John 2

John 2:1-12

• 2:1—How many days are we dealing with?
  a. Have we backed up in time?
  b. Is it three days later?
  i. If so, then we are at the beginning of a new week.
  ii. Is there a subtle hint in John’s mention of “the third day?”
  iii. It is not an accident that this sign is on the seventh day and that it begins Jesus’ ministry.
  c. Genesis 1:9-13—The wedding began on Tuesday because the Jews believed the third day of Creation was more blessed due to God saying “it was good” twice.
  d. To the Jews, this reference symbolizes the Sabbath Day. To the Christians, this reference symbolizes the Resurrection. It is supposed to be both because John’s Gospel is pointing to Jesus (Brown, 103-105).
• 2:2—This is the first reference to Jesus having disciples of His own.
• 2:4—Jesus’ response to His mother.
  a. Jesus’ mother is mentioned here yet is never referred to by name.
  b. The term “mother” is intended to be a term of respect and admiration, yet it shows distance because Jesus has outgrown obedience and has entered public life as an adult.
  c. This sign is analogous to the Resurrection.
  d. How significant is the description of the water jugs?
  i. Qumran was a community that was continually cleansing itself and would have needed large amounts of water.
  ii. There were 39 stipulations for keeping the Sabbath. Jesus is now redefining the Sabbath: doing good on the Sabbath honors the purpose of the Sabbath.
  e. There are now 180 gallons of new wine!
  i. There will be an overflow of new wine at the Messianic banquet (Amos 9:13-14; Isaiah 25:6; Joel 2:18-19; 2 Baruch).
  ii. One familiar with these texts would be familiar with the Jewish purification codes and would recognize the semblance of fresh, new wine.
  iii. To Christian readers, this is the first in-breaking of the Messiah on Sunday.There were 39 stipulations for keeping the Sabbath. Jesus is now redefining the Sabbath: doing good on the Sabbath honors the purpose of the Sabbath.
  f. “Hour” is symbolic in that this sign is not part of the agenda.
  i. Jesus is not here to be diverted or manipulated. He is here to complete the mission that God has sent Him on.
  ii. Jesus is working from a different calendar.
  iii. Jesus is living in a different time, one that is pregnant with opportunity and mission.
  iv. Jesus’ time rips into our time and runs on its own understanding of reality.
• How would the Church read this narrative?
  1. Is it symbolic of the Eucharist?
  2. This is new, fresh, fulfilling wine!
  3. In Revelation, John will be invited to sit at Jesus’ banquet table.
  4. This is not the last time that Jesus will serve a group of people in a communal fashion.

John 2:13-25

• This is the first time that Jesus comes to Jerusalem.
• Did Jesus cleanse the Temple more than once?
  a. Luke 1:1-4—Luke says “orderly,” not chronological. He is writing a story for the Church.
  b. Matthew, by using five discourses, asserts that Jesus is the new Moses and has a new Law.
  c. When it was done is not nearly as important as why it was done.
• 2:13—Jesus goes to the center of Jewish identity.
  a. In the Synoptics, Jesus only drove out the money-changers, thus cleansing the Temple of corruption.
  b. 2:15—Here, Jesus drives out the sacrificial animals because He is “the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.”
  c. Oscar Cullmann says that Jesus takes on the role of ibn Yahweh (“son of God”) from Isaiah by taking the world’s sins upon Himself (p. 51-68).
• 2:22—John is looking back at this moment and finally understands its meaning. He is not chronicling the life of Jesus but presenting Him as the ibn Yahweh.
  a. Jesus speaks in a way that leads some to misunderstand Him. Is this intentional?
  b. If we see these two events as connected and eschatological, then we see Jesus transcending the Jewish religion and the Temple as He completes God’s original objective of reconciling mankind back to Himself.
  c. This may also be a hint of the anti-Temple sentiment that was common among Hellenized Jews and Samaritans who had spiritualized the Temple as the body and life of a devout person (Acts 6:13, 7:44-51; cf. Romans 12:1-2).
  d. When Rome laid siege to the city of Jerusalem, the Jewish Christians left because they knew that the Temple was not worth defending anymore.
• 2:23—What other signs did Jesus do?
  a. It is possible that cleansing the Temple could be seen as a prophetic act.
  b. 2:24-25—It is tempting to develop a typology for “sign-faith,” yet John encourages us to see that there are different ways to respond to Jesus.
  c. John never uses the noun form of pistos (“faith”) yet routinely uses the verb form so that we may understand that faith is a commitment.
  d. Martin Buber (1985) says that Christians try to conceptualize their faith instead of making a commitment.
  i. Based on your experience with Christianity, do you agree or disagree with this statement?
  ii. Does the academic study of Christianity encourage or discourage conceptualization? Commitment?
  iii. What can be done to encourage commitment?

References

Raymond E. Brown, The Gospel According to John, I-XII, Anchor Bible 29 (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1966).

Martin Buber, The Prophetic Faith (New York: Collier Books, 1985).

Oscar Cullman, The Christology of the New Testament, rev. ed., New Testament Library (Philadelphia: Westminster, 1963).