SUNDAY - "MIKURAB"

Jesus Goes to the Temple John 2:12-25

It was almost time for the Jewish Feast of Passover, so Jesus went to Jerusalem. In the temple he found men selling cattle, sheep, and pigeons, and also the moneychangers sitting at their tables. He made a whip from cords and drove all the animals out of the temple, both the sheep and the cattle; he overturned the tables of the moneychangers and scattered their coins; and he ordered the men who sold the pigeons, "Take them out of here! Do not make my Father's house a market place!" His disciples remembered that the scripture says, "My devotion to your house, God, burns in me like a fire."

The Jewish authorities came back at him with a question, "What miracle can you perform to show us that you have the right to do this?"

Jesus answered, "Tear down this house of God and in three days I will build it again."

"You are going to build it again in three days?" they asked him. "It has taken forty-six years to build this temple!"

But the temple Jesus spoke of was his body. So when he was raised from death, his disciples remembered that he said this; and they believed the scripture and what Jesus had said.

While Jesus was in Jerusalem during the Feast, many believed in him as they saw the mighty works he did. But Jesus did not trust himself to them, because he knew all men well. There was no need for anyone to tell him about men, because he knew what was in their hearts. (Also Mt 21:12-13; Mk 11:15-17; Lk 19:45-46)