As I work through the Gospel of John in 2021, I’m struck by the contrasts between the two stories found in John 2. In the first story Jesus turns water into wine for a wedding party. In the second story he tosses merchants and their wares from the temple courts. In the first story we see his joy in a wedding; in the second we see his rage in a misplaced market. In the first story he’s filling tables; in the second story he’s turning over tables.
John said that his action in the temple courts was driven by a consuming “zeal” for his Father’s house, in fulfillment of Psalm 69:9.
“Make me Thy fuel, Flame of God”
Zeal. I’ve concluded that many of our biggest woes during this long pandemic come down to missing or misplaced zeal. In these 11 months we’ve lost our passion, or we’ve channeled intense energies into the wrong things. My prayer for 2021 is to see zeal rise up in us again and get routed into causes worthy of blood-bought people.
I love the passionate intensity that coursed through the journals of the martyred missionary, Jim Eliot. In one entry, he reflected on Psalm 104:4 where it says that God makes his ministers flaming fire. And he asked in his journal: “Am I ignitable? God deliver me from the dread asbestos of ‘other things.’” Eliot wrote this in the 1950s when asbestos was still regarded as a miracle fire retardant. Building materials were designed with it. Children’s pajamas were woven with it. But he prayed that he would be saved from any spiritual asbestos that might keep him from burning brightly for God. “Make me Thy fuel, Flame of God,” he cried out in his journal, quoting Amy Carmichael.
That’s a worthy prayer to pray in our eleventh month of a disruptive pandemic. Enough with our missing or misplaced zeal!
Read John 2:13-25 and then let’s meet to dig deeper into that story this Sunday at 10am. You can meet with me on campus or online.
--Tom
Sign up here to receive Tom Goodman’s weekly devotional in your email inbox. Tom serves as pastor at Hillcrest Church in Austin, Texas. His sermons are available on YouTube and the HillcrestToGo Podcast. He blogs at The Anchor Course website and you can find him on Facebook and Twitter.