From the Word

John 2:13-25

13 Since the Passover of the Jews was near, Jesus went up to Jerusalem.
14 He found in the temple area those who sold oxen, sheep, and doves, as well as the money-changers seated there.
15 He made a whip out of cords and drove them all out of the temple area, with the sheep and oxen, and spilled the coins of the money-changers and overturned their tables,
16 and to those who sold doves he said, "Take these out of here, and stop making my Father's house a marketplace."
17 His disciples recalled the words of scripture, "Zeal for your house will consume me."
18 At this the Jews answered and said to him, "What sign can you show us for doing this?"
19 Jesus answered and said to them, "Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up."
20 The Jews said, "This temple has been under construction for forty-six years, and you will raise it up in three days?"
21 But he was speaking about the temple of his body.
22 Therefore, when he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this, and they came to believe the scripture and the word Jesus had spoken.
23 While he was in Jerusalem for the feast of Passover, many began to believe in his name when they saw the signs he was doing.
24 But Jesus would not trust himself to them because he knew them all,
25 and did not need anyone to testify about human nature. He himself understood it well.


“Destroy this temple” Jesus says to those demanding a sign. They stare up at the temple, surprised at his gusto, but Jesus shakes his head at their lack of understanding. They look to stone, yet he speaks of flesh. They ask for evidence of his power and he offers proof of his divinity.

This exchange will play an important role in the passion of the Lord, when those accusing him bring forth witnesses who falsely say that Jesus claimed the ability to tear down the stone temple and rebuild it in three days (there is a great danger in listening to words without meaning). Yet the sign they demanded was made to come to pass by man’s unwillingness to believe without a sign.

Else where in the Gospels when people demand I sign Jesus says they will receive no sign but the sign of Jonah, that is, three days in the earth followed by a resurrection. This is the sign of our faith, the only sign Christ offered to those who demanded one. It is here that our belief hinges, from death to life, from sorrow to joy.

Christianity is inherently paradoxical. The first shall be last, and the humble shall be exalted. So it is here, that from the greatest sorrow, the death of the Messiah, comes the greatest show, the resurrection of eternal life. It is this dichotomy which separates Christianity from the rest of the world, a religion (not solely a relationship) which does not make sense, one which demands the abstraction of logic and loss of human reason (one does not reject all reason, but does not live by reason alone, for the reason of mankind is limited).

Further, we read that Christ did not trust the Jews, for He knew their human nature well. This is the other paradox of the passage. Despite the untrustworthyness of human nature, Jesus chooses to trust us to further His Kingdom. We have failed many times in the past, yet we are given the chance to fail many times in the future (or rather, the chance to succeed).

This failing of human nature takes us back to the fact that man has despoiled the temple of God, the resting place of the Shekinah (the cloud of the Presence of God), yet God chose to come down in physical form and create a new temple, and incorruptible temple which would stand to the end of time. And it is in this new temple, the Body of Christ, that one finds the greatest paradox of God: that He, the creator and holder of all being should choose to become like us, that we may become like him.

posted by J.M.R. Burgard @ 4:32 PM