Scripture: John 2:12-22
Date: July 24, 2011
Speaker: Sean Higgins
What is the best thing in the world you can have? According to Jesus, a man can gain the whole world without profit if he forfeits his soul in the process. That makes it sound as if the best thing in the world we can have is our soul. But that’s not really enough or specific enough, is it? For that matter, what does that mean, to lose or to have one’s soul?
The best thing in the world we can have is our soul, and we “have” our soul, we are most alive, when we are in fellowship with our glad and gracious God. What is better than being with Him, knowing and seeing Him, thanking and praising Him, seeking and depending on Him? To have one’s soul is to be alive to God and living in fellowship God is the best thing.
But we get consumed with so many other things and, in particular, get distracted from fellowship with God—even in places devoted to worship. Men tend to complicate or misdirect and miss the point. A man can lose his soul in the temple of God just as he can lose his soul in the world.
God has given men instructions on how to have fellowship with Him. More than that, God became flesh so that men’s souls could be saved, so that they could be alive to God. But oftentimes men mess it up, and we find Jesus confronting a group who had lost fellowship with God as their goal, even at the focal point of God’s presence among His people Israel.
Last week we saw Jesus’ first miracle. He turned water into wine at a wedding in Cana in order to facilitate their party, their fellowship with each other (John 2:1-11). Now we see Jesus’ first confrontation. He clears the temple in Jerusalem in order to facilitate their worship, their fellowship with God (2:13-22).
John moves us from Cana to Jerusalem through Capernaum in verse 12.
After this he went down to Capernaum, with his mother and his brothers and his disciples, and they stayed there for a few days.
Jesus’ home base for ministry was Capernaum. After the wedding, He and his mother and his brothers and his disciples went to Capernaum. His brothers are half-brothers, younger siblings of Mary and Joseph, and His disciples are five in number at this point as far as we know.
The transition helps us track Jesus’ movements and, even more, it argues that Jesus cleared the temple twice.
The next event, starting in verse 13, takes place at the temple in Jerusalem during Passover. All four Gospels mention a temple clearing by Jesus during Passover, but Matthew (21:12-13), Mark (11:15-17), and Luke (19:45-46) relate a temple cleansing at the end of Jesus’ three year ministry, at the beginning of His last week. None of the Synoptic Gospels include a temple clearing at the beginning of Jesus’ ministry. John, on the other hand, does not include a temple clearing at the end. The simple and most obvious answer is that Jesus cleared the temple twice. Not only are there differences (for example, in Matthew, Mark, and Luke, Jesus calls out the religious leaders for turning the temple into a den of robbers. He makes no such conclusion here), John provides us with enough details and removes any reason for us to think that he rearranged the chronology to make a point.
That means that Jesus made quite a splash onto the public scene. He got the attention of the religious establishment right away and confronted their soul problems from the start. He demonstrates that He is the Lord of worship and the object of worship. Not only does He rule the temple of God, He Himself is the temple of God. The Jews never met a point they couldn’t miss, and they miss this one.
He had just solved a wedding problem, now He confronts a worship problem and clears distractions in God’s temple.
John mentions multiple Jewish festivals throughout his account, and here is the first.
The Passover of the Jews was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.
Passover was Israel’s most important annual feast commemorating God’s incredible deliverance of Israel from Egyptian captivity. The angel “passed over” the homes of all those who obeyed the Lord by wiping lamb’s blood on their doorposts. The angel did not pass over the Egyptian homes and killed all their firstborn (Exodus 12:14-16). That slaughter was the final straw that motivated Pharaoh and the Egyptians to kick the Jews out of the country.
God required a Passover commemoration/celebration every year (Deuteronomy 16:1-8) and all the men 12 and older were instructed to go to Jerusalem to the temple. That’s where Jesus is going; that’s why He goes to Jerusalem.
Things were not as they were supposed to be.
In the temple he found those who were selling oxen and sheep and pigeons, and the money-changers sitting there.
The temple (ἱερόν [hairon] or “temple area,” compared with ναός [na-os], temple “proper” in verse 19) had a few divisions or courts. Jesus arrived in the outer part, the Court of the Gentiles, where He sees the problem. The Gentiles weren’t permitted any closer; this was the only place for non-Israeli God-fearers to pray and fellowship at the temple.
The oxen and sheep and pigeons were for sacrificing. Since many Jews travelled long distances for Passover, these animals were available for purchase near the temple. It made sense as a service for pilgrims.
The money-changers likewise provided a helpful service. The law required every male 20 and older to pay a temple tax. Coming from other regions, they may not have had the correct kind of coin, so they could exchange for it. The exchange tables were only set up during this time.
So what was the problem? Unlike what seems to be Jesus’ emphasis the second time, this time He confronts their location. The problem isn’t overcharging, it is their existence in the temple. They may have been cheating and fleecing due to greed. But the bigger problem appears to be that they distracted from the temple’s purpose: fellowship with God. There may have been a helpful place for these services, but it was not the temple.
Jesus takes severe action.
And making a whip of cords, he drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and oxen. And he poured out the coins of the money-changers and overturned their tables. And he told those who sold the pigeons, “Take these things away; do not make my Father’s house a house of trade.” (verses 15-16)
He doesn’t engage them in conversation, He whips them out and clears the distractions.
It must have been a chaotic scene, though not enough to get Jesus arrested. Oxen are large. Tables full of coins make a lot of noise when overturned. He speaks to those in charge of the pigeons because the pigeons were likely in cages, so clearing them required people carrying the cages.
Jesus’ rebuke in verse 16 confirms that His concern was for distractions: do not make my Father’s house a house of trade (“merchandise” NAS, “into a market” NIV, “marketplace” NRSV). In other words, this business doesn’t belong here. This is a place for fellowship with God.
No one stops Him. They obviously outnumbered Him because He was only one. In human terms they could have overpowered Him. Perhaps they were startled, in shock at how quickly everything happened. Regardless of the reason they didn’t fight back, the event demonstrated Jesus’ authority. He represented His Father and the temple was His Father’s house.
His disciples saw the whole thing take place.
His disciples remembered that it was written, “Zeal for your house will consume me.”
Some question exactly when His discipled remembered . I think they made the connection immediately. Verse 22 refers to another remembering, but it specifically states the timing of their remembering: after Jesus’ resurrection.
In verse 17 they remembered Psalm 69:9. “Zeal for your house will consume me” . David wrote that, in its original context, as he was being persecuted by others because of his desire for fellowship with God.
David had zeal , he was passionate for sake of his soul to worship God, to be in God’s glad presence at the temple. He wrote that zeal would consume him. We speak about being consumed as in being completely absorbed by or full of something, but David means “destroyed” more than “full of.” David believed he might be killed, consumed, by his enemies.
The disciples saw that Jesus was putting Himself in harms way. Jesus acted out of zeal, not impetuous anger. In doing so, Jesus put Himself in position to be consumed, destroyed, killed. And that’s exactly what He says next.
Though no one stopped Him from clearing the temple, Jesus gets questions about His authority to do so. He was an unknown at this point, but He becomes known as He confronts their disbelief.
John doesn’t tell us which Jews, but more than likely it was some of the religious leaders, probably from the Sanhedrin, those with responsibility to oversee the temple activities. It was not the ones buying or even the ones selling, but those who invited and allowed the commerce.
So the Jews said to him, “What sign do you show us for doing these things?”
If they were paying attention, the clearing of the temple was itself a sign, maybe not miraculous, but still a sign. They demand a sign for the right to do the sign already done.
It’s because they don’t believe and they are looking for an excuse for unbelief. They were more concerned about whether Jesus had the right to do what He did rather than if Jesus was actually right.
Rebellion, especially religious rebellion, always takes the high road. It loves precedent and protocol, authoritative titles and words, finding someone lower on whom to roll the blame. They ask why Jesus did what He did because they don’t like what He did. He did what they should have done, or what they should have never allowed in the first place. They prove that they were satisfied with something other than fellowship with God. Had they loved fellowship with God, they would have loved Jesus. They wanted their rebellion, but to make it look like their rebellion was righteous.
Jesus answers with an enigma, a puzzling invitation.
Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.”
It’s not a riddle necessarily. Yet Jesus uses words they know and explains His authority in a way that they couldn’t possibly understand.
He offers them another sign but they have to do something first. He says, “Destroy this temple” . The first level of meaning is that temple refers to the stones that made the walls of the temple. Tear down these stones, tear down this structure of fellowship, this house of God. We know from verse 21 that there was another level, that Jesus was actually talking about the temple of his body .
He doesn’t make it clear now what He’s talking about. The Jews didn’t get it. Neither did His disciples until after his resurrection (v.22). So why would He answer like this? Because He knew that they didn’t believe, they didn’t want to believe, they wanted to keep their control.
The Jews express their incredulity, their unwillingness to believe.
The Jews then said, “It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and will you raise it up in three days?”
Most of the temple was completed at this point, though the entire complex wasn’t fully complete until AD 63, only seven years before the Romans destroyed it. Herod the Great began rebuilding it in 20/19 BC. They couldn’t believe that Jesus could build it in three days. They couldn’t believe that Jesus created the universe in six days. They couldn’t believe that Jesus would be killed and rise from the dead. They couldn’t believe that they would actually tear down the temple.
John knew now (when writing) what he didn’t know then.
But he was speaking about the temple of his body.
The Jews may not have torn down the temple, but they had already destroyed it by making it a place for something other than fellowship with God. And they also destroyed Jesus, the house of God in flesh.
Jesus was the fulfillment of the temple. The temple was the place where men met with God. Now they don’t meet Him at a particular place but in a Person. God’s presence resided in a building and now in a body.
Jesus was consumed for the temple. Jesus was consumed as God’s temple.
As I said, Jesus’ own disciples didn’t understand what Jesus said at this point either.
When therefore he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this, and they believed the Scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken. (verse 22)
Mentioning the resurrection, when he was raised from the dead , foreshadows the death of Jesus and His rising from the dead in John’s gospel. The resurrection vindicated Jesus’ words and Scripture . They believed Scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken . They believed and followed, they believed more when He turned the water into wine, they kept on believing more and more when He rose from the dead.
These things are written that we might believe and have life in His name. The Word in flesh and the Word on paper work together to give life, to enable fellowship between man and His glad and gracious God.
Worship is about fellowship with God. The special presence of His fellowship is no longer is bound by location, but it is still exclusive.
There is fellowship with God no other way than through Jesus. He is God’s temple, and He was consumed, destroyed, on our behalf. Our sin keeps us from God, and He was killed so that we might have life. Let’s not clutter it up.