Exploring John Chapter 2: Covenant and Cleansing

Okay, in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, dear Heavenly Father, we ask you to bestow your Spirit upon us today and bless us as we go through the Gospel of John and study the second chapter, which talks about the wedding feast of Cana and also Jesus's presence at the temple. Fill us with your Holy Spirit and guide us during this study. We ask you to bless each person who is tuning in and watching this study today and to truly help Help them to encounter your Son and to really begin to know and to love and serve our Lord. We ask this through Christ our Lord, in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Well, my brothers and sisters, we're in John chapter 2. And one thing that's beautiful about the Gospel of John is that there are many references back to the Old Testament. John... has a very special love for the Old Testament. And so, as we go through the Gospel of John, I will often say verses to you. You don't have to look them up, but, you know, if you want to, if you're watching this on tape, you could stop the tape and you can go back and look at that verse whenever I hit an Old Testament verse. It's totally up to you. But John has this beautiful love of the Old Testament. You can tell when you read through the Gospel of John that he had a very Jewish audience because of this. love that he has for the Old Testament. And so we want to start in chapter 2, but in order to start in chapter 2, I have to go back to chapter 1. And if you remember, chapter 1 started off and it said, In the beginning was the Word, the Word was with God, and the Word was God. In the beginning was the Word, the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The Greek word is logos. Kind of like, you may have heard that word before, logos, okay? And so in the beginning was the logos, the logos was with God, and the logos was God. And of course, the eternal word who is always with the Father is Jesus. It's Jesus in the beginning. And then John's gospel goes on, and then in verse 29, it says the next day. That would be the second day. The next day. And then it goes on, and then in verse 35, the next day, the third day. And then it goes on, and then in verse 43, the next day, the fourth day. So in chapter 1, it seems to go through this cycle of four days. It's almost like John is saying, you remember the week of creation? Do you remember that week of creation that ended on the Sabbath when God blessed and sanctified that day called the Sabbath? Well, guess what? The wedding feast in chapter 2 begins on the third day. And when you read that, you say, on the third day there was a wedding. The third day from what? The third day from the fourth day. The third day from the fourth day, which would be the seventh day. And it's like John is saying, well, guess what? Just like Adam, when he was able to actually enjoy the Sabbath and really look at all of God's creation and just go, wow. Look at the marvel of God's creation. And as God looked at all of his creation, which was perfect, and said, It is good. It is very good. So there was a wedding. And the image of a wedding is so important. Because the prophet Isaiah, in Isaiah chapter 25, talks about how the Lord will one day establish a new feast. And in establishing this new feast, he will destroy death forever. He will renew all of creation. Isn't that amazing? And the prophets talked about how God would renew the wedding. He would renew the marriage of his people. And so the image of a wedding feast often was an image of the covenant. And Jeremiah in particular, if you go to the book of Jeremiah, Jeremiah talks about how the Israelites had failed to live out the covenant. And he talked about how the wedding feast was kind of ending. It was going, the joy of the bride and the bridegroom, the joyful sound of the bride and the bridegroom would come to an end. Well, let me explain something to you, because the prophets often metaphorically looked at the covenant as a sacred marriage. And this is so important because not only was it a sacred marriage, But it was like a continual... full wedding feast. Have you ever heard the expression, the marriage, or the wedding is a day, the marriage is a lifetime? Have you ever heard that expression before? You know, sometimes when people get married, they want to say, look, the wedding is only a day, the marriage is a lifetime. But guess what? In the Old Testament, that's not how the prophets looked at it. You're kind of going, they didn't? No. The prophets looked at it this way, that The wedding feast would be celebrated every day of the marriage. The wedding feast would be celebrated every single day of the marriage. And for people who are married, I would say this to you. Do you really want to live a biblical marriage? Well, guess what? The wedding feast should be celebrated every day. of the marriage. The joyful shout of the bride and the bridegroom should be heard every day. And this is how you should live your marriage. Isn't that beautiful to think about? The wedding feast should be celebrated. And so in light of that, the prophet said, guess what? The joy of the wedding feast is going to stop for a while. Israel is going to go into exile. That happened in the year 587 BC when the Babylonians came and they destroyed the temple. The joy of the wedding feast. stopped. Their temple was destroyed. The Ark of the Covenant was no longer heard. They never talked about it after that. The presence of Almighty God, who manifested himself in the temple, was seen by Ezekiel. In Ezekiel chapters 8 through 11, he saw the presence of the Lord leaving the temple and heading out eastward over the Mount of Olives and disappearing. God had to leave. because of his people's sin. And Israel fell into judgment. The land was completely destroyed. Judah was destroyed. Jerusalem was destroyed. The people were taken into exile. And they came back from exile. They came back 70 years later, according to the prophecy of the prophet Jeremiah. And they came back, but there was only one problem. The problem was that the second temple was nowhere near as glorious as the first temple. The first temple was built by Solomon. He was rich. Israel's kingdom was at a height. The first temple was glorious. And the second temple was nothing close to the first temple. And the second temple did not have an Ark of the Covenant in the Holy of Holies. The Holy of Holies had a little space cut in the ground there, and there was no Ark. And it did not have any visible sign of the presence of God. The Shekinah, as it was called. And so there was also one other problem. There was no king. There was no Davidic king who was visibly reigning over Israel. They did have a high priest, but even the high priesthood became corrupt also. And when Christ came into the world, this is the world he came into. called the Second Temple Period, there was a sense among many that something incomplete was here, that we haven't completely returned completely from the exile. Even though we're back, you know, the exile is kind of still going on. And so they had this king who was not a Davidic king. He was not a descendant of David. He was named Herod. You remember? Have you ever heard of this guy? And Herod really wanted to make a name for himself. And so what did he want to do? He was building all over the place, building great buildings. And you know, I teach in the seminary, and one thing I tell seminarians is this. I tell them, remember to build the church before you build a church. In other words, focus on building the community more than just building buildings. Because if you don't, you could lose focus on what you're really supposed to do. And so Herod was really into building, and one of his big projects was to make the temple glorious, like it was in the past. And you can imagine, you know, he wasn't the best guy. He killed a lot of people, killed a lot of people. But why did they put up with Herod? Because he was doing things which, you know, seemed to please a lot of people as well. He was trying to win public favor. And so In that context, Christ comes into the world. Corruption in the priesthood, no Davidic king, a king by the name of Herod who's kind of a puppet of the Romans, who's trying to build a lot of things, and here comes Jesus into this world. And in that context, let's talk about chapter 2. So if we go to John chapter 2, it says, On the third day there was a marriage at cana in galilee and the mother of jesus was there now the third day as i said would be the seventh day if you're counting in john's gospel it reminds us of the sabbath it reminds us of the beautiful work of creation and it associates the image of a marriage a wedding we think of the covenant between god and his people how god wanted to live his covenant As a continual wedding celebration. And that's the way we should live our faith. That's the way I should live my faith and you should live your faith. As a continual wedding celebration. Because we know the true bridegroom is Christ our Lord. And who is the bride? If Jesus is the bridegroom, if he's the groom, who's the bride? The church. The whole church. All of us. Each one of us. We are the bride. The church. which will be united with Christ for all of eternity. Every time we come to Mass, and we especially receive our Lord Jesus in the Holy Eucharist, for one moment we receive a participation of what will be our heavenly reward for all of eternity. For one moment we are united with our Lord in a special way in the Holy Eucharist, and we are called to live and maintain that unity, living out the faith in all its fullness. And so on the third day there was a marriage at Cana, Cana is a little city just north of Nazareth. Can you imagine this little tiny town? And, you know, I love the saying, what good can come out of Nazareth? What good can come out of Nazareth? Because I want to ask you, have you ever been to Barstow? Have you ever driven through Barstow? I remember the first time when I drove through Barstow on the 40 freeway. And the... The first thing that came to my mind as I was driving through Barstow was about 118 degrees outside. The first thing that came to my mind is what good can come out of Barstow? What good can come out of Nazareth? Jesus belonged to this little tiny town of 120 people out in the middle of nowhere. He who created the heavens and the earth, who was with the Father in the beginning, he chose to be raised in this obscure little town. called Nazareth. And just north of Nazareth was another little obscure town called Cana. Cana. And there was a wedding feast there. And our Lord was invited. And so our mother, our blessed mother was there. Jesus'mother was there. The mother of Jesus was there. And Jesus was also invited to the marriage with his disciples. Can you imagine? Mary's there. Christ is there with his disciples. And they're at the marriage feast. And it's a tradition, even to this day, among the Palestinians, to celebrate a marriage for a whole week. Isn't that amazing? I had this Palestinian guy who invited me to celebrate this marriage. They would celebrate for a whole week, every night. They would get started at like 9 or 10 o'clock at night. And he said, why don't you come celebrate this marriage feast? My daughter's getting married. He wanted me to come and celebrate for like a few hours every evening. And I was just, I looked at him and said, when do you guys sleep? He said, oh well, you know, we get a little bit of sleep. You know, but they would celebrate for a whole week and then celebrate the marriage. And so, Jesus and his disciples were invited to the marriage feast. And in verse 3 it says, the wine failed. And the mother of Jesus said to him, they have no wine. Well, guess what? The prophet Jeremiah, he talked about how The wine would run out in Jeremiah chapter 48 and he talked about how the joyous noise of the bride and the bridegroom would cease and the wine would run out. And here's our Blessed Mother coming up to Jesus and saying, there's no wine. And in the Old Testament, wine was often symbolically a sign of joy. In new wine, there is even a special word for new wine, tirosh. And new wine was a sign of the harvest, a sign of God's blessing, his continual blessing and promise to to creation, that he blessed creation. And it was a sign of the harvest and God's bounty and blessing to us. And so a wedding feast and the joy has run out. They have no wine, and it's our Blessed Mother who comes to Christ. It's as if Mary is coming up to Jesus and saying, guess what? The same thing that happened to the Israelites when they went into exile has happened to this wedding. Do you see what she's saying? There's deep symbolism in those words. The wine has run out. It's like our Blessed Mother is saying to Mary, there's something wrong with the covenant. There's something wrong with the people of God, and the wine has run out. And so the wine has run out, and Jesus said to her these words. He said, oh woman, what have you to do with me? Oh woman, what have you to do with me? My hour has not yet come. There was this guy who was very lazy. He was a very lazy husband. He was always sitting around watching football. And his wife said, get up and do something. Get up and do something. And he said, oh woman, what have you to do with me? My hour has not yet come. Well, Jesus did not mean this verse in that way. I share it with you as a joke, but he didn't mean it in that way. Because actually, when Jesus says the word woman, the word in Greek is gune, gune, woman. It's a very respectful word, actually. It's a very respectful way to address a person. And so for some of our separated brethren, they misunderstand this phrase, a woman. They think that Jesus is speaking pejoratively to his mother. Well, there's a number of reasons why this can't be true. Because number one, Jesus never broke the fourth commandment. He never broke the commandment to honor father and mother. And so he could not have been speaking pejoratively. Secondly, in Greek, the word gune, it's actually very respectful. It's not pejorative. It's not a put down. It's a very respectful way. In English or Spanish, it could be taken the wrong way. But in Greek, it was a very respectful way. It would be like saying madam or dona. Okay. And so a woman, what have you to do with me? In Greek. This is an idiomatic expression, and it goes back to a Hebrew idiomatic expression, which literally is, what between you and me? What between you and me? Literally. And it's as if Jesus is saying to Mary this, what is our relationship? What is our relationship? The same phrase is said to the demons when Jesus encounters them in other gospels. What is our relationship? What's going to happen between us? And so it's as if Jesus is saying to our Blessed Mother, Oh woman, respectfully, what is our relationship? My hour has not yet come. Listen to those three things. Oh woman, what is our relationship? My hour has not yet come. And this is so important because this phrase in John 2, verse 4, it comes up again because when the hour comes, In John chapter 19, Jesus says to John, behold your mother. And he says to Mary, behold your son, referring to his beloved disciple. Each one of us is a beloved disciple. And so this phrase resurfaces. And the concept of the hour, the concept of the hour. is the hour of glory, the hour when Jesus will glorify his Father by laying down his life and giving his life for our salvation. And so this concept of the hour will come up again and again in John's Gospel. So John chapter 2 is very profound. O woman, what is our relationship? What between you and me? My hour has not yet come, referring to the hour when he will be glorified. And so let's see what happens. In John chapter 2 verse 5, his mother said to the servants, do whatever he tells you. And when you read the gospel of John, you have to read it very slow. Read it very slow, because there's many phrases in the gospel of John that tell me and you how to live our lives. Look at what Mary says. All she says is, do whatever he tells you. Isn't that beautiful? And we ask our Blessed Mother to pray for us, and we should hear those words, do whatever He tells you. What am I going to do? I'm not sure everything I'm going to do, what's going to happen in my life, but I know one thing, I want to do everything that Jesus has told me. Everything that He wants. I want to do His will. Do whatever He tells you. And so, now there were six stone jars were standing there for the Jewish... rites of purification, each holding 20 or 30 gallons. These jars were for, you know, purification, washing and purifying oneself so that they would be ritually pure. During the first century AD, there were lots of rites of washing at this time. The Pharisees had introduced a lot of rites, and it had become, you could say, much more common throughout all of the land of Israel to have, you know, different rites of washing and purification, imitating what was going on in the temple. And so, Jesus said to them, fill the jars with water, and they filled them up to the brim, and he said to them, now draw. Some out and take it to the steward of the feast, and they took it out. And when the steward of the feast tasted the water, now become wine, and did not know where it came from, though the servants who had drawn the water knew, the servant of the feast called the bridegroom and said to him, Every man serves the good wine first, and when men have drunk freely, then pour wine. But you have kept the good wine until now. This was the first of his signs. Jesus did at Cana in Galilee and manifested his glory, and his disciples believed in him. Well, first thing I want to do is ask you this. Have you read the book of Exodus? Have you read the book of Exodus? You know, I used to ask churches this question, have you read the book of Exodus? And usually one-third of the hands would go up, and then I would say, Have you seen the movie Moses with Charlton Heston? And all the hands would go up, you know, how we often forget, you know, to really sit down and read scripture, you know, but now a lot of younger people haven't seen that movie, The Ten Commandments with Charlton Heston. But what I want to do is ask you this, if you can go through, read the book of Exodus, because you're going to see a lot of... Ah, similarities between John's gospel and the book of Exodus. John is constantly going back to Exodus. Constantly going back and showing us how Jesus is fulfilling all things. What was the first miracle, the first plague that hit the Egyptians? Do you remember what it was, the very first plague? Was all the water turned into what? Blood. Blood. And you know what the plagues were called? Guess what they were called if you go back to the book of Exodus. They were called otot, which is signs. Each plague was called a sign. Isn't it amazing? And in the Gospel of John, guess how many signs there are? Seven signs. Guess how many days there are until the wedding feast? Seven days. Guess how many times Jesus says, I am, with a title? Seven times. Wait a minute, are you seeing a... Pattern here? Is it just me or are you seeing a pattern? There's seven days until the wedding feast, which is celebrated on the third day, which is also the seventh day. There are seven signs in the book of Exodus. I'm sorry, in the book of John, in John's Gospel, seven signs. And then there are seven times where Jesus says, I am with a title. Now, Seven, of course, is the number of completion, the number of perfection. And so here we have Jesus doing the first sign. It's very similar to the first sign that Moses did. But there's one big difference. When Moses turned the water into blood, it was to punish the Egyptians for disobeying God. It was a curse. When Christ turned the water... which was in jars used for purification, could have been dirty water, into the best wine, it was a blessing. Do you see what Jesus is doing? Jesus essentially is saying, all that you suffer for your disobedience, he has come to take away. And in return, give us a blessing. He's telling us something about the new covenant. He's trying to say, you know what? Because God gave you a perfect covenant and you were imperfect, it was like the wine running out at a wedding feast. And now Jesus is bringing a new covenant. He's going to give us the best wine last. Do you see what this miracle is saying to us? It's telling us something about the relationship between God and his people. And in essence, if you look closely at John chapter 2, And you look at the wedding feast of Cana, it's as if in the wedding feast of Cana, we're getting a status report of the old and new covenant. No one could be saved by this covenant because no one is perfect. But in the new covenant, God will give you the best. wine last. Christ will come into this world to die for us, to take away our sins, and to give us the gift of the Holy Spirit, to give us forgiveness and salvation. This is essentially what all the images in the wedding feast of Cana are pointing to. It's the very first sign. Instead of a curse, instead of a punishment for sin, the wedding is able to continue. they're able to celebrate the gift of marriage. And that's what we're going to celebrate every day of our lives. We're going to celebrate this wedding feast, and we will celebrate it for all of eternity with Christ. And so, my brothers and sisters, in a special way, when you come to Mass, you celebrate that wedding feast. Every day we live the faith, we celebrate it, but we will celebrate it for all of eternity with Jesus, who is the true bridegroom, the Lamb of God. And so, my hour has not yet come. These words are so important because Jesus is saying to our Blessed Mother, you know what, my hour has not yet come. But he does the miracle. It's as if Mary was coming up to Jesus and Jesus was saying, you want me to start? And at that moment he starts his ministry. When his mother comes to him and says, they have no wine, suddenly he begins a course of actions. that will take him to the hour, the hour of glory, when he will give his life for our salvation. And so my hour has not yet come, but he begins. He works the first sign. And so he does this miracle to manifest his glory. Last point that John tells us. We often miss this last point, the word Greek, doxa. Doxa is the word in Greek. And in Hebrew, the word for glory. has a sense of like really heavy, heaviness, weight, and honor. And I remember back in the 70s, we used to have this saying, you remember that saying back in the 70s? Wow, that's heavy. You remember that saying? Well, not quite that way, but Jesus is manifesting his glory. He's showing us his identity. He's showing us who he is. In the Old Testament, in Exodus chapter 33 and 34, Moses said to God, I want to see your glory. I want to see all of your glory. And God said to Moses, hold on, Moses. You cannot see all my glory and live. I'm going to pass by. I'm going to hide you and cover you and hide you in the cleft of a rock. And then after I pass by, you're going to hear my name proclaimed, and you're going to see just the backside. And that's what Moses did. The Lord passed by. He covered Moses in the cleft of the rock, and Moses just saw a glimpse of his glory. And he heard the name of God proclaimed, the Lord merciful. He heard about God's mercy and righteousness, slowed to anger and abounding in mercy. And so Moses just saw a little bit of God's glory. And you can see what Jesus is doing. Jesus is saying, look, this has been the desire of the people of God to know the glory of God. And now Christ is beginning to reveal the glory of God. Do you see the glory of God? It's revealed in the person of Christ. It is only through him and in him that we will ever know the glory of God and see it. And so, my brothers and sisters, now let's go to chapter 2, verse 12. Chapter 2, verse 12. Are you ready? After this, Jesus went down to Capernaum with his mother and his brethren and his disciples, and there they stayed for a few days. As Catholics, we understand that the brethren, the Adelphoi, are not children that Mary gave birth to. There's a few reasons. Number one, there's no scripture in the New Testament that tells us that Mary gave birth to another child. Very important. No verse at all in the New Testament that tells us Mary gave birth to another child. That's very good. Secondly, they're never specifically called Mary's children. Second reason, they're never specifically called Mary's children. Wouldn't the gospel writer just say if they were? Thirdly, in the early church, they knew that Mary was a virgin. It was a teaching from the very early church. And there's other reasons as well. For instance, at the cross, Jesus would have, by law, he would have been required to give John to his brethren. If he had. blood brothers. He would have been, if Mary had children, Jesus would have given Mary to those children, but he didn't. He gave her to John. So there's a lot of other indications in the New Testament that Mary was a virgin. It was always a teaching of faith from the early church as well. And so going on, chapter 2, verse 13, the Passover of the Jews was at hand and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. In the temple, he found those who were selling oxen and sheep and pigeons and money changers at their business and making a whip of cords, he drove them all with sheep and oxen. out of the temple. And he poured out the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. Now, first and foremost, John's gospel mentions three different Passovers. If you read through the gospel of John, it mentions three different Passovers. And, you know, for that very reason, you know, there, you know, it gives you an impression that Jesus's ministry was three years. Traditionally, we believe that his ministry was three years. It's a It's a, you know, not a doctrine of the faith, but, you know, it's a teaching that has been passed on in the church, that his ministry was three years. And you see it in John's Gospel, there's three different times, three different Passovers that are mentioned. And so, the Passover that Jesus was at hand, they went up to Jerusalem. What would be going on during Passover? Well, all these people would be coming to Passover. They would be coming with their lambs, the Passover lamb that they would be sacrificing. And then they would also be coming with other offerings, maybe pigeons or other offerings to, you know, offer for various sacrifices in the temple. Okay, well, that sounds good. But guess what? There was one problem. What if they brought their Passover lamb to the temple and they wanted to get a sacrifice and they said, uh-uh, there's a problem with this lamb. It has a blemish on it. Can you use it? Mm-mm, nope. So any sacrifices that they had, if they were not unblemished, if there was some problem or defect with it, They, you know, wouldn't be able to use it. So guess what? They had a great deal going in the temple. They would sell, you know, you could buy good, acceptable sacrifices. The only problem was it was, you know, in the temple area. It was in the courts of the temple. And so Christ said, you know, look, you're turning this into Disneyland and Anaheim Stadium. Supposedly the prices were a lot higher too. If you've ever, you know, gone to some of those places, just buy a Coca-Cola or something and you'll see what the prices are. But the Lord said, look, you're turning my father's house into a marketplace. And so Christ came into the temple. You'll see it in all the Gospels. And what does he do? He throws out these money changers. This is supposed to be a house of prayer. It's not a marketplace. And you know, it's something very important for the church. And I say this for Catholic and Protestant churches. We must absolutely be extremely careful that we don't turn the church into a marketplace. It has to be a house of prayer. And this is something that we have to make an effort to do. Why? Because we need people to support the church. And I truly believe that if we really help people know Christ and lead them to conversion, support will just come. I really believe that. And we have to make that our goal, to really, truly, sincerely help people know Christ. But that can only happen if we know Christ and if we have true conversion in our hearts. And so that's got to be, first and foremost, a question that every priest is asking himself. Do I truly know Christ? And is there true conversion in my heart? Am I truly living the faith this way? And what happens is, to many people, is that they have a true moment of conversion in their life, a true period of change in their life where they're living the faith, but then they get kind of lazy after a while. They start to kind of pat themselves. on the back a little bit, you know. I've done a lot, and we never want to get to that point. We want to be humble like John the Baptist. I'm not even worthy to untie the strap of his sandal. We want to keep that humility as we live the faith, and the duty to share the gospel is not just a duty for me as a priest. It's a duty for every single Catholic. Every Catholic has a duty to share the gospel with others, to lead others into the faith. And we can only do that if we know the faith. If we don't know the faith, how can we give what we don't have? So we have a duty to know the faith and to share the faith. So, Christ is turning over the tables of the money changers. And in verse 16, chapter 2, verse 16, he says, And he told those who sold the pigeons, Take these things away. You shall not make my father's house. A house of trade. Disciples remember that it was written, zeal for the house will consume me. The Jews then said to him, what sign have you to show us for doing this? And Jesus answered them, destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up. The Jews then said, it has taken 46 years to build this temple. And will you raise it up in? Three days, but he spoke of the temple of his body. When therefore he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this, and they believed the scripture and the word which Jesus had spoken. Now this is very profound. Jesus is going to the temple. The prophet Malachi, if you go to the prophet Malachi chapter 3, he talked about how the Lord would send his messenger to the people and the messenger would come and then after that the Lord himself would come to the temple. And so every time I'm reading the gospel and I see Jesus in the temple I think of Malachi chapter 3 and I think wow this is fulfillment of Malachi chapter 3 that the Lord himself would come to the temple. And here's Jesus coming to the temple and what happens? Immediately he doesn't like what he sees. He sees you're turning this into a market, an agora. This should be a house of prayer. He has zeal for his father's house. The zeal for his father's house consumes him. And this is the zeal that we should have too. We should have a zeal for Christ. We should have a zeal to be united with our Lord, to live in communion with him, a zeal to avoid every form of sin and to make every change in our life that we need to make. Does zeal consume you to live in the presence of the Father? Does it consume you, my brothers and sisters? And so he's consumed with this zeal. And what do the people say to him? What sign are you going to do? Show us who you are. What great sign are you going to do to show us why you do these things? In other words, prove it. Prove that you are a prophet. Now... They may have been thinking back to Moses because Moses worked signs. The miracles that he did were called signs. And so they're asking Jesus for a sign. And what does Jesus say? He says, here's the sign I'm going to give you. I'm going to destroy this house and raise it up in three days. And they said, well, look, this temple has been, you know, worked on for 46 years. Let me explain something here. Only the priests could enter the actual sanctuary of the temple. The, you know, non-priests had to wait outside. Men had a place where they could be. Women had a place where they could be. Gentiles had a place where they could be. But they had to be outside. Only priests could enter the temple. And only on certain times of the year, only under certain situations could they enter the temple. All the work on the temple to rebuild and model it, To make it bigger and better as Herod wanted had to be done only by priests. Can you imagine? They had been working on this for 46 years to make it bigger, better, the best temple ever. And this is all happening when Christ comes. And so Jesus coming to them and saying, destroy this temple and raise it up in three days, must have absolutely been stunning. What are you talking about? And of course his disciples knew. He was talking about his body. Well, they remembered these things. Jesus was talking about himself, his own body. But why does he say that about his body? Because everything about the temple is fulfilled in the person of Christ. What was the temple? What was the temple? The temple was the very place in the Old Testament where God dwelt in the midst of his people. Of all the places on the face of the earth, nothing came close to the temple. This was the most special place on the whole face of the earth, where God dwelt in the midst of his people. And when you read the Psalms, when you pray through the Psalms, they talk about how God has chosen Zion, he's chosen Jerusalem, he's chosen his people, and he's chosen to dwell in their midst. over and over again. What a marvel that this would be the place where God has chosen to dwell. So for the Jews in the first century, you can just imagine the love that they had for the temple. Many of the Psalms talk about just being in the courts of the temple, just being near the temple, and how much joy they would have to be in the presence of the Lord. But Jesus does something amazing, because everything that the temple was, everything that it meant for the people of Israel and the people of Jerusalem, all of it is fulfilled in the fullest manner. in the person of Christ, because just as God dwelt in the midst of the temple, so in Christ the fullness of the divinity, the deity, is present. In Christ, God is manifesting himself to the world. And so everything about the temple, God dwelling in the midst of his people, is fulfilled in Christ. Jesus is the new temple, the new eternal temple. And Paul uses this phrase, he says, in Christ. He talks over and over again about us being in Christ. Peter says that each one of us is a living stone in the new temple, not built by human hands, in Jesus. And so this is something for us to consider. Wow, as the Jews wanted to go to the temple and be near the presence of God, if we are in Christ, baptized in Christ, we believe in Christ, we've returned away from our sin. We are literally in the presence of the new and eternal temple of God. And this should give us the greatest joy. And when Jesus says these words, What sign will you do for us? And he says these words, Destroy this temple and raise it up in three days. He's talking about himself. He's talking about everything that he would have to suffer. And he's also saying, guess what? The temple that you really want to be in is... the temple of the Lamb of God. And so in verse 23, chapter 2, verse 23, now when he was in Jerusalem at the Passover feast, many believed in his name when they saw the signs that he did. So they saw other signs that he did not record in the Gospel of John. John just records seven. But Jesus did not trust himself to them because he knew all men and needed no one to bear witness of man. For he himself knew what was in man. This is so beautiful, the way John explains this. Jesus didn't entrust himself to them. He knew the corruption of humanity. And every time we go out into this world, we see the corruption of humanity. My brothers and sisters, it's a reminder to us, we are in the world, but we do not belong to the world. We belong to Christ. And so, John ends chapter 2 saying, He knew all man. He knew what was inside of men, and chapter 3 begins, and there was a man, and his name was Nicodemus. Do you see the connection right there, John? You know, he has this way of connecting everything. And there was a man, and his name was Nicodemus. That'll be our next study. So my brothers and sisters, as we finish chapter 2, I just want you to consider, you know, the significance of the wedding feast, the significance of the covenant. And then the second part, the significance of the temple and how it is all fulfilled in Christ. The Lord be with you. Dear Heavenly Father, we give you thanks and praise for the opportunity to study John chapter 2, to meditate on the wedding feast of Cana, to see how the wine that has run out in some way spoke about the status of the Old Covenant and how only in Christ, only in the new and eternal covenant, Do we partake of the best wine last, and how Jesus himself fulfills every expectation of the temple. We give you thanks and praise for this opportunity, and we ask you to bless us. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Well, my brothers and sisters, we're in John chapter 2. And one thing that's beautiful about the Gospel of John is that there are many references back to the Old Testament. John... has a very special love for the Old Testament. And so, as we go through the Gospel of John, I will often say verses to you. You don't have to look them up, but, you know, if you want to, if you're watching this on tape, you could stop the tape and you can go back and look at that verse whenever I hit an Old Testament verse.

It's totally up to you. But John has this beautiful love of the Old Testament. You can tell when you read through the Gospel of John that he had a very Jewish audience because of this. love that he has for the Old Testament.

And so we want to start in chapter 2, but in order to start in chapter 2, I have to go back to chapter 1. And if you remember, chapter 1 started off and it said, In the beginning was the Word, the Word was with God, and the Word was God. In the beginning was the Word, the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The Greek word is logos.

Kind of like, you may have heard that word before, logos, okay? And so in the beginning was the logos, the logos was with God, and the logos was God. And of course, the eternal word who is always with the Father is Jesus.

It's Jesus in the beginning. And then John's gospel goes on, and then in verse 29, it says the next day. That would be the second day. The next day.

And then it goes on, and then in verse 35, the next day, the third day. And then it goes on, and then in verse 43, the next day, the fourth day. So in chapter 1, it seems to go through this cycle of four days. It's almost like John is saying, you remember the week of creation? Do you remember that week of creation that ended on the Sabbath when God blessed and sanctified that day called the Sabbath?

Well, guess what? The wedding feast in chapter 2 begins on the third day. And when you read that, you say, on the third day there was a wedding. The third day from what? The third day from the fourth day.

The third day from the fourth day, which would be the seventh day. And it's like John is saying, well, guess what? Just like Adam, when he was able to actually enjoy the Sabbath and really look at all of God's creation and just go, wow.

Look at the marvel of God's creation. And as God looked at all of his creation, which was perfect, and said, It is good. It is very good.

So there was a wedding. And the image of a wedding is so important. Because the prophet Isaiah, in Isaiah chapter 25, talks about how the Lord will one day establish a new feast. And in establishing this new feast, he will destroy death forever.

He will renew all of creation. Isn't that amazing? And the prophets talked about how God would renew the wedding.

He would renew the marriage of his people. And so the image of a wedding feast often was an image of the covenant. And Jeremiah in particular, if you go to the book of Jeremiah, Jeremiah talks about how the Israelites had failed to live out the covenant.

And he talked about how the wedding feast was kind of ending. It was going, the joy of the bride and the bridegroom, the joyful sound of the bride and the bridegroom would come to an end. Well, let me explain something to you, because the prophets often metaphorically looked at the covenant as a sacred marriage.

And this is so important because not only was it a sacred marriage, But it was like a continual... full wedding feast. Have you ever heard the expression, the marriage, or the wedding is a day, the marriage is a lifetime?

Have you ever heard that expression before? You know, sometimes when people get married, they want to say, look, the wedding is only a day, the marriage is a lifetime. But guess what?

In the Old Testament, that's not how the prophets looked at it. You're kind of going, they didn't? No. The prophets looked at it this way, that The wedding feast would be celebrated every day of the marriage.

The wedding feast would be celebrated every single day of the marriage. And for people who are married, I would say this to you. Do you really want to live a biblical marriage? Well, guess what?

The wedding feast should be celebrated every day. of the marriage. The joyful shout of the bride and the bridegroom should be heard every day.

And this is how you should live your marriage. Isn't that beautiful to think about? The wedding feast should be celebrated. And so in light of that, the prophet said, guess what?

The joy of the wedding feast is going to stop for a while. Israel is going to go into exile. That happened in the year 587 BC when the Babylonians came and they destroyed the temple. The joy of the wedding feast. stopped.

Their temple was destroyed. The Ark of the Covenant was no longer heard. They never talked about it after that.

The presence of Almighty God, who manifested himself in the temple, was seen by Ezekiel. In Ezekiel chapters 8 through 11, he saw the presence of the Lord leaving the temple and heading out eastward over the Mount of Olives and disappearing. God had to leave. because of his people's sin. And Israel fell into judgment.

The land was completely destroyed. Judah was destroyed. Jerusalem was destroyed.

The people were taken into exile. And they came back from exile. They came back 70 years later, according to the prophecy of the prophet Jeremiah.

And they came back, but there was only one problem. The problem was that the second temple was nowhere near as glorious as the first temple. The first temple was built by Solomon.

He was rich. Israel's kingdom was at a height. The first temple was glorious.

And the second temple was nothing close to the first temple. And the second temple did not have an Ark of the Covenant in the Holy of Holies. The Holy of Holies had a little space cut in the ground there, and there was no Ark. And it did not have any visible sign of the presence of God. The Shekinah, as it was called.

And so there was also one other problem. There was no king. There was no Davidic king who was visibly reigning over Israel.

They did have a high priest, but even the high priesthood became corrupt also. And when Christ came into the world, this is the world he came into. called the Second Temple Period, there was a sense among many that something incomplete was here, that we haven't completely returned completely from the exile.

Even though we're back, you know, the exile is kind of still going on. And so they had this king who was not a Davidic king. He was not a descendant of David.

He was named Herod. You remember? Have you ever heard of this guy?

And Herod really wanted to make a name for himself. And so what did he want to do? He was building all over the place, building great buildings. And you know, I teach in the seminary, and one thing I tell seminarians is this.

I tell them, remember to build the church before you build a church. In other words, focus on building the community more than just building buildings. Because if you don't, you could lose focus on what you're really supposed to do.

And so Herod was really into building, and one of his big projects was to make the temple glorious, like it was in the past. And you can imagine, you know, he wasn't the best guy. He killed a lot of people, killed a lot of people.

But why did they put up with Herod? Because he was doing things which, you know, seemed to please a lot of people as well. He was trying to win public favor.

And so In that context, Christ comes into the world. Corruption in the priesthood, no Davidic king, a king by the name of Herod who's kind of a puppet of the Romans, who's trying to build a lot of things, and here comes Jesus into this world. And in that context, let's talk about chapter 2. So if we go to John chapter 2, it says, On the third day there was a marriage at cana in galilee and the mother of jesus was there now the third day as i said would be the seventh day if you're counting in john's gospel it reminds us of the sabbath it reminds us of the beautiful work of creation and it associates the image of a marriage a wedding we think of the covenant between god and his people how god wanted to live his covenant As a continual wedding celebration.

And that's the way we should live our faith. That's the way I should live my faith and you should live your faith. As a continual wedding celebration.

Because we know the true bridegroom is Christ our Lord. And who is the bride? If Jesus is the bridegroom, if he's the groom, who's the bride? The church.

The whole church. All of us. Each one of us. We are the bride. The church.

which will be united with Christ for all of eternity. Every time we come to Mass, and we especially receive our Lord Jesus in the Holy Eucharist, for one moment we receive a participation of what will be our heavenly reward for all of eternity. For one moment we are united with our Lord in a special way in the Holy Eucharist, and we are called to live and maintain that unity, living out the faith in all its fullness.

And so on the third day there was a marriage at Cana, Cana is a little city just north of Nazareth. Can you imagine this little tiny town? And, you know, I love the saying, what good can come out of Nazareth?

What good can come out of Nazareth? Because I want to ask you, have you ever been to Barstow? Have you ever driven through Barstow? I remember the first time when I drove through Barstow on the 40 freeway.

And the... The first thing that came to my mind as I was driving through Barstow was about 118 degrees outside. The first thing that came to my mind is what good can come out of Barstow?

What good can come out of Nazareth? Jesus belonged to this little tiny town of 120 people out in the middle of nowhere. He who created the heavens and the earth, who was with the Father in the beginning, he chose to be raised in this obscure little town. called Nazareth. And just north of Nazareth was another little obscure town called Cana.

Cana. And there was a wedding feast there. And our Lord was invited.

And so our mother, our blessed mother was there. Jesus'mother was there. The mother of Jesus was there. And Jesus was also invited to the marriage with his disciples. Can you imagine?

Mary's there. Christ is there with his disciples. And they're at the marriage feast. And it's a tradition, even to this day, among the Palestinians, to celebrate a marriage for a whole week. Isn't that amazing?

I had this Palestinian guy who invited me to celebrate this marriage. They would celebrate for a whole week, every night. They would get started at like 9 or 10 o'clock at night. And he said, why don't you come celebrate this marriage feast?

My daughter's getting married. He wanted me to come and celebrate for like a few hours every evening. And I was just, I looked at him and said, when do you guys sleep?

He said, oh well, you know, we get a little bit of sleep. You know, but they would celebrate for a whole week and then celebrate the marriage. And so, Jesus and his disciples were invited to the marriage feast. And in verse 3 it says, the wine failed. And the mother of Jesus said to him, they have no wine.

Well, guess what? The prophet Jeremiah, he talked about how The wine would run out in Jeremiah chapter 48 and he talked about how the joyous noise of the bride and the bridegroom would cease and the wine would run out. And here's our Blessed Mother coming up to Jesus and saying, there's no wine.

And in the Old Testament, wine was often symbolically a sign of joy. In new wine, there is even a special word for new wine, tirosh. And new wine was a sign of the harvest, a sign of God's blessing, his continual blessing and promise to to creation, that he blessed creation.

And it was a sign of the harvest and God's bounty and blessing to us. And so a wedding feast and the joy has run out. They have no wine, and it's our Blessed Mother who comes to Christ. It's as if Mary is coming up to Jesus and saying, guess what? The same thing that happened to the Israelites when they went into exile has happened to this wedding.

Do you see what she's saying? There's deep symbolism in those words. The wine has run out. It's like our Blessed Mother is saying to Mary, there's something wrong with the covenant. There's something wrong with the people of God, and the wine has run out.

And so the wine has run out, and Jesus said to her these words. He said, oh woman, what have you to do with me? Oh woman, what have you to do with me? My hour has not yet come.

There was this guy who was very lazy. He was a very lazy husband. He was always sitting around watching football. And his wife said, get up and do something.

Get up and do something. And he said, oh woman, what have you to do with me? My hour has not yet come.

Well, Jesus did not mean this verse in that way. I share it with you as a joke, but he didn't mean it in that way. Because actually, when Jesus says the word woman, the word in Greek is gune, gune, woman.

It's a very respectful word, actually. It's a very respectful way to address a person. And so for some of our separated brethren, they misunderstand this phrase, a woman. They think that Jesus is speaking pejoratively to his mother.

Well, there's a number of reasons why this can't be true. Because number one, Jesus never broke the fourth commandment. He never broke the commandment to honor father and mother.

And so he could not have been speaking pejoratively. Secondly, in Greek, the word gune, it's actually very respectful. It's not pejorative. It's not a put down. It's a very respectful way.

In English or Spanish, it could be taken the wrong way. But in Greek, it was a very respectful way. It would be like saying madam or dona.

Okay. And so a woman, what have you to do with me? In Greek.

This is an idiomatic expression, and it goes back to a Hebrew idiomatic expression, which literally is, what between you and me? What between you and me? Literally. And it's as if Jesus is saying to Mary this, what is our relationship? What is our relationship?

The same phrase is said to the demons when Jesus encounters them in other gospels. What is our relationship? What's going to happen between us? And so it's as if Jesus is saying to our Blessed Mother, Oh woman, respectfully, what is our relationship? My hour has not yet come.

Listen to those three things. Oh woman, what is our relationship? My hour has not yet come. And this is so important because this phrase in John 2, verse 4, it comes up again because when the hour comes, In John chapter 19, Jesus says to John, behold your mother.

And he says to Mary, behold your son, referring to his beloved disciple. Each one of us is a beloved disciple. And so this phrase resurfaces. And the concept of the hour, the concept of the hour. is the hour of glory, the hour when Jesus will glorify his Father by laying down his life and giving his life for our salvation.

And so this concept of the hour will come up again and again in John's Gospel. So John chapter 2 is very profound. O woman, what is our relationship?

What between you and me? My hour has not yet come, referring to the hour when he will be glorified. And so let's see what happens.

In John chapter 2 verse 5, his mother said to the servants, do whatever he tells you. And when you read the gospel of John, you have to read it very slow. Read it very slow, because there's many phrases in the gospel of John that tell me and you how to live our lives.

Look at what Mary says. All she says is, do whatever he tells you. Isn't that beautiful?

And we ask our Blessed Mother to pray for us, and we should hear those words, do whatever He tells you. What am I going to do? I'm not sure everything I'm going to do, what's going to happen in my life, but I know one thing, I want to do everything that Jesus has told me. Everything that He wants.

I want to do His will. Do whatever He tells you. And so, now there were six stone jars were standing there for the Jewish...

rites of purification, each holding 20 or 30 gallons. These jars were for, you know, purification, washing and purifying oneself so that they would be ritually pure. During the first century AD, there were lots of rites of washing at this time. The Pharisees had introduced a lot of rites, and it had become, you could say, much more common throughout all of the land of Israel to have, you know, different rites of washing and purification, imitating what was going on in the temple. And so, Jesus said to them, fill the jars with water, and they filled them up to the brim, and he said to them, now draw.

Some out and take it to the steward of the feast, and they took it out. And when the steward of the feast tasted the water, now become wine, and did not know where it came from, though the servants who had drawn the water knew, the servant of the feast called the bridegroom and said to him, Every man serves the good wine first, and when men have drunk freely, then pour wine. But you have kept the good wine until now. This was the first of his signs. Jesus did at Cana in Galilee and manifested his glory, and his disciples believed in him.

Well, first thing I want to do is ask you this. Have you read the book of Exodus? Have you read the book of Exodus? You know, I used to ask churches this question, have you read the book of Exodus? And usually one-third of the hands would go up, and then I would say, Have you seen the movie Moses with Charlton Heston?

And all the hands would go up, you know, how we often forget, you know, to really sit down and read scripture, you know, but now a lot of younger people haven't seen that movie, The Ten Commandments with Charlton Heston. But what I want to do is ask you this, if you can go through, read the book of Exodus, because you're going to see a lot of... Ah, similarities between John's gospel and the book of Exodus.

John is constantly going back to Exodus. Constantly going back and showing us how Jesus is fulfilling all things. What was the first miracle, the first plague that hit the Egyptians? Do you remember what it was, the very first plague? Was all the water turned into what?

Blood. Blood. And you know what the plagues were called?

Guess what they were called if you go back to the book of Exodus. They were called otot, which is signs. Each plague was called a sign. Isn't it amazing? And in the Gospel of John, guess how many signs there are?

Seven signs. Guess how many days there are until the wedding feast? Seven days. Guess how many times Jesus says, I am, with a title?

Seven times. Wait a minute, are you seeing a... Pattern here?

Is it just me or are you seeing a pattern? There's seven days until the wedding feast, which is celebrated on the third day, which is also the seventh day. There are seven signs in the book of Exodus. I'm sorry, in the book of John, in John's Gospel, seven signs. And then there are seven times where Jesus says, I am with a title.

Now, Seven, of course, is the number of completion, the number of perfection. And so here we have Jesus doing the first sign. It's very similar to the first sign that Moses did.

But there's one big difference. When Moses turned the water into blood, it was to punish the Egyptians for disobeying God. It was a curse. When Christ turned the water...

which was in jars used for purification, could have been dirty water, into the best wine, it was a blessing. Do you see what Jesus is doing? Jesus essentially is saying, all that you suffer for your disobedience, he has come to take away. And in return, give us a blessing. He's telling us something about the new covenant.

He's trying to say, you know what? Because God gave you a perfect covenant and you were imperfect, it was like the wine running out at a wedding feast. And now Jesus is bringing a new covenant. He's going to give us the best wine last.

Do you see what this miracle is saying to us? It's telling us something about the relationship between God and his people. And in essence, if you look closely at John chapter 2, And you look at the wedding feast of Cana, it's as if in the wedding feast of Cana, we're getting a status report of the old and new covenant. No one could be saved by this covenant because no one is perfect.

But in the new covenant, God will give you the best. wine last. Christ will come into this world to die for us, to take away our sins, and to give us the gift of the Holy Spirit, to give us forgiveness and salvation.

This is essentially what all the images in the wedding feast of Cana are pointing to. It's the very first sign. Instead of a curse, instead of a punishment for sin, the wedding is able to continue.

they're able to celebrate the gift of marriage. And that's what we're going to celebrate every day of our lives. We're going to celebrate this wedding feast, and we will celebrate it for all of eternity with Christ.

And so, my brothers and sisters, in a special way, when you come to Mass, you celebrate that wedding feast. Every day we live the faith, we celebrate it, but we will celebrate it for all of eternity with Jesus, who is the true bridegroom, the Lamb of God. And so, my hour has not yet come.

These words are so important because Jesus is saying to our Blessed Mother, you know what, my hour has not yet come. But he does the miracle. It's as if Mary was coming up to Jesus and Jesus was saying, you want me to start?

And at that moment he starts his ministry. When his mother comes to him and says, they have no wine, suddenly he begins a course of actions. that will take him to the hour, the hour of glory, when he will give his life for our salvation. And so my hour has not yet come, but he begins. He works the first sign.

And so he does this miracle to manifest his glory. Last point that John tells us. We often miss this last point, the word Greek, doxa.

Doxa is the word in Greek. And in Hebrew, the word for glory. has a sense of like really heavy, heaviness, weight, and honor.

And I remember back in the 70s, we used to have this saying, you remember that saying back in the 70s? Wow, that's heavy. You remember that saying?

Well, not quite that way, but Jesus is manifesting his glory. He's showing us his identity. He's showing us who he is.

In the Old Testament, in Exodus chapter 33 and 34, Moses said to God, I want to see your glory. I want to see all of your glory. And God said to Moses, hold on, Moses.

You cannot see all my glory and live. I'm going to pass by. I'm going to hide you and cover you and hide you in the cleft of a rock.

And then after I pass by, you're going to hear my name proclaimed, and you're going to see just the backside. And that's what Moses did. The Lord passed by. He covered Moses in the cleft of the rock, and Moses just saw a glimpse of his glory.

And he heard the name of God proclaimed, the Lord merciful. He heard about God's mercy and righteousness, slowed to anger and abounding in mercy. And so Moses just saw a little bit of God's glory. And you can see what Jesus is doing. Jesus is saying, look, this has been the desire of the people of God to know the glory of God.

And now Christ is beginning to reveal the glory of God. Do you see the glory of God? It's revealed in the person of Christ. It is only through him and in him that we will ever know the glory of God and see it. And so, my brothers and sisters, now let's go to chapter 2, verse 12. Chapter 2, verse 12. Are you ready?

After this, Jesus went down to Capernaum with his mother and his brethren and his disciples, and there they stayed for a few days. As Catholics, we understand that the brethren, the Adelphoi, are not children that Mary gave birth to. There's a few reasons.

Number one, there's no scripture in the New Testament that tells us that Mary gave birth to another child. Very important. No verse at all in the New Testament that tells us Mary gave birth to another child. That's very good.

Secondly, they're never specifically called Mary's children. Second reason, they're never specifically called Mary's children. Wouldn't the gospel writer just say if they were? Thirdly, in the early church, they knew that Mary was a virgin. It was a teaching from the very early church.

And there's other reasons as well. For instance, at the cross, Jesus would have, by law, he would have been required to give John to his brethren. If he had. blood brothers.

He would have been, if Mary had children, Jesus would have given Mary to those children, but he didn't. He gave her to John. So there's a lot of other indications in the New Testament that Mary was a virgin. It was always a teaching of faith from the early church as well. And so going on, chapter 2, verse 13, the Passover of the Jews was at hand and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.

In the temple, he found those who were selling oxen and sheep and pigeons and money changers at their business and making a whip of cords, he drove them all with sheep and oxen. out of the temple. And he poured out the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. Now, first and foremost, John's gospel mentions three different Passovers.

If you read through the gospel of John, it mentions three different Passovers. And, you know, for that very reason, you know, there, you know, it gives you an impression that Jesus's ministry was three years. Traditionally, we believe that his ministry was three years.

It's a It's a, you know, not a doctrine of the faith, but, you know, it's a teaching that has been passed on in the church, that his ministry was three years. And you see it in John's Gospel, there's three different times, three different Passovers that are mentioned. And so, the Passover that Jesus was at hand, they went up to Jerusalem.

What would be going on during Passover? Well, all these people would be coming to Passover. They would be coming with their lambs, the Passover lamb that they would be sacrificing.

And then they would also be coming with other offerings, maybe pigeons or other offerings to, you know, offer for various sacrifices in the temple. Okay, well, that sounds good. But guess what?

There was one problem. What if they brought their Passover lamb to the temple and they wanted to get a sacrifice and they said, uh-uh, there's a problem with this lamb. It has a blemish on it.

Can you use it? Mm-mm, nope. So any sacrifices that they had, if they were not unblemished, if there was some problem or defect with it, They, you know, wouldn't be able to use it.

So guess what? They had a great deal going in the temple. They would sell, you know, you could buy good, acceptable sacrifices.

The only problem was it was, you know, in the temple area. It was in the courts of the temple. And so Christ said, you know, look, you're turning this into Disneyland and Anaheim Stadium. Supposedly the prices were a lot higher too.

If you've ever, you know, gone to some of those places, just buy a Coca-Cola or something and you'll see what the prices are. But the Lord said, look, you're turning my father's house into a marketplace. And so Christ came into the temple. You'll see it in all the Gospels.

And what does he do? He throws out these money changers. This is supposed to be a house of prayer.

It's not a marketplace. And you know, it's something very important for the church. And I say this for Catholic and Protestant churches.

We must absolutely be extremely careful that we don't turn the church into a marketplace. It has to be a house of prayer. And this is something that we have to make an effort to do. Why?

Because we need people to support the church. And I truly believe that if we really help people know Christ and lead them to conversion, support will just come. I really believe that.

And we have to make that our goal, to really, truly, sincerely help people know Christ. But that can only happen if we know Christ and if we have true conversion in our hearts. And so that's got to be, first and foremost, a question that every priest is asking himself. Do I truly know Christ? And is there true conversion in my heart?

Am I truly living the faith this way? And what happens is, to many people, is that they have a true moment of conversion in their life, a true period of change in their life where they're living the faith, but then they get kind of lazy after a while. They start to kind of pat themselves. on the back a little bit, you know. I've done a lot, and we never want to get to that point.

We want to be humble like John the Baptist. I'm not even worthy to untie the strap of his sandal. We want to keep that humility as we live the faith, and the duty to share the gospel is not just a duty for me as a priest. It's a duty for every single Catholic. Every Catholic has a duty to share the gospel with others, to lead others into the faith.

And we can only do that if we know the faith. If we don't know the faith, how can we give what we don't have? So we have a duty to know the faith and to share the faith.

So, Christ is turning over the tables of the money changers. And in verse 16, chapter 2, verse 16, he says, And he told those who sold the pigeons, Take these things away. You shall not make my father's house. A house of trade.

Disciples remember that it was written, zeal for the house will consume me. The Jews then said to him, what sign have you to show us for doing this? And Jesus answered them, destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up. The Jews then said, it has taken 46 years to build this temple.

And will you raise it up in? Three days, but he spoke of the temple of his body. When therefore he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this, and they believed the scripture and the word which Jesus had spoken. Now this is very profound.

Jesus is going to the temple. The prophet Malachi, if you go to the prophet Malachi chapter 3, he talked about how the Lord would send his messenger to the people and the messenger would come and then after that the Lord himself would come to the temple. And so every time I'm reading the gospel and I see Jesus in the temple I think of Malachi chapter 3 and I think wow this is fulfillment of Malachi chapter 3 that the Lord himself would come to the temple. And here's Jesus coming to the temple and what happens?

Immediately he doesn't like what he sees. He sees you're turning this into a market, an agora. This should be a house of prayer. He has zeal for his father's house. The zeal for his father's house consumes him.

And this is the zeal that we should have too. We should have a zeal for Christ. We should have a zeal to be united with our Lord, to live in communion with him, a zeal to avoid every form of sin and to make every change in our life that we need to make.

Does zeal consume you to live in the presence of the Father? Does it consume you, my brothers and sisters? And so he's consumed with this zeal. And what do the people say to him? What sign are you going to do?

Show us who you are. What great sign are you going to do to show us why you do these things? In other words, prove it. Prove that you are a prophet.

Now... They may have been thinking back to Moses because Moses worked signs. The miracles that he did were called signs.

And so they're asking Jesus for a sign. And what does Jesus say? He says, here's the sign I'm going to give you.

I'm going to destroy this house and raise it up in three days. And they said, well, look, this temple has been, you know, worked on for 46 years. Let me explain something here.

Only the priests could enter the actual sanctuary of the temple. The, you know, non-priests had to wait outside. Men had a place where they could be.

Women had a place where they could be. Gentiles had a place where they could be. But they had to be outside. Only priests could enter the temple.

And only on certain times of the year, only under certain situations could they enter the temple. All the work on the temple to rebuild and model it, To make it bigger and better as Herod wanted had to be done only by priests. Can you imagine? They had been working on this for 46 years to make it bigger, better, the best temple ever. And this is all happening when Christ comes.

And so Jesus coming to them and saying, destroy this temple and raise it up in three days, must have absolutely been stunning. What are you talking about? And of course his disciples knew. He was talking about his body. Well, they remembered these things.

Jesus was talking about himself, his own body. But why does he say that about his body? Because everything about the temple is fulfilled in the person of Christ. What was the temple?

What was the temple? The temple was the very place in the Old Testament where God dwelt in the midst of his people. Of all the places on the face of the earth, nothing came close to the temple.

This was the most special place on the whole face of the earth, where God dwelt in the midst of his people. And when you read the Psalms, when you pray through the Psalms, they talk about how God has chosen Zion, he's chosen Jerusalem, he's chosen his people, and he's chosen to dwell in their midst. over and over again. What a marvel that this would be the place where God has chosen to dwell. So for the Jews in the first century, you can just imagine the love that they had for the temple.

Many of the Psalms talk about just being in the courts of the temple, just being near the temple, and how much joy they would have to be in the presence of the Lord. But Jesus does something amazing, because everything that the temple was, everything that it meant for the people of Israel and the people of Jerusalem, all of it is fulfilled in the fullest manner. in the person of Christ, because just as God dwelt in the midst of the temple, so in Christ the fullness of the divinity, the deity, is present.

In Christ, God is manifesting himself to the world. And so everything about the temple, God dwelling in the midst of his people, is fulfilled in Christ. Jesus is the new temple, the new eternal temple.

And Paul uses this phrase, he says, in Christ. He talks over and over again about us being in Christ. Peter says that each one of us is a living stone in the new temple, not built by human hands, in Jesus. And so this is something for us to consider.

Wow, as the Jews wanted to go to the temple and be near the presence of God, if we are in Christ, baptized in Christ, we believe in Christ, we've returned away from our sin. We are literally in the presence of the new and eternal temple of God. And this should give us the greatest joy. And when Jesus says these words, What sign will you do for us?

And he says these words, Destroy this temple and raise it up in three days. He's talking about himself. He's talking about everything that he would have to suffer. And he's also saying, guess what?

The temple that you really want to be in is... the temple of the Lamb of God. And so in verse 23, chapter 2, verse 23, now when he was in Jerusalem at the Passover feast, many believed in his name when they saw the signs that he did.

So they saw other signs that he did not record in the Gospel of John. John just records seven. But Jesus did not trust himself to them because he knew all men and needed no one to bear witness of man.

For he himself knew what was in man. This is so beautiful, the way John explains this. Jesus didn't entrust himself to them.

He knew the corruption of humanity. And every time we go out into this world, we see the corruption of humanity. My brothers and sisters, it's a reminder to us, we are in the world, but we do not belong to the world. We belong to Christ. And so, John ends chapter 2 saying, He knew all man.

He knew what was inside of men, and chapter 3 begins, and there was a man, and his name was Nicodemus. Do you see the connection right there, John? You know, he has this way of connecting everything. And there was a man, and his name was Nicodemus. That'll be our next study.

So my brothers and sisters, as we finish chapter 2, I just want you to consider, you know, the significance of the wedding feast, the significance of the covenant. And then the second part, the significance of the temple and how it is all fulfilled in Christ. The Lord be with you. Dear Heavenly Father, we give you thanks and praise for the opportunity to study John chapter 2, to meditate on the wedding feast of Cana, to see how the wine that has run out in some way spoke about the status of the Old Covenant and how only in Christ, only in the new and eternal covenant, Do we partake of the best wine last, and how Jesus himself fulfills every expectation of the temple. We give you thanks and praise for this opportunity, and we ask you to bless us.

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Transcript for:Exploring John Chapter 2: Covenant and Cleansing

Transcript for:
Exploring John Chapter 2: Covenant and Cleansing