117.  The reply of Jesus to the challenge of his authority for his high-handed act shows that he offered it to the people as an invitation; he would lead them to a higher idea and practice of worship (compare John iv. 21-24).  When they demanded the warrant for his act, he saw that they were not ready to follow him, and could not appreciate the only warrant he needed for his course.  He cleansed the temple because they were destroying it as a place where men could worship God in spirit.  In reply to the challenge, he who later taught the Samaritan woman that the worship of God is not dependent on any place however sacred, answered that they might finish their work and destroy the temple as a house of God, yet he would speedily re-establish a true means of approach to the Most High for the souls of men.  He clothed his reply in a figurative dress, as he was often wont to do in his teaching,—­“Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.”  To his unsympathetic hearers it must have been completely enigmatic.  Even the disciples did not catch its meaning until after the resurrection had taught them that in their Master a new chapter in God’s dealing with men had begun.

118.  The unreadiness of the Jewish leaders to receive the only kind of message he had to offer produced in Jesus a decided reserve.  He did not lack a certain kind of success in Jerusalem.  His cures of the sick won him many followers who seemed ready to believe almost anything of him.  But the attitude taken by the leaders made it evident that Jesus must make disciples who should understand in some measure at least his idea of God’s kingdom, and, understanding, must be ready to be loyal to it through good report and evil.  For the position taken by the leaders of the people had an ominous significance.  It could mean but one thing for Jesus,—­unrelenting conflict.  If they could not be won, they who would so legalize the desecration of God’s house would not hesitate at any extreme in opposing his messenger.  This possibility confronted Jesus at the very outset; therefore he held the popular enthusiasm in check, knowing that as yet it had little of that kind of faith which could endure seeming defeat.

119.  One of those who were drawn to him, however, gave Jesus opportunity to lay aside his reserve and speak clearly of the truth lie came to publish.  He was a member of the Jewish sanhedrin, a rabbi apparently held in high regard in Jerusalem.  While his associates were dismissing the claims of Jesus with a wave of the hand, Nicodemus sought out the new teacher by night, and showed his desire to learn what Jesus held to be truth concerning God’s kingdom.  Jesus first reminded the teacher of Israel of the old doctrine of the prophets, that Israel must find a new heart before God’s kingdom can come (Jer. xxxi. 31-34; Ezek. xxxvi. 25-27), and then declared that the heavenly truth which God now would reveal to men is that all can have the needed new life as freely as the plague-stricken Israelites found relief when Moses lifted up the brazen serpent.  This conversation serves to introduce the evangelist’s interpretation of Jesus as the only begotten Son of God sent in love to redeem the world (John iii. 16-21).