Sermon Notes

13-14 When the Passover Feast, celebrated each spring by the Jews, was about to take place, Jesus traveled up to Jerusalem. He found the Temple teeming with people selling cattle and sheep and doves. The loan sharks were also there in full strength. 15-17 Jesus put together a whip out of strips of leather and chased them out of the Temple, stampeding the sheep and cattle, upending the tables of the loan sharks, spilling coins left and right. He told the dove merchants, “Get your things out of here! Stop turning My Father’s house into a shopping mall!” That’s when His disciples remembered the Scripture, “Zeal for your house consumes me.” 18-19 But the Jews were upset. They asked, “What credentials can You present to justify this?” Jesus answered, “Tear down this Temple and in three days I’ll put it back together.” 20-22 They were indignant: “It took forty-six years to build this Temple, and You’re going to rebuild it in three days?” But Jesus was talking about His body as the Temple. Later, after He was raised from the dead, His disciples remembered He had said this. They then put two and two together and believed both what was written in Scripture and what Jesus had said. 23-25 During the time He was in Jerusalem, those days of the Passover Feast, many people noticed the signs He was displaying and, seeing they pointed straight to God, entrusted their lives to Him. But Jesus didn’t entrust His life to them. He knew them inside and out, knew how untrustworthy they were. He didn’t need any help in seeing right through them.

This lesson is prophetic and historical. We read about Jesus’ cleansing of the Temple, as described in John 2. John considered this incident one of the more significant actions of our Lord at the outset of His public ministry, one that points to Jesus’ self-understanding that He is the Messiah.
The “Temple” of our text is the third temple, known as “Herod’s Temple.” This Temple was built by Herod, not so much to facilitate Israel’s worship, but as an attempt to reconcile the Jews to their Idumaean king. Construction of this Temple began in 19 B.C. and continued for 46 years. The Temple was largely complete in the time of Christ, but was fully completed just 6 years before it was destroyed, in 70 AD. It did not have the glory of the first temple built by Solomon, but it exceeded the beauty and splendor of the second temple (compare Ezra 3:12 with Mark 13:1).
In His infancy, Jesus had been taken to the temple in Jerusalem for His purification, and there both Simeon and Anna worshipped Him as the promised Messiah (Luke 2:21-38). When Jesus was 12 years old, He accompanied His parents to Jerusalem, where He absolutely amazed them and others (Luke 2:41-51). Even at that age, Jesus had a good grasp of who He was and what He was sent to do. The Temple Jesus visited in Luke 2 was a place to worship God and to study His Word. But the Temple Jesus finds nearly 20 years later seems to have greatly changed, and thus the need for its cleansing.

The simple answer to this question is that we don’t know. Arguments can be made for both views.
Craig Blomberg, in his book, The Historical Reliability of the Gospels (Inter-Varsity Press, 1987), offers a couple of solutions to this problem. The first solution holds that John has simply woven this incident into his Gospel thematically, rather than chronologically. John, for thematic considerations, has simply chosen to relay this incident in a manner unrelated to its actual chronological occurrence in the life of Christ.
The second solution acknowledges two separate acts, one at the beginning and one near the end of Jesus’ public ministry. He offers several supports of this position:
1. The details of the cleansing given in John are completely different from those given in the Synoptics.
2. If Jesus felt strongly enough about the Temple corruption to cleanse it once at the beginning of His ministry, it is not too difficult to believe that He might do it again at the end of His ministry.
3. Since cleansing the Temple was an overtly Messianic act, about which some of the Jews would have approved, it is not surprising that He could get away with doing this once at the outset of His ministry. However, when the Jews began to realize that Jesus was not really the sort of Messiah they were looking for, a second cleansing would have almost certainly sealed His fate (Mark 11:18).
4. Jesus’ statement in the Synoptics is more severe than that in John. Only in the Synoptics does He refer to the non-Jews’ need to pray at the Temple, and only in the Synoptics does He refer to the Jews as “robbers”.
5. In John 2:20 the Jews refer to the temple rebuilding project having begun 46 years earlier. This would mark the date of the cleansing at around AD 27/28. But Jesus was almost certainly not crucified until at least AD 30. And it is most unlikely that John would have simply made up such a figure. Therefore, it is quite likely that John is describing a distinct (and earlier) cleansing from the one mentioned in the Synoptics.
Clearly, the position of orthodox Christianity was that there were two clearings of the Temple. The Church Fathers and Scholastic Doctors that support this view include Chrysostom, Augustine, and Cornelius a’ Lapide.

13-14 When the Passover Feast, celebrated each spring by the Jews, was about to take place, Jesus traveled up to Jerusalem. He found the Temple teeming with people selling cattle and sheep and doves. The loan sharks were also there in full strength.
The Jewish Passover celebration commemorates the deliverance of the Israelites from Egypt, when the death angel passed over every home where the first Passover was observed and the blood of the paschal lamb was placed on the two door posts and the lintel (Exodus 12, 13). The celebration of the Passover also commenced the Feast of Unleavened bread, so that the entire Passover celebration took a week. Attendance for adult Israelite males was compulsory.
We know from the description of a similar celebration, in Acts 2, that a great many people thronged to Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover—not only from other parts of Israel, but from all over the world (Acts 2:5-12). These Jews and proselytes would have to pay the half-shekel temple tax in the coinage of the Temple; foreign monies were un-acceptable and had to be exchanged for the proper coins. These worshippers also had to offer up their sacrifices and for many, the only solution was to buy a sacrificial animal in Jerusalem.
At one time the animal merchants set up their stalls across the Kidron Valley on the slopes of the Mount of Olives, but at this point they were in the Temple courts, specifically the Court of the Gentiles (the outermost court). While it is true, in the abstract, that each worshipper was allowed to bring to the Temple an animal of his own selection, in all likelihood, it would not be approved by the judges, the privileged venders who filled the money-chests of Annas, the High Priest. Hence, to save trouble and disappointment, animals for sacrifice were bought in the outer court. Of course, the dealers in cattle and sheep would charge exorbitant prices for such animals. They would exploit the worshippers.
Then there were the money-changers. They gave the worshipper lawful, Jewish coin in exchange for foreign currency. Only Jewish coins were allowed to be offered in the Temple, and every worshipper—women, slaves, and minors excepted—had to pay the annual Temple tribute of half a shekel (Exodus 30:13). The money-changers would charge a certain fee for every exchange-transaction. Here, too, there were abundant opportunities for deception and abuse. And in view of these conditions the Holy Temple, intended as a house of prayer for all people, had become a den of robbers (Isaiah 56:7; Jeremiah 7:11; Mark 11:17).
15-17 Jesus put together a whip out of strips of leather and chased them out of the Temple, stampeding the sheep and cattle, upending the tables of the loan sharks, spilling coins left and right. He told the dove merchants, “Get your things out of here! Stop turning My Father’s house into a shopping mall!” That’s when His disciples remembered the Scripture, “Zeal for your house consumes me.”
What Jesus sees going on in the Temple courts troubles Him greatly. The place of prayer has become a place of profit-taking. It smells more like a barnyard than the place where one would seek God’s presence. Jesus enters the outer court of the Temple, fashioning a whip from materials at hand (probably from the cords used to tie up the animals). He then drives them all out of the Temple area—the animals and those who were selling them. The coins of the moneychangers were poured out and scattered on the ground and their tables overturned.
After His death and resurrection, Jesus’ disciples came to view this cleansing of the Temple in the light of Psalm 69. This is a psalm of David, a prayer for his deliverance, due to his piety. The psalm speaks of David’s imminent danger due to the enemies of God who hate him for his fervent devotion to God, and thus who seek his death. Later portions of this psalm depict events that occur at the crucifixion of our Lord (Psalm 69:21). It seems clear in this psalm that there is a prophecy of our Lord’s sacrificial death, due to His zeal for pure worship.
Jesus acts out of zeal for His Father’s house, laying claim to the temple and cleansing it in His Father’s name. In so doing, He fulfills a prophecy that our Lord’s zeal for His Father’s house will bring about His death.
18-19 But the Jews were upset. They asked, “What credentials can You present to justify this?” Jesus answered, “Tear down this Temple and in three days I’ll put it back together.”
The Jewish religious leaders directly challenged by Jesus’ actions in cleansing the Temple confront Him. They demand a sign to demonstrate His authority to act as He has.
Their words are interesting. They do not argue with Jesus about the evil of making the Temple courts an emporium; they probably agree with Him on this point. The issue is not what has been done, but who has done it. They raise the issues of Jesus’ identity and authority. If Jesus is acting in God’s behalf (they do not yet grasp that He is acting as God), then He must establish His credentials by an exercise of divine power. If He is acting with God’s authority, let Him perform a sign to prove it.
Jesus does not give them a sign. He does not even refer to any of the signs He already performed in Jerusalem (John 2:23; 3:2). He does not even try to convince them who He is. Instead, He speaks to them of the ultimate sign, His death and resurrection.
20-22 They were indignant: “It took forty-six years to build this Temple, and You’re going to rebuild it in three days?” But Jesus was talking about His body as the Temple. Later, after He was raised from the dead, His disciples remembered He had said this. They then put two and two together and believed both what was written in Scripture and what Jesus had said.
Apparently, these Jews—most likely Pharisees—can think only in the most literal terms (think Nicodemus, in John 3). They assume Jesus is referring to Herod’s temple, which has been under construction for forty-six years. But John clarifies that Jesus is not speaking of that earthly Temple. Rather, He is speaking of Himself as the Temple of God, and of His coming crucifixion. He is not trying to persuade these Jews to believe in Him, but rather to prophesy that they will not believe, and that they will put Him to death on Calvary. His triumph will be evident in three days, when He will be raised up from the dead.
The Jews did not understand Jesus’ words. They probably walked away, shaking their heads, convinced that Jesus was out of His mind. The disciples don’t understand, at this point, either. Not until after Jesus’ death and resurrection does this prophecy come to mind, and they see how He fulfilled it exactly as He said. Then they believe both the Scripture and what Jesus has spoken.
We are not told what scripture John has in mind, which the disciples remember and believe. After our Lord’s resurrection, the apostles used the Scriptures to prove that Jesus was the Messiah, and that His death and resurrection were foretold (Acts 2:14-36; 13:16-41). Jesus Himself gives His disciples a lesson from the Old Testament on these matters before He ascends to the Father (Luke 24:44-49).
23-25 During the time He was in Jerusalem, those days of the Passover Feast, many people noticed the signs He was displaying and, seeing they pointed straight to God, entrusted their lives to Him. But Jesus didn’t entrust His life to them. He knew them inside and out, knew how untrustworthy they were. He didn’t need any help in seeing right through them.
Jesus would not entrust Himself into the care of those who only believed because of what they had seen Him do. Their faith was shallow.
Our salvation is not merely because of what Jesus does but who Jesus is. We cannot exclude one from the other. Because Jesus is God (John 1:2), He is worthy of our worship, our praise and our perpetual faith. Jesus is God even when Jesus doesn’t act in ways that we want Him to. That’s His sovereignty. To deny that sovereignty means our faith is shallow.
*Shallow faith breaks under pressure. Our times are pressure-packed—tribalism, economic and social injustice, etc. Unchecked, pressure leads to abuse—substance abuse, food abuse, sex abuse, family abuse, relationship abuse. But if we follow Jesus with sincere faith, then we know that regardless of our condition, our cause is right. The difference between genuine and superficial faith is how we serve the Lord in our crisis time.

The Temple was being abused, and Jesus reacts to such abuse. In so doing, He’s claiming to have the authority to correct evils performed in the Temple. He calls the Temple “His Father’s house.” Jesus not only came with God’s authority (as a prophet might do); He came as God tabernacling among men, as John tells us (John 1:14). Later, He speaks of Himself as the Temple (Revelation 21:21-27).