2:13 The Passover of the Jews was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.
2:14 He found in the temple those who sold oxen, sheep, and doves,
and the changers of money sitting.
2:15 He made a whip of cords, and threw all out of the temple, both
the sheep and the oxen;
and he poured out the changers' money, and overthrew their tables.
2:16 To those who sold the doves, he said,
"Take these things out of here! Don't make
my Father's house a marketplace!"
2:17 His disciples remembered that it was written,
"Zeal for your house will eat me up." (Ps
69:9)
2:18 The Jews therefore answered him,
"What sign do you show us, seeing that you do these things?" 2:19 Jesus answered them,
"Destroy this temple, and in three days I
will raise it up." 2:20 The Jews therefore said,
"Forty-six years was this temple in building, and will you raise
it up in three days?" 2:21 But he spoke of the temple of his body.
2:22 When therefore he was raised from the dead,
his disciples remembered that he said this,
and they believed the Scripture, and the word which Jesus had said.
2:23 Now when he was in Jerusalem at the Passover,
during the feast, many believed in his name, observing his signs which
he did.
2:24 But Jesus didn't trust himself to them, because he knew everyone,
2:25 and because he didn't need for anyone to testify concerning man;
for he himself knew what was in man.
Discussion Questions
vs 13-17 Why was Jesus angry?
What right did Jesus have to drive these people from the temple?
What things should we be angry about in a similar manner?
What actions should we take?
vs 18-22 Was Jesus saying that he was going to destroy the temple?
Compare with the accusations against him in Mark 14:58 and Mark 15:29.
Have you ever had the experience of someone slandering you by misrepresenting
what you said?
Who tried to destroy the temple that Jesus spoke of?
What happened later?
What are two other connotations for "temple" in the New Testament besides
the two being used in this passage?
(See 1Cor 6:19 and Eph 2:21)
Consider how you might apply what Jesus said to each kind of temple.
vs 23-25 Why was Jesus reluctant to commit himself to these
believers?
What kind of believers was he seeking?
Comments
Spiritual Commercialism
The passover was in comemeration of God wrath passing over the Israelites
whose houses were covered by the blood of the Lamb, and His wrath came
upon those who were oppressing them. Jesus was not about to pass over the
offense against him and his people being done by the moneychangers on the
temple grounds. What right does he have to drive them out? Very simply
it's his house and they were abusing it.
It would seem that selling sacrificial animals would be helpful for
the worshippers and necessary to fulfill the Law of Moses. Those in the
city may not have animals to sacrifice and those in the country may have
to travel far to get to the Temple and again may not have the appropriate
animals. Thus one could view the temple merchants as providing a legitimate
ministry to aid in the process of temple worship. The purpose of the money
changers was in fulfillment of the Law. For the Law required Jewish money
to be used. But many had only Roman money.
However in reality there was a great deal of corruption in this business.
Exchange rates were modified so as to amass exhorbitant profits. And so
also with the selling of sacrificial animals. It was this greed in the
midst of spiritual service that enraged the Lord so much, just as it led
to the death of Ananias and Sapphira in Acts 5 and the condemnation
of Simon the sorcerer in Acts 8.
Such is God's attitude towards commercialism in the Christian community
as well. People have a right to get paid for their ministry as Paul advocates
in 1Corinthians 9 and as the Law also says "Do not muzzle an
ox while it is treading out the grain." (Deut 25:4) But greed
comes easily leading to abuse of such priviledges. The Word then becomes
suppressed or misrepresented for the sake of financial gain. Or Christian
ministries will charge exhorbitant fees for their services and products.
There are many Judas's with their hands in the money bag. (John 12:6)
Better to follow Paul's example and provide Christian services free of
charge.
The Temple
The temple was Jesus' body. But the body of Christ is the Church. Eph
5:23"For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is
the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior."
Jesus is zealous, even enraged, to get rid of impurities in his body. In
Galatians Paul quotes Genesis saying, "Get rid of the slave woman and
her son". The slave woman represents false doctrine and her son represents
false teachers, which in the case in Galatians were the group of the circumcision.
And in the context of judging sinful Christians Paul writes, "Get rid
of the old yeast that you may be a new batch without yeast-- as you really
are. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. Therefore let
us keep the Festival, not with the old yeast, the yeast of malice and wickedness,
but with bread without yeast, the bread of sincerity and truth."1Cor
5:7,8 and continues "I am writing you that you must not associate
with anyone who calls himself a brother but is sexually immoral or greedy,
an idolater or a slanderer, a drunkard or a swindler. With such a man do
not even eat. What business is it of mine to judge those outside
the church? Are you not to judge those inside? God will judge those
outside. 'Expel the wicked man from among you.'"1Cor 5:11-13
But the zeal for His house is rather suppressed today among Christians
in the present age of ecumenical pluralism and popular feel-good antinomial
Christianity.
What sign will you show us?
Though today calling God one's Father is not unusual, this was not a common
expression among Jews. For to them God was distant and not intimate. By
calling God his Father Jesus was advocating himself in a special relationship
with God that not even Moses shared. And Jesus advocated that he had the
right to drive them out because it was his Father's temple. For this reason
the Jews asked a special sign to prove he was the Son of God which indicates
they accepted the idea of God having a Son, and that the Son would be able
to prove himself by miracles.
But why didn't Jesus do a miracle for them right then and there? Perhaps
for the same reason why God doesn't casually do miracles whenever unbelieving
skeptics ask. He humiliated these people convicting them of sin. It was
unlikely that they were genuine in seeking him. Rather they were simply
trying to humiliate him in return. For such people Jesus will lead no further
to himself until they repent. The humble he guides, but the proud he humiliates
or leaves behind. Besides, any God-fearing Jew with similar zeal should
have had the right to as he in cleaning up the temple. If it's a matter
of rights one should rather ask the temple merchants what right they have
to practice greed on temple grounds.
The sign Jesus would leave them with would be his resurrection from
the dead, which is spoken of whenever the gospel is preached all the way
since the day of Pentecost as we hear in Peter's words, "Men of Israel,
listen to this: Jesus of Nazareth was a man accredited by God to you by
miracles, wonders and signs, which God did among you through him, as you
yourselves know. This man was handed over to you by God's set purpose and
foreknowledge; and you, with the help of wicked men, put him to death by
nailing him to the cross. But God raised him from the dead, freeing
him from the agony of death." Acts 2:22-24
Resurrected Temples
It is also interesting to consider the following. There are four kinds
of temples of God in the Bible.
The physical building called The Temple was destroyed by the Babylonians
and rebuilt by Zerubbabel. It was destoyed again by the Romans and yet
to be rebuilt again.
The physical body of Christ was destroyed on the cross and later resurrected
from the dead.
The Church will be taken out of the world in the Rapture and later return
to reign on earth.
The individual Christians will die and later be resurrected as Christ was.
A further application is that God often brings his people through failures
even to the point of being reckoned by the world as defeated, but then
he raises up the humble as if resurrecting them from the dead, and brings
success and fruitfulness. And God has imparted such a life within his children
that it is inevitable that we will persevere to the end.
Jesus would not entrust himself to them
vs 23-25 People believed in Jesus, but Jesus did not believe in
people."This is what the LORD says: Cursed is the one who trusts in
man, who depends on flesh for his strength."Jer 17:5
What was is it in man that leads Jesus not to trust in them? It was man's
inherent sinful nature. But Jesus is one who can be trusted for though
in physical flesh, yet he has no such inherent nature. He is without sin.
"We have one who has been tempted (tested) in every way, just as we are--
yet was without sin.?" Heb 4:15
People believed when they saw his miracles, which is not surprising.
But what is implied was that the kind of belief they had at that point
was not being characterized as a deep conviction in which one has thought
out the implications of one's faith, but simply a knee-jerk reaction to
his miracles. One might call this an "Epi-faith". It was a fragile
possibly transitory faith being simply on the surface, but for some it
would lead to a saving faith born of conviction. The parable
of the sower characterizes such difference in faith. It was reasonable
for Jesus to do miracles. For God does not expect people to believe blindly
without any evidence. But Jesus did not gullibly presume their positive
reaction to his miracles to be born of a deep conviction. There are popular
people especially in the entertainment industry today who are self-deluded
concerning their fan's attitude towards them. But in fact such popularity
is often shallow and transitory. No doubt that many of these who believed
in him would later mock him and cry out for him to be crucified.