After the mildest winter I remember in the last thirty years here in Indiana, spring is about to arrive. The birds are singing and the days are getting longer. I look forward to the feel of sunshine, the smell of the flowers, and Easter… It’s coming a little early this year, on March 31.
John 2:13-22 tells the story of Jesus in the temple where doves, oxen and sheep were being sold. Jesus threw the money changers out and told them…”Make not my Father’s house into a house of merchandise.”
As always, the Jews then asked Him to show them a sign as to why He had acted as He did. Jesus responded with the words, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I shalt raise it up.”
Verse 21 tells us: But he spoke of the temple of His body.
The disciples were listening to this exchange, remembering other times Jesus had referred to His body as the temple…But it wasn’t until after Jesus was crucified and had risen from the dead, that they fully understood the meaning of His words… and then they believed.
Do you remember the minute you understood exactly what you had been told about Jesus and His power to save…and you believed it? It was at that moment that the Holy Spirit came into your heart and you began to understand exactly what it meant to be born again. It was the power of faith…not of yourself, but a gift from God…sealing the promise that you are a child of God, treasured and loved beyond measure. Because of God’s grace and through the sacrifice of His only begotten Son, you were saved…brought out of the ugliness of sin and into the light to experience a newness of life.
As Easter approaches, we experience the newness of springtime, and the earth sheds its winter coat, let us remember and praise God for the sacrifice He made in order to reach us…to allow us to enter His kingdom…the holy of holies. We are children of the King. Let us remember…and believe!