John 2 - Jesus Cleans House
13 It was nearly time for the Jewish Passover celebration, so Jesus went to Jerusalem. 14 In the Temple area he saw merchants selling cattle, sheep, and doves for sacrifices; he also saw dealers at tables exchanging foreign money.
15 Jesus made a whip from some ropes and chased them all out of the Temple.
He drove out the sheep and cattle,
scattered the money changers’ coins over the floor,
and turned over their tables.
16 Then, going over to the people who sold doves, he told them,
“Get these things out of here. Stop turning my Father’s house into a marketplace!”
17 Then his disciples remembered this prophecy from the Scriptures: “Passion for God’s house will consume me.”
18 But the Jewish leaders demanded, “What are you doing? If God gave you authority to do this, show us a miraculous sign to prove it.”
19 “All right,” Jesus replied. “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.”
20 “What!” they exclaimed. “It has taken forty-six years to build this Temple, and you can rebuild it in three days?”
21 But when Jesus said “this temple,” he meant his own body.
22 After he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered he had said this, and they believed both the Scriptures and what Jesus had said.
John keeps track of three, possibly four Passovers in his Gospel.
Here, in John 2.13; John 6.4; John 11.55; and possibly John 5.1
Passover is celebrated in the last full moon of March-April, and is a remembrance of God’s delivering His people from the angel of death in Egypt. God told His people to mark their houses with blood from a sacrificial lamb so the angel of death “passed over” their homes, sparing the lives of their first born. Pharaoh and Egypt did not obey God’s way, and their first born all died, so they wanted the children of Israel to leave, and the children of Israel did.
The case for 2 temple cleansings:
Carson: the most natural reading of the texts favours two. Meanwhile it is important to note (1) that a detail in John’s account of the temple-cleansing provides crucial background to the Synoptic record of Jesus’ trial (cf. notes on 2:19), and (2) that this early temple-cleansing does not issue immediately in a conspiracy by the authorities to have him arrested and killed, for Jesus has not yet established his reputation, whereas the later cleansing reported in the Synoptics is presented more or less as one of the last straws that call down the wrath of the religious establishment.
True Worship
The cleansing of the Temple has to do with Jesus’ high regard for interacting with God the Father. This was the exclusive place to get right with God, but now, there was more retail sales and currency exchange than there was seeking God. This was to be a quiet place of self introspection and seeking God’s grace and mercy through obedience and quietude and now, the noise of commerce and clanking of coins is so clamorous that God is drowned out.
Jesus purposefully cleared out the place and made space for seeking God.
Carson: Zeal for your house will consume me. Jesus’ cleansing of the temple testifies to his concern for pure worship, a right relationship with God at the place supremely designated to serve as the focal point of the relationship between God and man. But it is that very concern that is attracting opposition. For John, the manner by which Jesus will be ‘consumed’ is doubtless his death. If his disciples remembered these words at the time, they probably focused on the zeal, not the manner of the ‘consumption’. Only later would they detect in these words a reference to his death (cf. 2:22).
John 2 (Make Us Believe!!)
18 But the Jewish leaders demanded, “What are you doing? If God gave you authority to do this, show us a miraculous sign to prove it.”
19 “All right,” Jesus replied. “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.”
20 “What!” they exclaimed. “It has taken forty-six years to build this Temple, and you can rebuild it in three days?”
21 But when Jesus said “this temple,” he meant his own body.
Watch out in our own life that we don’t do the same: Make yourself believable to me! I demand a sign that I WILL BELIEVE. That I prefer. That I want. Make yourself to my liking.
Carson: The way they cast their question betrays two critical deficiencies. First, they display no reflection or self-examination over whether Jesus’ cleansing of the temple and related charges were foundationally just. They are therefore less concerned with pure worship and a right approach to God than they are with questions of precedent and authority.
Matt. 23
16 “Blind guides! What sorrow awaits you! For you say that it means nothing to swear ‘by God’s Temple,’ but that it is binding to swear ‘by the gold in the Temple.’ 17 Blind fools! Which is more important—the gold or the Temple that makes the gold sacred? 18 And you say that to swear ‘by the altar’ is not binding, but to swear ‘by the gifts on the altar’ is binding. 19 How blind! For which is more important—the gift on the altar or the altar that makes the gift sacred? 20 When you swear ‘by the altar,’ you are swearing by it and by everything on it. 21 And when you swear ‘by the Temple,’ you are swearing by it and by God, who lives in it. 22 And when you swear ‘by heaven,’ you are swearing by the throne of God and by God, who sits on the throne.
More from Carson: Second, if the authorities had been convinced that Jesus was merely some petty hooligan, or that he was emotionally unstable, there were adequate recourses; that they requested a miraculous sign demonstrates they harboured at least a suspicion that they were dealing with a heaven-sent prophet. But if so, they were asking the wrong sort of question—one that various authorities asked on other occasions (Mk. 8:11; Mt. 12:38–39 = Lk. 11:29). A sign that would satisfy them, presumably some sort of miraculous display performed on demand, would have signalled the domestication of God. That sort of ‘God’ does powerful stunts to maintain allegiance and that kind of allegiance is not worth having.
They should have seen the existence of God’s providing a means via the temple as their own miraculous sign to revere it!!
John 2
22 After he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered he had said this, and they believed both the Scriptures and what Jesus had said.
Believing in Christ is the only place where we’re invited to bring what you don’t have to receive all that God has. All other religious pursuits are well defined by Paul:
Colossians 2
20 You have died with Christ, and he has set you free from the spiritual powers of this world. So why do you keep on following the rules of the world, such as, 21 “Don’t handle! Don’t taste! Don’t touch!”? 22 Such rules are mere human teachings about things that deteriorate as we use them. 23 These rules may seem wise because they require strong devotion, pious self-denial, and severe bodily discipline. But they provide no help in conquering a person’s evil desires.
How amazing that John tells us repeatedly what he and the other disciples did not understand or did not “get”. But Jesus doesn’t leave them in ignorance. Jesus leaves them the Holy Spirit and John says he’s telling us all about Jesus so we will believe, too.
But in your doubt / questions / confusions make sure you’re following the example of the faithful, not the hateful:
Romans 10 - Key to Belief?
9 If you openly declare that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For it is by believing in your heart that you are made right with God, and it is by openly declaring your faith that you are saved. 11 As the Scriptures tell us, “Anyone who trusts in him will never be disgraced.”