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When I meet people from other churches - whether pastors or committed church people - one of the most common questions I get about Covenant is, “How big is it?” This may be because people are trying to get a visual sense of my context and community. But, more often than not, it is because our world places a high value on size and numbers. We tend to presume that, when it comes to organizations and churches, bigger is better and hugeness equals health. And in the gospels, we do read about Jesus speaking to and ministering to crowds. But Jesus’ relationship with his crowds of admirers isn’t what our culture would expect or promote. In the passage we read on Sunday, John 2:13-25, John makes a fairly profound comment about Jesus that we’re going to consider briefly in this Covenant Weekly for January 20, 2026.

In John 2, Jesus makes a dramatic entrance into the religious and political landscape of his day. He makes a profound declaration and engages in a bit of a confrontation with the Jewish religious and political leaders. That gets people paying attention to him as the Passover comes. And he obviously does more than what John gives us details about because, John provides this commentary in verse 23: “Now while he was in Jerusalem at the Passover Festival, many people saw the signs he was performing and believed in his name.”

If, when Jesus was at the wedding, his time hadn’t come yet, surely this is his time. Jesus makes a splash, gets his name out there, and people start paying attention. Not only paying attention, but “believing in his name.” This is Jesus’ chance to really start to change things and get his movement growing. He could mobilize these people who are believing in his name and get his radical transformation of the world underway!

But John then adds some more commentary. John 2 finishes with these words: “But Jesus would not entrust himself to them, for he knew all people. 25 He did not need any testimony about mankind, for he knew what was in each person.”

What a profound statement. Jesus didn’t entrust himself to this crowd of people who believed in his name because, “he knew all people…he knew what was in each person.” This could be read as a condemnation of the people Jesus is with. But I’m not sure that makes sense when he is also serving them, teaching them, and performing signs (as it says in verse 23). Jesus loves the people, but not in a way that his well-being, message, and ministry is going to rise or fall on them. He has a strong enough sense of self, and a strong enough awareness of human frailty to not go down that road.

This combined strength of self and awareness of others is enviable. One of humanity’s constant temptations involves the desire to be liked, and the defining our sense of self by who likes us or by how many people share their likes with us (whether that’s taken in a literal sense or through the online heart icon). As a church community, it is easy to slide into feeling good about ourselves if our attendance is growing and feeling bad if numbers decrease. This is probably the most commonly used measure of “success” or “struggle” for churches.

In this short commentary, John shows us that Jesus had a different approach. He served and worked as taught and acted to reveal God to the world. But even when he could have rested the success of his ministry on growth and new people believing, he didn’t. It isn’t clear in these verses, but it seems that his rest was in the affirmation of the Father and remaining true to God’s call on his life.

As we move through John’s gospel, we’ll see that Jesus invites others to rest, not in the affections of people, but in God’s love. This is a challenging invitation. One that goes sharply against the grain of our influencer world where we often pursue validation through likes on social media posts or views of our online videos.

As we grow into people who rest in the love of God, perhaps it is encouraging to know that God knows “what is in each person” and loves us deeply even when we struggle. Jesus came offering God’s presence among and compassion for those who he knew were fickle and selfish. He offered divine presence and compassion even to those who would eventually betray him and cry out for his death. Our ability to rest in God’s affirmation doesn’t change God’s love for us. And maybe recognizing it may help us find rest in God’s unfailing love.