THE CLEANSING OF THE TEMPLE
Chapter 2, verses 12 to 25
Notice that this feast is called here the Passover of the Jews. It is no longer the LORD's Passover (Exodus 12:27). It is reduced to a Jewish religious feast, a ritual to go through. The One of whom the Passover speaks has now come. ". . . For even Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us" (1 Corinthians 5:7).
The Passover celebration took place yearly at the temple in Jerusalem. All males were required to go to Jerusalem three times a year, at the time of the Feast of Passover, at the Feast of Pentecost, and at the Feast of Tabernacles. The Passover was about the fourteenth of April and was a week-long festival: the Passover was one day, and the Feast of Unleavened Bread lasted the rest of the week. The entire week commemorated the freeing of the Jews from slavery in Egypt (Exodus 12:1-13).
Many Jewish families from all over the world would travel to Jerusalem during the key feasts, so the temple area was always crowded during Passover with thousands of out-of-town visitors.
Every Israelite from twenty years and upwards had to pay into the sacred treasury half a shekel every year as an offering to Jehovah (Exodus 30:13-15), and that in the exact Hebrew half-shekel piece. The people also were required to offer animals as sacrifices for sins. Because of the long journey, many could not bring their own animals, or would have them rejected for imperfections.
The religious leaders therefore allowed moneychangers and merchants to set up booths in the court of the Gentiles, for the convenience of the worshippers and as a way to make money for temple upkeep by charging them for the privilege. So animal merchants and moneychangers would do a profitable business in the temple courtyard, at the expense of the worshippers. God's temple was in this way being misused: the pursuit of material gain and covetous practices were rife. The House of God had become House of Merchandise, a marketplace.
Jesus was obviously angry at this, and, preparing a whip of cords, He expelled the merchants and moneychangers. They were making a mockery of God's house of worship. A second clearing occurred at the end of Jesus' ministry, about three years later (Matthew 21:12-17; Mark 11:: 12-19; Luke 19:45-48): the profit motive was stronger than their desire to keep the temple holy unto the LORD.
The disciples remembered the verse from Psalm 69:9. This psalm is quoted seventeen times in the New Testament and is one of the six most quoted psalms in the New Testament. It is quoted again in John 15:25 and John 19:28-29. The other psalms which are frequently quoted are Psalms 2, 22, 89, 110, and Psalm 118.
The Jews understood Jesus to mean the temple out of which he had just driven the merchants and moneychangers. This was the temple Zerubbabel had built over 500 years earlier, but Herod the Great had begun remodelling it, making it much larger and far more beautiful. It had been 46 years since this remodelling had started (20 BC), and it wasn't completely finished until 65 AD; it was utterly destroyed by the Romans 5 years later, as foretold by Christ (Luke 19:41-44). They thought He meant that this imposing building could be torn down and rebuilt in three days, and they were startled. They remembered His words and used them as proof of blasphemy at His trial by the high priest (Matthew 26:61).
The word that He used for destroy is " luo" which means to untie, and the word He uses in verse 19 and the Jews repeat in verse 20 is naos which refers to the inner sanctuary of the temple (in verses 14 and 15, the word used for temple is hieron which means the whole building: it was the outer court which was defiled and needed cleansing, not the inner sanctuary).
The word naos is used in 1 Corinthians 6:19 where we read your body is the sanctuary of the Holy Spirit. The word translated raise it up is egeiro, meaning wake up (Romans 13:11) also translated as raise (from the dead) in other places (Acts 26:8, 2 Corinthians 4:14, Hebrews 11: 19). By saying: Destroy this sanctuary, and in three days I will raise it up, He refers to "untying" by death of His human body, and His raising it from the dead after three days (Matthew 12:39-41, 16:4). But like the Jews, His disciples didn't understand that either, and it was not until after His resurrection that they recalled it and referred to it. His listeners didn't realise it, but He was greater than the temple (Matthew 12:6).
His words would take on meaning for his disciples after his resurrection. That Christ so perfectly fulfilled this prediction became one of the strongest proofs for his claims to be God.
During the Feast, the Lord did miraculous signs which many people saw, and believed in his name. But theirs was not saving faith: they merely nodded in assent at the wonders they saw. Although they believed in Him, because of what they witnessed, He didn't believe in them: He knows all about human nature (Jeremiah 17:9), and knew that their faith was superficial. Many of the same people claiming to believe in Jesus at this time would later yell "Crucify him!" It is easy to believe when it is exciting and everyone else believes the same way.
Even today many who say they believe in Jesus do not go beyond simply believing in the facts of the gospel. Unless they trust the Lord Jesus as their Saviour, who died for their sins and was raised for their justification, and is their only hope of salvation from eternal condemnation for their sins, are prepared to confess their allegiance to Him even if they risk death by His enemies, they do not possess saving faith.
R David Jones
12 After this He went down to Capernaum, He, His mother, His brothers, and His disciples; and they did not stay there many days.
13 Now the Passover of the Jews was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.
14 And He found in the temple those who sold oxen and sheep and doves, and the moneychangers doing business.
15 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.
16 And He said to those who sold doves, "Take these things away! Do not make My Father's house a house of merchandise!"
17 Then His disciples remembered that it was written, "Zeal for Your house has eaten Me up."
18 So the Jews answered and said to Him, "What sign do You show to us, since You do these things?"
19 Jesus answered and said to them, "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up."
20 Then the Jews said, "It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and will You raise it up in three days?"
21 But He was speaking of the temple of His body.
22 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.
23 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.
24 But Jesus did not commit Himself to them, because He knew all men,
25 and had no need that anyone should testify of man, for He knew what was in man.