The First Passover in Jerusalem - I Cleared the Temple

Meditations based on readings from

The Story of My Life As Told by Jesus Christ

August 8, 2019

The First Passover in Jerusalem - I Cleared the Temple

Page 57

John 2:13-25

John the Baptist affirmed that Jesus is “The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29). John is saying that Jesus is the ultimate Passover Lamb. On Jesus’ visit to Jerusalem for Passover, he reveals the desperate need of Israel for the salvation of God. The Temple was the place where God’s presence dwelt among His people. When Jesus speaks of the destruction of the Temple, he is referring to God withdrawing His presence from Israel because the intended role of the Temple had become corrupt at its core. Jesus demonstrated God’s judgment against the Temple when he cleared out the money changers and peddlers, which effectively shut down the Temple activities.

Remember Jacob’s ladder from John 1? It represents a connection between heaven and earth, and the miracles Jesus performs are heaven and earth coming together in the person of Jesus. In today’s passage, Jesus likened the Temple, the place where heaven and earth came together for the Jews, to his own body.

John says it was “On the third day,” that Jesus inaugurated his ministry at the wedding in Cana by a miracle that brought heaven and earth together in Jesus (John 2:1 NRSV). A short time later, he was in Jerusalem for the Passover when the religious leaders asked Jesus for a sign. He replied, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up” (John 2:19). Later, after his resurrection, Jesus’ disciples remembered these events “and believed both the Scriptures and what Jesus had said.” (John 2:22). Do you see the faith connection? The disciples were not resting their faith on miracles alone. They trusted what Jesus said; they trusted the witness of Scripture.

My Takeaway: John’s note about the disciples’ post-resurrection memory calls me to always be certain that I am grounding my faith in Jesus and the Word of God.

“So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God”

Romans 10:17 NKJV

Sē’lah

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(Selah is a word that appears in the Book of Psalms that I often use as the Complimentary Closing in my correspondence. Its meaning, as I use the word, is to pause and think about these things.)

These meditations are written by Alex M. Knight as he seeks the life in Christ as his way of life.  The meditations are published on the BLOG, http://seekingthelifeinchrist.blogspot.com/ and they are also distributed on the Constant Contact email server. You may subscribe to this email service by sending an email to: amkrom812@gmail.com. The BLOG is also available on Amazon Kindle, by subscription.

Copyright © 2019 by Alex M. Knight

Publications by Alex M. Knight:

• Seeking the Life in Christ, Meditations on the New Testament and Psalms has been published and is now available at Amazon.com in paperback and Kindle.

• The second edition of  First Think – Then Pray is available on Amazon Kindle.

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.