The First Passover
The “disciple whom Jesus loved,” known as John, either John the brother of Zebedee, the Apostle, or John the Elder, was writing his recollections of his experiences with Jesus so that those who hear or read would believe Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and would find eternal life in His name (cf. John 20:31). He began by speaking of the Word of God, the Creator, the life and light of men, who took on flesh and dwelt among us as Jesus of Nazareth (John 1:1-18). He then described the calling of the first disciples and Jesus’ first sign at the wedding in Cana (John 1:19-2:12). John the Evangelist would continue by chronicling some of the events which took place while Jesus attended the Passover in Jerusalem (John 2:13-4:3).
As would be expected during the Passover festival, Jesus entered the Temple complex. John related how Jesus was greatly distressed at how the Temple had become a marketplace; He made a whip of cords and drove the merchants of animals and money changers out of the Temple (John 2:13-16). We do well to note how John never suggested Jesus actually used the whip of cords to hit any animal or person.
What, exactly, is Jesus up to in the Temple cleansing of John 2:13-16? Throughout its existence the Second Temple was never only the place to go in order to serve YHWH; it had always been a place with many administrative and mercantile functions. The merchants were not in the holy place but in a court farther away, and their services did prove necessary. A traveler from Galilee or parts beyond would not want to bring an animal for sacrifice across that distance, and travelers would be carrying Roman money which would need exchanging for the Temple shekel. In the Synoptic Gospel accounts Jesus cleanses the Temple during His final week and evokes Jeremiah 7:11, calling it a den of robbers, and thus rendering judgment on the Second Temple as YHWH did the First Temple in the days of Jeremiah (cf. Matthew 21:12-17); yet John placed the event toward the beginning of Jesus’ ministry and without the overt political connotations. Many imagine Jesus was enraged at the oppressive costs of the animals or the exchange rate, yet such is completely speculative. The only hint John provided is what the disciples remembered: the prophecy of Psalm 69:9, how zeal for YHWH’s house would consume Him (John 2:17). We do best to understand Jesus’ cleansing of the Temple as a ritual sign act which demonstrated the close association between the Father and the Son.
The Jewish leaders recognized what Jesus was doing and why and thus asked Him for a sign which would bear witness to His authority (John 2:18). Jesus challenged them to tear down this temple and He would raise it again in three days (John 2:19). The Jewish leaders were incredulous: Herod the Great had begun his great renovation of the Second Temple in around 19 BCE. By the present moment in 27 CE it had been under construction for forty-six years; it would only be finished in 63, and would be destroyed seven years later (cf. John 2:20). No doubt this kind of statement would become the basis of the false accusations against Jesus at His trial (cf. Mark 14:58). But Jesus did not refer to the Second Temple; He spoke of the temple of His body, and His disciples remembered this when He arose from the dead and they believed (John 2:21-22).
A temple is the place in which it is believed a deity dwells or maintains its presence. YHWH demonstrated His presence among His people in former times by the Cloud of Presence in the Tabernacle and in the First Temple (cf. Exodus 40:34-35, 1 Kings 8:10-11). In a vision Ezekiel saw YHWH’s Presence depart from the First Temple, and it was destroyed soon afterward (cf. Ezekiel 10:1-22). Yet the Cloud of Presence, also known as the shekinah, did not return when the Second Temple was built; the Most Holy Place of the Temple was infamously completely empty. We cannot but keep this in mind when considering John’s testimony about Jesus in the Temple, for in Jesus the Presence of YHWH had returned and had testified against Jewish practices in the Temple.
According to John the Evangelist, many believed in Jesus during that Passover, but He would not entrust Himself to the people, because He knew what people were all about (John 2:23-25). One such, perhaps, is a Pharisee of the Sanhedrin named Nicodemus, who comes to visit Jesus at night (John 3:1). He seemed to come at night to speak to Jesus without as much fear of retaliation from other Jewish authorities and likely to gain further instruction. Nicodemus proved more fair-minded than many of the religious authorities like him: he recognized God was with Jesus because no one could do the things Jesus was doing if God were not with Him (John 3:2). In contrast, fellow Pharisees would blaspheme the Spirit of God by suggesting Jesus did miracles by the power of Satan (cf. Matthew 12:22-32).
Jesus would then attempt to teach Nicodemus, yet the conversation ends up in a farce. Jesus warned Nicodemus: only by being born anothen could anyone see the Kingdom, or Reign, of God (John 3:3). Anothen, in Greek, can mean “again” or “from above”; Jesus has both in mind when speaking with Nicodemus. Thus Jesus would testify regarding the “second birth,” the need for belief and baptism which attends it in order to share in the coming Reign of God, and a more spiritually and less physically understood allegiance and association; Nicodemus could not understand it (John 3:3-12). Jesus, the Son of Man, could testify about spiritual things from above, since He had descended from above, and would ascend again one day; as Moses lifted up the serpent to provide healing for Israel in Numbers 21:5-9, so the Son of Man would need to be lifted up so those who believe in Him might share in life eternal (John 3:13-15).
“Son of Man” is a Hebrew idiom to describe a human being (cf. Psalm 8:4); yet a Pharisee like Nicodemus, who would know his Prophets and Writings well, would understand Jesus as speaking of the “one like a son of man” who would stand before the Ancient of Days to receive a Kingdom without end (cf. Daniel 7:13-14). Thus Jesus would have to be lifted up in His ascension to receive the Kingdom from His Father; but to be able to ascend Jesus would have to be lifted up in His resurrection from the dead; and His death would come from having been lifted up on the cross: and so Jesus thus evoked all He would undergo by making reference to Moses and the serpent in the Wilderness. Jesus thus testified regarding who He was, what He was about, and the basis on which He could thus speak to Nicodemus about what God was accomplishing through Him.
In John 3:16-21 John the Evangelist provided no contextual break, and so it is quite possible John was relating Jesus’ direct speech to Nicodemus; but it is also possible John has begun making his own commentary as he did in John 1:1-18. God has loved the world by giving of His only beloved Son so all who believe in Him might have eternal life (John 3:16). Jesus did not come into the world to condemn it but to save it (John 3:17); if God wanted to condemn everyone, He would have not needed any further justification, for we have all sinned and fallen short of His glory. Far too many people imagine God in Christ watches in wait to catch people in their sin to condemn them; it is Satan who does that. In Christ God is doing all He can to save people! Those who entrust themselves to Jesus are not condemned; those who deny Him are already condemned in their unbelief, having turned away from the light in Christ because it exposed the wickedness of what they did (John 3:18-20). But those who practice truth are drawn to the light of God in Christ to demonstrate their deeds are done in God (John 3:21).
According to John the Evangelist, Jesus then left Jerusalem for the Judean wilderness near the Jordan River, and was baptizing people (John 3:22). John the Baptist was across the Jordan at Aenon near Salim and was baptizing there, having not yet been imprisoned by Herod Antipas (John 3:23). The Baptist’s disciples informed him of how Jesus was also baptizing, and many had come to Him for baptism; John the Baptist then spoke of Jesus as the Bridegroom and himself as the friend of the Bridegroom, and he took great joy in how Jesus was becoming greater and he comparatively lesser (John 3:24-30).
As with John 3:16-21, so with John 3:31-36: perhaps John the Baptist continued his response, or perhaps John has taken over and provided commentary. The One who came from heaven, Jesus, maintains superior testimony to those who are of the earth and can provide only earthly testimony (John 3:31). None may accept His testimony, but He will speak God’s words since God sent Him to do so; the Father loved the Son and gave Him authority over all things (John 3:32-35). The one who entrusts him or herself to Jesus the Son has eternal life, but those who reject the Son have God’s wrath upon them (John 3:36).
The Pharisees would learn of Jesus’ great success at the Jordan River and how His disciples were baptizing more people than John the Baptist and his associates; thus Jesus departed from Judea to return to Galilee (John 4:1-3). John the Evangelist thus recorded the first Passover of Jesus’ ministry, and in so doing set forth, in word and deed, the purposes of God in Christ. YHWH was fulfilling His promises and had returned to His people. Those who entrusted themselves to God in Christ could be born again in Him to obtain eternal life. But those who rejected God in Christ would be judged, condemned, and experience the wrath of God. May we be born again from above in God in Christ through the Spirit and obtain eternal life in Him!
Ethan R. Longhenry
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