Day 279 (John 2-4) - Year 6
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Hey, Bible readers, I'm Tara Lee Cobble, and I'm your host for The Bible Recap.

Welcome back to the action-packed book of John. This guy is the George Lucas of gospel writers. He's got a story to tell and he wants you to catch how exciting it is. So even though we're reading through the Bible chronologically, John kind of throws us off. He has no intention of telling the story in order. That's not his goal. Luke seems to be the one who makes the most effort at chronology, but even he throws us off sometimes. Try not to get frustrated. Just grab some popcorn and kick your feet up because it's truly the greatest story of all time.

A long time ago, in a Galilee far, far away, Jesus performs the miracle that is recognized as his very first public miracle, turning water into wine. By this time, it's clear his mother knows what he's capable of, so when a problem arises, she asks him for help. His response seems harsh in English, but in Aramaic, the language he speaks, it isn't disrespectful at all. Woman is a common way of addressing a female, and what does this have to do with me is actually more along the lines of,

You and I don't need to get involved with this. Jesus is very measured and intentional about when and where he displays his power and in front of whom. His primary concern seems to be keeping with the Father's timeline for revealing his identity as the Messiah.

Mary persists, though, and Jesus saves the wedding party. By the way, this miracle accounts for roughly 600 to 900 bottles worth of wine. It was no small feat. Then, John jumps right to the last week of Jesus' life with no regard for our reading plan. Jesus is in Jerusalem for the Passover, a big holiday celebration for the Jews. Everyone is in town, actually, and so are the people who come to make money off all the tourists.

It's a standard practice to sell animals outside the temple. It provides an actual service to the travelers who are either too poor to own animals themselves or who don't want to haul their animals all over the country on their holiday road trip to Jerusalem. I wouldn't want to ride through the desert with a sheep in the back of my Camry either. So the problem isn't necessarily that there are people selling these animals. It seems to be that, A, they're selling them inside the temple complex instead of outside of it.

disrupting what's supposed to be peaceful, and B, they're almost certainly price gouging the tourists, being greedy in the very place that most represents God's generosity, the place where a holy God came to dwell in the midst of sinful people. So Jesus sits down and does something I never learned about in Sunday school. He makes a whip. He doesn't just use a whip. He makes a whip. He drives them out of the temple with his whip. He is very angry.

We're always trying to remind you to look for God in scripture, what he loves, what he hates, what motivates him to do what he does. So this is a very telling passage. He hates what's happening. And since we hate things that oppose what we love, that shows us that he loves the place where God in his holiness comes to dwell with mankind. And in the very next paragraph, he compares his body to that place.

Inasmuch as the temple is the place where God came to dwell with mankind, Jesus himself is the place where God came to dwell with mankind. And they had no respect for either. All of this is happening just a few days before he goes to the cross. So today he's using a whip, but soon they'll be using the whip. And both whips show us that they don't get it. They've missed the truth.

In chapter 3, Jesus has a nighttime visitor named Nicodemus. He's a Pharisee. Remember the guys JTB referred to as snakes? But after watching Jesus for a while, something in Nicodemus is starting to shift. Jesus tells him that shift is God the Spirit blowing like wind across his life. The Spirit is moving Nicodemus and waking him to life.

Jesus says the Spirit is the one who gives a new birth, a new life. And this new life is the only way to be a part of God's kingdom. Essentially, we're born dead, and only through believing in him do we gain life in the kingdom. Everyone who believes in him won't die and will have eternal kingdom life. But those who don't believe in him are condemned already. They love the darkness and hate the light. This statement is challenging because lots of people seem neutral to the light.

To each their own, they say. Live your own truth. But if we're born dead, then even what looks like neutrality is still death. John reiterates all of this in his own words at the end of chapter 3. He says,

Part of the good news for those who do believe in Christ is that because of Christ, we will never, ever, ever, ever, ever see God's wrath. Never, ever. Not when you die, and not today, and not tomorrow, and not when you do the worst thing you can imagine. Christ absorbed all the Father's wrath for our sins, past, present, and future, on the cross. We'll find out later how Nicodemus responds to all this, so stay tuned.

In chapter 4, the Pharisees have gotten wind of the fact that the ministry of Jesus, the new rabbi on the scene, has surpassed the ministry of John the Baptist, who was their previous biggest threat until he got thrown into prison. Jesus decides to leave town because the Pharisees are always looking for an opportunity to distract him from his ministry. On his way back to Galilee, Jesus passes through a part of the country that Jews typically avoid. Why do they avoid it, you ask?

The short answer is tribalism. The long answer is in a link in the show notes. The medium answer is, a few hundred years prior to this, the Jews who lived in Samaria started intermarrying with the Gentiles who lived there, which God forbid on the basis of faith, not lineage. So the other Jews were like, we don't like your kids because they're the result of sin. Meanwhile, they were worshiping idols and oppressing the poor and other general evil and hypocrisy. All that to say, the Jews of Jesus' day hated Samaritans and avoided Samaria. But

But Jesus himself walks straight through it on his way home and makes sure to stop for lunch. I love him. Being the human that he is, he gets tired and stops to rest at a well. Being the God of the universe that he is, he strikes up a conversation with a Samaritan woman and tells her everything about her life.

The fact that he, a Jewish rabbi, is having a conversation alone with a Samaritan woman, that's shocking on its own. But it gets even more shocking when he extends love and grace and mercy to her in a way she's never experienced. He knows all the worst things about her, all her shame, and he offers her life.

I have a theory about this woman. It could very well be wrong, but personally, I think this woman is barren. In this day, women are only valued for their ability to bear children. If a woman can't produce a child, her husband often divorces her. So the fact that she has had five husbands and now appears to be living with a man who hasn't married her, maybe even prostituting herself to him, it gives some clues about what her life has been like.

She comes from a long line of rejection. The fact that she's alone at the well during the heat of the day is a sign that she's an outcast even among the women. This woman is lonely, and she seems to be ashamed too. She tries to change the subject as soon as Jesus gets personal. This woman has wounds and aches and betrayals that probably feel like identity markers for her. But she hasn't lost hope.

She is waiting for the Messiah, and he looks her in the face and says, You don't have to wait anymore. Your hope is fulfilled right now. The woman who is rejected by the people of her town becomes their unlikely chief missionary. She seeks out the ones who rejected her. She shares the truth with the people who probably spread lies and rumors about her. And Jesus stays for two more days preaching the good news to the outcasts of Samaria.

What was your God shot today? John 4 is one of my favorite chapters in scripture. I love the way he loves that woman. But I have to go with the water into wine because of the rich symbolism in that story and how it connects us back to the story God was telling throughout all of the Old Testament. Here's what I mean. The Jews revered Moses, and his first public miracle was turning water into blood. And blood symbolizes death.

And here we have Jesus' first miracle, turning water into wine, which symbolizes life. Moses was the law giver, and these Jews don't know it yet, but Jesus is the life giver and the law fulfiller.

There's no way this was lost on the Jews, a people steeped in signs and symbolism. They eat symbolism for breakfast. This was God announcing to them, ladies and gentlemen, the greater Moses has arrived. The fulfillment has arrived. The life has arrived. And he's where the joy is. Are you a recaptain? If you're new here, you might be thinking, what's a recaptain?

That's the clever name our team came up with for everyone who joins our financial support team. It is no exaggeration to say that they are the way God helps keep this ship afloat.

We're only able to do what we do because of our Recaptains. They help us get God's Word out there in a way that helps people read, understand, and love the Bible. And in exchange for the financial support they send our way, we give them exclusive extras. So if you'd like to be on mission with us and get some cool perks, visit thebiblerecap.com forward slash Recaptains or click the link in the show notes.