John 2 from the daily reading in the One Year Bible

On the third day there was a wedding in Cana of Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there; 2 and both Jesus and His disciples were invited to the wedding. 3 When the wine ran out, the mother of Jesus *said to Him, “They have no wine.” 4 And Jesus said to her, “Woman, what does that have to do with us? My hour has not yet come.” 5 His mother said to the servants, “Whatever He says to you, do it.” 6 Now there were six stone waterpots set there for the Jewish custom of purification, containing twenty or thirty gallons each. 7 Jesus said to them, “Fill the waterpots with water.” So they filled them up to the brim. 8 And He said to them, “Draw some out now and take it to the headwaiter.” So they took it to him. 9 When the headwaiter tasted the water which had become wine, and did not know where it came from (but the servants who had drawn the water knew), the headwaiter called the bridegroom, 10 and said to him, “Every man serves the good wine first, and when the people have drunk freely, then he serves the poorer wine; but you have kept the good wine until now.” 11 This beginning of His signs Jesus did in Cana of Galilee, and manifested His glory, and His disciples believed in Him.

12 After this He went down to Capernaum, He and His mother and His brothers and His disciples; and they stayed there a few days.

First Passover—Cleansing the Temple

13 The Passover of the Jews was near, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. 14 And He found in the temple those who were selling oxen and sheep and doves, and the money changers seated at their tables. 15 And He made a scourge of cords, and drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and the oxen; and He poured out the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables; 16 and to those who were selling the doves He said, “Take these things away; stop making My Father’s house a place of business.” 17 His disciples remembered that it was written, “Zeal for Your house will consume me.” 18 The Jews then said to Him, “What sign do You show us as your authority for doing these things?” 19 Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” 20 The Jews then said, “It took forty-six years to build this temple, and will You raise it up in three days?” 21 But He was speaking of the temple of His body. 22 So when He was raised from the dead, His disciples remembered that He said this; and they believed the Scripture and the word which Jesus had spoken.

23 Now when He was in Jerusalem at the Passover, during the feast, many believed in His name, observing His signs which He was doing. 24 But Jesus, on His part, was not entrusting Himself to them, for He knew all men, 25 and because He did not need anyone to testify concerning man, for He Himself knew what was in man.

In today's text it says: The Passover of the Jews was near, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.  And He found in the temple those who were selling oxen and sheep and doves, and the money changers seated at their tables.  And He made a scourge of cords, and drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and the oxen; and He poured out the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables;  and to those who were selling the doves He said, “Take these things away; stop making My Father’s house a place of business.”  His disciples remembered that it was written, “Zeal for Your house will consume me.” John is the only gospel writer that describes this account of Jesus cleansing the temple at this time, when He was celebrating the first Passover of His public ministry. The other gospel writers, Matthew, Mark and Luke all describe a similar account as occurring during Jesus final visit to Jerusalem, when He celebrated His last Passover with His disciples, before He was crucified. Critics and skeptics of the Bible will often point to this as a contradiction and so as an inaccuracy of the Bible text. For anyone who has observed the natural, sinful tendencies of man though; that people often return to their ways of rebellion against God over and over, it is not difficult to believe that Jesus would have done this more than once. If we are honest, we would admit that Jesus would probably shake things up and turn things over in the church today. Even more, if we consider that we are to be the temple of God, there is probably a few things Jesus would drive out of our lives as well. So what we see here is not so much a contradiction or inaccuracy in scripture as it is man's contradiction against God and our inability to remain obedient to Him. It was zeal for the house of His Father that led Jesus to cleanse the temple over and over. It is His zeal to reconcile and restore us to the Father that led Him to the cross. That same zeal calls us to repent over and over.

The text says: The Jews then said to Him, “What sign do You show us as your authority for doing these things?”  Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.”  The Jews then said, “It took forty-six years to build this temple, and will You raise it up in three days?”  But He was speaking of the temple of His body.  So when He was raised from the dead, His disciples remembered that He said this; and they believed the Scripture and the word which Jesus had spoken. Far too often we tend to see things and understand things only according to the natural physical realm; by what we see and hear with our natural senses. Jesus taught us to pray saying: Your kingdom come, Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. We need to understand the things of the kingdom of heaven. We need to live here on earth according to the way things are in heaven. We need to realize that these physical bodies are only temporary and that to truly live we must allow these bodies to be torn down, so that we can be raised up to live with Christ in the power of the resurrection. In Matthew 16:24-27 Jesus says: “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me.  For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.  For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?  For the Son of Man is going to come in the glory of His Father with His angels, and will then repay every man according to his deeds.” Jesus was three days in the grave before He was raised back to life. For us, we are given resurrection life as soon as we surrender ourselves to Him at the cross. We become the answer to His prayer: Your kingdom come, Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Amen.

Heavenly Father, Lord Jesus Christ; precious Holy Spirit thank You that over and over You return and work in me to cleanse me of all that is not of You. May it be that Your kingdom would come and Your will would be done in and through my life. Amen.