Sunday, Jan. 30 Class Notes

Of Signs and Faith (John 2:1 – 3:21)

Walter led the class.

We started class with a discussion of signs. Signs have been defined as “an act that points beyond what takes place to something else” Reaction to the signs of Christ are varied but several are scripturally highlighted here.

I. The Wedding at Cana – John 2:1–11

This wedding story is only seen in the Gospel of John and does not show up in any of the other three Gospels. The class discussed why this wedding feast shows up. We had a discussion that it seemed trivial to the point of frivolous for this story to be discussed by the Gospel writer. Some of our observations concluded:

Frivolous story that is out of place

Jesus mother is quite persistent

Wine foretells Christ’s blood flowing when He is crucified

The Feast participants are unaware of the miracle. Is there a linkage to Jesus’ teachings on wealth?

The Disciples were key recipients of message so to solidify their belief in Jesus divinity

We also had a discussion of Jesus mother. Never in John is Mary singled out by name but is called Jesus Mother. Additionally, she is only a significant character in two scenes – the wedding at Cana and at the crucifixion. We concluded that the Gospel writer was probably distinguishing her from the other Mary’s. Also, by identifying her as Jesus mother confers higher status on Mary.

II. The Temple Incident – John 2:13–25

In this story we see Jesus coming back to Jerusalem. In fact we discover that Jesus comes and goes from Jerusalem a lot in this Gospel. Another point which distinguishes this Gospel from the three synoptic Gospels. This story does show in the other Gospels but is portrayed as happening during the last week of Jesus life. Here, we see this early.

John uses this story to show the emerging conflict between Jesus and the Jews. The Jews referred here are not all Jews. But, most likely they refer to the Sadducces, Pharisses and Temple Priests – those who enter significant conflict with Jesus culminating with the crucifixion.

Jesus runs off the merchants from the outer court of the Temple. It was not unusual for their to be merchants and money changers near the Temple. In fact, this practice was probably put in by devout Jewish leaders to make it easy for travelers making distant pilgrimages to pay the Temple tax and make animal sacrifices. However, Jesus was probably angry with their presence in the Temple proper instead of being in the street outside; i.e., in the Lord’s House.

In John 2:19, we here Jesus say

19 Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.”

This statement is the sole Johannin prediction of the Passion.

III. Nicodemus – John 3:1–21

Nicodemus was a Saducee. He meets Jesus at night and engages Jesus to learn more about Him. Jesus responds to Nicodemus questions with

3 Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again [2] he cannot see the kingdom of God.”

The use of born again is the subject of controversy. The word is derived from the Greek, “anothen”, which means either “again” or “from above.” Nicodemus clearly thinks again here because he asks Jesus

4 Nicodemus said to him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born?”

Jesus was likely referring to his own divinity and the fact he comes from God above. Nevertheless, today we see “born again” as a key marker of conversion to Christianity.

The class reflected that Nicodemus actually admits the Jesus is from God. So, we are to assume that some of the Jewish leaders were aware that Jesus could be the Messiah.