Here I go, tweaking the reading plan again. Luke 5 and Mark 2 both cover the story of the paralyzed man whose friends let him down through the roof. So I think it’s appropriate to consider Mark 2 here instead of next week.

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JOHN 2 – WATER INTO WINE 🍷

John 2 begins with “the next day” or “the third day” there was a wedding in Cana.

John has been tracking the days in the previous chapter.

• 1:29 – “the next day John saw Jesus coming and said “Behold the Lamb of God”
  • This seems to be the next day after John was questioned by the Pharisees. Jesus has already been baptized because John 1:31-35 is John the Baptist telling the Pharisees about Jesus’ baptism. And Jesus is presumably back from His 40-days of temptation in the wilderness.
• 1:35 – “the next day” (after John publicly pointed out Jesus as “the Lamb of God”)
• 1:43 – “the day following” Jesus goes from Judea to Galilee (where he calls the first disciples)
• 2:1 – “the third day there was a wedding in Cana of Galilee…”

This was probably the wedding of a relative. Cana and Nazareth are not very far apart.

The disciple Nathaniel (also called Bartholomew) was from Cana (Jn.21:2). By the way, Bartholomew was kind of like Nathaniel’s last name: Bar Tholomoeus (son of Tolemai).

They run out of wine for the wedding banquet and Mary tells Jesus so. I think the NLT captures the essence of His response well:

““Dear woman, that’s not our problem,” Jesus replied. “My time has not yet come.””
‭‭John‬ ‭2‬:‭4‬ ‭NLT‬‬

He seems to be saying He’s not going to do anything, and then He does. But I don’t think we should suppose that Jesus is being pressured to do anything that He does not wish to do. Jesus has NO insecurities. Think of that! He never once feels the need to edit Himself in order to be liked.

I’ve heard lots of ideas about what Jesus meant in His response but one that comes to mind (that I haven’t heard) is an eschatological (future) one.

One of the things that was foretold to happen in the Kingdom Age of Messiah was… plenty of wine. 🍷

“In Jerusalem, the Lord of Heaven’s Armies will spread a wonderful feast for all the people of the world. It will be a delicious banquet with clear, well-aged wine and choice meat. There he will remove the cloud of gloom, the shadow of death that hangs over the earth. He will swallow up death forever! The Sovereign Lord will wipe away all tears. He will remove forever all insults and mockery against his land and people. The Lord has spoken!”
‭‭Isaiah‬ ‭25‬:‭6‬-‭8‬ ‭NLT‬‬

In the NT it often seems like people expect Isaiah’s prophecy above to be on their horizon. They’re a lot like us in that way. I often hear people say, “we’re in the last days.” First-century people thought that too.

If Mary knows her Son to be the Messiah- the One Who will provide a feast for literally the WHOLE WORLD – could He not maybe rush that order and provide some of that wine NOW?

Much has been made of the six waterpots of stone in this narrative. These were very special vessels for ritual purification that held 20-30 gallons each.

Interesting that these water basins for purification were empty. At least that’s the implication because Jesus asks the servants to fill them up. It feels like a nod toward Jesus being the new source of purification.

The servants are easy to overlook. But the miracle happens in their very hands.

Servants

who do what Jesus tells them to do,

may find themselves

in the middle of a miracle.

💧🏺🍷

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JESUS IN JERUSALEM FOR PASSOVER

Jesus’ ministry covers 3 Passovers. 3 Years. This one in John 2 is the first. And it’s the FIRST time He cleanses the Temple.

😧 Wait. The first time? There were TWO?

Yes. Jesus’ ministry is book-ended by Him cleansing the Temple. John’s gospel is very clear that Jesus cleansed the temple shortly after His first miracle in Cana and a short stay in Capernaum where he cast out a demon in the synagogue and healed Peter’s mother-in-law among other things.

The accounts of temple-cleansing in Mark 11:15 and Matt. 21:12 are very clearly stated to be immediately after the “Triumphal Entry” just before Jesus is arrested and crucified.

There HAVE to be 2 times where Jesus cleanses the temple. And the first time, the Jews ask about a “sign.” It’s sometimes translated (or understood) as them asking FOR a sign, but they are really asking what the sign IS.

“So the Jews answered and said to him, “What sign do you show to us, because you are doing these things?” Jesus answered and said to them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up!””
‭‭John‬ ‭2‬:‭18‬-‭19‬ ‭LEB‬‬

They see a rabbi with a “scourge of small cords” whipping the temple. They aren’t asking Him FOR a sign. Jesus flipping tables and smacking things with a whip IS the sign. They’re asking “What is this sign you’re showing us? What does it mean?”

And Jesus tells them what it means:

“Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up!”

And for those of us who are a little slow figuring it out, John helps…

“But he was speaking about the temple of his body.”
‭‭John‬ ‭2‬:‭21‬ ‭LEB‬‬

Jesus’ body is the temple He was talking about.

And He had just been beating it with a whip…

Jesus was acting out this:

In His sign-act, Jesus was the guy with the whip beating the temple for its sins.

🪑

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LUKE 5 & MARK 2 – NEW WAY vs OLD WAY

Kids in Sunday School love the story of the man being let down through the roof. These chapters (particularly Luke 5) might not be a collection of disconnected “short stories,” but rather a series of observations on New meets Old.

Peter & The Huge Catch

Do rabbis normally preach from a boat? I don’t think that’s the “old way.”

Peter and his partners are washing their nets after a whole night of catching nothing but driftwood and moss. Jesus tells them to launch out and let down their nets – in the middle of the day.

The normal way, the old way, is fishing at the times their dads taught them to fish. Perhaps by the light of a bright moon. Perhaps early in the morning before it gets too hot.

Jesus suggests a new way. And it works.

Jesus gives them a new job. “From now on you will catch men.” They went to land, left the old behind and followed Him in this New Way.

Healing the Leper

The Old Way: you never touch a leper. His uncleanness rubs off on you and makes you unclean.

The New Way: Jesus touches him and his leprosy is instantly gone. Jesus power rubbed off on him and made him clean.

The Paralytic Through the Roof

The firmly established biblical precedent up to this point is that when you sin, you take a sin offering to the LORD, and He can forgive you. No person can pronounce “your sins are forgiven.” That is an utterly NEW idea. And Jesus does it.

Before He even heals the man’s body, He frees his soul.

We have no idea how long the man has been paralyzed. From what I can tell by the Greek grammar, this paralysis had happened to him at some point in the past; so probably not from birth. And we aren’t told what caused it. It might’ve been anything from a spinal injury or stroke to MS, ALS, or advanced Parkinson’s.

When Jesus heals another paralyzed man in John 5, he admonishes him about sin and connects his behavior to his former ailment.

“After these things Jesus found him at the temple and said to him, “Look, you have become well! Sin no longer, lest something worse happen to you.””
‭‭John‬ ‭5‬:‭14‬ ‭LEB‬‬

Jesus makes it clear in the case of the blind man in John 9:1-3 that his blindness was NOT a result of sin but “that the works of God might be revealed in him.” So we should never assume that illness is punishment for sin. I could be. But it might not. When the shoe fits, Jesus isn’t shy about telling people to stop sinning.

And he tells the man let down through the roof… “your sins are forgiven.”

No trip to the temple. No sin offering. No approval of the priest. Just forgiven.

The physical healing almost feels like an afterthought – like Jesus does it just to prove to the Pharisees and Torah Teachers that He has the ability to forgive sins.

This way of forgiving sins is NEW. It does not fit the old way of temple and sacrifice.

MATTHEW (LEVI) CALLED

The Judeans had to pay taxes to openly pagan, violent, decadent, wasteful Rome.

If you ever get cranky about paying taxes and frustrated at your government, just know that Christians had to pay taxes to a MUCH worse government under the Roman Empire.

The Romans hired local Judeans to collect for them. It was lucrative. Rome allowed the tax collector to add a percentage to keep for himself. Unscrupulous ones could blackmail wealthy clients to keep Caesar’s hands out of their money belts.

The Jews viewed their kinsmen who worked for Rome as traitors. A normal rabbi would certainly NEVER want one as a student.

Notice how Jesus calls these young men. It’s not the pleading, emotionally-laden appeals we often hear in Evangelical churches. Jesus barely even pauses His stride. He looks at Matthew and issues a purposeful invitation in two words: “Follow me.”

It reminds me of a boss stopping by an office door and telling the guy inside, “Come with me.” Then the boss keeps moving.

The old way is to choose serious Torah scholars from well-connected families, not ambitious young men who work for an ungodly government. And when a rabbi has chosen his students, they’re supposed to spend their time fasting and praying (when they aren’t studying scripture). Jesus’ new way doesn’t fit with the old one.

“And they said to him, “The disciples of John fast often and make prayers—likewise also the disciples of the Pharisees—but yours are eating and drinking!””
‭‭Luke‬ ‭5‬:‭33‬ ‭LEB‬‬

In Jesus’ response to them, all of this new vs old comes together.

The old way has been here for centuries. It’s fixed. This new way is being introduced in a short window of time – a brief season. There will be plenty of time for fasting and prayer afterwards.

The old way is to shut out the sinner and teach the saved. The new way is to call the sinners to repentance.

The old way is: knowing God is for elite, holy scholars. The new way is: access to God and His kingdom is for everyone.

And you can’t retrofit this new way back into the old way of exclusion, temple, and sacrifice. You can’t just take a piece of it and attach it to the old system. It doesn’t fit. The weave and pattern do not match. And if you attempt to take this new way and bottle it up inside the container of the old way, the old will not be able to hold it. The new is expanding and inviting and growing. The old is fixed. Inflexible. Set in its ways. Religiously so. This new way of Jesus will need new containers; containers that can stretch and grow as the good, new wine-from-water expands. When Jesus turned the water into wine, He condensed a months or even years-long process into seconds. This new way of being in the Kingdom is not going to take centuries to develop. It is new wine.

But, Jesus understands human nature. It’s hard for a person to adapt to a new thing. We tend to get set in our routines. And we prefer our comfy old worn out shoes to a new pair even if the worn out ones no longer provide the support and protection we need.

“And no one after drinking old wine wants new, because he says, ‘The old is just fine!’ ”
‭‭Luke‬ ‭5‬:‭39‬ ‭LEB‬‬

Jesus knows that most of the scribes and Pharisees are quite secure and comfortable with the old wine of the Mosaic Covenant. It’s just fine, they say. “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” “My old phone is fine. Why should I have to update it?”

It wasn’t the people who found fault with the old wine. No. It was God Himself.

“For if that first covenant had been faultless, occasion would not have been sought for a second. For in finding fault with them he says,

“Behold, days are coming, says the Lord, when I will complete a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, not like the covenant which I made with their fathers on the day I took hold of them by my hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt, because they did not continue in my covenant and I disregarded them, says the Lord. For this is the covenant that I will decree with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I am putting my laws in their minds and I will write them on their hearts, and I will be their God and they will be my people. And they will not teach each one his fellow citizen and each one his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest. For I will be merciful toward their wrongdoings, and I will not remember their sins any longer.”

In calling it new, he has declared the former to be old. Now what is becoming obsolete and growing old is near to disappearing.”
‭‭Hebrews‬ ‭8‬:‭7‬-‭13‬ ‭LEB‬‬

Jesus is introducing the New Covenant foretold by Jeremiah and Ezekiel. And it’s not like the Covenant made at Sinai. There wasn’t anything wrong with that one. It was good and holy. It’s just that no one could keep it. And that’s the problem. But there will be many who will say that the old is just fine. We don’t want this new thing.

In our next reading we’ll meet an old man who DOES want this new covenant. And Jesus will explain how it’s not just the covenant that’s new. The people have to be made new too. He has to be born all over again.