Who Are You?

John 2:13–25 NET

Now the Jewish feast of Passover was near, so Jesus went up to Jerusalem. He found in the temple courts those who were selling oxen and sheep and doves, and the money changers sitting at tables.So he made a whip of cords and drove them all out of the temple courts, with the sheep and the oxen. He scattered the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. To those who sold the doves he said, “Take these things away from here! Do not make my Father’s house a marketplace!”His disciples remembered that it was written, “Zeal for your house will devour me.” So then the Jewish leaders responded, “What sign can you show us, since you are doing these things?”Jesus replied, “Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up again.” Then the Jewish leaders said to him, “This temple has been under construction for forty-six years, and are you going to raise it up in three days?” But Jesus was speaking about the temple of his body.So after he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this, and they believed the scripture and the saying that Jesus had spoken. Now while Jesus was in Jerusalem at the feast of the Passover, many people believed in his name because they saw the miraculous signs he was doing.But Jesus would not entrust himself to them, because he knew all people.He did not need anyone to testify about man, for he knew what was in man.

The Gospel of John has always been a little bit different from the three other biographies of Jesus included in our Bibles. While those three are not identical, most of the stories one tells can be found in at least one of the other two. John, on the other hand, has a lot of unique content found only in his book. In fact, about 92% of the stories told in this book are not found in other accounts of Jesus’ life.

But this one is… and yet, it isn’t. In Matthew, Mark, and Luke’s accounts, there are three key similarities: Each one has this story happening just a few days before Jesus is crucified, suggesting that it was a kind of last straw for the authorities. Each one also has Jesus quoting the same prophecy from the Hebrew Bible. And, importantly, each one is silent about how Jesus went about driving the money lenders from the temple.

Not John, though! Nope. In his version of the story, this is Jesus’ first truly public action. He doesn’t quote any Scripture while he’s causing mayhem, and there’s no ambiguity about how he chased people away. John tells us he made himself a rope, and then drove all of the offending people from the temple.

This is serious stuff for John. In each of the other three Gospels, by the time Jesus clears out the temple, he’s already been there several times. It’s like he knows he’s only got a few days left, so he may as well make a point about corruption in the temple. For John, it happens the very first time Jesus sets foot in the temple. He looks around, and he is consumed by zeal for the way it ought to be. He’s not sick and tired of something that’s been going on for years. He’s disgusted and outraged by something he’s just discovered. And he’s got to put a stop to it right now.

I think these changing details tell us a little more about John, the writer, than they do about Jesus, the subject. They give us a glimpse into why he decided to write this book in the first place.

See, most of the other gospel writers - not just the three in the Bible, but many of the other versions of this story we know about - they tried to fit their story into a basic pattern. That’s not to say each one didn’t have his or her own agenda - they definitely did - but they tried to communicate that agenda in subtle ways while also keeping to a pretty consistent time line of events. For instance, Matthew wants his audience to conclude that Peter is the founder of the church, while Luke wants his readers to reject Peter in favor of Paul, so they tell slightly different versions of the time Peter declared Jesus to be the chosen one. But they both tell that story, and they put it at about the same point in Jesus’ life.

John, though, is not concerned with a timeline of Jesus’ life so much as he is invested in helping people understand who Jesus is. His Gospel is not a biography so much as it is a theological treatise on the subject of Jesus. Like any good treatise, this one is arranged logically by topic. First, we are given a summary of John’s general argument, which is the first half of chapter 1. Then we move into a basic statement about who Jesus is: the second half of chapter 1, where everyone spontaneously declares him to be the Messiah.

In this section of the text, we’re now meant to be learning about Jesus’ power, and Jesus’ authority to do the things he does. So he storms into the temple first thing, and instead of quoting Scripture at them, he says plainly “Do not make my Father’s house a trading post!” My father’s house. He says the temple is his father’s house. The only person who’s supposed to dwell in the temple is God. There can be no mistake here; Jesus has announced himself to be the son of God, and he’s done it in dramatic fashion.

It doesn’t end there, though. As you might expect, storming into the temple and flogging people while declaring yourself to be the son of God tends to get people’s attention, and Jesus’ actions get the attention of the temple officials. They demand to know just who he thinks he is, barging in here and causing a scene like this. Can you prove you are who you say you are?

Maybe it’s the adrenaline, or maybe he truly doesn’t want them to understand what he’s saying, but Jesus gives a response that literally nobody there comprehends. “Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up again.” John adds that Jesus meant his body, and that the disciples would get it later. Which is good, because they definitely don’t get it then.

And it’s probably for the best that they don’t. Because in that statement, there is another claim being made by Jesus. “Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up again.” Here, he’s taken his identity claim a step further. He’s not just the son of God - sons of gods are common in mythology, and none of them have power over life and death. By saying I will raise it up again, Jesus is saying “I am not only the son of God - I myself am God.” If the people had understood that, he very likely would have been executed before sunset.

This is John’s argument in a few short sentences. For the next several chapters, he will be presenting evidence to support his claim that Jesus is both the son of God, and is in fact God.

Do you believe it? Do you believe Jesus is who he says he is? That he has the level of authority and power he has claimed? If so, how is that impacting your life? What words and commands of Jesus have you taken to heart, that you now live by?