“But the Jewish leaders demanded, “What are you doing? If God gave you authority to do this, show us a miraculous sign to prove it.” “All right,” Jesus replied. “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” “What!” they exclaimed. “It has taken forty-six years to build this Temple, and you can rebuild it in three days?” But when Jesus said “this temple,” he meant his own body. After he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered he had said this, and they believed both the Scriptures and what Jesus had said.”
John 2:18-22 NLT
Of course, the Jewish leaders, the Temple mafia, weren’t too happy about Jesus clearing out the merchants from the Temple courts. After all, He was removing a lucrative source of income from them, because as the ordinary people were overcharged for the sacrificial animals and money changing, the profits made their way into the leaders’ pockets. The leaders were facing into a conflict of interest in a way. They knew that the Temple’s integrity was being compromised, contradicting God’s requirements, but they also enjoyed the profits from the market place. Perhaps they tried to rationalise their actions by claiming that they were providing a service to those who had travelled to Jerusalem to offer up their sacrifices. But in the end they decided to ask Jesus from where He had received the authority to do what He had done. A miraculous sign from God was their requirement. The miracles of healing the sick weren’t enough. Neither was the teaching Jesus performed in the Temple. Perhaps they were looking for a written message, much like the writing on the wall that we read about in Daniel 5:5, “Suddenly, they saw the fingers of a human hand writing on the plaster wall of the king’s palace, near the lampstand. The king himself saw the hand as it wrote.” But Jesus provided a cryptic answer, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” Of course, the Jews took Him literally, without realising that Jesus was referring to His own “temple”, His body.
We pilgrims have the authority to do God’s work. In Matthew 28:18-19, we read, “Jesus came and told his disciples, “I have been given all authority in heaven and on earth. Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit”. Jesus has delegated to us, His followers, His authority to preach the Gospel, making disciples (of God) and seeing miraculous signs confirming the message of Good News (Mark 16:20). We don’t have to do this in the churches that are dotted around our country. There are no sacred buildings around as copies of the Jewish Temple. We exercise the authority given to us in the workplaces, the schools, cafes and supermarkets. In fact anywhere, where there is an opportunity. And we don’t need a sign from Heaven to confirm the authority we have. That sign happened on a Cross at a place called Calvary.
Dear Father God. Who will we pilgrims meet today, who will need to hear the message of Good News? Please lead us to the place where You want us to be. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
Being a Pilgrim 