#john2

https://www.patreon.com/posts/42049892 Made a John2 fanart which I really love! Especially the details which I am showing the crops of. Hands and feet - I conqured them!

If you want to see more of this picture with all of the details :-)) support me on Patreon

“Hold the lift!” Amelia called out, jogging for it before it took off. She wasn’t in a rush to be anywhere, but she still moved fast. “Oh, hey,” She greeted once she realized who it’d been she’d been shouting at. “Sorry. I hate having to wait for the next one. Takes forever.”

Pansexual John Murphy

[. who is someone? Can you tell by their first loves? Or is it by their last?

John Murphy doesn't know but from the moment he is born, his small infant body was crafted for his father's arms. His father's gentle smile and calloused hands could calm his crying like nothing else, which would irritate Murphy's mother - when he had been a child, his mother's temper had seemed humorous but he had learned, it was not to be laughed at. After his father also died. ]

His first crush was something he would call 'sandbox love'. He isn't quite sure about the term where it comes from but his hands had shook when she spoke and her fondness for the red animal in the picture books they had had also made him fond for the animal. At fours year old, he pegged her 'Fox'. At seventeen years old to Bellamy Blake, she would peg herself 'Fox'.

She would die having her bone marrow extracted. He never kissed her, wouldn't let Arson Boy burn her up.

[. in these gaps, his mother grew distant and he'd cry to the sticker on the roof of his room how it was his fault - how losing her was his fault. ]

Murphy had been about eight years old when he had met John Mbege - a boy who six years later would be his first kiss in the shadows of their bunk in a prison cell.

Mbege would die three years after that kiss and nine years after their bond had started.

[. His father would die, his mother would hit him and drink her sorrows away. She would die in a puddle of her own vomit. He would set fire to the rooms of the guards. He wouldn't feel anything but feel it all at the same time. He would become Arson Boy, a boy foreign to himself that cannot even be loved.]

Next was Bellamy. Bellamy had been something he knew he couldn't have without even asking for - Bellamy was not to be touched by the Arson Boy and he was okay with that. Until he wasn't.

Until they had abandoned him and Bellamy had told him, voice so loud that he could only think of his mother, that he deserved to die.

[ there was a boy named Craig who slipped under most people's radars - he was a 19 year old boy who in the cusp of cold nights looking for lost hope, had found a haven in John's lips. He would die at nineteen, banished to death by sea monster and, and John didn't love him but tracing a finger over the pages of people he loved, a voice always remembered Craig.]

He was seventeen, on the cusp of eighteen when he met Emori. She had been fascinating and his only ally against this world that shit on people like them - that people like Thelonious Jaha, Abigail Griffin and Clarke Griffin decided didn't deserve to live. Emori would be his first love but she would leave him on the ring, decide that he wasn't worth all the trauma or the bad days and he began to believe it.

On that ring, it was just solidified: no matter the gender, mo matter the person, everyone he had ever loved would leave him.

Dear God, As we begin to study John 2 this evening, we invite you into our study and our lives. We ask that you meet us where we are, whether that is in thanksgiving, or in the midst of struggle. We ask that you reveal yourself to us and allow your word to be living and active. Let John 1 be life-changing and your Spirit to be life-giving. Amen

Intro: The thing you should know about John 2 is this- it is the first sign (or miracle) that Jesus does. John makes it clear that Jesus lived a fairly ordinary life until this point in time. This is the first time that Jesus shows himself to be supernatural. He does this sign at a typical cultural event in the place that he lives. He goes to a wedding with his family and friends. In the second part of this chapter Jesus is again participating in a cultural event, the Passover. 

Why did Jesus choose a common celebration to preform his first sign? What does it mean that Jesus participated in these kind of events at all? What do these chapters show us about Jesus’ character? 

The Wedding at Cana (Verses 1-12): Basic overview- Jesus, his disciples, and his family go to a wedding and the wine runs out. When Jesus’ mother asks him to solve the problem, he says “My hour has not yet come,” but he still turns gallons and gallons of water to wine. The servants bring the master of the feast (think wedding planner or party host) some of the wine, the master of the feast calls the bridegroom and says “Everyone serves the good wine first, and when people have drunk freely, then the poor wine. But you have kept the good wine until now.” It is important to know here that weddings in Jesus’ were huge events involving the entire village, and lasting for several days. The presence of wine at these weddings symbolized joy and blessing. If the wedding ran out of wine, it was a great embarrassment to the family as it represented a lack of resources, so when Mary says “They’ve run out of wine!” it’s actually a concerning situation. But look at the deeper level here. What if we look at the wedding as the state of Israel and God’s chosen people? The Israelites were without wine (i.e. the joy and blessings of God). They had become spiritually barren, and Jesus was there to supernaturally change the fundamentals of what they believed, just as he changed water to a completely new substance. Furthermore, Jesus shows himself to be God in that he was both creator and provider. He created wine to provide for his beloved people’s needs. 

Is your life spiritually barren? What about our society? What does the changing of water to wine symbolize? How does this sign point to Jesus as Messiah? How does Jesus show himself to be creator and provider in your everyday life? 

Jesus Cleanses the Temple (Verses 13-22): Brief Overview: During the passover time, merchants would sell animals for sacrifices so that people who traveled a long distance would not have to bring animals with them on the journey. When Jesus sees them in the Temple, he is filled with a righteous anger (or zeal as the disciples remember it called in the OT) and drives them out of the Temple. The Jews question his authority to do so, and Jesus tells them “Destroy this Temple, and I will raise it in 3 days.” The Jews think he is speaking of the Temple building, and do not understand that he is pointing to himself as the Temple of God and foreshadowing his crucifixion/resurrection. So at first I was confused as to why it was so bad that the merchants were being helpful, but I think it points to a deep spiritual truth about sin. They may have started selling animals to be helpful, but it became something that was defiling the Temple and turning a place of God into a commercial business. That’s the way sin gets us. It starts with something small, and slowly takes over our entire lives. Yet Jesus comes in and overturns it. He is victorious over our misguided intentions. He has a righteous anger towards that is not out of hate or condemnation, but out of intense love and protectiveness for us as God’s temples now that we have the Holy Spirit living within us. The Temple was a place of worship that connected God and humans before the ultimate sacrifice of Christ. Once Christ gave us his grace, he tore down the wall between God and humans forever. In that moment, we had a direct connection to God. We became the Temples. 

What sin in your life has corrupted your ability to worship God well? How does the act of overturning tables in the Temple relate to the process of dealing with sin in our hearts? How does Jesus show himself as Messiah in these verses? What does it mean that we are Temples? How does it change the way we see ourselves and the world? 

Why did he do all this? (Verses 11, 22, and 23-25): Let’s take a step back and evaluate- in all of these sections, Jesus never tells the common person who he is. He speaks in metaphors and doesn’t even tell the bridegroom of the wedding feast that he created the wine. Why? Read the verses- “And his disciples believed in him.” “his disciples remembered that he had said this, and they believed the Scripture.” Jesus didn’t do these things to show himself as Messiah to the whole wide world, he was doing it for the growth in faith of those close to him. Peter wasn’t always courageous, and John wasn’t always wise. These were the early days where they barely know who Jesus was and didn’t have any idea what was to come. There were just following a stranger around. Jesus was building their faith and preparing them for the work they were to do. The rest of the people believed in what he was doing based on his signs, but Jesus needed his disciples to believe in who he was. When we study the scriptures, we are not building a good Christian vocabulary or looking for empty feelings of comfort, we read the Bible to discover who God is. 

What does it mean to not just know what Jesus did, but who he is? How does Jesus reveal himself as Messiah to his disciples? How do we apply his words to our lives knowing that we are Jesus’ disciples now too? 

A meditation on John 2 There’s a wedding.There’s a feast.There’s a crisis.There’s a God who saves the best wine for last. John 2 isn’t just a story.It’s a sign.A disruption.A whisper.A shout. The wedding at Cana is where the divine touches the mundane, where water, ordinary and utilitarian, is transfigured into celebration.Into joy.Into the best wine they’ve ever tasted. Which says something,…