John 2:23-25, Jesus Needs No Witness

23 Now when he was in Jerusalem at the Passover Feast, many believed in his name when they saw the signs that he was doing. 24 But Jesus on his part did not entrust himself to them, because he knew all people 25 and needed no one to bear witness about man, for he himself knew what was in man. 

In ancient times a person’s name summed up the person. In Hebrew the name of Jesus means “God saves” or “the Lord is salvation.” People were beginning to see Jesus as the Savior. Yet even as they began to trust in him, he did not trust them because he knew who they were and what was in them. After all, he is the one who created them. Jesus did not need people to witness to him. His being Savior of the world would not derive from popular opinion but by God’s own pronouncement and divine witness. Jesus’ resurrection would be the ultimate witness that fulfilled his prophecy of “Destroy this temple and I will raise it up in three days.” Man could not properly bear witness to this fact much less know how to operate the temple properly. 

What exactly did Jesus see in us that gave him pause? He saw us as morally abject while at the same time worth saving. Messed up, we remain infinitely valuable to him. We are created in the image of God and created to worship him. Creation and worship go together. This idea sums up Jesus’ cleansing of the temple and why John concludes with these verses. Jesus displayed righteous anger and indignation at sinful man polluting God's temple, but instead of destroying it and everyone in it as God did in the great flood, he makes the claim that he is the true temple that will be raised up again into something new after he is destroyed. Man will not be destroyed; Jesus will be destroyed. 

At Passover, Jesus begins a worship renewal movement that will find its ultimate fulfilment in a new heaven and earth combination where the Lord and the Lamb of God become the temple: “And I saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb” (Revelation 21:22). 

You were created in God’s image to worship him. Worship him today in your quiet time. Give him the worth due his name.