Jesus and the Temple

4TH and 1
Part 6: Jesus at the Temple

12 After this he went down to Capernaum with his mother and brothers and his disciples. There they stayed for a few days. 13 When it was almost time for the Jewish Passover, Jesus went up to Jerusalem. 14 In the temple courts he found men selling cattle, sheep and doves, and others sitting at tables exchanging money. 15 So he made a whip out of cords, and drove all from the temple area, both sheep and cattle; he scattered the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. 16 To those who sold doves he said, “Get these out of here! How dare you turn my Father’s house into a market!” 17 His disciples remembered that it is written: “Zeal for your house will consume me.”

1. While the Synoptic Gospels record a temple-action by Jesus near the end of his earthly ministry (Matt 21:12-13, Mark 11:15-17, Luke 19:45-46), the event is found near the beginning here. While it is possible that Jesus performed this temple-action twice, most scholars believe that the author of the 4th Gospel has re-arranged the material.
2. Some have struggled with this passage in that it portrays Jesus as angry and/or violent. One should not overestimate the amount of violence involved in this story, but it is impossible to avoid the fact that Jesus was acting with zeal.
3. The most popular interpretation of this passage is that Jesus was angry that the religious space had been turned into commercial space.
4. At a somewhat deeper level, Jesus’ anger may have been toward the fact that Israel was failing in its mission to bring the nations into a relationship with the true God.

18 Then the Jews demanded of him, “What miraculous sign can you show us to prove your authority to do all this?” 19 Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days.” 20 The Jews replied, “It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and you are going to raise it in three days?” 21 But the temple he had spoken of was his body. 22 After he was raised from the dead, his disciples recalled what he had said. Then they believed the Scripture and the words that Jesus had spoken.

1. The Jewish authorities were less interested in whether Jesus’ action was justified (right) and more interested in whether He had the proper authority to do it (legality).
2. Jesus refused to provide miracles on demand, choosing instead to prove His authority in such a way that required careful consideration and patience from His hearers.
3. The Second Temple beautification project had begun under Herod the Great 46 years prior to this event. It was not completed until AD63 (just 7 years before it was destroyed).
4. In a sense, by clearing the temple, Jesus was depicting the soon coming end of the Temple Era and sacrificial system. He was the True Temple and Passover Lamb.

23 Now while he was in Jerusalem at the Passover Feast, many people saw the miraculous signs he was doing and believed in his name. 24 But Jesus would not entrust himself to them, for he knew all men. 25 He did not need man’s testimony about man, for he knew what was in a man.

1. Jesus knew that many people were only in pursuit of the signs (what Jesus could offer) and not what the signs pointed to (who Jesus was).