John 2:17-20
So this Nazarene and his buddies arrive in Jerusalem for Passover. They stride into the Temple where the Nazarene takes a whip to the vendors in the outer courtyard, chases them all out into the street, and shouts some gibberish about his father's house. Obviously, the officials want to know what the heck he's doing and why: "Who put you in charge?" And his response? A boastful "Go ahead and knock the whole place down! I'll put it back up in three days!" At which point the crowd begins to think he's really crazy. "In three days? Three DAYS? You've got to be kidding! It's taken 46 years to complete this much! How on earth could you possibly put it all back together in three days?"
As with everything, John (we really don't know who the author was, but for ease of reference, I'm referring to him as John) must have a reason for making the Cleansing of the Temple Jesus' first truly public act. No preaching, no parable, no miracle, just barge into the temple and clear it out. Clearly, Jesus is here to make a point. The point is not obvious to the crowd at the temple, and it is not even clear to us until the next verses, which we'll read tomorrow.
In the meantime, here's this nut disrupting preparations for Passover. By morning he'll be the talk of Jerusalem. And as the saying goes, "Bad publicity is still publicity--it gets your name in the paper!" Jesus certainly has everyone's attention for whatever he's going to do next.
Peace,
Jeffri
No comments:
Post a Comment