Purifying the Temple. (John 2:13-22)
Jesus comes to the temple. No. Jesus comes to his temple. The Old Testament closes with this sign of the Messiah in Malachi. The Lord whom you are seeking will suddenly come to his temple. (Mal. 3:1). Today Jesus visits the temple. Not as a baby to be praised by the prophets Simeon and Anna. Not as a twelve-year-old to teach the rabbis.
Today Jesus comes to the temple as a full grown man who has entered into his ministry. Jesus has already performed his first miracle in Cana. Now he is in Jerusalem for the first Passover of his ministry. John tells us that he visits his temple. And it was not a very pleasant experience. Today we are in John 2:13-22.
Corruption in the Temple [1:34]
Jesus has a long, three year ministry ahead of him. One day he will confront the hypocrisy of the Pharisees and teachers of the law. You are hypocrites. You clean the outside of the cups and dishes. But on the inside you are full of dead men’s bones. Clean the inside. You look beautiful on the outside, but you are corrupt on the inside. You look righteous when people see you. But in reality you are full of greed and wickedness. (Matt. 23:25-28)
When Jesus enters his temple at the very beginning of his ministry, he fulfills his prophecy of Malachi: The Lord will come to his temple. (Mal. 3:1) Malachi also said, “But who can endure the day of his coming?” (Mal. 3:2) Oh, the Lord will come to his temple, but who will be able to endure it?
Jesus has come and he is not happy. The hypocrisy he sees in the Pharisees, he also sees in the very temple itself. The Pharisees look beautiful on the outside, but they are corrupt on the inside. And the temple looked beautiful on the outside, but was corrupt on the inside.
The Pharisees looked righteous to people. But they were full of greed and wickedness. And the temple looks to people like it is filled with righteousness, but it was full of greed and wickedness.
The temple was a very big example of the same kinds of hypocrisy Jesus found among the Pharisees.
Devoted on the outside, corrupt on the inside. Greed.
Marketeers [4:13]
It was Passover and every family would come to the temple to offer a Passover lamb. And other sacrifices.
This is an economic opportunity for the chief priests. For the sake of convenience a market was set up to sell sacrificial animals: sheep, cows, doves. Depending on what kind of sacrifice the worshiper needed to make and his economic status. Moses’ law made special provisions so even the poor could make some kind of a sacrifice.
It was very lucrative for the priests. Not the common priests, but the chief priests. And the high-priest. Those in charge. There were four booths which were called “the booths of the sons of Annas.” Annas was the high priest and the booths were controlled by his sons. You know Annas, high priest when Jesus was a boy and still high priest when he was crucified.
Well, at first the booths were set up on the Mount of Olives, and at some point in history brought into the very temple itself. Into the Court of the Gentiles. The place which was supposed to be a place of worship and prayer for the Gentiles. But the money from the market flowed up to the sons of the high-priest. Follow the money––it goes to the top.
Baba ben Buta [6:27]
This had been going on for a very long time. There was a wise man named Baba ben Buta. He was a contemporary of Herod. Baba is credited with persuading Herod to rebuild the temple.
It is said that sometime before Jesus was born, Baba noticed that hardly anyone was offering sacrifices in the temple. The priests had done something to push up the cost of a sacrifice. People could simply not afford to offer a sacrifice. And so as the story goes, Baba brought 3,000 sheep to the temple for people to sacrifice. (Abraham, Israel. Pharisaism and the Gospels. p. 87)
Did he really do that? Did that really happen? Don’t really know. But even if it is just a legend, it tells us there was a problem in the temple even before Jesus was born: price gouging.
Simeon ben Gamaliel [7:54]
There is another case of price gouging sometime after 52 A.D. Simeon ben Gamaliel was the president of the Sanhedrin. His father was Gamaliel, Paul’s teacher.
While Simeon was over the Sanhedrin the price of doves soared! They were so expensive that it took a month’s wages for a common worker to buy a dove. Oppressing the poor as they come to the temple to honor God’s law. People like Mary when she went for her purification.
Well, the rabbi was very influential. And he was extremely concerned for the poor. So, he re-interpreted the laws dealing with sacrifices, which made the demand for doves go down. And the price of doves dropped 98% in one day. But that was a few decades after Jesus. (m. Kerithoth 1.7)
The Disciples Respond [9:22]
Well, whatever the price of doves and sheep in Jesus’ day, he was not happy. So, he drove them out.
The temple was not supposed to be a market place. And in the Court of Gentiles! Where the Gentiles worshiped. People trying to pray in the midst of all of these animals.
What were Jesus’ disciples thinking? Jesus is turning over tables. Driving out animals with a whip. Money is flying around.
What do we do with this? This is not what we were expecting. Should we help Jesus? Well, they remembered a scripture: Zeal for your house will consume me. A prophecy of David. (Ps. 69:9)
The disciples have not been following Jesus very long. They are learning about Jesus by what he does.
They have seen the miracle at Cana. Maybe some more miracles after that in Capernaum. Some teaching.
That is about it. Now in Jerusalem in the temple, they are seeing a side of Jesus that they haven’t seen before: Zeal for God’s house. A burning passion for the sanctity of worship. A righteous anger at the selfish abuse of worship.
Like a fire burning inside. Like Moses when he came down the mountain and saw Israel worshiping and dancing around the golden calf. Moses was filled with such indignation. He threw the tablets down. And Jesus is filled with indignation. He throws out the moneychangers and those who sold animals. And he drives the animals out of the temple.
The Chief-priests Respond [12:08]
And what about the chief priests? What about the people in charge of the temple? They want a sign of authority. Give us a sign to show you have authority to do this.
Well he has just shown them a sign. He purified the temple. He drove the market out.
When Nicodemus comes to Jesus, he says, “We know you are a teacher whom God has sent. We know because of the signs which you are doing.” (John 3:2) Nicodemus was on the Sanhedrin council. He knew what Jesus had done. And the other members of the Council knew what Jesus had done.
We don’t know what other signs Jesus did during this visit. But we know he purified the temple. And John says that many people saw the signs that Jesus was doing. And they believed in him. (John 3:23)
So, how is this a sign that Jesus is the Messiah? It wasn’t a miracle. Couldn’t anyone do what Jesus did?
Well, actually, no. There were temple police, but they did not stop Jesus. There were a lot of angry merchants. But they did not stop Jesus. They did not fight him. They did not ignore him. They did not drive Jesus away.
How does one man drive out all of those people and animals and turn over the tables? That was a lot of people and a lot of animals. Enough to serve hundreds-of-thousands of worshipers. Some ancient Jewish sources say as many as a million and a half worshipers. How big was this market? And how much money did it generate?
Do you think this would be an easy task for one man to break up all of this? It took some kind of special ability that only Jesus had. The sign that Jesus had the authority to purify the temple was that Jesus purified the temple.
Destroy this Temple [15:40]
Well, the chief priests want a sign. Jesus will give them a sign, but they will have to wait until the end of his ministry.
Destroy this temple, and I will raise it up in three days. He was talking about his body. He was not challenging them to kill him right then; and he would come back to life in three days. He was prophesying. This is what is going to happen. You will destroy my body, the temple; and, I will raise it up in three days.
And that is what happened— at the end of his ministry.
Jesus’ body is a pure temple. Think about this. A temple is where God and man come together. It is where the two meet. Jesus is man and God come together into a single body. The human and the divine. The temple. The place where man meets God. The son of man and the son of God.
And after Jesus was raised to life, the disciples remembered these very words of Jesus. (John 2:22).
Second Temple Cleansing [17:38]
Well, did it do any good? Did the chief priests reform the temple? Of course not.
In the Synoptic Gospels—in Matthew, Mark, and Luke— Jesus cleansed the temple a second time. It was after he entered Jerusalem for the last time. (Luke 19:45 46; Matt. 21:12-16; Mark 11:15-18).
They are still selling animals. They are still changing money. They are still cheating the worshipers. They are still in the Court of Gentiles, robbing them of their place of prayer and worship.
And Jesus drives them out—Again!
Well, Jesus continued in the temple. Teaching the people and doing miracles. Healing the blind. Healing the lame. (Mark 11:18; Matt. 21:14) And children are singing “Hosanna to the son of David.” (Matt. 21:15) But the chief priests were looking for a way to kill Jesus. (Matt. 21:18)
Jesus has purified the temple. And now he is teaching and healing in the temple and receiving praise. The temple has become the place of mercy from the Lord and praise from the people. Even the children were were singing Hosanna to the son of David.
Jesus has purified the temple and returned it to its true purpose. A place of blessing for the people. A place of praise for the Lord.
And in Acts, just a few weeks later, there is a new temple: the true, spiritual temple. Made up of a living stones: the people of God. In that true, spiritual temple, the Lord continued his ministry. Teaching, healing, performing miracles. (Acts 2:42-47; 5:12-14, 25). The apostles performed so many miracles that crowds were coming to Jerusalem to be healed. (Acts 5:15, 16) People were healed. People were taught. And the people praised Jesus.
This is the true temple. The spiritual temple. Living stones. Purified for ministry. Purified for praise.
Rick Walker
Vinogradar church of Christ
Vinekeeper church
Kyiv, Ukraine
