Wisdom 44 The Next Step, You and Me

[HKHaugan]

Wisdom 44 The Next Step, You and Me

 It’s doing life His way. If we are serious about personalizing Jesus’ mission and ministry in our heart, it is the first miracle at a marriage in Cana that defines our role, being a disciple. His primary mission was the restoration of personal intimacy with God. Through Him the spiritual marriage relationship between man and woman, begins their discipleship as agents of Jesus reconciling human society to Him. For us, like them, it’s time to take the next step to fulfill His plan for us.

 It is the immediate action of Jesus after the Cana miracle, changing water to wine, that begins the way His agenda for our discipleship is carried out. Jesus clears the Temple of the money changers who have taken over the entry way to the Temple selling sacrificial animals for the coming Passover Feast. It is the significance of the Temple that causes Jesus to physically drive out the animals with a knotted rope and turn over the tables of the moneychangers saying, “Get these out of here! How dare you turn my Father’s house into a market (Jn.2:16)?” For Jesus the Temple is a place of relational worship; individuals relating to God with one another in adoration, praise and thanksgiving.

 Exactly what does this confrontation really mean and mean for us personally?

 Usually it is considered as Jesus’ condemnation of the religious leaders allowing the misuse of the Temple. But there’s more. While it is not mentioned here in John the moneychangers have probably gotten permission by offering a cut of their profit to the Temple treasury, “For I know how many are your transgressions and how great are your sins—you who afflict the righteous, who take a bribe, and turn aside the needy in the gate (Amos 5:12).” Those who have religious and social power measure the value of the individual based on position, wealth and obedience to them, using institutional religion as a measuring rod. So, what is the ‘more?’

It’s this---Jesus is pointing to a new understanding of ‘Temple.’

“The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by human hands (Acts 17:24).”

In the New Testament there are three temples, the individual person (1Cor.6:19), the gathered believers (1Cor.3:16), and Jesus Himself (Rev.21:22).  Now we can see what Jesus was up to when he turns to the religious leaders and says “Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days.”  They replied, “It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and you are going to raise it in three days?”  But the temple he had spoken of was his body.  After he was raised from the dead, his disciples recalled what he had said. Then they believed the scripture and the words that Jesus had spoken (Jn2:19-22).” Jesus is demonstrating how important the individual is by being an individual who is spiritually centered in His Father, being His Father’s Son, obeying His Father and doing His Father’s work. He is the exact image of God, the temple not made with hands (to be the image of God for us to restore our imageness. His mission and ministry are spiritually founded and grounded with us in mind.

The emphasis of how we deal with our human body as a temple is of first importance. What is sensed by others when they see us, hear us and watch out action will be how they judge the God whom we love and serve. If our emphasis is based on that personal relationship, our spiritual rebirth in Jesus, that influences our mind, heart and spirit. Thus, our intimacy with the Lord God and one another (see the vertical and horizontal arms of the Cross here, our personal worship) is our motivation for everything we think and do. But one word of caution here. We don’t judge ourselves by the response we get from others. We judge ourselves by the Cross of Christ, the One who gives us the Spirit of confidence in Him to act for Him wherever we are and with whomever we are in contact.

Of second importance is how we relate to one another in the Body of Christ. The family of Jesus’ disciples is where we practice our faith in Him. We are given the gifts of thr Holy Spirit to minister to one another and help each grow iphere thatn our relationship with the Lord. As we grow and mature spiritually we move into the world of labor, economics and recreation as witnesses for Him.

Of third importance is sharing our spiritual relationship with the world of people around us every day. The ‘world’ is secular society, the functional structures of community and government that shape our social environment. That world is spiritually impoverished, filled with people trapped in aloneness and sin, in need of the Savior. This is the mission field, exactly where disciples are called to be witnesses.

Clearing the Temple was Jesus’ dramatic confrontation of the atmosphere that governed the world, the atmosphere of self-centeredness, the loss of love and individuality, non-personal religion, clutching for social power, wealth and control. It is a world escaping reality, hiding fear through pride and full of divisive conflict both personal and political. These were the currents that had taken over the Temple, its leadership and intimidated the people. Returning them to a personal realtionship with God gave them the confidence to be the spiritual people that eventually overthrew the Roman Empire through the power of God’s love. Individual believers found their hope in Christ and the eternal life He offered through His resurrected presence.

The presence of Jesus in the heart began the cleansing of the individual temple that we are. All of us have cultural thieves that have taken residence, the things of the world that promise immediate satisfaction, acceptance and power. We have strongholds, the attitudes outside of God, based on fear that we develop for self-protection and the judgment of others. There are social, religious and economic strongholds; ethnic differences, social standing, personal appearance, educational levels, economic achievement, athletic accomplishments. They have spirits that fuel them, like fear, greed, lust and pride to name a few. These have to be confronted and eliminated. We have to grow out of them. “Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in them. For everything in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—comes not from the Father but from the world. The world and its desires pass away, but whoever does the will of God lives forever (1Jn.2:15-17).”

In Christ we are given the One Holy Spirit who displaces strongholds and gives us the power to develop one attitude, that of Jesus, God’s love and truth.