Friday,
Jesus is about to begin his earthly ministry and what does he stop and do first?
You might be surprised that Jesus’ first recorded miracle takes place at a wedding. The wine has run out and this would have been a devastating situation for the host. Mary (Jesus’ mother) is somehow aware of this fact and calls on Jesus to “fix it.” I love how in her mother’s way; she convinces Jesus of what he must do. She just says to the servants – Do what he says. Makes me understand that first I need to go to Jesus with all my problems – big and little, and then I need to do what He says. And all of it happens to bring glory to God. This miracle was not about saving face for the host, or Jesus making our lives easier by supplying our needs (although He does that for us) but miracles are about bringing glory to Him. And in the process we are blessed.
You might notice that Jesus clearing out the temple happens a little earlier in John’s gospel. One thing we need to remember as we read the bible, the writers were not as interested in keeping a time line of historical events as they were about the placement of events in the story they wanted to tell. I wonder if John wanted us to remember early on, that we need to clean out our temples (our bodies and minds) and use them for what they were designed for, not earthly pleasures, but rather for praying and worshiping and praising God – for God’s glory. That is what we were created for. Isaiah 43:7 states this “everyone who is called by my name, whom I created for my glory, whom I formed and made.” (ESV) Since we were created for God’s glory, we should clean out the junk in our lives that would take us away from this purpose.
John ends this chapter with some interesting insight into how Jesus sees us. Verse 25 says, “No one needed to tell him about human nature, for he knew what was in each person’s heart.”
Every time we think we can hide things from Jesus, we have to know that it can’t be done. Jesus knows. When you think about the junk that you are trying to hide in your “temple”, Jesus knows. He knew what the intention of the money changers were. It wasn’t that they were selling in the temple area as much as it was they were cheating people. Their hearts were not in the right place, their thoughts were centered on themselves.
If you are struggling with anything in your life, go to Jesus in prayer… think about this, if our bodies are our temples, and our temples are houses of prayer… then shouldn’t we be spending more of our time in prayer? Go to Jesus in truth…He already knows what’s in your heart.
Praising God
Pastor Kathy