2/24/15 by Josh Horton

"Passage: John 2.13-22

In my small group with the 9th grade boys yesterday, while we were reading through a couple of passages in Luke, chapter 9, we read the story of when Jesus fed the 5,000 and then were moving on to Jesus asking the disciples who the people thought He was. And before we read Jesus' response, one of the boys shouted, “He's doing it again!” To which I replied, “...doing what...?” “He's teaching them a lesson! Everything Jesus does has this sneaky way of teaching the disciples a lesson and they never see it coming!”
How accurate that is. In the gospels, Jesus is almost constantly teaching His disciples some lesson or another; developing air-tight metaphors through his every move and word. As we read John 2.13-22, it at first seems Jesus travels to the temple because of frustration with what's going on inside. But we later find that Jesus had something even more important to talk about: the resurrection of His temple; His conquering of death itself. This passage then ends by explaining what is potentially the chief reason Jesus takes the disciples on this journey: V22, “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.” The disciples remembered, and they believed.
What a blessing it is, that Jesus is true to His word. What a blessing it is, that we have a Savior who, by His character alone, gives us reason enough to have faith. When I read this passage, another passage immediately came to mind: 1 Cor 6.19-20, where in Paul says to the church in Corinth, “Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.” It's interesting to me that Paul uses this imagery, as Jesus went to the literal temple in Jerusalem to “drive out” and over-turn the tables of all of the things that were distracting the Jews from God. It's almost as if Jesus does the same thing in our own hearts, the new temple of God...
In this period of lenten discipline, let us be encouraged that Jesus in his character, love and glory is both giving us reason to have faith that He will keep His promises, all the while cleansing and purifying our hearts to be evermore identical to His."