The Power, Passion, and Promise of Jesus

John 2

Main Idea: Jesus’s own example and testimony are presented as evidence he is the Christ.

1. The Power of Jesus (2:1-12)
   1. Jesus has the power to transform water into wine.
   2. Jesus has the power to transform people’s lives.
2. The Passion of Jesus (2:13-17)
3. The Promise of Jesus (2:18-22)
4. Application
   1. Remember the resurrection.
   2. Recognize Jesus throughout the Old Testament.
   3. Realize his power to transform.

What we believe matters. If we believe the economy is struggling, we choose not to invest extra money in retirement. If we believe our children’s education is important, we hold off buying a new boat and instead save extra money for their future. If we believe spending time with our children is vital, we turn down the job that takes us away from home. If we believe a college degree matters, we say no to the party in order to study and pass the class. What you believe is important, but how did you come to believe it? The apostle John understands how important it is to believe on Jesus, so he lays out a detailed analysis of Jesus’s life. He presents evidence Jesus is uniquely trustworthy. In chapter 1 John presented four men who made bold and convincing endorsements of Jesus, and in chapter 2 John spotlights Jesus’s own example and testimony as proof he is the Christ.

The Power of Jesus

John 2:1-12

Jesus and his disciples are invited to a wedding. Jesus’s mother, Mary, seems to be involved in the wedding, so it may be that of a family member or family friend. They arrive and something terrible happens: the hosts run out of wine. Running out of wine is a big deal. It’s the groom’s responsibility to provide fitting hospitality to all of the guests. To run out of wine is insulting to everyone who’s there. No one can run to the grocery store and pick up some more beverages. They’re stuck—out of luck.

Mary walks over and fills Jesus in on the situation: “They don’t have any wine” (v. 3). Mary isn’t sharing the latest gossip with Jesus. She wants him to do something about it. He responds, “What does that have to do with you and me, woman?” (v. 4). If you or I called our mother “woman,” it would be disrespectful, but in that culture this title was not mean, rude, or disrespectful. In fact, it’s the same way Jesus addresses Mary when he’s dying on the cross: “When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple he loved standing there, he said to his mother, ‘Woman, here is your son’” (John 19:26). In that context Jesus called Mary “woman” while caring for his mother. He made sure she would be cared for after his death.

This title is not disrespectful, but it does demonstrate less attachment than another title might. Jesus could say, “Mother,” but he doesn’t. Mary has to learn to approach Jesus like everyone else—as a sinner in need of a Savior. Their relationship has fundamentally changed now that Jesus is embarking on his public ministry. No matter who you are, there’s only one way to come to Jesus: as a sinner in need of help.

You could translate Jesus’s question this way: “Why do you involve me?” He did not come to earth to do what man wanted. Throughout the Gospel of John, Jesus demonstrates a single-minded focus to accomplish his Father’s will (4:34; 17:4). He did not come to obey mankind—even his mother—but God. He did obey his mother. He never sinned. But Jesus did not leave heaven to please men. Otherwise he never would have offered his life as a sacrifice for sin. If he responded to what men desired from him, he would have filled bellies, healed diseases, and overthrown Rome, and then all humanity would have died and gone to hell.

Jesus tells her, “My hour has not yet come” (v. 4). As we travel through the Gospel of John, the “hour” Jesus refers to guides our journey. In chapter 7 John adds this note: “Then they tried to seize him. Yet no one laid a hand on him because his hour had not yet come” (7:30). We find a similar statement in chapter 8. At the end of chapter 12, after Jesus has made his final, triumphal entry into Jerusalem and he is preparing to lay his life down as the perfect Passover lamb, he says to his disciples, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified” (12:23). The hour is the time of his suffering and death. The hour is the pinnacle of human history, when the perfect Son of God became sin for us so that we might be made righteous. The hour is the reason Jesus came to earth. He came to offer his life on the cross for our sin. He was born for the hour. He was born to die. If you combine this statement about his “hour” with an understanding of his purpose to do his Father’s will, you’ll see early on that Jesus came for a greater and grander purpose than even his mother or disciples realized at the time.

In spite of his mild rebuke, Mary is confident Jesus could and would do something (v. 5). She demonstrated faith—a willingness to leave it in his hands, confident that whatever he said and did was best. Wow, was she right! He makes the servants fill six large, stone water jars (each of which held between twenty and thirty gallons) to the brim (vv. 6-7). This was no trick by a cunning magician; there was no room left to slip something into the jars. Clear water was pulled from the well, poured into each pitcher until it reached the top, and when water was scooped from the pot, it was no longer water but wine. No hocus-pocus. No waving the hands. Without any outward sign Jesus is able to transform one substance into another.

Why does this account give the purpose of the water jars (v. 6)? Is it more impressive to turn water into wine if it’s in jars used for purification? The inclusion of this detail shows us that the rituals associated with the old covenant are giving way to something far greater. The shadow found in the law has been replaced by the substance. Now that Jesus is here, things have changed. The water of ceremony has been replaced with something far better. External purification has given way to internal cleansing.

The servants take the wine to the headwaiter, and he’s startled (v. 10). Apparently, the tradition was to use the best wine first, but the wine Jesus creates is far superior to what they had before. Even the quality of the wine testifies to the extraordinary nature of what Jesus did. It’s so good that those who know what happened can draw no other conclusion than that it’s miraculous. The point of this story is to reveal the power of Jesus. We see that power revealed in two ways.

Jesus Has the Power to Transform Water into Wine

If I invited you to my house, showed you a bottle of water, and asked you to transform it into something else, an entirely different beverage, and you had to do it instantaneously without touching the water or even the bottle, could you do it? Of course not. Neither can I. What does that mean? It means there’s something different about Jesus. He can do it.

What are we going to do with this story about Jesus? We have two choices. Choice one: say it’s not true. The Bible can’t be trusted. The story is a fairy tale, and all who believe it are foolish. Choice two: realize the uniqueness of Jesus. He did something miraculous. How can he do this? The Bible says he can do it because he is the Creator.

Jesus Has the Power to Transform People’s Lives

This story ends with an editorial comment by John (v. 11). There are three key words in verse 11: signs, glory, and believe. D. A. Carson writes about signs:

John prefers the simple word “signs”: Jesus’s miracles are never simply naked displays of power, still less neat conjuring tricks to impress the masses, but signs, significant displays of power that point beyond themselves to the deeper realities that could be perceived with the eyes of faith. (John, 175)

The glory of Jesus is made visible in this act. By performing this miracle, Jesus clearly shows one of his divine attributes. His disciples saw his divine power on display, and they believed. The point of this account is not that Jesus can meet needs. The point is that Jesus is uniquely the Son of God here to do God’s work, and we need to believe him.

The power of Jesus to transform water into wine is amazing, but the power to transform a rebellious sinner into a saint is even more remarkable. In this passage we begin to see this transformation take place in the lives of his disciples as they’re trusting in him and their faith in him grows. They hear the testimony of John the Baptist and begin to believe. The works and words of Jesus convince them even further, and as they trust in him, they are transformed from lowly fisherman to bold witnesses of his unmatched power.

The Passion of Jesus

John 2:13-17

Much of the Gospel of John revolves around the Passover festivals in Jerusalem. John wants to make sure we never lose sight of who Jesus was and why Jesus came. Jesus is not the main character in an interesting story. He’s more than a wise teacher. Jesus came to earth because of Passover—to fulfill, once and for all, God’s promise of a spotless Lamb who will take away the sins of the world (1:36).

Passover is an important time in Israel. In Jesus’s day every adult male living within fifteen miles of Jerusalem is required to attend the Passover. If he’s over the age of nineteen, he has to pay a temple tax. Many Jews from much farther away will make a pilgrimage to Jerusalem at Passover to participate in the celebration. When they arrive, their first destination is the temple, to pay the tax and then to offer a sacrifice in worship to God. However, when Jesus arrives, the temple doesn’t look like a place of worship; it looks like a place of business. Inside the temple he finds men selling animals to be sacrificed and offering to change foreign currency for currency acceptable to pay the tax. Jesus fashions a whip and expels all of these businessmen and their livestock. The money changers have their coins spilled and their tables overthrown, and those who are selling doves are ordered to get themselves and their birds out of the temple.

Jesus is angry. How can Jesus be angry? If God is love, how can Jesus—who is God—get angry? Genuine love is compatible with anger. In fact, genuine love is sometimes demonstrated by anger. At times anger proves love is authentic. Let me give you an example: a friend of mine is passionate about ending modern-day slavery and human trafficking. He writes and speaks about it. He’s visited Washington to meet with politicians. He has traveled to foreign countries to learn more about stopping it. He’s worked hard to bring it to people’s attention. I don’t doubt his commitment to ending trafficking. I don’t doubt his love for those in slavery. But I would doubt a claim that he never got angry about it. I know his love for the abused is real because he gets angry when he sees the abuse.

I could declare my undying affection for my wife, but if you saw me sit back and yawn while someone hurt her, would you believe I loved her? My love for her would be manifested by the anger I displayed at what was harming her. “Spineless love is hardly love” (Borchert, John 1–11, 164). Jesus’s love for his Father fuels his anger at the temple’s corruption. Jesus doesn’t lose his temper. He’s not out of control. He doesn’t fly off the handle. But he is angry. He’s in control of his emotions and can articulate why he’s angry, and he displays his anger without sinning.

Jesus is angry because the Jews have desecrated his Father’s house (v. 16). When the first temple was dedicated to God, the builder, King Solomon, called it “an exalted temple for [him], a place for [God’s] dwelling forever” (1 Kgs 8:13). At that dedication, “the glory of the Lord filled the temple” (1 Kgs 8:11). God isn’t confined to the temple, but the temple is a special place where he would meet men. In this house men would come to worship him, and sacrifices were offered to him. This house was built to display his glory. But the sounds of confession have been replaced with the sounds of commerce. Gone are silent prayers to God. They have been exchanged for the angry chorus of men haggling over the price of bulls and sheep. The cooing of doves and the stink of manure now occupy the place that used to be reserved for men to humble themselves and worship God. Jesus levels a charge, but the charge is not unethical practices. They have twisted the purpose of the temple. Jesus is denouncing impure worship. The holiness and gravity of worship have been lost. People have forgotten why they come to the temple in the first place.

In another place Jesus calls them thieves, but here the focus is not on their exorbitant prices. It’s not on how they’re doing business. The focus is on where they’re doing business. How dare they take the place of worship and turn it into a marketplace? They’ve set up shop in the outer court of the temple, the court of the Gentiles. Their lust for money is interfering with the Gentiles’ coming to worship the one true God. They’ve trivialized the worship of God. When an unbeliever entered the temple and saw the commerce, he would assume the God of Israel is a prop used to extort people’s money. Jesus is angry because his Father’s house is being corrupted. Worship is being perverted. Kent Hughes wrote, “The way we worship reveals what we think about God” (John, 70). Jesus thought correctly about God. He perfectly understood the holiness, power, and authority of God. That is why he was so passionate about God’s house.

In John 2:16 Jesus says, “My Father’s house,” not “Our Father’s house.” This choice of words implies the men doing this are not children of God. If you come to worship God each week and all you think about is yourself—how you can profit from religion, what you like or dislike, what you want or don’t want, and what bothers you or satisfies you—then you may not be a child of God. God’s people are in awe of him. God’s people worship him. Coming to God in faith requires turning from self-worship to true worship. If each Sunday is a narcissistic activity of self-worship, then you are walking in the footsteps of the temple merchants.

When Jesus calls God his Father, he’s stressing his unique authority to protect God’s house. He’s highlighting his exclusive place as the eternal Son of God—not a child of God by spiritual birth like us but forever the Son of God (1:14). At the end of this account in chapter 2, we find an editorial comment: “And his disciples remembered that it is written: Zeal for your house will consume me” (2:17). Jesus’s actions caused his disciples to remember Psalm 69:9: “Because zeal for your house has consumed me, and the insults of those who insult you have fallen on me.” Psalm 69 is a psalm of David. David is crying out in despair because of those who oppose him. A major source of the problems between him and his opponents is their failure to understand David’s commitment to the temple. The promised Messiah would come as a son of David who was greater than David. Just as David was consumed with zeal for the temple, so too would the greater David—the Messiah, Jesus Christ. Jesus’s anger at the abuse of the temple not only demonstrated his commitment to the Father, but it also demonstrated that he was the promised Messiah, sent by God.

The Promise of Jesus

John 2:18-22

The Jewish leaders confront Jesus and ask him for a sign (v. 18). They want to know what right he has to do this. It’s a demand for Jesus to justify himself. They desire an explanation—proof Jesus has the authority to drive people out of the temple. Their question ignores whether Jesus is just in doing it. They don’t do any self-examination. The first response should have been to ask, Was this necessary? Their question does reveal that even Jesus’s enemies recognize something unique about him. If you were in charge of the temple, wouldn’t you want Jesus to be prosecuted? If your money-changing table was overturned or your cattle were driven out, wouldn’t you hope to see Jesus hauled off to jail? You would unless there was something special about him, unless there might be a reason he’s justified in doing this. The religious leaders understand Jesus is different—he’s not some crazy radical. There’s an inherent authority in what he does.

In verse 19 Jesus offers them a sign: “Destroy this temple, and I will raise it up in three days.” It took forty-six years to build the temple, and Jesus says he’ll rebuild it in three days. If they want a sign of his authority, they’ll have to knock down the temple and see if he’ll rebuild it in three days. In essence Jesus says, “How bad do you want a sign? Knock it down, and I’ll rebuild it.” But the Jewish religious leaders have already missed the sign. His disciples see it. The sign of his authority is the zeal he has for his Father’s house. Just as David had great zeal for the temple, the second David would be even more zealous. Jesus comes into their midst, he fulfills the words that David prophesied about the Messiah, yet they’re too concerned with other interests to see and understand who he is and what he has done.

John’s third and final editorial comment (vv. 21-22) explains the greater significance of Jesus’s words. Jesus is actually referring to his body. We can make at least two connections between the temple and Jesus’s body. First, the temple is where God meets man. Jesus is God, and through him God has come to man in a new and unique way—a way far greater than in the temple. Second, the temple was where sacrifices were offered for sin. Jesus is the ultimate sacrifice, the sacrifice offered once and for all for the sins of the whole world. But the sign was not that his body was the temple. The sign was that after the Jewish leaders had torn down his body, he would raise it up in three days. The resurrection of Jesus Christ is the ultimate sign of his authority. If he has authority over death, then he has authority over the temple. His disciples don’t immediately understand what he’s saying. John says they don’t make the connection until after his resurrection (v. 22). After his death and before his resurrection, his disciples are terrified. They lock themselves in an upper room (20:19), hopeless and defeated. Then the resurrected Jesus appears to them, and everything changes in an instant. They connect all that he had said before. They realize Jesus has been planning and preparing them all along.

Hearing about God’s anger at sin could lead a person to despair, but the next part of the passage tells us about Jesus’s death and resurrection. If people refuse to turn from self-worship, then they should despair. God’s white-hot anger will be turned on them when they stand before him one day. But Jesus died—his body was torn down—and he rose again so they might find joy and hope in him. His death turned God’s anger away, and if they believe in him, God will pardon them and give them life. The resurrection of Jesus assures us that God loves to make beauty out of brokenness. That’s good news for broken people.

Application

Those who have trusted in Jesus Christ need to keep trusting him, even in difficult times. Satan knows the powerlessness of a doubting believer, and he attempts to plant seeds of doubt and uncertainty in our minds and hearts. John Bunyan, an English pastor from the 1600s, understood the struggle, even as a Christian, to gain victory over doubt. In his classic allegory on the Christian life, Pilgrim’s Progress, Bunyan personifies this struggle when

Christian and his traveling companion, Hopeful, are captured by the Giant Despair. They are taken to the Doubting Castle, where they are thrown into a dungeon cell. Christian and his companion are beaten mercilessly by the Giant Despair. One morning they are taken out of their cell and shown the bones of other pilgrims, out in the castle yard, who never escaped Doubting Castle. Christian and Hopeful refuse to give up, however, and one night, Christian remembers a way to escape. He is able to unlock their cell door and the outer gate as well, and they run for their lives. These pilgrims will escape the Doubting Castle and the Giant Despair, not by some show of force or some innate determination, but by a key called Promise. (Cited in Davey, The Hush of Heaven, 23–24)

What we need to conquer doubt is not a show of force or strength but a reminder of what we believe and more importantly in whom we believe. The promise that unlocked the gates of Doubting Castle was nothing more than the testimony of Jesus Christ found in the Scriptures. When you doubt, do three things.

Remember the Resurrection

The resurrection is our hope. It’s the promise that turns our faith from in vain to invaluable. When seeds of doubt begin to take root, remember the promise Jesus made that he would conquer death and the grave and then read the testimony of Scripture that clearly proclaims, “He has risen, just as he said” (Matt 28:6).

Recognize Jesus throughout the Old Testament

One of the most significant keys of promise that helps gain victory over doubt is to see Jesus Christ in the Old Testament. I don’t know why God changes hearts this way, but I’ve seen profound growth in people’s understanding, appreciation, and confidence in the gospel as they’ve studied the Old Testament. Reading through the Old Testament and observing how clearly it testifies of Jesus Christ, how perfectly he fulfills every prophecy and illuminates every shadow, is like an espresso shot of faith. It makes me say, “Wow, God so perfectly planned and prepared my redemption from the beginning; how could I do anything less than believe in Jesus with all my heart?”

Realize His Power to Transform

Jesus can transform water into wine and sinners into saints. Jesus can transform you. He can transform your struggles, your dreams, your failures, your hopes, and your brokenness. He can transform you from the inside out.

Reflect and Discuss

1. How do we know Jesus is the Son of God?
2. How do beliefs affect your decision making?
3. What does the way Jesus addresses his mother tell us about our relationship to him?
4. What does Jesus mean when he says, “My hour has not yet come”?
5. Why does John include the detail about the purpose of the water jars in verse 6?
6. What does the wedding miracle reveal about Jesus’s power?
7. How can Jesus be angry? Isn’t anger sinful? Explain.
8. How should Jesus’s anger with the vendors in the temple caution us in the way we enter into worship?
9. How can Jesus be speaking of his body when referring to the temple?
10. What would you tell someone who is in despair after hearing that God is angry toward sin?