I love that passage in Isaiah 43:18-19 where God says, “Do not remember the past events; pay no attention to things of old. Look, I am about to do something new; even now it is coming. Do you not see it? Indeed, I will make a way in the wilderness, rivers in the desert.” This was the invitation of John the Baptist, as he cried out in the wilderness. It was Jesus’ invitation to his disciples, and their invitation to each other, “Come and See!”
I’ve had this thought recently that sometimes were doing a great disservice inviting people to come and see “the Church”—as if the church is the wilderness spectacle. Come and see our new building, our new pastor, our new carpeting, our new sound and video system. When is the last time we said to someone, “Forget all that stuff! Come and See Jesus! The God of the Universe is doing a New Thing!”
Maybe the best place to come and see Jesus is “in” a Wilderness. In the wilderness everything is stripped away. There are no lights, no buildings, no Temple, no crowd, no fan-fair, nor charm, no enticements. Are we afraid that Jesus Christ won’t be enough to captivate us?
In John 2-4 we have a series of “scenes”. Each scene reveals something new and amazing about Jesus. The first scene occurs at a Wedding Feast in Cana. A close family member of Jesus is getting married, and He invites his disciples along. One day Peter, James and John are cleaning their dirty nets on the beach. Nathaniel is meditating under some fig tree. And the next day they are literally at some wedding! “Gee, thanks for signing me up, Jesus! At least there will be wine.”
But during the wedding, a humiliating thing happens, they run out of wine. Jesus’ own mother is scrambling for a solution, and she comes to her son Jesus. Some believe that in John 2:4 Jesus is rebuking his mother. He asks, “What does that have to do with you and me, woman? My hour has not yet come.” This is almost the same language Jesus uses in John 7:6, when Jesus own brothers were pressuring him to do miraculous works and become a spectacle. He definitely rebukes them, “My time has not yet arrived, but your time is always at hand.” I take Jesus’ response to mean that God isn’t ever bound. God sovereignly acts on his own terms, and at a time of his own choosing, and according to his set purpose.
Even after all these years, there are so many religious showmen. They imagine God to somehow be at their beckon call, to be on their clock, to operate on their terms, to fulfill their good will. It isn’t God’s credibility that’s on the line when things don’t happen as we expect. It’s our credibility, or rather maybe, our poor theology, that’s really on the line.
At the wedding Jesus chooses to act, because an opportune moment has presented itself. Here sets these enormous jars of water (30 gallons!), that were used for “Jewish Purification.” Before you ate, you would use that water to purify your hands, to wash your bowls or utensils. As Jesus would point out on many occasions, the problem with the Jewish purification laws is that what goes into a person isn’t what makes them unclean. What makes a man unclean is what comes out of his heart, it’s what comes out of the deepest part of his being. Out of the heart comes every form of darkness, greed, adultery, corruption!
At the wedding Jesus takes ordinary water and completely transforms it into the finest wine. How long does it normally take to make fine wine? You have to harvest the fruit, crush and press it, let it ferment, filter and clarify it, let it age. . . experts say it takes a minimum of two months! But if you want really fine wine, you ought to leave it alone at least 6 months. If you want a really distinct wine, they say 8 months. The longer it sets, the more unique its flavor.
But here at this wedding, Jesus transform water into wine instantaneously. When the Master of the Banquet tastes the wine, it’s as if it’s undergone all its natural aging and purification. Now John tells us in John 1:11, that what Jesus is doing here is the first of many “signs” or “clues” Jesus begins giving that will reveal the fulness of his glory and incite faith! “Jesus did this, the first of his signs, in Cana of Galilee. He revealed his glory, and his disciples believed in him.”
Question: If Jesus can instantaneously transform water into wine, what might he be able to do, deep within a man, deep within the heart, mind, body, spirit of a man? Jesus can purify the deepest, darkest part of a man. But Jesus isn’t going to do it with wine, but rather, by own blood, shed on a cross. But his hour has not yet come.
A few days later Jesus and disciples get on from the wedding and go to the Temple. It’s the time of Passover, and the Temple is filled with traffic. The Passover was two holy celebrations combined into one. There was the Passover, which commemorated God’s deliverance of Israel from Egypt. And there was the Feast of the Unleavened Bread, which commemorated the haste at which Israel fled Egypt. The idea of removing the leaven or yeast from the bread was to purify yourself, removing anything corrupt or contaminated or unholy from your midst, and separating yourself as holy unto the Lord.
But the Jewish people had turned the Temple into a Marketplace in two ways. First, they setup tables to sell sacrifices. If you are traveling, don’t bother lugging your choice, firstborn oxen, sheep, doves along. You can conveniently purchase your lamb, or doves, right at the temple! Of course, you’ll have to pay big bucks. It’s like when you go to a ballgame, you could have brought your own cooler but they want you to buy stuff at the stadium so they can really gouge you!
But wait! “You want to buy a dove to sacrifice to God? What kind of coinage you got there? Oh wait, that better not be Roman coinage, bearing the image of Herod. Here, for a convenience fee, you can come over here and we’ll exchange your coinage for you. Only Visa or Mastercard are accepted. Only Tyrian coinage. Cha-ching. Cha-ching.”
At the Temple Jesus chooses to act, and not “just because” an opportune moment has presented itself. Jesus becomes enraged at the spectacle that’s been made of worship. First, it’s no longer about sacrifice, but now convenience. Second, it’s no longer about transformation, but now transaction. Third, it’s no longer about loving God with all heart, mind, body, soul but now loving mammon.
John 2:15-16 says, “After making a whip out of cords, he drove everyone out of the temple with their sheep and oxen. He also poured out the money changers’ coins and overturned the tables. He told those who were selling doves, “Get these things out of here! Stop turning my Father’s house into a marketplace!”
What’s weird about this, is that Jesus is acting zealously, as if being personally offended! To act with zeal is to act as one who is inhabited by the Spirit of the Living God Himself. No wait… did Jesus just say what I think he said? “Stop turning my *Father’s house* into a marketplace!” Only much later would the disciples put this whole thing together. Just as God had promised. The Living God who once tabernacled or camped among his people… was now standing, in their midst, in His own holy temple!
The Jews confront Jesus. Just who do you think you are? John 2:18, “What sign will you show us for doing these things?” John 2:19-22, “Jesus answered, “Destroy this temple, and I will raise it up in three days.” Therefore the Jews said, “This temple took forty-six years to build, and will you raise it up in three days?” But he was speaking about the temple of his body. So when he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this, and they believed the Scripture and the statement Jesus had made.”
It takes months to turn water into wine, but Jesus has power wash, purify sinful man in an instant. It takes 46 years to build temple, but God has the power not just to raise Jesus from death to life, but raise Jesus up in three short days.
In John 3:16 Jesus will announce, “For God loved the world in this way: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.” In Jesus not only is there real purification/forgiveness of sin, but real eternal life is available.” In John 3:3 Jesus tells Nicodemus, “Truly I tell you, unless someone is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” But Nicodemus is perplexed, In John 3:4 he asks, “How can anyone be born when he is old?” Can he enter his mother’s womb a second time and be born?”
What’s natural is it takes 8-10 months for fine wine to be made. What’s natural is it takes 46 years to build a temple. What’s natural is a man is born once, out of his mother’s womb, and appointed to die. But now God is doing a new thing! In Christ, you can be truly washed, and made clean! In Christ, you can truly live, you can be born again! And the “sign” … the “clue” that I can do this is watch what happens to these jugs of water. The “sign” and “clue” is watch what happens to the temple of my body after you break the bread of my body on that cross. God will raise me up!
John 2:23-25, “While he was in Jerusalem during the Passover Festival, many believed in his name when they saw the signs he was doing. Jesus, however, would not entrust himself to them, since he knew them all and because he did not need anyone to testify about man; for he himself knew what was in man.”
Remember what Jesus told Nathaniel in John 1:50-51, “Do you believe because I told you I saw you under the fig tree? You will see greater things than this.” Then he said, “Truly I tell you, you will see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.”
Nathaniel… it’s enough that you would come and see Jesus. Every clue that you need. Every sign and credential that you need to find purification of sin, to find hope of eternal life… is on full display in Jesus. John 1:11, “Jesus did this, the first of his signs, in Cana of Galilee. He revealed his glory, and his disciples believed in him.”
John 1:10-11, “He was in the world, and the world was created through him, and yet the world did not recognize him. 11 He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. 12 But to all who did receive him, he gave them the right to be children of God, to those who believe in his name.” John 1:14, “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us. We observed his glory, the glory as the one and only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.” John 1:18, “No one has ever seen God. The one and only Son, who is himself God and is at the Father’s side—he has revealed him.”
*Oh, that we may turn our eyes upon Jesus, and receive him.