things away; do not make my Father’s house a house of trade.” His disciples remembered that it was written, “Zeal for your house will consume me.” (John’s first century eyewitness biography of Jesus Chapter 2: 13-25)

It seems that we need to note that this incident took place in Jerusalem, in the temple there and, maybe most significant of all, at Passover time. Why does John report this timing? Passover (Jewish Pesach) is still celebrated every year across the world between 15 and 20 of the Jewish month of Nissan (nothing to do with cars). Those dates are also the exact dates of Christian Easter each year. It commemorates the emancipation of the Israelites from slavery in ancient Egypt around 1300 BC. They were released by their masters who had suffered the death of all firstborn males of humans and cattle. The Israelite houses had been spared because they had, as instructed by the Lord, killed lambs and marked their entrance doorways with lamb’s blood. Did you notice that Jesus “made” and then used a “whip”, not only to drive out of the temple “sheep and oxen”, but also to drive out of the temple “those who were selling oxen and sheep and pigeons, and the money-changers sitting there”? Why? Any why were “the coins of the money-changers” “poured out” and “their tables overturned”?
Was Jesus anti-trade? Or was it that “trade” (making a living?) was being worshipped, purportedly along with the LORD God, in his “Father’s house”? What do you think? Had “trade” completely replaced “prayer” to the God and Father of the Lord Jesus Christ?	.
So the Jews said to him, “What sign do you show us for doing these things?” In Cana of Galilee, Jesus had performed a wonderful sign of abundant blessing. Now, in Jerusalem, he is asked for a “sign” in order to justify his negative behaviour. But what stopped them from having him arrested for vandalism? Was it his words about his “Father’s house”? Was there, behind this request for a sign, a murderous intent about the disruption of their lifestyle and the implication that they were not doing “church” properly? Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” The Jews then said, “It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and will you raise it up in three days?” But he was speaking about the temple of his body. 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. Did Jesus’ statement, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.”, go behind their question? Did he already know what they were going to do to him? Did he know what they would actually do to him at the next but two Passover – two years later? Now when he was in Jerusalem at the Passover Feast, many believed in his name when they saw the signs that he was doing.
His name? The name “Jesus” is a transliteration (from one alphabet to another) from Hebrew Joshua. Joshua was one of the slaves released from captivity in Egypt at the first Passover. Around 1350 BC, he led the Israelites into their Promised Land. Jesus and Joshua both mean “the LORD God is the saviour”. Who is this man? This man of Cana? And this man of the whip in the temple?	.
But Jesus on his part did not entrust himself to them, because he knew all people and needed no one to bear witness about man, for he himself knew what was in man. Final question. Do you find this knowledge of “all people” rather disturbing? Especially, when it refers to “what was in man”? Does it mean that he then knew what was within each person? And didn't trust them?

Sinner Syvret

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