John 2:23 - Meaning and Application

Here we have an account of the success, or rather the poor success, of Christ’s preaching and miracles at Jerusalem, while he stayed there for the Passover. Notice these things:

When the Lord Jesus was at Jerusalem for the Passover, he both preached and worked miracles. People believing in him shows that he preached, and the text also says they saw the miracles he did. He was in the holy city, Jerusalem, the place from which the word of the Lord was meant to go out. His usual home was in Galilee, so when he was in Jerusalem he was especially active. This was also a holy season, the feast time set apart for God’s service. At the Passover, the Levites, the temple workers among the Israelites, taught the good knowledge of the Lord (2 Chronicles 30:22), and Christ used that time to preach when many people were gathered. In this way, he honored God’s own appointment of the Passover.

By this means, many were led to believe in his name, meaning they recognized him as a teacher sent from God, like Nicodemus did (John 3:2), and as a great prophet. It is also likely that some in Jerusalem who were hoping for redemption believed him to be the promised Messiah. They were ready to welcome the first appearance of that bright morning star.

Yet Jesus did not entrust himself to them (John 2:24). The phrase means he did not put his confidence in them. The same word is used for believing in him, so to believe in Christ is to commit ourselves to him and to his guidance. Christ saw no reason to place trust in these new believers at Jerusalem, where he had many enemies who wanted to destroy him. This may have been because some of them were not sincere and would have betrayed him if given the chance, or if strongly tempted to do so. He had more disciples he could trust among the Galileans than among the people living in Jerusalem.

In dangerous times and places, wisdom tells us to be careful about whom we trust. Or, if they were not false, then they were weak, and I hope that was the worst of it. They may not have meant to harm him, but they were timid and lacked zeal and courage, so they might have been pushed into doing wrong. Cowards are not fit to be trusted when trouble comes. Or they were restless and lacked good judgment and self-control. The people in Jerusalem may have had stronger hopes of a worldly Messiah’s rule than others did, and with that expectation they would have been ready to make bold moves against the government if Christ had trusted them and put himself at their head. But he would not do that, because his kingdom is not of this world. We should also be cautious around unsettled and noisy people, as our Master was, even if they say they believe in Christ, as these did.

The reason he did not trust himself to them was that he knew them (John 2:25), he knew the evil in some and the weakness in others. The evangelist uses this moment to show Christ’s complete knowledge of all things. He knew all people, not just their names and faces, as we may know many people, but their nature, habits, desires, and plans, which we do not fully know in anyone, hardly even ourselves. He knows all people because his powerful hand made them all, and his piercing eye sees through them all. He knows his clever enemies and their secret plans. He knows false friends and their true character, what they really are, no matter what they pretend to be. He also knows those who truly belong to him. He knows their honesty, and he knows their weakness too. He knows their make-up.

He did not need anyone to tell him about people. His knowledge did not come from reports by others, but from his own perfect insight. Earthly rulers have the trouble of seeing through other people’s eyes and hearing through other people’s ears, so they must judge by what is reported to them. Christ does not depend on that. Angels are his messengers, but not his spies, because his own eyes go everywhere (2 Chronicles 16:9). This should comfort us when Satan accuses us, because Christ will not accept a person’s character from Satan.

He knew what was in man, meaning in each person and in human nature itself. We know what people do, but Christ knows what is inside them. He searches the heart and the mind. This belongs to the eternal Word himself (Hebrews 4:12, 13). We would be taking his place if we tried to judge the hearts of others. How fit Christ is to be the Savior of people, and how fit to be their physician, since he knows a patient’s true condition so perfectly, his temperament and his sickness, and knows what is inside him. He is also perfectly fit to be the Judge of all, because the judgment of the one who knows all people and all that is in them must be true and just.

This was the whole success of Christ’s preaching and miracles at Jerusalem on this journey. The Lord came to his temple, and only a few weak and simple people came to him, people from whom he could gain neither credit nor confidence. Yet in the end he will see the fruit of his suffering.