THE CLEANSING OF THE TEMPLE John 2:12- 25 After this He went down to Capernaum, He, His mother, His brothers, and His disciples; and they did not stay there many days. Now the Passover of the Jews was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. And He found in the temple those who sold oxen and sheep and doves, and the money changers doing business. When He had made a whip of cords, He drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and the oxen, and poured out the changers money and overturned the tables. And He said to those who sold doves, Take these things away! Do not make My Fathers house a house of merchandise! Then His disciples remembered that it was written, Zeal for Your house has eaten Me up. So the Jews answered and said to Him, What sign do You show to us, since You do these things? Jesus answered and said to them, Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up. Then the Jews said, It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and will You raise it up in three days? But He was speaking of the temple of His body. Therefore, when He had risen from the dead, His disciples remembered that He had said this to them; and they believed the Scripture and the word which Jesus had said. Now when He was in Jerusalem at the Passover, during the feast, many believed in His name when they saw the signs which He did. But Jesus did not commit Himself to them, because He knew all men, and had no need that anyone should testify of man, for He knew what was in man. We have seen that the apostle John approached the life of Jesus somewhat differently from the men who wrote the Synoptic Gospels (Matthew, Mark, and Luke). Johns Gospel is more of a theological reflection than a strictly chronological or biographical portrait. This difference is quite apparent in the text we are considering in this chapter. This text has been the focal point of much critical attention in biblical scholarship because John presents Jesus cleansing of the temple as an event that happened very early in His ministry. According to John, following His first miracle in Cana, Jesus went to Capernaum, and then, a few days later, He went to Jerusalem for the feast of the Passover, which served as the occasion for His cleansing of the temple. By contrast, all three of the Synoptic Gospels present the cleansing of the temple as an event that happened in the last week of Jesus life. So who has it right in terms of the actual historical chronology? Some critics are quick to point out that the biblical writers were not always as concerned about chronology as we are; they sometimes arranged their material thematically or topically. These critics theorize that John may have taken an incident that occurred later and placed it at the early part of Jesus ministry because he seems to be making contrasts in this section of his Gospel. Weve already seen the contrast John made between the water and the wine, and now we see a contrast between the physical temple in Jerusalem and Jesus body as the new temple. Im not satisfied with this explanation because John seems to take pains here to note precisely when this event took place in Jesus ministry. So I think it did occur in the early part of his ministry, and I join many others in church history who believe that Jesus cleansed the temple twice. That conclusion sometimes seems like special pleading to those who do not like duplication. I think, for example, of Rudolf Bultmann, the king of the negative critics in twentieth- century New Testament scholarship, who had no time for the theory that this event occurred twice. What I find ironic is that Ive read several volumes of Bultmanns theology, and I find certain aspects of his teachings in almost every volume. This kind of repetition is a mark of a teacher. In fact, if you know anything about ministers, you know that they often give the same message more than one time. So I dont think its a stretch to assume that when Jesus came to this Passover celebration, the first one during His public ministry that He was provoked to cleanse the temple by what He saw. He drove out the merchants, drove out the livestock, turned over the tables of the money changers, and so on. But I ask you, how long was it before those tables were upright once more and the money changers were back in business? Can we safely assume that when Jesus cleansed the temple on this occasion that that was the end of the problem? I dont think so. I believe it is perfectly consistent to conclude that when Jesus came to Jerusalem for the Passover right before His death, and when He saw the same things going on that Hed condemned three years earlier, that He took action to cleanse the temple again. LEGITIMATE ACTIVITIES, INAPPROPRIATE PLACE Lets look more closely at what our Lord did in this episode John recorded for us. We read in verses 13-14: The Passover of the Jews was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. And He found in the temple those who sold oxen and sheep and doves, and the money changers doing business. The critical words in this verse are in the temple —the oxen, the sheep, the doves, and so forth were being bought and sold in the temple, and the money changers were practicing their trade there. If these activities had been going on outside the temple, there is every reason to believe that Jesus would have done nothing. But He took issue with the fact that these things were going on inside the temple precincts. Why was the livestock there and why were the money changers there? The answer is simple. At the Passover, every pilgrim was required to sacrifice an animal. However, it was very difficult for the people who came to Jerusalem from the outer villages of Israel to bring their livestock with them. It was much easier for them to purchase the animals that were necessary for the sacrifices when they arrived in Jerusalem. The money changers were there because a temple tax had to be paid at this time, and the temple authorities were very particular about what kind of coinage was acceptable—the currency had to be minted from the purest silver that could be found. Unfortunately, there were numerous types of currency and coinage in Israel at this time, and some of them were very impure. Seeing a business opportunity, money changers had set up shop to exchange local currencies for the official currency for the tax. For this service, they received a commission, which, some say, may have been as high as twelve percent. Nevertheless, each of these activities was a service to the people who were coming to the temple. Prior to this time, the booths for the sale of the animals and the exchanging of the money had been set up across the Kidron Valley, up on the slopes of the Mount of Olives, significantly removed from the temple complex. But by Jesus time, for the sake of convenience, the outer court, the court of the Gentiles, had been transformed from a place of worship and prayer to a place of commerce. As noted above, it was this inappropriate location for these legitimate activities that so incensed Jesus. Thus, when He came into the house of God and saw that it was being used for something other than that for which it had been consecrated, He fashioned his whip and took action. Some people look at this incident and see Jesus, in a fit of fury and rage, lashing people with His whip. Actually, the purpose of the whip was to drive the animals out of the temple complex. He then went over to the money changers and kicked over their tables, scattering the coins. It was probably a scene of incredible chaos. In verse 17, John gives a hint as to why Jesus did what he did. He writes, His disciples remembered that it was written, Zeal for Your house has eaten Me up. This is a quotation from Psalm 69, but that particular psalm is not usually considered to be a messianic psalm, a psalm that was prophetic about the coming Messiah. Instead, it is one of Davids psalms, and David was talking, in the first instance, about himself. He wrote: Save me, O God! For the waters have come up to my neck. I sink in deep mire, Where there is no standing; I have come into deep waters, Where the floods overflow me. I am weary with my crying; My throat is dry; My eyes fail while I wait for my God. Those who hate me without a cause Are more than the hairs of my head; They are mighty who would destroy me, Being my enemies wrongfully; Though I have stolen nothing, I still must restore it. O God, You know my foolishness; And my sins are not hidden from You. Let not those who wait for You, O Lord God of hosts, be ashamed because of me; Let not those who seek You be confounded because of me, O God of Israel. Because for Your sake I have borne reproach; Shame has covered my face. I have become a stranger to my brothers, And an alien to my mothers children. (vv. 1- 8) David was clearly in deep distress as he wrote these words. But what was the reason for this distress? David gives the answer in verse 9: Because zeal for Your house has eaten me up, and the reproaches of those who reproach You have fallen on me. David says: Because I have proclaimed Your word, O God, I have become a reproach in my own family. Because of my zeal for Your house, a zeal that consumes me, a passion that eats me up, Im despised. Seeing Jesus cleanse the temple, His disciples connected His zeal to the zeal David had expressed. They said, Davids greater Son has this in common with David. They saw in Jesus the same thing David experienced in his life—a zeal for the house of God. ZEAL FOR THE WORSHIP OF GOD But it wasnt simply zeal for the temple that motivated Jesus. It was zeal for the activity the temple was designed to accommodate—the worship of God. Imagine if you went to church on a Sunday morning and went into the sanctuary to pray, but you couldnt focus your thoughts because of the loud and persistent bleating of sheep and goats. Thats what was going on in the temple. The sacred grounds that had been set apart for worship had become chaotic. Yes, peoples needs were being met. Im sure the temple authorities were saying, Were just trying to be relevant; were being seeker-sensitive for those who cant bring their lambs from home and who need their money exchanged. But in their efforts to make these procedures easy and convenient for the people, they had impacted the peoples ability to worship. At St. Andrews church, I delight to see the people chatting and fellowshipping before worship. But I strongly encourage the people in the congregation to become silent and prepare their hearts as the hour for worship approaches. Just before the service starts, we dim the lights and the strings begin to play the prelude. Those are signals for the people to turn from fellowshipping with one another to prepare to fellowship with God. As they do so, the sanctuary grows delightfully quiet, enabling us all to focus on worship. Simply put, noise is not conducive to worship. The truth we need to grasp from this incident is one that has almost completely vanished from the landscape of contemporary Christianity—it is the truth that God is particular about how he is to be approached in the sanctuary. Jesus said to His contemporaries: This is holy ground. This is a place for prayer. This is a place for adoration and for worship. Take your animals, take your produce, and go across the street. This is My Fathers house. It is a serious thing to impede His worship. In response to Jesus actions, the Jews came to Him and said, What sign do You show us, since You do these things? (v. 18b). In other words: Why should we listen to you? Give us some indication of your authority to declare improper what we have permitted. Jesus replied, Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up (v. 19). The Jewish authorities did not understand what He meant by these words; they thought He was saying He could rebuild the literal temple in three days, and that seemed impossible since it had been under construction for forty-six years and still wasnt finished. His disciples were equally mystified; only after Jesus was raised from the dead on the third day did they make the connection. Therefore, John inserted some editorial help for his readers, explaining that Jesus was not talking about the literal temple but about His body. The temple that was standing in Jesus time was destroyed by the Romans in AD 70. Many evangelical Christians are waiting eagerly for the Jews to build a new temple, seeing that as a sign of the end of the age. They fail to understand that the temple already has been rebuilt. Christ is the temple, the locus of the living presence of God in the midst of His people, and the rebuilding of the temple took place on the day of His resurrection. Like the Jewish leaders, people today constantly ask for signs. They say, Show me a miracle and I will believe. Others say: I read about Jesus miracles in the Bible, but I wasnt there; I didnt see those things with my own eyes. Im not going to believe in Christ until I see Him with my own eyes, hear Him with my own ears, or see a miracle done in His name today. These people need to consider what Paul said when he went to Athens and addressed the philosophers on Mars Hill. He said: These times of ignorance God overlooked, but now commands all men everywhere to repent, because He has appointed a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness by the Man whom He has ordained. He has given assurance of this to all by raising Him from the dead (Acts 17:30- 31). Heres what I get out of that. God says through Paul that the resurrection of Christ is the supreme sign, and that He will do it only once. God will not send Christ to die and be raised every week. By raising Christ from the grave, God established His church. Christ is the temple, and all men are commanded to come to Him in order to worship and serve the one true God. As we continue this study of Johns Gospel, we need to remember Jesus zeal for the house of God and for the worship of God. Again and again throughout we will see that worship is not something we are allowed to do as we please. Those who do so should fear that Christ will come with a whip of cords and drive them from His sanctuary.
Posted on: Sat, 08 Mar 2014 15:05:28 +0000
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