We Must Protect This House
As a young child, our son knew that he had a responsibility to make sure that children who visited our house respected it. No running through the house or jumping on furniture. No fighting. No roaming into areas not designated for play. No throwing or abusing toys. In general, he was charged with helping to protect our house. In John 2:13–25, Jesus was consumed with anger and passion over how His Father’s house (the temple) was being used by money changers to exploit His people. So Jesus upended the Jews commerce and misguided attitudes toward the temple, proclaiming His authority to restore reverence for God’s house. I pray that we, as God’s children, will have the same zeal for the proper use of our temple as Jesus did. May we understand that our Father’s house is in us and we must insure that our hearts remain sanctuaries where His Spirit can abide. Amen
When it was almost time for the Jewish Passover, Jesus went up to Jerusalem. In the temple courts he found people selling cattle, sheep and doves, and others sitting at tables exchanging money. So he made a whip out of cords, and drove all from the temple courts, both sheep and cattle; he scattered the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. To those who sold doves he said, “Get these out of here! Stop turning my Father’s house into a market!” His disciples remembered that it is written: “Zeal for your house will consume me.” (John 2:13-17)
Jesus made the journey to Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover. Because many Jews traveled to Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover, money changers set up shop in the temple courts to sell animals to them to use for the ritual temple sacrifices and to convert money into the temple approved offering coin. Jesus took exception to the money changers using God’s house as a market place and a means to exploit God’s people. This activity shifted the focus and purpose of the temple away from worship and fellowship with God. Jesus’ zeal for “His Father’s house” consumed Him. So He drove out the animals that were being sold, scattered the coins of the money changers and turned over their tables. Jesus’ disciples then recalled the psalm which spoke of the Messiah’s zeal for His Father’s house, and the resulting price He would pay for that passion (Ps. 69:9).
The Jews then responded to him, “What sign can you show us to prove your authority to do all this?”
Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days.”
They replied, “It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and you are going to raise it in three days?” But the temple he had spoken of was his body. After he was raised from the dead, his disciples recalled what he had said. Then they believed the scripture and the words that Jesus had spoken. (John 2:18-22)
The Jews demanded that Jesus show some sign that He had the authority to upend the order of things at the temple. Interestingly, Jesus continued to show them signs of His deity and authority, but they refused to believe. Neither the Jews who challenged and questioned Jesus’ authority nor the disciples who were following Jesus understood His statement regarding raising the temple again in 3 days. The Jews questioned how Jesus could rebuild a structure in 3 days that had taken 46 years to build. It was only after Jesus’ resurrection that His disciples understood that Jesus was referring to Himself as the temple that would be raised again in 3 days. It was then that they believed what Jesus had spoken.
Now while he was in Jerusalem at the Passover Festival, many people saw the signs he was performing and believed in his name. But Jesus would not entrust himself to them, for he knew all people. He did not need any testimony about mankind, for he knew what was in each person. (John 2:23-25)
While there in Jerusalem, Jesus performed many signs. People saw these and believed in His name. But, Jesus knew that their belief was superficial, based only in His ability to perform miracles, not in Him as their Savior. He knew what was in their hearts, and that they would soon turn away from Him.
The money changers were taking advantage of God’s people and exploiting them for the purpose of commerce during the Passover celebration. The Passover observance was instituted by God to remind Israel that He delivered them from bondage and saved them. Jesus came to deliver God’s people from our bondage to sin and to save us. And His anger at what the money changers were doing was because God’s house had become a place transactions rather than relationship with God. The Passover involved removing all yeast, which was symbolic of cleansing from sin. Jesus’ actions were aimed at cleansing the temple of the profane and non sacred things that were taking place in its courtyards. Jesus told the Jews who challenged Him that the sign of His authority to upend what they were doing in His Father’s house, would be His death and resurrection. Jesus’ death and resurrection recast the temple from a building to the relationship with God in Spirit and established us as the temple that God abides in. Do the things that make God angry also make you angry? If so, then you understand Jesus’ passion for keeping the place where God abides, from being defiled. God has chosen for His Spirit to abide in us…. Let us have the same passion as Jesus to protect His house.
Blessings, Rev. Glenn
