Jesus Tells Priests Of An Authoritativre Sign (J10)

The priests were angry with Him for His deed
Of routing the money-cheats like He’d done;
“A miraculous sign is what we need,
They demanded, “to prove you are God’s Son!”
Jesus told them of a sign they would see;
They were so dulled, they could not understand:
“Destroy this temple, and in days just three,
I will raise it up again, and it’ll stand!”
They thought it was Herod’s temple He meant,
But it was His body He talked about,
Crucified and dead; three days’ interment;
Resurrected; from the tomb, He walked out!
That was sign enough to give Him the right,
To do what He willed, any time He might!
“The Jews replied [to Jesus’ description of the authoritative miraculous sign demanded above], ‘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 Jesus had spoken. Now while he was at Jerusalem at the Passover Feast, many people saw the miraculous signs he was doing and believed in his name. But Jesus would not entrust himself to them, for he knew all men. He did not need man’s testimony about men, for he knew what was in a man.” (John 2:17-25) [Brackets added] (The complete text of poem and commentary is John 2:12-25.)

Keep in mind throughout this series on the book of John the Apostle that his purpose is selective; John has chosen only seven of Jesus’ miracles, and only certain of His ministry events, to prove to the readers (particularly the early churches and we believers to follow)) that Jesus was in reality more than a mere man; more even than the Son of God; but that He was God Himself. In the aftermath of His routing of the temple money-cheats, Jewish priests demanded that He give them a “miraculous sign” (as John called Jesus’ miracles) that would prove He had authority to “clean up” the temple; in plain words, they wanted Him to prove He was the Messiah by a miracle. Well, Jesus gave them a sign that would prove He was God Himself: “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it again!” They didn’t understand, since their spiritual insights had been dulled by God in Isaiah 6:9-10; they thought He meant He could rebuild the huge temple in just three days. Well, He could do that, too, but that’s not the miracle He meant. If they had not been dulled, they would have understood what Jeremiah the prophet said to them in Jeremiah 31:31 and following—that there would be a new covenant of grace, and the Lord would dwell in men’s hearts, not in a temple. Jesus was talking about raising His dead body (the temple of God) from death in three days. Of course, the resurrection of Jesus was not to occur for at least one more year, and combined with their misunderstanding that Herod’s temple was what Jesus meant, they were unsatisfied with His answer.

The temple as a building was already outdated, because the new Kingdom of God was already launched, and grace was the means of salvation with the coming of Jesus (and before). Why did He tell them something He knew they would misunderstand? It was because His mission on earth was to be crucified in payment of men’s sins; as He told His disciples in Matthew 13:11, the secrets of the Kingdom of God (that is, the new covenant) was not for the Jews to understand; had they done so, His death might not occur. Notice that Jesus said “I” will raise my body in three days. Who but God has the power of resurrecting from the dead?

Jesus did not entrust Himself to men, for He knew that Judas Iscariot was already contemplating His betrayal, and Judas was one of the trusted apostles. Since Adam’s sin, the hearts of all men are untrustworthy.

“That if you confess with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord’, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved,” (Romans 10:9)