John 2
Good morning everyone! (Or afternoon, or evening, depending on when you get to this!) Let’s take a look at John 2, a much easier chapter to dig into compared to yesterday’s in my opinion…
Thought #1 – Vs. 1-12: The author here writes about Jesus’ first miracle; turning water into wine at a wedding. We’re all probably relatively familiar with this passage, and most are probably aware that when Jesus answers his mother with “Woman” it does not mean disrespect in Greek like it might in today’s world (and if not, now you know!). There is so much in this little story that we don’t know, such as who was getting married, why Jesus and his mother were attending, what the reactions were of the people who saw Jesus perform his first miracle, etc. Despite reading this multiple times, I did find something new to think about this time through. This time I saw that Mary already had faith in Jesus’ abilities before he had proven anything to her. While we also don’t know much about Mary, we can pick up a few characteristics or insights into her life from the little we read. For example, Mary’s faith has always relied on the idea about not needing to see to believe. She has always had a deep trust in God, and in His power, and isn’t afraid to boldly ask for a miracle, at least according to what we can read in the Bible. She has probably experienced God’s power in the most personal way of any human on earth, and I think it shows. In this story, she doesn’t even really acknowledge Jesus’ response, but simply tells the servants to obey him. What a mom thing to do… give a direction and not listen for any ifs, ands, or buts about it! Mary knew what Jesus could accomplish before even seeing it happen, she had no doubts in God’s power that was within Jesus. We are lucky enough to live in the present day where we have very easy access to a Bible that lays out all the miraculous things done in the past by Jesus. I think we take that for granted! I know in my own life I do not always fully trust in God or in His power to work in my life, yet I have 66 books’ worth of examples of how He has already done amazing things with that power! How can you shape your faith to be a bit more like Mary’s – trusting God’s power to do the work needed even if we can’t see the outcome yet?
Thought #2 – Vs. 13-23: I love this story about Jesus clearing out the Temple. Maybe it’s because I’m a fan of people getting in trouble when I know they are doing wrong… I was definitely that kid in elementary school that ratted out any misbehavior immediately. But beyond that, I think this story also makes for some great analogies and comes up with a lot of good thoughts! In this story we see Jesus experiencing what can be termed a “righteous anger” towards the people who have dirtied the Temple. He wasn’t just freaking out, or getting angry with people for messing up, he was upset that they were tarnishing the Temple of God in such a public way. They knew very well what that Temple was for, and yet they chose to set up shop for a personal gain that did nothing for them in the long-run. So Jesus clears them out in a very active way! Later on we see Jesus compare this Temple to himself (vs. 21) and that got me thinking about how our bodies as temples for God sometimes need a good clearing out. I’m not talking about a juice cleanse or anything like that, but I’m talking about an active removal of the things that aren’t supposed to be there. This can be a wide variety of things… fear, sin, poisonous habits or relationships, you name it. Sometimes we need to experience that same righteous anger in order to be motivated to clear out our life and get back on track with God. Do you see any areas of your life that you feel need to be cleared out so you can be back on track with God? What are you doing, or what can you do, to actively clean yourself out?
I hope our questions for today bring about some quality reflection time! I know they got me thinking!
~Sarah
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