As we pull back the veil or open those doors, to our amazement, we see the Word made bloody flesh on that tree with two brigands on either side of him. This horror is also his glory. The glory hidden behind the veil all those years is revealed: Yahweh is the sacrifice for his people.

John’s Gospel is a literary trek through the new Tabernacle or Temple that is Jesus’ body. His allusions to Jesus as the new Temple are evident from the beginning. “The Word” calls up the construction of Solomon’s Temple in 1 Kings. What is translated as “the inner sanctuary” by the ESV is a Hebrew word that seems to be associated with the word “to speak” or its noun form, “word” (1 Kg 6:5, 16, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 31; 7:49). This is another name for the Holy of Holies. In John 1:14, the Word becomes flesh and “dwells” among us. The verb “dwells” speaks of pitching a tent or dwelling in a tent. Some have translated it, “tabernacled.” Seeing his glory, the glory that dwells in the Holy of Holies, only fortifies the image.

If these images aren’t clear enough, when Jesus cleanses the Temple in chapter 2, he tells the Jews, “Destroy this Temple, and in three days I will raise it up” (Jn 2:19). He was speaking about the Temple that is his body (Jn 2:21).

Jesus is the incarnation of the Temple with all its meaning and services. He is God’s palace, the place where heaven and earth are joined, the place where sins are forgiven, and we draw near to God.

John takes us on a journey through the Temple as it is fulfilled in Jesus. As you enter John’s Gospel, you step into the Outer Court. There, you see a bronze altar that is always burning, along with a bronze laver used for baptisms of priests and animals. When Jesus steps on the scene to be baptized by John the Baptizer, he is proclaimed “the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world” (Jn 1:29, 36). He is the sin or purification offering that will be offered up on the bronze altar. He is presented as the Lamb of God in the context of baptism, and water is poured all over the first five chapters of John. Jesus is baptized. The stone water jars in which the water was turned into wine were used for purification (2:1-11). To be born again is to be born of water and the Spirit (3:1-21).

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