What has this year in the scriptures meant to you? Would you mind telling us?
- How has your prayer life changed?
- What passages surprised you with new meaning or relevance?
- What passages did you read for the first time, or did you see a new detail you never noticed?
- What passages came into your inbox at just the time in the year when you needed them?
We’d love to know how God spoke to you through the scriptures this year. Drop a note to info@theparkforum.org and put “2025 Scripture Reflection” in the subject line.
Links for today’s readings:
Jan 2 Read: Job 2 Listen: (2:11) Read: John 2 Listen: (3:02)
Jan 3 Read: Job 3 Listen: (2:32) Read: John 3 Listen: (4:41)
Jan 4 Read: Job 4 Listen: (2:06) Read: John 4 Listen: (6:37)
Scripture Focus: John 2.16-22
16 To those who sold doves he said, “Get these out of here! Stop turning my Father’s house into a market!” 17 His disciples remembered that it is written: “Zeal for your house will consume me.” 18 The Jews then responded to him, “What sign can you show us to prove your authority to do all this?” 19 Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days.” 20 They replied, “It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and you are going to raise it in three days?” 21 But the temple he had spoken of was his body. 22 After he was raised from the dead, his disciples recalled what he had said. Then they believed the scripture and the words that Jesus had spoken.
Reflection: Authority Check
By John Tillman
When you abuse authority, and someone starts setting things right, it feels like they are attacking your authority. This feeling is a lie. You betrayed the authority’s giver by your abuse, and your authority lost validity.
When you give authority for something to be done in your name, and someone does it in a way that misrepresents you, anger is justified. Their actions told a lie about you, slandering your name in public.
In the accounts of Jesus cleansing the temple, the religious leaders have abused their authority. Jesus is the authority-giver and the one setting things right. This is what fuels the “zeal” Jesus displayed.
The religious leaders had authority to protect the sanctity of the temple courts and keep temple worship practices uncorrupted. Yet, in slipped commerce. In slipped goods. In slipped greed. In slipped corrupt banking practices, inflated exchange rates, and merciless price gouging. This probably happened as most corruption does, little by little, with lots of self-justifying logic.
But Jesus was not only angry about what slipped in. He was angry about who got pushed out. The noisy, messy commerce took up space designated for prayer. Instead of prayers to God, there was haggling about animals. Instead of souls seeking forgiveness before God, harried shoppers searched for the best animal they could afford.
This corruption also took up space for outcasts and foreigners. The very purpose of the Abrahamic blessing was for his family to bless all the nations. (Genesis 26.4) God said to the nations through Isaiah, “Turn to me and be saved, all you ends of the earth; for I am God, and there is no other.” (Isaiah 45.22) But if nations turned up, they’d probably be turned off. The court designated for them was a filthy, noisy, corrupt market.
The state of the temple court told lies about God. Prayers for a price! God blesses those who can afford it! There’s no room for your kind to pray here; move along!
What is the state of your temple court? I’m not primarily talking about your church, unless you are a leader and have authority there. Paul calls believers “God’s temple.” (1 Corinthians 3.16-17) Are your words and actions misrepresenting God? Are you misusing your God-given authority?
At this time of renewal, run an authority check and let zeal for God’s temple consume you. May godly zeal fuel a renovation of your representation of God’s “temple.”
Divine Hours Prayer: A Reading
“Every year his parents used to go to Jerusalem for the feast of Passover. When he was twelve years old, they went up to the feast as usual. When the days of the feast were over and they set off home, the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem without his parents knowing it. They assumed he was somewhere in the party, and it was only after a day’s journey that they went to look for him among their relations and acquaintances. When they failed to find him they went back to Jerusalem looking for him everywhere. It happened that, three days later, they found him at the Temple, sitting among the teachers, listening to them, and asking them questions; and all those who heard him were astounded at his intelligence and his replies. They were overcome when they saw him, and his mother said to him, ‘My child, why have you done this to us? See how worried your father and I have been, looking for you.’ He replied, ‘Why were you looking for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?’ But they did not understand what he meant. He went down with them then and came to Nazareth and lived under their authority. His mother stored up all these things in her heart. And Jesus increased in wisdom, in stature, and in favor with God and with people. — Luke 2.41-52
– From The Divine Hours: Prayers for Autumn and Wintertime by Phyllis Tickle.
Read more: From Your Nothing…Something Beautiful
How has your past year gone? Are you, like the wedding host, staring down scarcity? Are you hovering over deep waters of disappointment?
Read The Bible With Us
We are restarting our two-year journey through the scriptures. Won’t you ask someone to join in this adventure?