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Notice too, at the creation of mankind Christ was present, for as John has already said it was He who “created all things”. Therefore it was Christ who made both Adam and then Eve. He was there at the first wedding. He created the family unit throughout all of creation both male and female. It was the union of male and female that resulted in the perfection of intimacy of His designs. Neither Adam, nor Eve, were complete on their own. In fact, some of the first marital advice ever offered in scripture was by our God to our first parents in that they should “stay together”. As a family unit only would they be able to resist the much older devil who desired their destruction. It was that Eve found herself alone, where all of the troubles began. Had Adam been at her side, the temptation might well have been resisted by the power of their combined love. But the separation and isolation made her more vulnerable, and they fell. Here in the earliest days of His ministry, Christ again attends a wedding. This act offers more than a miracle of water turning to wine, it offers another affirmation, that marriage and more importantly the intimacy that results from marriage by the surrender of two individuals into one family unit, is still something valued by God. A marriage is still something God is interested in. And like in the perfection of the Garden of Eden, it is only through the surrender of marriage that we find our ability to pour out our love on someone else and share an intimacy that God alone ordained. An intimacy He was supposed to be the center of.
A marriage, no matter what the traditions that surround it, is a joyful occasion. At this time in earth’s history, it was a common event to have wine at a wedding. The word “wine” however, carries more than one meaning. Christ referred to his own blood as being represented by wine. And due to our own carnal natures, it is sometimes common to assume the wine referred to here was alcoholic wine. However despite the fact that this story never actually says Christ drank the wine He created (that would be assumed but not specified), nor even that His disciples drank this wine (again assumed but not specified). It is clear that others drank it. So does that make Christ a divine wedding bartender? Logic would dictate that if the governor of the feast, was also participating in the feast, his taste buds would have already been dulled by alcoholic wine served early at the wedding. He might not have had the sense, or remaining sharp taste buds to determine if the new wine was actually so much superior to the old. It is also logical that if Christ wanted only what is best for mankind, for us to hear and understand His truth clearly, He would likely not have offered a drink designed to dull our ears and our perceptions. Much more likely, logic alone would dictate this wine would have been of the grape juice variety.
Author Samuele Bacchiocchi, conducted an extensive study on the original biblical manuscripts that were translated into our modern bibles of today. In his book entitled “Wine in the Bible” he provides a detailed account of how the original language used words for wine that clearly delineated it was referring to the non-alcoholic grape juice variety beverage, as opposed to the clearly alcoholic version of wine. These terms were mistranslated intentionally over the years to promote the idea that alcoholic versions of wine might have been produced or consumed by Christ, when in fact this did not occur. So the idea that whether Christ and His disciples were consuming alcohol at a wedding, or simply serving it, does not make logical sense, nor does it actually concur with the original language used to translate our scriptures.
But not having alcohol is hardly the point where it comes to making a marriage a joyous occasion. Genesis tells no stories of wine consumption being the thing that gives a marriage a reason to celebrate, or the cause for joy. It is the love and union of two hearts that brings the joy to a wedding. Having an outstanding grape juice there to drink, along with celebratory foods that comprise a feast, only adds to the joy of two families now blended in marriage. And in this marriage in particular, having the blessing of the God of the universe, who despite His mother rushing Him a bit, still took time to resolve a very human dilemma, was the real win at this feast. Notice the difference between serving self as opposed to serving others. Christ does not take the initiative to make wine because He is thirsty. He only does this, to build the faith of His disciples, and to bless those in attendance at the feast. Jesus was not a walking wine maker for those who were constantly thirsty. Much later you will recall the story of the woman drawing water at the well, a Samaritan woman who Christ asks for a drink. There would be no need of this, if He simply went around creating grape juice whenever He was thirsty. Instead He remained thirsty. In this instance, the needs of others, resulted in Him meeting those needs (again never even mentioning if He also participated in enjoying what He had created).
Marriage is an intimate thing. In verse 12 of chapter 2 John continues … “After this he went down to Capernaum, he, and his mother, and his brethren, and his disciples: and they continued there not many days.” Marriage brings the blessing of children. Love expressed generally does not stay dormant, or have no effect, it produces a result. Joseph married Mary, despite her virgin conception, and kept her virginity intact until after the birth of Christ. He did this to honor the direction given Him, as well as to see the scripture fulfilled. But after the birth of Christ, the institution of marriage does not call for continued celibacy. Joseph and Mary loved each other, their love knew the normal union, and in that expression, brothers and a sister of Christ were brought into this world. Notice how scripture distinguishes between his mother, and his brethren, and his disciples. If his brethren and his disciples were the same thing, there would only be need to state it once. Instead John draws the distinction. Christ had siblings. They shared a mother, and for Christ an adopted father here on earth, and it appears his siblings knew who He was, and some followed Him as disciples (such as Jude and James mentioned earlier).
Verse thirteen reveals the reason for their travels as Passover was near, and Jesus went up to the Temple at Jerusalem. This would be the second symbolic wedding He went to attend, the one between God and man, the one more sacred to us all, in that each of us is not only bound to our marital partner, we are also bound to our God in the intimacy of our divine relationship. It is God who knows each of us more than we know ourselves. It is God who, like with Nathaniel, hears the deepest longings of our hearts, and who desires to be with us so much He would lay down His own life to achieve that end. It is God who so loved us first, while we were yet His enemy, that He would do everything to redeem and free us from the slavery of sin and self and pain. This is the God, the Bridegroom, who goes to the place of His worship, who goes expecting to receive us, and expecting to reciprocate our desire to see Him. But alas this kind of intimacy is not what He finds. This kind of pure worship cannot even take place in His house, as by then every tradition has been corrupted.
The Temple at the arrival of Christ is filled with commerce. Religious profiteering has replaced real worship. The place where one should go, during the most important time of the year to do so, is now so full of livestock, and salesmen, selling religious supplies and making money, that real worship is literally impossible. How poignant, that the nation given so much instruction, with so rich a religious system steeped in symbolism to point forward to the Messiah, is now wholly unprepared to receive the object of their longing. No one there sees Him enter as Messiah. How could they, the sound of livestock, and profiteering salesmen fill the place. So Christ fashions “a scourge of small cords”. Notice this is not a 12 foot bull whip, nor does it carry the shards of glass in the tips of the whip that would soon be used to tear the flesh from His own body. It is just enough to move the livestock. And He began driving the livestock out of the Temple. When divinity flashed through the eyes of humanity, those who were selling religious tokens immediately saw themselves in the eyes of Christ. Like at no other time in their lives, were their evil deeds and intentions brought forward to them. Evil cannot stand in the presence of God, it craves darkness, not light. Light reveals evil for what it is. And in the presence of light, evil must flee. And so they did, running for reasons they could not fully explain. Leaving behind the very money they worked so hard to swindle from innocent religious victims. They ran before they themselves realized it.
The force of the scourge was not the reason why those doing evil flee from the brilliance of the light. It is not the fear of punishment or pain that causes the evil ones to run or to change. In a straight up fight, they outnumber Christ, and could easily defeat Him. Unscrupulous men, tend to know how to fight, how to struggle for what they want, and they do not surrender easily. But this encounter was different. When faced with pure love, evil is revealed, and it cannot remain in place. They run. It may even be possible they do not see the whip, it is the purity in the eyes of Christ, that makes them tremble all the way into their bones. This is not a man who moves their cattle, this is the Owner of the Temple they have corrupted. For those who wish no intimacy with God, for those who want what they want and have no desire to ever see themselves rid of sin and pain and evil, there is but one choice when confronted with purity … run.
Then Christ proceeds to show the world what He thinks about the value of money, particularly where it comes to money as it inhibits true worship, he overturns the tables and casts the money on the floor of the Temple. He does not count the coins. He does not gather the funds for the poor. He does not return it to those who have been swindled. The condition of the money is put in the priority of its value according to Christ – on the ground where it is literally meaningless.
The words “I desire obedience more than sacrifices” have never gone out of style with Christ. The blood of rams was not the goal of the sacrificial system of worship, the reformation of the heart was the goal. Buying a dove, or a ram, or another animal to offer was supposed to rend the heart of the sinner, and instill in them a desire to never have to repeat this process again. It was supposed to send the broken hearted sinner into the loving arms of Christ who alone could change in them what they wanted, and how they lived. But instead, it became a game of spending money to have sins wiped off the board, for this year, knowing full well, we will need to do it again next year, because we have every intention of repeating how we live every single day between now and then. No intimacy with God. No broken hearts over the innocent blood that would be shed. No desire to be any different; only to fulfill the law, and be made pure through the acts of symbolism.
And today, what has changed? We go through the traditions of our worship services. We sing repetitive worship songs with mind-numbing tunes, and simplistic lyrics that repeat ad-nauseum until all meaning has been lost. We give offerings and consider our debts to God paid in full. We listen to sermons and consider ourselves filled. We buy bumper stickers, and necklaces with religious icons, large print bibles to carry to church, and hope these symbols alone will do our witness of the gospel for us. We ask forgiveness of our sins, but not for reform from them. Our hearts are steeped in pretense, not in desire to actually change. If our system of worship had not changed from the ancient days of Israel, we would be no different than those who went to the Temple on the day in which Christ cleansed it. Our love does not define our reputation, rather our judgment of evil does. We are obsessed with the condemnation of others, and wholly complacent with the redemption of our own souls. Like those who felt no broken heart at the killing of the innocent sheep, we feel no broken heart every time we repeat our sins, having lost all perspective at the cost of our actions in the very blood of the Lord we claim to love. As in the days of old the words …”I desire obedience rather than sacrifices” still applies with poignant fervor to us. Obedience that could only come from the surrender of the will to Christ; this is what He desires way more than our money, or our meager attempts at worship and praise. To drop the pretense, and experience the intimacy with God, this is the desire of our Lord. This is what He came to experience in that Temple, and what He cleaned it out to make room for. I wonder if confronted with the purity of love in the eyes of Christ, if we too would have run away before we even realized why we fled.
The priests however, were going to lose quite a bit of money on this deal. So having gathered their senses they return to challenge Christ as to His authority to do these things. After all He had said in verse 16 … “Take these things hence; make not my Father's house an house of merchandise”. He referred to the Temple as being “my” Father’s house, again denoting the relationship of Son to Father. The priests were still reeling from the flash of divinity in the eyes of Christ, they knew who He was, but they did not want to accept what He was saying. What is more, there were people still here, people who did actually come to worship. If they allowed this young upstart to reveal His truth unchallenged they might lose all sway over the religious rubes, and see profits come crashing down. How alike in some of our churches today, where maintaining the hierarchy and organization of the church becomes more important than the dissemination of the truth, or the ministry of love and redemption to the world. So the priests, despite recent events, ask for another sign from Christ. He responds in verse 19 … “Jesus answered and said unto them, Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.”
Here again, Christ is attempting to turn the conversation from the errors the Jews clung to, to the real reason of His mission. Jesus had come to redeem mankind, and He would be the Lamb of God who must be slain. Where could a more relevant message be delivered than at the very spot where lambs were killed every year? Instead of condemning the priests for the complete lack of understanding of the meaning of His mission, He guides them to think about something in a way they have never considered, while providing His disciples with His words in their memories when times would be dark after His crucifixion. He would arise in three days. Most of the priests did not comprehend the spiritual truth He was saying. Like us, we view scripture through the lens of our own ideas and greed, and therefore interpret it according to what makes us happy. So the priests failing to recognize the symbolism He was drawing attention to, interpreted His remarks as literal and being about the physical building He was standing in. Thus they thought they had Him, but given that recent flash of divinity, they were not entirely sure, even if He was talking about the building, it might still be true.
Verses 23 to 25 of John chapter two, conclude with a worst case scenario for the priests of His day. Following this exchange Christ does “miracles” and “many believed”. Christ then restores the intimacy that weddings are supposed to bring. He restores the intimate relationship with God and mankind, by meeting the individual needs of those who came to worship. Notice that the slaying of lambs, and traditional Temple services do not appear in these words. It was Passover after all. If the traditions and symbols were more important than the God who stood behind them, we might well have found Christ conforming to the daily traditions and customs of the Temple worship establishment. Instead He is there meeting the needs of individual people who came to worship, both physical and spiritual needs. Many believed by the work He performed. Christ made no attempt at becoming high priest of Israel. He did not try to take over the religious power structure and lead it. He made no attempt at being international president of the church to which He belonged. Instead He tried in every waking moment to return the religion back to its fundamentals of surrender to God, and the intimacy that results when two are blended as one, both God and man. When we allow Christ inside of us, when we surrender our will to His, we become something different than what we are today. We become a new person, a creation re-created by God, reborn, as someone else was about to learn …
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