INTRODUCTION

Part 1) Imitate: Be Imitators of Christ

Imitating Jesus is the beginning of Christian discipleship and a joyful, lifelong pursuit

Journal

• Explore your fears and what’s behind them.
• Write about a relational conflict you are experiencing.
• Recall a significant reaction, conversation, or event.
• List out all that you are grateful for.

 Here are some tools to help you with the devotionals:

• How to journal? 
• What am I feeling?

Bible Text: John 2:13-22

¹³ The Passover of the Jews was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. ¹⁴ In the temple he found those who were selling oxen and sheep and pigeons, and the money-changers sitting there. ¹⁵ And making a whip of cords, he drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and oxen. And he poured out the coins of the money-changers and overturned their tables. ¹⁶ And he told those who sold the pigeons, “Take these things away; do not make my Father’s house a house of trade.” ¹⁷ His disciples remembered that it was written, “Zeal for your house will consume me.”

¹⁸ So the Jews said to him, “What sign do you show us for doing these things?” ¹⁹ Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” ²⁰ The Jews then said, “It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and will you raise it up in three days?” ²¹ But he was speaking about the temple of his body. ²² When therefore he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this, and they believed the Scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken.

Context & Commentary

“Passover was an annual festival celebrated each spring that retold the story of Israel’s departure from Egypt … Over the centuries Passover had become a pilgrimage festival in which Jewish families were expected to travel to Jerusalem and participate in sacrifice, a symbolic meal, and reflective study of Israel’s salvation. Since pilgrims would need approved animals for sacrifice, a considerable business grew in the city at this time of year… Jesus’ frustration does not stem from supposed wholesale greed or graft, but from the fact that these transactions are happening in the temple at all: ‘Get these out of here! How dare you turn my Father’s house into a market!’ (2:16) is a prophetic command to return the temple to its intended use: worship, prayer, instruction, and pious sacrifice… Jesus is attacking the financial machinery of the festival system. […]

“The scene is dramatic, provocative, and upsetting. Furniture was broken; animals went running; coins flew from their scales. Jesus makes a disturbance…”

Burge, Gary M. “John 2:1-25” in NIV Application Commentary, New Testament: John. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2000.

Questions

1. How do Jesus’ actions in this passage contrast with popular notions of Jesus?
2. The New Testament describes each believer as a temple of God (cf. 1 Corinthians 6:19-20). What are some implications of this in my life?
3. Jesus’ zeal was ultimately displayed on the cross. What implications does this have for me?

Prayer