St. John’s Gospel tells us (2,13-25) that many came to believe because they could see the signs Jesus was performing. In St. John’s Gospel, belief based on signs or “miracles” alone, rather than on the true reality pointed to by those signs or miracles is inferior. Jesus Himself says that He will not entrust Himself to such half-hearted believers. Something more is asked of us, something greater and stronger. As the Gospel unfolds, the way is now open to Nicodemus who appears in the next chapter (and next Sunday) as someone open to Jesus, but not yet ready to affirm full belief in Him.
Our faith today may not rest on signs and wonders. If it does, we shall drift helplessly away from Him, because He will not “trust Himself to us,” in His own words. Our faith must rest upon the love of God that Jesus has revealed, upon the hope we have in His power of life over death, and the desire of God to embrace us all in His mercy.
As that temple in Jerusalem was once the gathering place of God’s people and the dwelling place of God, a new temple has been raised up. For by the time St. John wrote his Gospel, that original Jerusalem temple was a smoking pile of rubble. By the time St. John wrote, Jesus Christ had been raised up, and now, through Him, with Him, and in Him all people give thanks, praise and glory … for God lives in us, in His church.
Like Nicodemus and the disciples, it takes time to come to this faith. It takes the Holy Spirit, and a desire to make Jesus Christ for us what the temple was for all those Jews: the center of their lives, a sign of God’s presence, and the place where all faithful hearts long to find rest and peace.
