JOHN110 - Jesus, Not the Hand-Washing Police, Decides What Is and Isn’t Unclean

John 2:1-11

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Music by Jeff Foote

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:18

Hey everybody, it's Matt. This is the 10 Minute Bible Hour Podcast. And did you ever have like a little gang that you ran around with when you were a kid? I mean like a gang gang like Crips and Bloods and stuff. I don't I don't know much about that. They got guns and knives and stuff, and then we're red and blue. I'm not, I don't, I've never been in a gang. I just mean like a little gang of your buddies or whatever. I don't know. Do girls have little gangs they run around with? You get on bikes and you go right around the neighborhood. And in these gangs, you know, there's a pecking order. And somebody emerges as the kid who like grew biggest the first or is the smartest or whatever. And eventually you figure out that that kid is kind of the one who determines what goes in the little neighborhood gang. They're kind of the decider, the authority on what is ethical, what is not, what do we do, what do we not do? What games do we play? What do we not play? How far do we push the boundaries of our parents' rules or how deep into the forest do we go and explore? They're the decider. Well, right now we're on a little mini arc looking at Jesus' authority over clean and unclean, as it's on display in all four gospels. This theme that Jesus transcends purification rituals and rules, that he kind of is the purifier, that he is the declarer of clean or unclean, that he is the one who says what goes, like the leader of your little neighborhood gang. That theme is in all four gospels a whole bunch of times. And the the miracle that we've been looking at in John 2, the miracle of the water turning into wine, you know, the obvious stuff you get excited about there is, oh, you know, the chemical transformation. But when you think about it, you realize, yeah, but there's all that's also a time transcendence because of the nature of what wine is. And further, because it went from not pure to purified because of the nature of what wine is, it's also a purification authority demonstration on the part of Jesus meant to tell everybody, hey, I'm the decider. I'm the I'm the boss, I'm the one who says what goes around here, and I'm the one who decides what is clean and unclean. I'm the ultimate authority over that. So yesterday we looked at Matthew chapter 8 and a story there that demonstrates Jesus' authority to declare the unclean leper clean. And now we're gonna look at Mark chapter 5, add another passage that shows that Jesus is Lord over clean and unclean. Mark chapter 5, starting in basically the beginning of verse 25. A large crowd followed and pressed around him, and a woman who was there who had been subject to bleeding for 12 years. Obviously, there's a bit of a euphemism being employed here by Mark for the original audience, but I mean, she has a like she just has an unending period. I don't know how else to put it. She has irregular bleeding, and I can't imagine what that's like as a dude, but I'm guessing it was torturous for her just as a matter of practicality. I'm guessing she was anemic, but also remember earlier I was like, hey, there are things that aren't sin, but that made one ceremonially unclean and hygienically unclean, according to the ancient Old Testament law. Well, this is one of those things. She had suffered a great deal under the care of many doctors and had spent all she had, yet instead of getting better, she grew worse. When she heard about Jesus, she came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak. It was very interesting. It's a gesture of faith, like the one that the leper demonstrated. She's not supposed to be in the crowd. That's why she's in a cloak. The leper is a dude. Maybe that was the one dash of entitlement that enabled him to feel like he could just risk it and walk right up, uncloaked. I don't know. Maybe he was cloaked. I don't know. So she goes up and she touches his cloak because she thought, if I just touch his clothes, I will be healed. This is where we get the colloquialism in English. I'm not worthy to touch the hem of your garment. Immediately her bleeding stopped, and she felt in her body that she was freed from her suffering. And then there's an exchange between the two, and Jesus says, Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be free from your suffering. Then immediately after that, Mark gives us another story of a situation where Jesus transcends clean and unclean. But I'm going to get Luke's version of it because I'm trying to prove to you that this theme is present in all of the Gospels. So in Luke chapter 8, we also get the account of the woman who touched the hem of his garment because Jesus was on his way to this guy's house. And it says, Well, while Jesus was still speaking, someone came from the house of Jairus, the synagogue ruler. This guy had summoned Jesus to come and save his sick daughter. And the person who comes from Jairus's house delivers horrible news. They say, Your daughter is dead. Don't bother the teacher, that's Jesus, anymore. Hearing this, Jesus said to Jairus, Don't be afraid, just believe, and she will be healed. When he arrived at the house of Jairus, he did not let anyone go in with him except Peter, John, and James, and the child's father and mother. Meanwhile, all the people were wailing and mourning for her. Stop wailing, Jesus said. She's not dead, but asleep. He takes her by the hand. He says, My child, get up. Her spirit returns, and she stood up. And then Jesus told them to give her something to eat. And her parents were astonished, but as is a theme in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, it's kind of Jesus' hour hasn't come yet. So the story wraps up with him ordering them not to tell anyone what happened. And of course, all that stuff eventually, you can't keep that quiet. It leaks out. So what are we seeing here? In all four gospels, and I just gave you four quick examples over death, which makes you unclean, over bodily hygiene rhythms of life. I'm trying to use euphemisms too, things that would make someone unclean, and over overt disease that would make someone unclean. Jesus has demonstrated authority over all of that. That's Matthew, Mark, and Luke. And then in John 2, to the attentive reader, he's just demonstrated authority over ritual purification, not for somebody who has something wrong, but just for the general state of uncleanness that all people have in contrast to in the presence of a holy God. Now in Acts 10, 15, I'm not going to give you the whole story, but basically there's a moment where Jesus' followers are having trouble wrapping their brains around this, and Peter has this vision, and God makes it really clear like, I transcend purity and all the purity rules that you're hung up on. And this voice from heaven affirms what Jesus was modeling and teaching all along by saying, Do not call anything impure that God has made clean. That feels like a direct nod back to the wedding at Cana and this new wine that Jesus made clean on very short notice, like that brisket. You can't just whip it up real quick. It takes time and thought and preparation to purify and to make it taste right. But Jesus did it in an instant because he has endless power of provision. He has power over time. Those things are very impressive. But maybe most of all, and more subtly, he has power over that which separates us from God. He has power over that which makes us feel shame. Even if it's shame, we don't have to feel or shouldn't feel, because it's just our body doing what our bodies do. But we do feel shame in the flesh. Whether we're talking about the normal rhythms of the flesh, whether we're talking about disease, whether we're talking about the big one that's coming for us all, death, whether we're talking about just basic purification in a sanitary sense to be a part of society, or in a biblical times, a part of the religious life of the community, God transcends all of that. All of those little rules and details that are in play throughout the Bible are there as reminders of our need before a holy God in ways that involve our behavior and in ways that frankly we didn't even do anything wrong. We just have this need. Yet, Jesus subtly, but it's there, through the miracle of changing water to wine in those jars of all things, in those containers, he is declaring that the new paradigm here is one where the Lord of, the master of purity and what is clean and what is not clean is here, and it's Jesus, and his judgments are always right. And the attentive reader who is steeped in Old Testament type stuff would have looked at this miracle and thought quietly, okay, well if he has the ability to take that water which is unclean and unfit for consumption, and in an instant make it clean and fit for consumption, how scalable is that? Would that work on say a leper? Would that work on say somebody who would come into contact with the dead? Would that work on someone who has uncontrollable bodily uncleanliness? Would that work on my soul? Well Well yeah. Yeah, it would work on your soul. Because God the Father, because God the Spirit, because God in the flesh, God the Son, Jesus, they are Lord of purity. They have the ability to declare clean that which is or has been unclean, and there's a reason that we keep seeing this stuff. These kinds of clean and unclean miracles, demonstrations of Jesus' authority, I don't think they pop for us quite as much as they did for the original audience, because we got 2,000 years to get used to the idea that Jesus is master over these things. But we can put in the effort like we have over the last couple of days to put ourselves in their shoes and appreciate what he achieved here. And he did it in this first miracle in John in an instant. He made something, he paired a whole bunch of mind-boggling demonstrations of authority with maybe the most amazing demonstration of authority at all, which is authority over what is clean and unclean, what is pure and impure. And it's a taste of what is to come. Also, it was enough that the disciples understood the meaning and they put their faith in him, according to the final verse of this story. That is quite the deft touch that Jesus has demonstrated here in his first miracle out of the gate. He hasn't just gone global and giant and nuclear and celebrity status right away, but he's also achieved something that, as we've just spent the last few days exploring, has layers and layers and layers and layers and layers of meaning that send us in all different directions throughout the Bible. What there's a reason we spent so much time on this miracle, and there is a reason that we might have a day's worth of mop-up duty next week. I don't know. I haven't decided yet. Maybe a little bit more water into wine. Maybe we're on to the next stuff. We'll figure it out when we get there. All right, that's good for now. I'm Matt. This is the 10-minute Bible hour podcast. Let's do this again soon.

SPEAKER_01 11:48

I am intrinsic good. I am a heart made of wood. I'm only biting time. Only residing. Never mind. Like a like a uh yeah, uh, all right.

SPEAKER_00 12:20

Yeah, whipped sounds and stuff like that. If you haven't heard it, it works. It's better than what I just did.