JOHN 2: 13-17
CHRIST CLEANSING THE TEMPLE
The other Evangelists do not record this cleansing of the Temple at the beginning of Christ’s ministry, but, as we all know, tell of a similar act at the very close of Jesus’ ministry (Mt. 21:12f; Mk. 11:15-17; Lk. 19:45f). John, on the other hand, does no mention the latter incident. The question then arises, are these different accounts of the same event? The answer seems to me to be no, because John’s Gospel is intended to supplement the other three, and to record incidents either unknown to, or unnoticed by them, and, as a matter of fact, the whole of this initial visit of our Lord to Jerusalem is omitted by the three Evangelists. Then the two incidents are distinctly different in tone, in setting, and in the words (sheep and oxen etc) which Jesus speaks. They are both appropriate in their placement, the one as the initial and the other as nearly His final public act on earth. So we may learn from the repetition of this cleansing the solemn lesson: that outward reformation of religious corruptions is of small and passing worth. God desires pure worship in the inner most man.
Now, this narrative has many points of interest.
I. Passover in the Temple, 13-14.
II. Purifying the Temple, 15-16.
III. Passion for the Temple, 17.
We pick up John’s narrative in verse 13. The Passover of the Jews was near, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.
The festival is called the Passover of the Jews because of John’s many Gentile readers. The Passover was the annual commemoration of the great deliverance of the people’s from the land of slavery (Ex. 12). A one year old male lamb without blemish was killed (on March 14th) in the afternoon. That evening a detailed family celebration took place (see John, NTC, Hendriksen, p. 122). Many oxen and sheep were offered up in sacrifice to God as the Festival of Unleavened Bread continued for seven more day (Ezek. 45:21).
John speaks of three (2:13; 6:4; 11:55 on), possible four Passovers (5:1). The Passover was one of the three occasions in the year when the Law required males (12 years and up) to “appear before Yahweh” (Dt. 16:16). “Went up” is the usual word for a pilgrimage to Jerusalem or to a feast (and does not necessarily denote ascent (John, Leon Morris, p. 192). Jerusalem was both the religious and political capital of Palestine, and the place where the Messiah was expected to arrive. Jewish families from all over the world would travel to the imposing temple for the feasts.
Verse14 records what Jesus found going on in the temple. And He found in the temple those who were selling oxen and sheep and doves, and the money changers seated at their tables.
The temple area was always crowded during Passover with thousands of out-of-town visitors. The religious leaders crowded it even further by allowing money changers and merchants to set up booths in the court of the Gentiles. They rationalized this practice as a convenience for the worshipers and as a way to make money for temple upkeep.
The temple tax had to be paid in local currency, so foreigners had to have their money changed. The money changers often would charge exorbitant exchange rates with commissions being 12 ½ per cent (John, F. F. Bruce, p. 74). The people were required to make substitutionary sacrifices as offerings for theirs sins. Because of the long journey, many could not bring animals. Some who brought animals would have them rejected for imperfections. So animal merchants had a thriving business, a business they moved into the temple court yard.
It was profitable to the sellers, and no doubt to the priests, who were probably sleeping partners in the concern, or received rent for the ground on which the stalls stood. And so, being convenient for all and profitable to many, the thing became a recognized institution.
But the religious leaders did not seem to care that the court of the Gentiles was so full of merchants that foreigners found it difficult to worship. And worship was the main purpose for visiting the temple. It was the one place that Gentiles could come and pray but there was no atmosphere nor room for prayer. They turned worshipers into attenders and the place of worship into a place of worldliness. No wonder Jesus was angry!
Jesus was angry at the dishonest, greedy, practices of the money changers and merchants, and He particularly disliked their displacement of worship in the temple grounds. They were making a mockery of God’s house of worship.
[John records this first clearing or cleansing of the temple. A second clearing occurred at the end of Jesus’ ministry about three years later and that event is recorded in Matthew 21:12-17; Mark l1:12 -19; Luke 19:45-48.]
II. Purifying the Temple, 15-16.
Verse 15 & 16 record Jesus’ reaction. And He made a scourge of cords, and drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and the oxen; and He poured out the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables; (16) and to those who were selling the doves He said, “Take these things away; stop making My Father’s house a place (house) of business.”
Jesus action caused wild commotion. Animals would be bawling and running with their owner chasing after them. Money changers would be fleeing leaving their coins in the dust. [Yet He didn’t destroy anyone’s property (dove not released) and the whip was not for punishment but to promote cleansing.]
Worldly minded men in God’s house were exercising worldly wisdom in order to get worldly riches. God’s temple was being misused by people who had turned it into a marketplace. They had forgotten, or didn’t care, that God’s house is a place of worship, not a business nor a place for making a profit. Our attitude toward the church is wrong if we see it as a place for personal contacts or business advantage. Make sure you attend church to worship God.
Many commentators see this as the fulfillment of Mal. 3:1ff. God’s promised purification of His temple. If this space was taken up with trading it could not be used for its intended purpose; worship. Jesus’ actions reinforced His words.
Jesus was obviously angry at the merchants who exploited those who had come to God’s house to pray and worship. There is a difference between uncontrolled rage and righteous indignation yet both are called anger. We must be very careful how we use the powerful emotion of anger. It is right to be angry about injustice and sin; it is wrong to be angry over trivial personal offenses.
Jesus made a whip (of rope or reeds) and chased out the money changers. Does His example permit us to use to use violence against wrongdoers? Certain authority is grant to some, but not to all. For example the authority to use weapons and restrain people is granted to police officers, but not to the general public. The authority to imprison people is granted to judges, but not to individual citizens. Jesus had the authority of the Son of God, something we cannot have. While we want to live like Christ, we should never try to claim His authority where it has not been given to us.
It was the first public appearance of Jesus before His nation as Messiah. He
inaugurates His work by a cleansing and a claim. He cleansed the temple of distractors and distractions and claimed it His right by an act of authority that indicated Him to be the King of Israel and the Lord of the Temple.
III. Passion for the Temple, 17.
His disciples remembered that it was written, “Zeal for Your house will consume me.”
The effect of Jesus’ courageous zeal on the disciples was to remind them of Ps. 69:9. The action of Jesus revealed the inward passion He had for God. It gave evidence of a consuming zeal for the house of God and ancient Scriptures found their fulfilment in what He did.
Jesus exercised His right as the only begotten Son of God. He took the oppressive, disruptive, evil dealings in the temple as an insult against God, and thus He did not deal with it halfheartedly. He was consumed with righteous anger against such flagrant disrespect for God’s place of worship.
Jesus came to purify the Temple showing that He had come to remove all barriers to the true worship of God. He came to open the way to the true worship of God.
CONCLUSION
The real temple, the real place God wants to live, the real place of worship and prayer is the human heart. If Jesus took such zeal to cleanse a temporary earthly temple which used a passing soon to be outmoded religious system, imagine the zeal He experiences in giving God a proper place of worship in your life. He has a passion that your heart not be clutter with the world but be set aside as a place of prayer and worship.
The only way to keep the world out of my heart is to have Christ filling it. If we will ask Him He will come to us. And if He has the scourge in His hand, let Him be none the less welcome to use it in our life. Ask and He will come, and when He enters, it will be like the rising of the sun, when all the beasts of the forest slink away and lay down in their dens. It will be like the carrying of the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord of the whole earth into the temple of Dagon, when the fish-like image fell defeated and prostrate on the floor. If we say to Him, ‘Come O Lord, make this place Yours, a place of prayer and worship,’ He will enter in, and by His entrance will ‘make the place of His feet glorious’ and undefiled. And His praise in us will be purposeful, powerful, passionate and pure.
