Cleaning House

Last week we discussed Jesus’ first public miracle which He performed at a wedding in Cana. That miracle pictured how Jesus has come to take our tasteless & joyless existence, & transform it into a life of joyful celebration which offers the hope that the best is yet to come. After the wedding feast we read:

Joh 2:12 After this he went down to Capernaum, he, and his mother, and his brethren, and his disciples: and
they continued there not many days.

When the wedding party was over, Jesus, Mary, His siblings, & His disciples—5 of them at this point—enjoyed a few days of family reunion in Capernaum. Capernaum was about 18 eighteen miles northeast of Cana & about 20 miles northeast of His hometown in Nazareth. Capernaum would become Jesus’ new home base for His Galilean ministry. Such a move would be logical because He had disciples who lived in Capernaum & from this point forward Jesus would be increasingly alienated from His family (with the exception of His mother) & alienated from His hometown of Nazareth.

After a short time in Capernaum, Jesus, His disciples, & most likely His family, traveled south to Jerusalem to celebrate the annual Passover feast. The Lord was now about to give the whole nation a sign of a different kind, not a private miracle as in Cana, but a public act commendable of a sovereign Messiah.