John 2

Churches often live in an uneasy relationship with their property.

Whatever Jesus is attacking, it isn’t the practices of the people coming to the temple to worship.

“Each of the typical approaches has problems. The best solution would be to change the lectionary.”

Any conversation about salvation should include both an eschatological aspect and one that is relevant to our lives here and now.

The wedding at Cana is a reminder that Jesus’ kingdom is a miraculous kingdom—a mystical kingdom.

Who are the other enraged voices crying out from the temple with Christ? 

As Jesus overturns the tables, I imagine John in the corner, watching and taking it all down.

The biblical foundation for a holy practice

It’s time to stop the biggest lenders to the fossil fuel industry.

We drank wine, danced with abandon, and caught a glimpse of grace.

Was the familiar God I knew as a preacher's kid the same one who inspired such greatness?

I think the disciples were a bit like detectives.

Miracles can be hard work.

Jesus isn't just reforming temple practices.

From the wise men to the wedding at Cana, joy comes from recognizing and affirming the good.

At Cana, Jesus asks Mary, "What is this to me and to you?" It is very important that the church hear this question.

Black people can eat at most lunch counters and travel across state lines without being consigned to the back of the bus. But the fundamental right to life continues to be haunted by white supremacy.

It’s hard to deny these little echoes of the synoptics which John reshapes for his own dramatic purposes. It seems narratively wrong for Jesus to cleanse the temple at the beginning of his ministry rather than at the climactic end. It makes more sense if one hears Luke in the background ever so slightly—Jesus’ claiming of the temple as his father’s house and his identity as the Son. Here in John, he has just performed a miracle at his mother’s behest, bringing spirit into the most fleshly event of human life. Now he goes to what is supposedly a spiritual place and finds only flesh. No wonder he is annoyed.

When the disciples try to explain Jesus’ wrath, they quote Psalm 69:9, “Zeal for your house has consumed me.” John neglects to include the verse just before it, however.