The Shadow of Judgement

Daniel 9:20-27                            Hebrews 12:22-24                    John 2:13-22

The Shadow of Judgement

In 1882, Norwegian playwright, Hendrik Ibsen wrote a play titled “An Enemy of the People”. It is the story of a man who discovers that certain poisons were seeping into the hot water springs which provided the town with much needed funds from tourists who believed that the warm waters had healing powers. At first the town council agreed that something had to be done, until they heard of the cost involved and the time it would take to rectify the situation. They realised that if they acted according to this man’s recommendations, their lucrative income would be jeopardized, and so they craftily twisted the truth so that the whole town concluded that the man who discovered this all was actually an enemy of the people.

In 1982, one hundred years after Ibsen published his play, author Robin Cook wrote a book titled “Fever”. The book was based on Ibsen’s play, only in Cook’s novel it was a father of a very sick girl that traced her leukaemia and a neighbour boy's fatal aplastic anaemia to benzene dumped into the river flowing past their house by a local rubber and plastic recycling plant. The result of making this discovery public was the same as that of the man in Ibsen’s story. In both stories, the carrier of the deadly poisons was the same…water.

Everyone needs water to live. No one can live without water and consequently, when water is contaminated, all of life is threatened and all of life will be negatively affected. In Ibsen’s play, the waters tourists believed to have healing powers was killing them. How very tragic then for those who knew better to not only idly sit by and do nothing, but to actively suppress and twist the truth, all the while knowing full well that those who trusted in the waters were slowly being contaminated to the point of death. Indeed, how wicked. 

Now, one can draw a parallel with this story and the Temple in Jerusalem during the time of Jesus. Psalm 46:4 says, “There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God.” Now while there were springs in and around Jerusalem, there were no rivers, so what was the Psalmist talking about? Well, the next line in the Psalm makes his meaning clear. “The holy place where the Most High dwells.” In other words, this river flowed out from the Temple.

As I said last week, this imagery comes from the Garden of Eden, described as situated on a high mountain with life giving rivers flowing out from its centre. The Temple was supposed to be a physical image of a spiritual reality…a picture of this mountain with life giving water streaming from it. Wherever this water flowed, life flourished. 

But as we saw last week, the Temple in Jesus’ day was a far cry from what the prophets had predicted. Instead of life-giving water, it was spewing out the sewage of Satan, killing all who came to drink. In John 8:44 Jesus told the unbelieving Jews that they were of their father, the devil, a liar, a thief, and a murderer. In Matthew 23:13-15 Jesus said, “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you shut up the kingdom of heaven against men; for you neither go in yourselves, nor do you allow those who are entering to go in. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you devour widow’s houses, and for a pretence make long prayers. Therefore, you will receive greater condemnation. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you travel over land and sea to win one proselyte, and when he is won, you make him twice as much a son of hell as yourselves.”

Who were these scribes and Pharisees? Well, they were the leaders of the people…the teachers of the Scriptures…the “clergy” and seminary professors of the day, if you will. If they were corrupt, then everyone they taught would be corrupt too…if the source of the waters was poisoned, those who drank from the stream would die.

“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs which indeed appear beautiful outwardly, but inside are full of dead men’s bones, and all uncleanness. Even so, you also appear righteous to men, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.” Do you catch the irony here? Those who were meant to uphold the law…those who were meant to teach the law, were, in fact, themselves lawless. 

This is why the cleansing of the Temple, and the crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus, as well as the message of Psalm 69 are all linked together here. It was Jesus’ zeal for the truth that drove the unbelieving Jews to murder. That is why John placed a quotation from Psalm 69 in the middle of the story about the first cleansing of the Temple.

Now, as I said last week, any First Century hearer or reader of a quotation from the Old Testament would immediately recall the whole context of the passage or book in which the quotation is found. They would not just hear one verse used in isolation, but rather they would hear the whole teaching of which the verse was but one part. For this reason, I want us to take a closer look at Psalm 69 to see why John used it here in the context of the Temple cleansing.

Just as an aside, no other Old Testament passage, save Psalm 22, is more frequently quoted than this Psalm and I believe that as we go through it, all too quickly, unfortunately, you will recognise a number of phrases used in the New Testament.

The Psalm begins with an image of sludge-filled, flooding waters threatening to kill all in its path. Does that sound familiar? Listen.

1 Save me, O God, for the waters have come up to my neck.

2 I sink in the miry depths, where there is no foothold. I have come into the deep waters; the floods engulf me.

3 I am worn out calling for help; my throat is parched. My eyes fail, looking for my God.

4 Those who hate me without reason outnumber the hairs of my head; many are my enemies without cause, those who seek to destroy me. I am forced to restore what I did not steal.

Now, in John 15, Jesus quoted from verse 4 in his explanation of why the unbelieving Jews hated him and rejected him. “If I had not done among them the works which no one else did,” he said, “they would have no sin; but now they have both seen and also hated both me and my Father. But (and here comes the quotation) this happened that the word might be fulfilled which is written in their law, ‘They hated me without a cause.’” (John 15:22-25)

By rejecting Jesus, the leaders rejected their God…their final act of apostacy being the damning statement at the trial before Pilate: “We have no king but Caesar! Crucify him!” By quoting from Psalm 69, John showed us that the leaders had no excuse…they hated and rejected Jesus without a cause.

The next section obviously applied to King David as Jesus had not sin, but the point is not so much that he sinned, but rather that he was innocent.

5 You know my folly, O God; my guilt is not hidden from you.

6 May those who hope in you not be disgraced because of me, O Lord, the LORD Almighty; may those who seek you not be put to shame because of me, O God of Israel.

7 For I endure scorn for your sake, and shame covers my face.

Now, while it is true that Jesus had no sin of his own, he did bear upon himself our sin…our reproach…on his sinless self. As Isaiah said, “Surely, he too up our pain and bore our suffering, yet we considered him punished by God, stricken by him, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed.” Our guilt…our disgrace…our shame…was laid on him even though he was innocent.

But now comes the quotation found in our Gospel passage. 

8 I am a stranger to my brothers, an alien to my own mother's sons;

9 for zeal for your house consumes me, and the insults of those who insult you fall on me.

10 When I weep and fast, I must endure scorn;

11 when I put on sackcloth, people make sport of me.

12 Those who sit at the gate mock me, and I am the song of the drunkards.

Yes, Jesus own brothers did not believe in him until after the resurrection…but I believe this verse speaks to more than just his immediate kin. John tells us in his prologue that Jesus came to his own, and his own did not receive him. He was in the world, and the world was made through him, but the world did not recognise him. Think on this. The leaders, the scribes, the Pharisees, the priests, the Levites, the Sadducees…these were people who claimed to know God. But when God stood right in front of them, they rejected him. 

Why? Because he had zeal for God’s house. That’s why they hated him. He had a zeal for God and that means everything pertaining to God. Their zeal began and ended with themselves. They robbed the poor and needy…they accepted idolatrous coins into the Temple treasury because of the high silver content…they allowed the Romans to appoint their High Priest and their king…they compromised the truth for the sake of expediency…they rendered God’s Word null and void with their traditions. Tradition and so-called reason trumped the truth! Like the shepherds spoken of in Ezekiel 34, the leaders had neglected to feed the sheep…instead they preyed on them, stripping the widows even of their last mite, rejecting the doctrine of God by teaching and upholding and implementing the doctrines of men.

Everything that follows in the rest of the Psalm points back to this verse. It was the zeal of the Psalmist that brought on the persecution. The same is true with Jesus. He exposed their religious inventions by teaching the truth of Scriptures. In the sermon on the Mount, Jesus repeatedly pointed out that what the leaders had taught the people contradicted the Word. You have heard that it was said…you have heard what they have taught you…but this, Jesus said, quoting from the Scriptures, this is the truth. It was this zeal for truth that angered the leaders of the people and so they plotted to kill him.

Zeal for the truth will always bring on persecution. Jesus said that if the world hated him, they will hate us. (John 15:20) Paul warned that all who seek to live godly lives would be persecuted. (2 Timothy 3:12) Peter tells us not to be surprised when we suffer persecution for teaching God’s Word. (1 Peter 4:11-12) Zeal for God…zeal for the Word…zeal for the truth is not acceptable to those who wish to push their own agenda. 

And so, the Psalmist prays:

 13 But I pray to you, O LORD, in the time of your favour; in your great love, O God, answer me with your sure salvation.

14 Rescue me from the mire, do not let me sink; deliver me from those who hate me, from the deep waters.

15 Do not let the floodwaters engulf me or the depths swallow me up or the pit close its mouth over me.

16 Answer me, O LORD, out of the goodness of your love; in your great mercy turn to me.

17 Do not hide your face from your servant; answer me quickly, for I am in trouble.

18 Come near and rescue me; redeem me because of my foes.

19 You know how I am scorned, disgraced and shamed; all my enemies are before you.

20 Scorn has broken my heart and has left me helpless; I looked for sympathy, but there was none, for comforters, but I found none.

21 They put gall in my food and gave me vinegar for my thirst.

Of course, this was originally the prayer of David, but we see echoes of it in the passion of Jesus too. Jesus prayed that if it was possible that the bitter cup of judgement would pass from him…but because he submitted to the will of God, he was fully vindicated. When Jesus quoted the first line of Psalm 22 from the cross, he was still teaching his disciples…urging them to remember the context of that Psalm that taught that God did not hide his face from him…it may often seem as if he has, but he never leaves or forsakes his children…he will always justify us. Perception must bow to faith and trust. I’m sure that you have already noticed the reference to gall and vinegar…an expression of insult for David, but an awful reality for Jesus. This Psalm was frequently cited in the New Testament as a prediction of the sufferings of Jesus.

But it is what the Psalmist says next that is of interest to us as we grapple to understand the impending judgement alluded to in the first and second cleansings of the Temple. 

22 May the table set before them become a snare; may it become retribution and a trap.

23 May their eyes be darkened so they cannot see, and their backs be bent forever.

Paul quotes these verses in Romans 11:7-10 as he spoke about the falling away of the unbelieving Jews. “What the people of Israel sought so earnestly they did not obtain. The elect among them did, but the others were hardened, as it is written: ‘God gave them a spirit of stupor, eyes that could not see and ears that could not hear, to this very day.’ And David says: ‘May their table become a snare and a trap, a stumbling block and a retribution for them. May their eyes be darkened so they cannot see, and their backs be bent forever.’” 

It is hard to say exactly what Paul had in mind with regard to the “table” that became a snare, a trap, and a stumbling block for them, but by comparing this statement to others where the Apostle used the same words with regard to the Jews stumbling over Jesus, we can safely assume that this had something to do with table fellowship in the kingdom…in other words, who would sit around God’s table. Indeed, Jesus frequently referred to the kingdom in terms of a banquet. For example, in Matthew 8:11, he said: “I say to you that many will come from the east and the west and will take their places at the feast with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. But the subjects of the kingdom will be thrown outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”

But the rejection of the truth always ends in judgement. It is therefore no surprise to read the further prayers of the Psalmist.

24 Pour out your wrath on them; let your fierce anger overtake them.

25 May their place be deserted; let there be no one to dwell in their tents.

26 For they persecute those you wound and talk about the pain of those you hurt.

27 Charge them with crime upon crime; do not let them share in your salvation.

28 May they be blotted out of the book of life and not be listed with the righteous.

OUCH! We tend to shy away from such prayers today. It just doesn’t sound very loving, does it? But, let me ask, dearest beloved brethren…is it ever loving to allow evil to flourish unchecked and unchallenged? 

Philosopher John Stuart Mill once said: “Let not anyone pacify his conscience by the delusion that he can do no harm if he takes no part and forms no opinion. Bad men need nothing more to compass their ends, than that good men should look on and do nothing. He is not a good man who, without a protest, allows wrong to be committed in his name…” 

You see, when we refuse to confront and deal with evil, we allow evil to triumph. Just like the town council in Ibsen’s play or like the authorities in Cook’s novel, those who say or do nothing are as guilty as those who poisoned the water. 

Yes, our speaking out may not win us favour with the world, but if we have chosen to follow in the footsteps of the one who gave up his life to save us, we need to remember that obedience to the truth is better than empty religiosity. Confronting evil, especially when it threatens to ensnare and enslave and mislead, glorifies God as it praises and exults the one who is true. As the Psalmist said:

29 I am in pain and distress; may your salvation, O God, protect me.

30 I will praise God's name in song and glorify him with thanksgiving.

31 This will please the LORD more than an ox, more than a bull with its horns and hoofs.

32 The poor will see and be glad-- you who seek God, may your hearts live!

33 The LORD hears the needy and does not despise his captive people.

And so, the Psalm ends on a triumphant note:

34 Let heaven and earth praise him, the seas and all that move in them,

35 for God will save Zion and rebuild the cities of Judah. Then people will settle there and possess it;

36 the children of his servants will inherit it, and those who love his name will dwell there.

Zeal for God and for truth may make us enemies of the people, but we will be vindicated. If we deal with the poisoned waters…if we do whatever it takes to purge the Church of all erroneous and false teachings…we will continue to be the conduit for the life giving water that flows from the throne of God and of the Lamb. 

We must remember that we are now the Temple of the Holy Spirit. Jesus promised that we…like the Tabernacle and the Temple…we would be inhabited by the Godhead, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The dwelling of God is with the Church. Remember what John said in Revelation 21:3:

“Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God.”

This is an echo of what he said in John 1:14:

“The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.”

And as Paul said in 2 Corinthians 6:16, quoting from Lev 26:12:

“For we are the Temple of the living God. As God has said: ‘I will live with them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they will be my people.’”

But if the Church, like the Temple in Jesus day, is defiled…if we who claim the name of Jesus are projecting an image other than that of our holy God…will we not be judged too? The Church…the New Jerusalem…is portrayed by John as Eden restored…there is a river of life flowing out from it with the Tree of life bearing fruit and leaves for the healing of the nations. The curse has been reversed. 

But if our water is poisoned…or if we neglect to deal with the pollution in our midst…if we have forsaken our first love…if we tolerate the false teaching that misleads…if we are dead or lukewarm…will our Lord not spit us out of his mouth and withdraw from us? Our God is holy, dearest beloved brethren. 

The shadow of judgement that was cast over the Temple surely serves as a warning for us today as well. What flows out from us? Life? Healing? Truth? Reconciliation? Or has our water been poisoned. Let us ask the Holy Spirit to examine our hearts so that he may remove all that is not from him. 

Shall we pray?

Search me, O God…search me and know my heart…test me…see my anxious thoughts. Examine me and expose any and every offensive way in me…and lead me in the way everlasting.

Amen.

© Johannes W H van der Bijl

Foreshadowing Judgement

Psalm 69:1-12                       Ezekiel 34:1-10                      John 2:13-22

Foreshadowing Judgement

Two men once robbed a jewellery store. One was a lawyer and the other was a high school dropout. Both were caught, arrested, convicted, and sentenced to imprisonment. The judge ordered the dropout to be incarcerated for three years, but the lawyer received a ten-year sentence. When questioned about the imbalanced nature of the two sentences, the judge stated that the lawyer knew what was right, and yet he deliberately chose to do what was wrong. Knowing the truth made him more responsible and therefore he deserved a stricter punishment. James said the same about church leaders and teachers…those who know the truth and yet choose to teach what is contrary to the truth will be judged with greater strictness (James 3:1).

The two cleansings (or purifications) of the Temple at the beginning and end of Jesus’ ministry, I believe, serve as boundary markers. The first cleansing is a warning, heralding a time of grace…a time during which Jesus would repeatedly call Israel back to the God revealed in the Scriptures…calling them to the abandonment of the ways of the world and to the submission to the truth of God’s Word. “Why do you call me, Lord,” Jesus asked, “and yet do not do what I tell you?”

The second cleansing marks the end of this period, closing the time frame and heralding a time of judgement. While the first cleansing alerted them of what was to come, the second signalled the beginning of the fulfilment of the warning. The first cleansing exposed the error…the second showed that nothing had changed…the warning had gone unheeded. God was about to deal with the false shepherds. Both cleansings foreshadowed the greater cleansing that would come through the cross, but both also predicted the destruction of the old corrupt order and the rise of the new holy order.

But today we are dealing with the first cleansing…the one that marks the beginning of the period of God’s gracious and merciful reaching out to his people…one which marks the beginning of the long shadow of judgement – the Lord suddenly coming to his temple to purify the sons of Levi – that will ultimately culminate in the Lord leaving the Temple handing it over for devastation and desolation.  

I believe that John recorded this event using a common writing design or form called a “quadrumanous chiasm”. Isn’t that a lovely word? Quadrumanous. It just means fourfold, but it just sounds so glamorously intelligent, doesn’t it? The chiastic style was used in many places in the Old Testament, especially the Psalms, as an aid to understanding and memorisation.

What this means is that the Apostle designed the story in such a way that it would highlight the middle section where Jesus quoted from Psalm 69, because Psalm 69 holds the key to the understanding of what Jesus was demonstrating by his actions. If you examine John 2:13-22 you will find this following form:

The Old Covenant Passover (2:13)

       The Old Corrupt Temple (2:14)

              The Messianic Sign given (2:15-16) (The Lord suddenly coming to his temple to purify the sons 

               of Levi, Malachi 3) “these things” repeated in 18

                     The Shadow of Judgement (2:17) with a quotation from Psalm 69

              The Messianic Sign demanded (2:18) “these things” from 16

       The New Holy Temple (2:19-21)

The New Covenant Passover (2:22)

Now, we don’t have time to go through Psalm 69 today, so we will look at that next week (in other words, do not miss the next gripping instalment), but what we will try to do now is to set ourselves up for what Psalm 69 teaches and how that relates to what Jesus did in this passage. So, what I want us to do is to link the corresponding parts as we go through the passage.

First the Old Covenant Passover was contrasted with the New Covenant Passover in verses 13 and 22. As y’all know, in the Old Covenant Passover, the pure and spotless Passover Lamb was slaughtered, and its blood daubed on the doorposts of the houses of God’s people. The angel of death then passed over the house when he saw the blood. This festival was repeated every year to remind Israel of God’s gracious deliverance from slavery in Egypt and that this deliverance was the basis for the covenantal relationship with him. 

But Paul referred to Jesus in 1 Corinthians 5:7 as “our Passover” who was “sacrificed for us”.…in other words for our deliverance from slavery to the greatest captivity of all time...from slavery to sin. The first lamb was a sign…the second the fulfilment. The first was an image…the second was the reality. Of course, the sign was not unimportant…it was necessary as it pointed forward to its greater consequence…but it was just insufficient.

However, the timing of this cleansing is significant as it is also at a Passover that the greatest cleansing of all is fulfilled. This was a time when deliverance from bondage should have been foremost on everyone’s mind. And yet here they were shackled to an empty system of rule and ritual and rite. The symbol of liberty had become a greedy burden. And so, John contrasts this with the far superior deliverance yet to come. 

But this contrast leads us to yet another contrast, namely that of the Temple itself. Once again, we see the image compared with the reality. The book of Hebrews tells us that the Temple was a mere copy, a sketch, a shadow, or a replica of the true temple in heaven (Hebrews 8:5, 9:24) A pattern was revealed to Moses so that he could build a physical illustration of a spiritual truth. Everything in and of the Temple was a reflection of what is in and of heaven. So, it was a very serious matter if the priests erred in their duties and responsibilities or worse…if they made up their own rules and did their own thing (think of Hophni and Phineas, the sons of Eli)…because that would result in confusion and a misrepresentation of heaven and a misunderstanding of God and his ways.

For the Old Testament believer, the Temple was the navel of the world, as it represented the nucleus of the cosmos. It was where God had chosen to reveal himself to his people…where he chose to meet with his people. What happened at the Temple influenced all of life. So, if God’s Word was taught and upheld by the priests, then the Temple brought forth life. But the opposite is just as true. If the Word was not taught or if the Word was changed or compromised by the priests, death would flow from its doors. Jeremiah lamented that God’s people had forsaken him, the fountain of living water, and hewn out for themselves broken cisterns. (Jeremiah 2:13)

The prophets spoke of a pure river of water that would flow from the threshold of the Messianic Temple. (See Ezekiel 47:1-12; Joel 3:18; Zechariah 14:8) “On that day,” Zechariah prophesied, “a fountain will be opened to the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, to cleanse them from sin and impurity.” In the Revelation of Jesus Christ, John described the river of life as flowing from the very throne of God and of the Lamb in the heavenly Jerusalem. Standing on the southern steps during the Festival of Tabernacles, Jesus once more indicated that he was the real Temple when he stated that out of him…from his midst or from his navel, as it were…rivers of living waters would flow. 

The Temple in Jesus day was the brainchild of Herod the Great, an Edomite puppet king, who had been placed in that position of power by the Roman government. Construction had begun around 19 BC and it was not completed until the reign of Herod Agrippa in AD 63…ironically just seven years shy of the destruction of Jerusalem. Because of political involvement and interference, the Temple leadership had become corrupt (their High Priest, Caiaphas, had been appointed in AD 18 by the Roman prefect Valerius Gratus). As such the Temple leadership was as corrupt as the Medieval Church at the time of Luther…or perhaps, one might dare to say, as corrupt as some leaders in the modern Church today. When the tail wags the dog, you know you have a problem.

Now, the money changers mentioned here served as agents of exchange. Ironically, the leaders declared that the Tyrian shekel, a coin bearing the image of the Phoenician god Melqart otherwise known as Baal and yet containing at least 94 percent silver, was the only legal currency that was acceptable in the Temple. Now, can you remember someone else receiving coins of silver in the Temple? Yes, no doubt it was this same acceptable shekel taken from the Temple Treasury and given to Judas to betray the Lord Jesus…30 pieces of silver. 

Do you get the tragedy of this drama? The money changers changed “unclean” money for “clean” money so that the worshippers could buy their sacrificial animals. Judas would exchange and destroy the clean sacrificial Lamb of God for what became unclean or blood money, and the leaders would exchange and destroy the true Temple to preserve their own corrupt temple! A Temple, I hasten to add, that had never been blessed with the Shekinah Glory of God as with the Tabernacle and the Temple of Solomon!

In this passage, Jesus gave the leaders two clear Messianic signs. The first was the cleansing itself. In Malachi 3 the prophet tells his readers that the Lord would suddenly come to his temple like a refiner and purifier of silver to purify the sons of Levi until they would present righteous offerings to the Lord. Seriously, you can’t make this up!

So, the very act of cleansing the Temple ought to have set their minds alight…but as with all unregenerate minds, they missed the sign by a mile. We know that because they then asked for one…they dared to ask for a sign. 

And how did Jesus respond? With yet another comparison, yes! “Destroy this Temple, and in three days I will raise it up!” Of course, they don’t get that either as their eyes were so firmly focused on the copy that they simply could not see the reality.

But here’s a question. Did the leaders ever see this sign…this sign predicted by Jesus? Yes, they did. Remember after Jesus’ resurrection the terrified Roman guards reported what they had witnessed…the resurrection of Jesus in three days! And how did the leaders respond? The same as they did with all the signs. It is interesting to note here that they bribed the guards by giving them a large sum of money…perhaps the same silver Temple shekel…we don’t know.

This brings us to the centre of the chiasm…remember that wonderful word? Quadrumanous chiasm. Just saying that makes me feel super intelligent. Feel free to use it when you get together for coffee with your friends. 

The centre to which John leads us by means of this chiasm is found in verse 17. To most folks this may not look like a big deal, but to the first century believer, all sorts of alarm bells would be ringing at this point. You need to remember that when anyone quoted a line from the Old Testament, the listener would quite naturally bring to mind the teaching or the message or the context, if you will, of the whole passage as well as other related passages. 

This quotation is taken from Psalm 69 which we will look at in more detail next week, but for the sake of clarity, I want to quickly sketch the outline of what we will examine next week. The Psalm has to do with the unjust betrayal and rejection of the Psalmist by those closest to him. But in order to appreciate the connection between Psalm 69 and the cleansing of the Temple, we need to remember that those who should have been the closest to Jesus…the leaders, the priests, the Levites…were, in fact, the furthest. Those who taught the law, who served in the Temple, who prepared and offered the sacrifices, who daily witnessed and observed the signs of which Jesus was the reality, were those who were far from him. 

The Temple was meant to be an agent of life…as we’ve already seen, Ezekiel described it as a place from where a river of life-giving water flows. It was meant to mirror Paradise…the Garden of Eden with all the rivers flowing out from it to water the world. But the serpent was once again at work and what was meant to bring life, brought death. Remember, Jesus likened the leaders to whited sepulchres full of death. He also told them that their ministry made their converts twice the children of hell as what they were. The Temple was a centre of death, not life. The waters flowing from its doors were poisoned with the false and worldly teachings of those Jesus called the children of Satan. Wormwood had fallen right into the centre of the fountain, and it turned the waters that issued from the Temple bitter, and many people died from the bitter waters. (Revelation 8:11)

So, the Temple had to be cleansed so that it could become a source of life once more. But if it resisted purification, it would be destroyed and replaced with a New Temple from which a river would flow to bring healing to the nations. I suppose it would be fair to say that this ought to be a warning to the Church as well.

Referring to Psalm 69 therefore served as a damning indictment against the sons of Levi as they spewed forth the sewage of Satan and drowned those who sank in the mire they created. It was Jesus’ zeal for God’s house that drove him to expose this candy-coated poisoned death pill for what it was…and they responded by planning to push him under their flood of filth as well.

In neglecting to be cleansed…by neglecting to caste off their compromise with the political powers…the leaders brought upon themselves the fury of the Holy God as in AD 70 he came once more to his Temple…not to cleanse, but to destroy. A modern-day application is easy to make…it doesn’t even have to be mentioned by name. 

It is a serious thing indeed for the people of God to misrepresent him before the world. Like the lawyer, we ought to know better and therefore we will be judged with greater strictness. Our Lord may warn many times, but at some point, he will come to purge and to expel and to terminate. Perhaps the time has come once more for judgement to begin with the household of God…but what will be the end of those who do not obey the Gospel? (1 Peter 4:17)

The Scriptures tell us that we…you and me…collectively and individually…we are the Temple of the Holy Spirit. If Jesus were to walk into your life today, what would he cleanse? What would he overturn? What would he cast out?

Shall we pray?

© Johannes W H van der Bijl 2023

Rushing Wind:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EL-9-Bk9Ocw

Washed With Wine

Isaiah 62:2-10                                      John 2:1-12

Washed With Wine

What do you do when you accidentally put diesel in your petrol tank? Do you just drive anyway, hoping for the best? Do you just add more petrol with the hope that it will dilute the diesel?  No, you need to call the breakdown service immediately to come to you to drain and flush, not just the fuel tank, but the whole fuel system. You cannot and must not drive your car until it has been thoroughly cleansed and “purified”.

This is true of our spiritual lives as well. When we allow the impure to invade us…or to use the words of Paul, when we conform to the ways of the world…we too need to be drained and flushed…we too need to be cleansed and purified…we need to be transformed.

There is so much going on in chapter 2 of John’s Gospel…so many images…symbols of deliverance and abundant life…so much that needs to be seen, acknowledged, and examined if we are to fully comprehend and appreciate what John is trying to convey to us. There is a wedding, there is an abundance of the best wine, and there is a reminder of liberation from slavery: the Passover. In both the stories told in this chapter, the wedding in Cana and the cleansing of the Temple, John spoke of “signs”…the first is a sign Jesus performed to reveal his glory to his disciples…the second is a sign demanded, by non-disciples, for Jesus to reveal the source of his authority. 

Also in both stories, the need for purity or purification is emphasised…the use of purification jars for the transformation of water into wine would not have gone unnoticed by 1st century believers, as would the need to purify a defiled Temple. This act of cleansing or purifying is coupled in both stories to the death and resurrection of Jesus as at the wedding he referred to his “hour” or his “time” that had not yet come, and at the temple he spoke of the destruction and subsequent raising up of his body as the new Temple. We also know that later Jesus referred to himself as the True Vine and to his blood shed for the atonement of sin as the cup of wine at Passover…his body broken, his blood shed…words used at the institution of the Eucharist or the Lord’s Supper. 

I believe it is also significant that the sign at the wedding was performed on the third day and that Jesus said that the sign to prove his authority would become apparent on the third day. 

So much to explore in this chapter and yet so little time…for this reason, we are going to limit ourselves to the first story today, but I do want you to have both connected in your minds as we examine them separately. 

Weddings in the Ancient Near East were grand affairs. There were great celebrations, with the ceremony usually taking place in the evening…Wednesday if the bride was a virgin and Thursday is she was a widow…and this only after an elaborate feast. Then there was the procession to the home of the groom, a joyous, noisy parade, with an open house and entertainment that could last for a week or more. 

So, it would be a shameful thing for the host to run out of anything, especially wine! Such an occurrence would be regarded as an insult to those present and could lead to possible future social isolation of the family. So, the wine running out here was a rather serious matter.

We are not told why Mary stepped in to rescue the situation…perhaps she was a relative or maybe she was just “there-is-a-problem-I-need-to-fix-it” type person…and we are also not told why she thought Jesus could do something about it! Had she witnessed Jesus transforming something before? 

“Oh no, here comes Aunt Jemima with her five children…we don’t have enough food on the…wow! Where did those fish come from? Jesus?” We just don’t know…but what we do know is that she clearly believed that Jesus could do something to save the day. 

Some commentators are puzzled by what they perceive to be a bit of a rude reply from Jesus, as if he was irritated by her meddling. Quite literally he said to her, “Woman, what does your concern have to do with me?” “Woman” was not a word usually used by the ancient when addressing their mother. However, Jesus also called his mother “woman” at the cross in a moment of great tenderness and concern, so the use of the word “woman” does not appear to be rude at all…to the contrary. 

When I read this, I see more of a loving playful interaction between mother and son. Clearly John believed that Jesus intended to change the water into wine because this act was the first of the signs Jesus did to reveal himself and his purpose. Jesus never did anything because he was forced to – nor did he do anything coincidentally…everything was always deliberate and intentional…in John 5 Jesus said, “I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does.”

But as with everything else Jesus said and did, this was a teaching moment. By referring to his “hour” or his “time” that was yet to come, Jesus used this “sign” to be the first indicator of what lay ahead. Later in John 12 Jesus said to his disciples, “the hour has come that the Son of Man should be glorified” and then he proceeded to speak about the crucifixion, and its benefits. In John 13 we read that Jesus prepared to have the final Passover meal with his disciples once he knew that his “hour” had come. There are more references in the Gospel of John where Jesus equated this “hour” with his death on the cross as well as the resurrection…that which was instrumental in granting us access to the wedding feast of the lamb. 

Now, I don’t think that it was coincidental that it was at a wedding that Jesus performed the first of several signs or indicators. The intimate relationship between God and his people is often portrayed in terms of a marriage in the Old Testament. In Hosea 2 the Lord bewailed the fact that Israel, his wife by covenant, had defiled herself. When Isaiah spoke about the Messianic age, he described the mystical union of God and his people as a marriage. It is no surprise then, that John used the same imagery to announce the inauguration of the Church in Revelation 19:7. “Let us be glad and rejoice and give him glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and his wife has made herself ready.” For this reason, I think that Jesus intentionally mentioned his “hour” at this wedding in Cana (right at the beginning of his earthly ministry) to indicate that what he was about to do was more than just help the host to save face…even if this was only understood in hindsight.

The Scriptures teach us that God’s plan is eternal and unchangeable and that it therefore includes all the acts of created beings. According to Proverbs 16:33, even something as random and as apparently unpredictable as the casting of lots or the rolling of dice is within our Lord’s sovereign control. “The lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is form the Lord.” Or as the New Living Translation renders it: We may throw the dice, but the Lord determines how they fall.”

In fact, the Scriptures indicate that God’s plans even include the sinful acts of people that he then turns around to bring about something good. Remember what Joseph said to his wicked brothers in Genesis 50:20? “You meant evil against me but God meant it for good in order to bring about this present result, to preserve many people alive.” Also, in a passage we looked at briefly in the last talk, Acts 4:27-28, the Early believers prayed, “for truly against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles and the people of Israel were gathered together to do whatever your hand and your purpose determined before to be done.” God’s plan is sovereign and as such it incorporates all the actions of his creatures.

Now, let’s look at what Jesus instructed the servants to do. He told them to fill six stone water jars with water. John tells us that these specific jars were the kind used by the Jews for their purification rites. In other words, these jars were used to pour clean water over unwashed or unclean hands as well as to clean certain vessels, but (and this is important) they were never used as storage jars for drinking water. So why did Jesus choose these specific jars? Why not use the now empty wine vessels for instance? 

In the book of the Revelation of Jesus, John wrote: “Grace to you and peace from him who is and who was and who is to come, and from the seven Spirits who are before his throne, and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler over the kings of the earth. To him who loved us and washed us from our sins with his own blood, and has made us kings and priests to his God and Father, to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.” Also, in 1 John 1:7, he wrote, “But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.”

I believe that John understood why Jesus used purification jars in his first sign. The one who performed this sign of changing water contained in purification jars into the best wine, was also the one who would pour out his precious blood in abundance for the purification of sinners. His blood which he said was illustrated by the cup of wine at the institution of the Eucharist or Lord’s Supper. But whereas the waters of purification could cleanse the external…hands and dishes…the wine that Jesus gives cleanses the hearts and souls of people. It is a washing parallel to none.

As the wine was brought out to the master of ceremonies, he marvelled at its exceptional quality. So too, the cleansing that comes from being washed in the blood of the Lamb…washed with wine…is by far superior to the various ceremonial washings. By this, John said, Jesus manifested his glory – another indication that this sign pointed forward to the cross – and, we are told, his disciples believed in him.

John said that this was the first sign…please note, not the first miracle…but the first sign. In John’s Gospel, there is a difference. Jesus did many miracles, but only seven signs that served as markers on the way to the cross…all pointing to his divine person and divine purpose…leading the disciples to their mind-boggling conclusion about Jesus after the resurrection and ascension. In John’s Gospel they were recorded so that others might come to the same conclusion as that of the disciples…that they too might come to believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God…and that by believing in him, they too might have eternal life.

It is interesting to note that we are not told if anyone else at this wedding, other than his disciples, believed…in fact, we know that Jesus’ brothers did not believe as John says as much in chapter 7:5. We are told that the servants knew what had happened to the water in the jars…but we are not told whether or not they actually believed in Jesus.

Am I pushing it if I say that just as the wine was offered to all so too the purifying sacrifice of Jesus is offered to all…and yet not all believe? Some may even know the truth, claiming to be followers of Jesus, and yet they deliberately choose to embrace falsehood. As Daniel said, “Many will be purified, made spotless and refined, but the wicked will continue to be wicked. None of the wicked will understand, but those who are wise will understand.” (Daniel 12:10)

There is a reason why Paul warned us not to be conformed to the ways of the world, but to be transformed by the renewing of our minds.  We have the promises of freedom and abundant life freely offered to us through Jesus. Like a petrol car is drained and flushed from all traces of diesel, we are purified and cleansed from sin. Why then would we return to it like a dog to its vomit? It just doesn’t make sense, does it?

Let us rather follow the advice of Paul and purify ourselves from everything that contaminates body and spirit, perfecting holiness out of reverence for God. (2 Corinthians 7:1) Our God is a holy God, dearest beloved brethren and he has revealed to us clearly in the Scriptures what is good and what he requires of us: to do what is right, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with our God. (Micah 6:8) We are to walk in the light because he is in the light.

The blood of Jesus washes us whiter than snow…his blood cleanses us from the stain and filth of sin. This purification is symbolised in the act of our partaking of the elements of bread and wine in the Eucharist. Jesus said, do this…this “sign, if you will…do this in remembrance of me…in other words, bring to mind what I have done for you every time you eat this bread and drink this wine…and as you partake of these “signs”, hear again the words of Jesus: “Your sins are forgiven…go and sin no more.”

Shall we pray?

© Johannes W H van der Bijl 2023