Lesson 6

The Day Jesus Cleaned House

John 2:12-22

John's account of the life and ministry takes us from the wedding in Cana of Galilee to the Passover at the Temple in Jerusalem. Verse 12 makes the transition. Accompanied by His mother, His brothers (no, Mary was not a perpetual virgin) and His disciples, Jesus sent first to Capernaum for a few days and then on to Jerusalem.

The Scene, v. 13

Passover. It was passover season and excitement filled the air like electricity during a thunderstorm. This annual religious event celebrated Israel's exodus from Egypt. It was the greatest of all Jewish feasts. It is still observed by Jews today. Every adult male who lived within a 20 mile radius of Jerusalem was legally bound to attend Passover in Jerusalem.

Jerusalem. What a city. Destined to be different. It was called "the holy city" (Matthew 27:53. There is something special, something significant, about this city. It was the center of Jewish religion in that day. It was where the Temple stood.

Temple. Built originally by Solomon grand and glorious. 183,000 workers toiled for seven solid years. Destroyed by the Babylonian invasion and rebuilt by Zerrubabel. Destroyed again and rebuilt again by Herod the Great beginning about 20 B.C. and taking 46 years to complete.

No doubt Temple trips for Jesus invoked many fond, childhood memories. Luke 2:39-49 tells of one such trip when Jesus was 12. He was accidentally left in Jerusalem by his parents.

The System, v. 14

The whole ceremonial system of sacrifice had been commenced by God. The Lord himself had been the source of origin of the passover, the sacrifices, the Temple. It had been given as a means of evangelism and edification.

But the system that had been created by God had been corrupted by men. The Temple was a national symbol of the presence of God. It had been dedicated as a place of worship, quiet meditation, praise, devotion and prayer. Listen to Solomon’s prayer 1 Kings 8:28-32 Yet have thou respect unto the prayer of thy servant, and to his supplication, O LORD my God, to hearken unto the cry and to the prayer, which thy servant prayeth before thee to day: That thine eyes may be open toward this house night and day, even toward the place of which thou hast said, My name shall be there: that thou mayest hearken unto the prayer which thy servant shall make toward this place. And hearken thou to the supplication of thy servant, and of thy people Israel, when they shall pray toward this place: and hear thou in heaven thy dwelling place: and when thou hearest, forgive. If any man trespass against his neighbour, and an oath be laid upon him to cause him to swear, and the oath come before thine altar in this house: Then hear thou in heaven, and do, and judge thy servants, condemning the wicked, to bring his way upon his head; and justifying the righteous, to give him according to his righteousness. Psa 27:4 One thing have I desired of the LORD, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the LORD, and to inquire in his temple. But that is not the kind of place that Jesus saw when he entered the temple.

What Jesus Saw. What Jesus saw was a place which was spiritually defiled. The place of worship had become a bazaar of business! One part of the temple area was called the "court of Gentiles". It was designed by God to a place where Gentiles could enter the temple and learn about the true God. To put it in our language, it was a place for missions. But it had been turned into a place of merchandise. Annas, the former high priest and the father-in-law of Caiaphas, the current high priest, had a slick operation going on here. He had made the court of Gentiles into a place where Jews from foreign countries could buy sacrificial animals to use for passover. He sold "franchises rights" to people who wanted to sell the animals. In addition, he and his family were paid a percentage of every sale. Only those animals sold at the temple were considered acceptable for sacrifice, so they eliminated the competition. They charged exorbitant prices for the animals (ten times the actual value). Furthermore, they required that the animals be purchased with Temple money. Roman currency was forbidden. The moneychangers exchanged Roman money for temple money for a mere 25% fee! What Jesus saw was pure greed in the name of religion! Religion had been made into a lucrative business which was making some people rich while being totally unjust to the common people who sincerely wanted to make a sacrifice to the Lord.

One of the marks of false religion is that it makes merchandise of ministry. What Jesus saw going on in the temple is neither new nor unique. Throughout history, false religion has sold its services for lucrative gain. In the 1500’s, Roman Catholicism sold "indulgences" where, if you were rich, you could buy the right to sin and still get forgiveness from the church. Even today, Catholics make a donation in order to get the priests to pray their relatives out of purgatory. A "high mass" requires a bigger donation than a "low mass". There are plenty of other examples of marketing ministry. Many television evangelists sell their Christian products and spend much of their time pleading for contributions. Some evangelists have a mandatory fee which they require before they will come and preach at a church. They refuse to stay in a home and require hotel accommodations. A friend of mine asked a man if he would come and the man said, "I will need $2000 to come." Gospel singers also have a fee which they require before they will sing for the Lord. I have been asked how much I charge to do marital counseling and how much I charge to perform a wedding! Look at II Peter 2:1-3a. False teachers make merchandise of ministry!

Someone will say, "Well, all of those ministries have costs." The problem is that most of those ministries do not do it for cost, they do it for profit! I recognize that singers, preachers have expenses. I believe that God is able to finance whatever is His will. God doesn’t ever have a shortage of money. If ministry is done through the local New Testament church, and God’s people are taught to tithe and give generously to the work of the Lord, the money needed for ministry will be available.

What Jesus Did. He turned it into shambles. The people were scattered, the animals were, no doubt, running loose, doves flying everywhere. The tables were turned over and the money on them lay scattered on the floor. When Jesus got finished "cleaning his house" it lay in shambles. It may not have been tidy when he got finished but it was clean! When I read that, I can’t help but wonder how many beautiful and immaculate churches in America would be in shambles if Christ came to church on a Sunday morning! That’s sobering!

What do you suppose Jesus would do if He showed up at the average church in America on a Sunday morning? Most people think of Jesus as a mild-mannered man who always spoke with a quiet voice and never responded with emotion. We think of a person who was very passive, never aggressive, never angry, never forceful.

If that is the image which you have of Christ, then these verses are sure to shock you. This is the most unusual actions which Jesus ever took. What Jesus did shocked the religious people of Jerusalem. Why were they shocked? Because the Jews expected Messiah to conquer Rome; instead he confronted and condemned Israel! They looked for Messiah to promote revolution; instead he preached righteousness! They thought the Christ would deliver them; instead he denounced them!

The Speech, vs.16-17

The house of God is not to be a house of merchandise. Not then, not now. How had this happened. The commercialization of the house of God had come from convenience. The people had been convinced that it was much more convenient to buy your sacrificial animals than to bring them. It had come from compromise. There was disregard for the command of God to sacrifice from their own flock. It had come from complacency. Who cared if the Gentiles had to share their court with the animals?

The spoken words of Christ are followed by the written words of scriptures. His disciples remembered a verse from a messianic psalm (Psalm 69;9). in doing this, Jesus was fulfilling prophecy about Messiah. Messiah has zeal for the house of God. He is zealous about true and pure worship.

The Sign, vs. 18-22.

Unbelieving Jews demand a sign, I Cor. 1:22. They were not truth-seekers but fault-finders. What Jesus wanted was a sign but what they needed was salvation. Jesus gave them what they needed, not necessarily what they wanted. They wanted to see; they needed to believe.

Jesus speaks about "this temple." He was not speaking about his building but about his body. Jesus is using the image of the temple to speak of himself - his death and resurrection in three days. Being spiritually blind, these Jews did not get it and only mocked him. Being spiritual babes the disciples did not fully grasp the significance of this statement but John foreshadows future events and states that later they would remember this statement.

John the Baptist used the image of the sacrificial Lamb to help the people understand who Jesus is. Christ uses the image of the Jewish temple, where God dwelt. But God dwelt in Christ fully and ultimately. But, in their blindness they stumbled at his word.

Wanna know who Jesus is? He is the Messiah zealous for the house of God, who fulfills the predictions of the prophets. And He is the Temple in whom God dwells.

There are more Old Testament images to come as we make our way through this great book.