Exalted Above the Heavens:

Meditations on the Greatness of Jesus Christ and the Glory of His Grace

Exalted Above the Heavens:Meditations on the Greatness of Jesus Christ and the Glory of His Grace

Joshua Nickel

Copyright 2014 Joshua Nickel

Smashwords Edition

All scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version® (ESV®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Also by Joshua Nickel

The Righteous Will Live by Faith: Understanding Paul's Argument in Galatians

Understand the difficult passages in Galatians and you will understand all of Paul’s letters and see that he does not contradict himself, nor does he contradict anything that Jesus said. Understand Moses like Paul did: in the light of Christ. In this book we will straighten out the most commonly misunderstood verses of Galatians and let the letter speak for itself.

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Introduction

These five articles originally appeared on my website, JoshuaNickel.com. They are still available there. I hope they will draw your attention to Jesus. If they can do that in any way, a spiritual blessing is sure to follow.

My contact information is at the back of the book. Feel free to send me a message.

1. His Greatness is Your Resting Place

Some things are fun to try to do even though you know that they can’t be done. For example, try to exaggerate the greatness and importance of Jesus Christ. It can’t be done, but it is a good exercise that should bring comfort to your heart and peace to your mind.

The letter of Hebrews is a masterpiece in the art of focusing someone’s attention on Jesus Christ and attempting to exaggerate his greatness. The people to whom the letter was written needed to be reminded of Christ’s importance. They were not trying to exaggerate anything; rather, they were in danger of underestimating Christ.

Christ’s greatness is well illustrated in this exhortation from Hebrews 2:1-6: Therefore, holy brothers, you who share in a heavenly calling, consider Jesus, the apostle and high priest of our confession, who was faithful to him who appointed him, just as Moses was also faithful in all God’s house. For Jesus has been counted worthy of more glory than Moses—as much more glory as the builder of a house has more honor than the house itself. (For every house is built by someone, but the builder of all things is God.) Now Moses was faithful in all God’s house as a servant, to testify to the things that were to be spoken later, but Christ over God’s house as a son.

The writer of Hebrews twice repeats this phrase: Moses was faithful in all God’s house. This is an allusion to Numbers 12:7, where God said, “…my servant Moses…is faithful in all my house.” God said this in defense of Moses on an occasion when his leadership was challenged. Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses because he had married a Cushite woman. The LORD himself visited them in a pillar of cloud and spoke to the three of them, but he mentioned nothing about the woman whom Moses had married. Instead he addressed a more important issue that Miriam and Aaron had not understood: the scope and significance of Moses’ ministry. The LORD said: Hear my words: if there is a prophet among you, I the LORD make myself known to him in a vision; I speak with him in a dream Not so with my servant Moses. He is faithful in all my house. With him I speak mouth to mouth, clearly, and not in riddles, and he beholds the form of the LORD. Why then were you not afraid to speak against my servant Moses?

What the writer of Hebrews understands by this phrase, in all my house, is what God wanted Miriam and Aaron to understand. All my house does not simply mean the tabernacle and the Levitical priesthood. It does not mean the nation of Israel or even all the nations of the earth. It is the entire universe. The work that God was doing through Moses was the most important thing in the universe at that time. All of creation would be affected by it. Miriam and Aaron underestimated the importance of Moses’ ministry and his revelation, otherwise they never would have spoken against him as they did.

As foolish as it was for Miriam and Aaron not to appreciate what God was doing through Moses, the believers to whom the letter of Hebrews was written were in danger of doing the same thing to Jesus Christ! Moses’ ministry was, at the time, the most important work in the universe. But Jesus Christ is more important than the universe. He is a Son over the house.

Compartmentalizing or minimizing the place of Christ in the universe is the first step toward drifting away from the faith. How you conceive of Jesus Christ’s role in the universe will also determine his role in your life. If you consider him as someone whom God sent into the universe to solve a problem in part of the world that needed fixing, then that its how you will consider him in your life, as someone sent to help out in those areas where you need help. But if you consider him greater and more important than the entire universe, your faith will be encouraged and you will understand that you really are a holy person, called to a glorious and powerful destiny.

These opening verses of Hebrews 3 introduce themes that will be illuminated in the next part of the letter, one of the most well-known portions of Hebrews, about entering his rest. Hebrews 3:4 says that the builder of all things is God. This means that God not only constructed, but fully furnished and supplied the universe. In Hebrews 1:1-2, we are told that God has spoken to us by a Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, through whom he also made the world. Before time began, God appointed Christ to be the heir over the entire universe. He then made that universe through Christ. The universe has built-in meaning and purpose. To believe this is to rest in him, knowing that your life is full of meaning because you are part of his universe. To miss this fact is to constantly strive to find your own sense of purpose and belonging in the universe instead of accepting the purpose that all things were created for: the glory and praise of the grace of God in Jesus Christ.

The greatness of Christ exceeds our human ability to comprehend. As Paul explained in 1 Corinthians 2:6-16, the Holy Spirit teaches us about God, but not in words taught by human wisdom. Thinking about Christ without relying on the Spirit to teach us will cause us to compartmentalize and limit his greatness. Even if you learn to think outside of the box, you will still be thinking inside of a bigger box. If you think outside of that box, you will be thinking inside of a still bigger box. This process of growth can continue as long as you are exercising your imagination. But there is a box so big that you cannot think outside of it. Quoting Isaiah, Paul referred to this box as all the things that the eye has seen, the ear has heard, and the human heart has imagined. You cannot think outside of this box, but the glory of Jesus Christ is outside of this box. True conception of Christ’s glory must be brought into this box—into our imagination—from the outside, by the Spirit of God.

Aware of these limitations on human understanding, the writer of Hebrews made a good choice of words to describe God’s house, which Christ is over and above: he called it all things, or everything. This includes our universe, however we conceive of it, and every imaginable universe.

Hebrews, then, is not written from the standpoint of an ancient cosmology that has been disproved by modern science. The writer asserts, for example, that Christ has passed through the heavens. (Hebrews 4:14) This imagery is not dependent on a simplistic view of the universe, in which heaven is a place just beyond a barrier in the sky that is a bit too far for us to see. Heaven, according to the writer of Hebrews, is not the part of the universe where Jesus went. The point he is making is that Jesus is not in part of the universe at all. He is above and beyond it. As Paul wrote in Ephesians 4:10, he has ascended far above all the heavens, that he might fill all things. In this place—which is not a place, but above all places—Christ sits. Where once there was only God, now there is also a man. This man, who is one with God, represents us, intercedes for us, and rules the universe for us. Words cannot express how good this news is.

The writer of Hebrews did not have access to the knowledge about the cosmos that we have. He never saw the mind-blowing pictures of planets and galaxies that we have all seen. However, I don’t think that he would be surprised to learn how vast the universe is. He would have found it to be a fitting frame for this earth which God is so interested in, and a great testimony to the Lord who is so much greater.

2. What Will We Say When We Know Everything?

Paul said in 1 Corinthians 13:11, When I became a man I gave up childish ways. In 1 Corinthians and in other letters Paul speaks of growing up into maturity and no longer being children. Whenever he speaks like this, it is to encourage good behavior. But that's not what he's doing in this verse, and that's not what he means here by childish ways. Here he is using the childhood/maturity metaphor differently. Here he is considering himself to still be a child and looking forward to maturity. This is because he is not talking about conduct and behavior, but about knowledge and understanding. We can see this when we read 1 Corinthians 13:9-12 separated into two categories: this age and the age to come. Paul contrasts the two ages four times.

THIS AGE: For now we know in part and we prophesy in part

THE AGE TO COME: but when the perfect comes the partial will pass away

THIS AGE: When I was a child I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child

THE AGE TO COME: When I became a man I gave up childish ways.

THIS AGE: For now we see in a mirror dimly

THE AGE TO COME: but then, face to face

THIS AGE: Now I know in part

THE AGE TO COME: then I shall know just as I also am known

Paul had spent many years studying scripture and teaching the church, but he knew how limited his own knowledge was. He knew that in the age to come he would look back on his understanding in this age and it would seem, in retrospect, like he was operating with the mind of a three-year-old. According to this passage, we all think like three-year-olds. It can’t be helped; it is the nature of this age. It is not a matter of what we know, but of how we know things.

Paul’s assessment of the reasoning abilities of the church was not overly pessimistic. Two thousand years of church history have shown that it is fairly accurate. Toddlers reason differently than adults, just like we will reason differently in the age to come than we do in this age. When he was two, my son used to hide his own toys and then forget where he hid them. He probably forgot that he hid them. Later, when he would find them, he would be excited. Church history also reveals a pattern of Christians neglecting important truths of Scripture and then rediscovering them with great delight, sometimes thinking that they have found something brand new.

Young children also have a much greater appetite for repetition. Nothing is old to them, and they need to repeat things many times over to learn them. If we accept Paul’s analogy, we will appreciate how important repetition is to us. Just like children, we need to hear the same things over and over again.

But I think the most amazing part of 1 Corinthians 13:9-12 is that last line: then I shall know, just as I also am known. This is amazing because he is not just talking about knowing things, but about knowing God. Even though Paul knew Jesus Christ very well, he often spoke of Christ’s second coming as “the revelation of Jesus Christ.” This is because Christ will come to fully reveal himself, and in doing so, he will fully reveal God the Father.

Paul knew very well that Moses had taught that such a revelation was too much for any man in this world. God had said to Moses, in Exodus 33:20, “You cannot see my face, for no one shall see me and live.” Paul himself wrote, in 1 Timothy 6:16, that God is he who dwells in unapproachable light, whom no one has ever seen or can see. How unimaginable it must be then, to not only see him but to know him completely.

Yet Paul expected to know God as well as God had known him. All Christians should expect the same thing. And, according to Psalm 139:1-6, God knows us very well: O LORD, you have searched me and known me. You know when I sit down and when I rise up; you discern my thoughts from afar. You search out my path and my lying down and are acquainted with all my ways. Even before a word is on my tongue, behold, O LORD, you know it altogether. You hem me in behind and before, and lay your hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high; I cannot attain it.

These are very comforting verses, revealing God’s knowledge of us. But to think about us knowing God the same way can seem ridiculous, blasphemous, or terrifying. Imagine being able to say this to God: “O LORD, I have searched you and known you. I discern your thoughts from afar. I am acquainted with all your ways. Even before a word is on your tongue, O LORD, I know it altogether.”

It is hard to imagine saying that to God and not being struck by lightning. But that is because we are only accustomed to knowledge of God as it is acquired in this present sinful age. Our destiny is to know God in a realm where sin is not possible. Then we will see that God is one who delights in sharing himself. That was always his intention in creating us, not that he might hide from us, but that he might share his thoughts and his ways with us in a degree of intimacy that is not possible in this age.

This may not sound appealing to those of us who love learning. If we already know everything, what is left to learn? There would be no more joy of discovery. And what will we have to say to one another when we know each other’s thoughts, and even God’s thoughts?

In this age, we know the light of discovery only because of the darkness of ignorance. And we are so accustomed to that darkness that it is hard for us to anticipate a life free of ignorance. But what is truly important about the age to come is not that it is a kingdom where there will be no darkness, only light. It is that it is a kingdom where the only light will be supplied directly by God. Revelation 22:3-5 describes this: No longer will there be anything accursed, but the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants will worship him. They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. And night will be no more. They will need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light, and they will reign forever and ever.

God promises us in Revelation 21:5, Behold I make all things new. God, who will be our only light, will make new things for us to say, things never heard before, and he will use us to say them. We will have a lot to say in the age to come, a lot to say to one another and to God. What we will say are new things. Maybe artists will create new colors instead of mixing together the old ones. Maybe they will create new shapes that are geometrically impossible in this age, and engineers will use them to create new cities. Maybe. But the truth will actually be a lot better than that. Asking me to imagine the kind of new things that we will say is like asking a three-year-old what he wants to be when he grows up.

The Apostle John can provide a better answer to the question of what we will say when we know everything: Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. (1 John 3:2) It does not yet appear what you will be. What you will be will determine what you will say. You will say new and original things that you alone can say because of the unique person that you are.

When Martin Luther died his friends found a scrap of paper with a few words written on it. These were the last written words of Luther. The writing ends with this: “Know that no one can have indulged in the Holy Writers sufficiently, unless he has governed churches for a hundred years with the prophets, such as Elijah and Elisha, John the Baptist, Christ and the apostles…We are beggars: this is true.”

Luther learned early in his life that intellect without experience is wholly insufficient for understanding God’s word. After a lifetime of experience he understood that this earthly life is just the beginning of learning. Not only can we always know more, we can always know more deeply.

You cannot rightly compare the sufferings of this age with the glories to come unless you have had all of your questions answered and find that your curiosity has only increased, unless you have known God inside and out and only hunger to know him more. We are toddlers: this is true.

3. Forgiveness Is An All-Consuming Fire

The letter of Hebrews is a call to Christian maturity, and some of the clearest marks of this maturity are given to us at the end of chapter 12. Hebrews 12:28-29 says, Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire.

These verses serve as the climax of the teaching that began in Hebrews 12:18. The letter of Hebrews has many such climaxes, exhortations that follow a passage of teaching on part of the Old Testament. The writer follows this pattern. He teaches from Scripture, then he exhorts his readers to have confidence, more teaching, another exhortation, etc. Each exhortation serves as a climax to an exposition of Scripture. Hebrews 12:28-29 is the last such climax in the letter. Chapter 13 consists of a list of final exhortations, greeting and farewell.

This exhortation to worship God with reverence and awe stands in contrast to the letters many exhortations to the believers to exhibit the confidence of a cleansed conscience. The first half of the letter is peppered throughout with exhortations to boldness, confidence, and hope before God (Hebrews 3:6, 3:14, 3:16, 6:11, 6:18). Hebrews 7:1-10:18 is the largest extended teaching in Hebrews, the heart of the letter. This teaching also culminates in an exhortation to certain faith and unwavering hope (Hebrews 10:19-23,35).

We would expect this final climax at the end of chapter 12 to also be about having boldness and confidence before God. Instead it is about reverence and awe. This is especially striking considering the teaching passage that precedes it, and of which it is the climax, Hebrews 12:18-24:

For you have not come to what may be touched, a blazing fire and darkness and gloom and tempest and the sound of a trumpet and a voice whose words made the hearers beg that no further messages be spoken to them. For they could not endure the order that was given, “Even if a beast touches the mountain, it shall be stoned.” Indeed, so terrifying was the sight that Moses said, “I tremble with fear.” But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering, and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than that of Abel.

The overall structure of this passage is very clear: not this, but that. Not Mt. Sinai, but Mt. Zion. Not a dark storm, but a festal gathering; not an encounter that terrifies even Moses, but Jesus interceding for you in heaven; not unbearable commands spoken in an overwhelming and otherworldly voice, but the shed blood of Jesus promising mercy and forgiveness; not a burning fire, but the company of saints.

Yet this passage climaxes with an exhortation to worship God with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire. We are delivered away from the fire of Mt. Sinai to a greater fire, and a better kind of fear.

1 John 4:17-18 says, By this is love perfected with us, so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment, because as he is so are we in this world. There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love.

This is exactly what the writer of Hebrews means by his repeated exhortations to have confidence and boldness before God because of the priestly ministry of Jesus. But along with this confidence, he says, let us also have reverence and awe of God. Even Jesus, he reminds us, had this kind of reverential fear of God (Hebrews 5:7).

In addition to, and sometimes right next to the exhortations to confidence, there are also dire warnings throughout the letter of Hebrews (2:3, 3:12-13, 4:1, 6:4-8, 10:26-31). These are warnings intended to evoke fear, very clearly the fear of punishment. Although the writer uses them very well, he follows up some of those warnings with assurances that this is not the kind of fear he ultimately wants to leave them with: Though we speak this way, yet in your case, beloved, we feel sure of better things—things that belong to salvation…But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who have faith and preserve their souls (Hebrews 6:9, 10:39).

It has been said that the fear of hell never kept anyone out of hell. It is not enough. There must also be an appreciation of the goodness and grace of God. Understanding God’s grace results in a new kind of fear of God, a fear that does not stem from his ability to punish, but from his ability to forgive. King David understood this, as he prayed in Psalm 130:3-4: If you, O LORD, should mark iniquities, O LORD, who could stand? But there is forgiveness with you, that you may be feared.

This is a profound mystery and not well understood, but there is a fear of God that comes as a result of his forgiveness and mercy. It is the companion of the boldness and confidence before God that also comes from his grace and forgiveness. It is a fear that has nothing to do with punishment.

Without this attitude, confidence becomes presumption. This defective response to the grace of God is widespread and always has been. Paul addressed this attitude in Romans 2:3-4: Do you suppose, O man—you who judge those who do such things and yet do them yourself—that you will escape the judgment of God? Or do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance?

The English Standard Version, I think, does a great job of rendering these verses. Presuming upon God’s kindness was the problem Paul was addressing. Other translations do not convey this faulty attitude to grace as precisely as the ESV. The people whom Paul was addressing may have despised, shown contempt for, and thought little of God’s grace, but their attitude is best described as presumption. This attitude results in a faulty concept of grace. And, again, it is very common and always has been.

Mt. Sinai was a great display of God’s power. The people of Israel were right to fear and to beg God not to speak to them that way anymore. The Lord told as much to Moses and looked forward to a day when he could speak in the fullness of his power and yet his people could listen (Deuteronomy 18:15-18).

Today is that day. The death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, and the grace and forgiveness that it brings us, is the greatest display of God’s power there has ever been. Whenever this grace is truly perceived, there will naturally be great reverence and awe of God. Where this grace is misunderstood, there will be presumption and, eventually, contempt for God. Many fear God because he punishes. How few, like King David, fear God because he forgives.

4. Grace Is Its Own Authority

The apostle Paul says in Romans 6:14, you are not under law but under grace. The phrase under grace implies that grace is a kind of authority. The contrast with the law implies that it is a different kind of authority than that which comes from the law. Indeed it is very different, and it is a kind of authority that most people are completely unfamiliar with.

Mark 10:35-40 relates this teaching of Jesus: And he sat down and called the twelve. And he said to them, “If anyone would be first, he must be last of all and servant of all.” And he took a child and put him in the midst of them, taking him in his arms, he said to them, “Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me, and whoever receives me, receives not me but him who sent me.” John said to him, “Teacher, we saw someone casting out demons in your name, and we tried to stop him, because he was not following us.” But Jesus said, “Do not stop him, for no one who does a mighty work in my name will be able soon afterward to speak evil of me. For the one who is not against us is for us.”

Jesus identifies the Father as the one who sent him and addresses the special relationship between the sender and the sent one: whoever receives me, receives not me but him who sent me. This is not a theme of Jesus’ teaching that is prominent in Mark. In fact this is the only place in Mark where Jesus refers to God as “him who sent me.”

If we read only the Gospel of Mark we would get the impression that this is language that Jesus did not use very often. It appears more in the gospel of Luke. But it is in the Gospel of John that this kind of teaching appears very often. In John’s Gospel, Jesus has a lot to say about the one who sent him and his unique relationship with God as the sent one. Jesus refers to God as the one who sent him more than thirty times in John’s gospel. John 5:19-44 is a good example of Jesus explaining what this kind of language means.

The one time in Mark’s Gospel when Jesus did use this kind of language to describe himself, in the passage quoted above, we are told that it was John who replied. John was trying to see if he had understood Jesus clearly on this point by seeing if his actions were in keeping with what Jesus was saying. In this case, no, he did not have an accurate understanding, and he ending up looking stupid. But of the twelve disciples, he was the one who was obviously trying to understand this teaching and act accordingly. And his efforts paid off, as we clearly see when we read his Gospel.

John was trying to understand Jesus’ authority, how it worked and how it was shared with others. The mistake John made and the correction Jesus offered proved to be an issue of vital importance in the early history of the church. One of the most important decisions that John had to make as a leader of the church was what to do about a certain preacher who did not follow the twelve apostles, was not authorize by them, and yet claimed to be sent by Christ. And this preacher was doing a lot more with his supposed authority than casting out demons (although he did that too).

The maverick preacher was Paul of Tarsus. We learn about this issue in Galatians 2, as John, Peter, and James had to decide what to do about Paul’s emerging ministry and the authority that he claimed. In Galatians 2:9 Paul says, and when James and Cephas and John, who seemed to be pillars, perceived the grace that was given to me, they gave the right hand of fellowship to Barnabas and me, that we should go to the Gentiles and they to the circumcised.

The future of the church depended upon these three men and their ability to perceive grace at work in the life of another. The grace of God in Paul’s life and ministry was more than just a proof of his authority, it was his authority. This is what was so different about the authority that Jesus exercised and gave to others. It was grace to serve, not power to control. It took John and the other disciples a long time and many mistakes until they had learned this lesson, but they learned it well.

Jesus’ authority was unlike anything anyone had ever seen before. This can be illustrated by comparing it with the authority of Moses. Moses’ authority was God-given, and it was great, but it was for a certain purpose. Moses exemplified the nature of his authority when he came down from Mt. Sinai after receiving the Ten Commandments. The Israelites had made the golden calf and were engaging in the idolatrous worship practices that they had learned in Egypt. Exodus 32:25 says that Moses saw that the people had broken loose, that is, that they were unrestrained.

Immediately Moses acted to restrain their madness. And this is what he did for the next forty years; he restrained them with an abundance of rules and the threat of punishment. He did the right thing, but Jesus came to do a different thing and operated in a different kind of authority. Moses saw that people were sinners and needed to be restrained. Jesus came because people were sinners and needed to be set free.

To be under the authority of the grace of God in Jesus Christ is to be free. It is what we all need and should be desperately craving more of. To the extent that we have this desire, we will be learning how to perceive grace in the lives of others. We will be searching for it in order to honor it for what it is: Jesus at work. If this is our goal, it won’t matter how stupid we may look or how many mistakes we may make, because it will be worth it if only we can learn to be experts at perceiving grace.

5. Did Jesus Cleanse the Temple Twice?

When two or more of the Gospels do not agree on the details of a story, there are two likely explanations. The first is that one of the Gospel writers is omitting certain details or highlighting certain other details. The second is that the Gospel writers are actually describing two different events.

Likewise, when the Gospels disagree on the order of events, there are two likely explanations. The first is that one of the writers is grouping stories together by topic or highlighting a certain theme in the story he is telling. The second explanation is, once again, that the Gospel writers are actually describing two different events.

In reconciling both kinds of disagreements, that second explanation can be very tempting, but sometimes it is too easy a way out. The pitfalls of this kind of explanation, and its potential for abuse, were illustrated in 1537, when Andreas Osiander published a harmony of the four Gospels. Unlike any other harmonizer of the Gospels, Osiander chose that second option every time he saw disagreement among the gospels. His method made for a very long harmony. David Laird Dungan describes it in his book A History of the Synoptic Problem: “If Osiander spotted any differences of either content or order of placement, no matter how minute, this meant different historical events were being recounted. As a result, the tens of thousands of slight differences among the Gospels caused Osiander to create a picture of Christ’s life and ministry filled with repeated events: Jesus was tempted three different times; cleansed the temple three times; healed the Centurion’s servant once, twice, and thrice; gave the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew) as well as the Sermon on the Plain (Luke) in two different places; was betrayed twice by Judas; anointed by three different women; ate two Last Suppers; and so on.”

The “two different events” explanation doesn’t work nearly as often as Osiander tried to make it work. But sometimes it not only works, but makes more sense of the text. I think the Sermon on the Mount and the Sermon on the Plain are two different events, two examples of the kind of sermon that Jesus preached many times in Galilee.

Another place where this explanation works best is the story about Jesus throwing the money changers out of the temple, usually referred to as Jesus cleansing the temple. Matthew, Mark, and Luke say it happened at the Passover Feast during which Jesus was crucified. John describes it, in very similar language, as happening at Passover two or three years earlier.

It is most likely that John’s Gospel was the last of the four to be written. It is also likely that John was familiar with the other three Gospels, as were most of the people for whom he wrote. It seems that one of his goals was to fill in some gaps and answer some questions raised by the other Gospels.

Imagine that you are one of those Christians for whom John is writing his Gospel. You know from Matthew and Mark that when Jesus was on trial he was accused of promising to destroy the temple and to build a new one in three days. This promise was also thrown back in Jesus’ face by those who mocked him while he was on the cross. What you do not know, however, is this: when did Jesus say anything like that and what exactly did he say? No such words of Jesus can be found in Matthew, Mark, or Luke.

John answers this question. According to John, Jesus made this statement after he cleansed the temple the first time, two or three years before his crucifixion. John 2: 13-22: The Passover of the Jews was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. In the temple he found those who were selling oxen and sheep and pigeons, and the money-changers sitting there. 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. And he told those who sold pigeons, “Take these things away; do not make my Father’s house a house of trade.” His disciples remembered that it was written, “Zeal for your house will consume me.” So the Jews said to him, “What sign do you show us for doing these things?” Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” The Jews then said, “It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and will you raise it up in three days?” But he was speaking about the temple of his body. 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.

Jesus was just beginning his ministry. He was not yet as famous as John the Baptist, and he had relatively few disciples (John was one of them, Matthew was not). At that time he could make such a statement without being arrested. He wasn’t taken that seriously. But in the weeks before Jesus was crucified, the Jerusalem authorities carefully monitored everything he said, looking for a reason to arrest him. If he has made this statement during that time, this would have been the first charge brought against him during his trial. Matthew, however, says it was the last charge (Matthew 26:60).

Mark 14:55-59 says this about Jesus’ trial: Now the chief priests and the whole Council were seeking testimony against Jesus to put him to death, but they found none. For many bore false witness against him, but their testimony did not agree. And some stood up and bore false witness against him, saying, “We heard him say, ‘I will destroy this temple that is made with hands, and in three days I will build another, not made with hands.’” Yet even about this their testimony did not agree. No wonder their testimony did not agree, they were trying to remember something that happened two or three years ago!

That Jesus cleansed the temple twice is not any more unlikely than that the American Civil War saw two important battles fought at Bull Run Creek. But why did he do it twice, and is there a difference between the two incidents?

Since all of the Old Testament points to Jesus, it is possible that he was fulfilling a pattern found in the Scriptures. In the history of Israel the temple was cleansed twice, by King Hezekiah and by King Josiah. And in both cases, the climax of the cleansing was the keeping of the Passover Feast.

After the death of Solomon, the temple he built began to suffer neglect. Although King Joash made an attempt to rebuild it, it was not until the reign of Hezekiah, about 260 years after the death of Solomon, that the temple was purified and biblical worship was restored.

The kingdom of Israel split in two immediately after the death of Solomon. Until the reign of Hezekiah there were two kingdoms: Israel in the north and Judah in the south. King Hezekiah of Judah witnessed the end of the kingdom of Israel as it was conquered by Assyria. Hezekiah saw the Passover Feast that was about to take place in the restored temple as an opportunity to reach out to what remained of the people of the kingdom of Israel. So they decreed to make a proclamation throughout all Israel, from Beersheba to Dan, that the people should come and keep the Passover to the LORD, the God of Israel, at Jerusalem, for they had not kept it as often as prescribed. (2 Chronicles 30: 5)

It was Hezekiah’s intention to offer mercy and restoration to the people of Israel, as he wrote to them: O people of Israel, return to the LORD, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, that he may turn again to the remnant of you who have escaped from the hand of the kings of Assyria…For if you return to the LORD, your brothers and your children will find compassion with their captors and return to this land. For the LORD your God is gracious and merciful and will not turn away his face from you, if you return to him. (2 Chronicles 30:6,9)

This was a proclamation of good news, a promise of mercy from God and the hope of reconciliation between Judah and Israel. Many Israelites responded to Hezekiah’s invitation and the Passover Feast was an especially joyful event: And the people of Israel who were present at Jerusalem kept the Feast of Unleavened Bread seven days with great gladness, and the Levites and the priests praised the LORD day by day, singing with all their might to the LORD…Then the whole assembly agreed to keep the feast for another seven days. So they kept it for another seven days with gladness…So there was great joy in Jerusalem, for since the time of Solomon the son of David king of Israel there had been nothing like this in Jerusalem. (2 Chronicles 30:21,23,26)

Jesus likewise saw his ministry in Galilee as an outreach to the kingdom of Israel. In his hometown of Nazareth he likened his ministry to that of Elijah and Elisha, both prophets to the northern kingdom of Israel (Luke 4:24-27). When he sent the 12 apostles on a mission he ordered them to go only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel (Matthew 10:6).

Despite this focus on the remnant of the northern kingdom, Jesus saw his message as coming forth from Jerusalem to the whole world, in fulfillment of the prophets. It was fitting therefore that before Jesus began his mission to the lost kingdom of Israel, he should cleanse the temple at Passover time. It was also fitting that he should do it again at the end of his ministry.

Josiah was the second king of Judah to cleanse the temple. He began to reign fifty seven years after Hezekiah died. The fifty-seven years between Hezekiah and Josiah were years of corrupt and wicked rule. When Josiah came to power, he also restored the temple, but what he hoped to accomplish by keeping the Passover was different from Hezekiah’s goal, as were the surrounding circumstances.

We learn in 2 Chronicles 34 that while they were restoring the temple, the priest found the book of the Law of Moses. When it was read to Josiah he was greatly disturbed by the judgments that Moses had prophesied would come on the Israelites because of their disobedience. Josiah knew that Israel and Judah had been very disobedient and that severe punishment was due.

Josiah inquired of a prophetess and was informed that yes, indeed, punishment was due: “Thus says the LORD, behold, I will bring disaster upon this place and upon its inhabitants, all the curses that are written in the book that was read before the king of Judah.” (2 Chronicles 34:24)

But there was also a bit of good news for Josiah himself: “because your heart was tender and you humbled yourself before God when you heard his words against this place and its inhabitants, and you have humbled yourself before me and have torn your clothes and wept before me, I also have heard you, declared the LORD. Behold, I will gather you to your fathers, and you shall be gathered to your grave in peace, and your eyes shall not see all the disaster that I will bring upon this place and its inhabitants.” (2 Chronicles 34:27-28)

So Josiah proceeded to keep the Passover Feast, and 2 Chronicles 35:18 tells us that he didn’t do it half-heartedly: No Passover like it had been kept in Israel since the days of Samuel the prophet. None of the kings of Israel had kept such a Passover as was kept by Josiah, and the priests and the Levites, and all Judah and Israel who were present, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem.

Josiah kept this Passover knowing that it would be too little, too late. He knew that, although he would die in peace, soon afterward Jerusalem and the temple would be destroyed. He kept the Passover simply because it was written in the word of God that it should be kept. He kept it as a prophetic act that God ordained and that God would somehow, someday, fulfill. Knowing that it would not save Jerusalem, he nevertheless kept the Passover like it had not been kept in three hundred years.

So it was fitting that Jesus also, just before he accomplished his mission and fulfilled all that the Passover prophesied, should cleanse the temple again and minister once more to Jerusalem, even as he wept over her. He would soon return to his Father, but he knew that within a generation Jerusalem and the temple would be destroyed again. He knew that his ministry in the temple would not spare Jerusalem this fate, but he cleansed the temple again anyway, because it was written, My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations. (Isaiah 56:7)

From the Author

The articles in this book first appeared and are still available at JoshuaNickel.com/articles

Visit my weekly blog at TheLanguageOfGrace.net/blog

My email address is JoshuaMarkNickel@gmail.com

May God bless you and magnify Christ in your life.

Table of Contents

Exalted Above the Heavens: Meditations on the Greatness of Jesus Christ and the Glory of His Grace

Introduction

Midpoint