Who?

John 2: 13-25

¹⁷His disciples remembered that it was written, ‘Zeal for your house will consume me.’ 

The idea that reputation goes before you is a mixed bag of blessings. When Jesus returned to Nazareth in Luke 4 from his journeys in Judea He went to the synagogue on the Sabbath as usual and preached a sermon that got the most severe reaction. What was is that caused the offence and why did Jesus produce the reaction in people that He did?  What sort of reputation did He have?

Between the Passovers AD 27 to AD 28 Jesus practiced an itinerant ministry going from Judea back to His home region of Galilee through an area known as Samaria. His time in Judea produced some of the most interesting challenges to peoples understanding of their identity and who God created them to be both as individuals and as a community.

In Jerusalem Jesus re encountered the religious authorities and their temple practices. He had been there before as a 12 year old and maybe several times after that. His experience disturbed Him to the point that He threw out people trading and exchanging money from the temple area and turned over their trading stalls.  He was offended that unethical economic and insincere religious ritual activity was taking place in the temple area. The process of acquiring the right coinage and animal offering was reduced to economics: a trade in merchandise. The meaning of what was required of people by God was lost. Psalm 100 is worth a read as a summary of why God calls us into His presence:

⁴ Enter his gates with thanksgiving,
   and his courts with praise.
   Give thanks to him, bless his name. 

Jesus offended those who were not in God’s House for the purpose of ‘Thanksgiving and Praise.’ This day He put them out. Jesus challenged them to answer the question ‘who are you and who has God called you to be?’ Jesus had the question redirected to himself by the authorities ‘give us sign to show who you are?’ It’s all about identity; who has God created and called us to be. It’s the same question today.