John 2:23-25 – TPT – While Jesus was at the Passover Feast , the number of his followers began to grow, and many gave their allegiance to him because of all the miraculous signs they had seen him doing! But Jesus did not yet entrust himself to them, because he knew how fickle human hearts can be. He didn’t need anyone to tell him about human nature, for he fully understood what man was capable of doing.
Jesus began to have a following even at this early phase in His ministry because of the signs and wonders. Miracles start happening and there will be crowds, but sadly miracles alone don’t change peoples’ hearts. Jesus had just cleansed the temple in Jerusalem for the first time, a clear prophetic sign of what needs to happen to our hearts which are intended to be the true temple of God. In Jesus’ day there was no manifest glory in the temple because of generations of sin among the people of Israel. This prophetic action of cleansing the temple followed up by these words about knowing our hearts show us the importance of repentance that is connected to the born again experience. Here is what Matthew Henry said about this passage.
“He knew what was in man. We know what is done by people; Christ knows what is in them. How fit Christ is to be the Savior of human beings, how fit to be the physician, who has such perfect knowledge of the patient’s case, attitudes, and illnesses; he knows what is in us! How fit he is also to be the Judge of all! The LORD comes to his temple, and no one comes to him except a small group of weak, simple people that he can neither have credit from nor put confidence in.”
I find it quite interesting that John included this first cleansing of the temple which is not found in the other gospels just before he gave us the account of Jesus meeting with Nicodemus and sharing the whole teaching of the significance of being born again. The issue is a sinful nature that can only be changed by the new birth. This was implied in the cleansing of the temple and explained further when Jesus said that He knew man’s heart. That was His message to this religious teacher called Nicodemus, even this Pharisee needed forgiveness and a new nature. He knows all of our hearts, that’s why regeneration and renewal are so critical in all of our lives.
