This episode in the life of the Lord Jesus took place very early in His ministry. This is John 2, not John 19. Chapter 1 records Jesus’ baptism by John, and then the gathering of some of the first disciples. Chapter 2 begins with the “beginning of miracles” which “did Jesus in Cana of Galilee, manifesting forth his glory; and his disciples believed on him.” After the miraculous generation of wine, Jesus returned from Cana to Capernaum, but “they continued there not many days,” before going to Jerusalem for His first Passover since beginning His ministry.
This temple cleansing must not be confused with another which is recorded in the three Synoptic Gospels. Please turn to Mark 11:15. Notice that this is Mark 11, not Mark 2 or 3. The same event is recorded in the latter chapters of Matthew and Luke. We are told in these three books that this took place after Jesus’ so-called “Triumphal entry” into Jerusalem just hours away from His crucifixion. Admittedly, there are many similarities between the two events, as we see when we read Mark 11:15 – “And they come to Jerusalem: and Jesus went into the temple, and began to cast out them that sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the tables of the moneychangers, and the seats of them that sold doves; And would not suffer that any man should carry any vessel through the temple. And he taught, saying unto them, Is it not written, My house shall be called of all nations the house of prayer? but ye have made it a den of thieves. And the scribes and chief priests heard it, and sought how they might destroy him: for they feared him, because all the people was astonished at his doctrine.” I am going to pull some thoughts from the other gospels, but most of this will come from John 2 – Christ’s first temple cleansing.
Before we begin, I need to point out my intention and the grounds for making this afternoon’s applications. Please turn to I Corinthians 3:16 – “Know ye not that YE are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple YE are.” There is an argument that Paul was referring to the entire church in Corinth. But there is another argument that he was talking about the individual saints who made up church. Now look at I Corinthians 6:19 – “What? Know ye not that your BODY is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price; therefore glorify God in your BODY, and in your spirit which are God’s.” The context of chapter 6 tells me that Paul was talking about individual Christians. You, who are children of God, are temples of God, indwelt by the Holy Spirit. One more scripture, before moving on – II Corinthians 6:14 – “Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness? And what concord hath Christ with Belial? or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel? And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for YE are the TEMPLE of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.”
While considering the Lord’s cleansing of the temple in Jerusalem, I would like to make application to the temples to which Paul refers. “Ye are,” as Jesus said in His day, “Ye are my Father’s house.” The Lord is as interested in our spiritual cleanliness as He was in the condition of God’s physical temple.
Christ often visits His temple.
In the latter chapters of Matthew, Mark and Luke – those books which give us a synopsis of His life – the Lord Jesus was nearing the cross. His crucifixion was only hours away; if He wasn’t technically the Lamb of God as yet, He soon would be. In other words, His second temple cleansing was near to the time of Jesus’ final Passover here on earth. He was in Jerusalem for the Passover.
Much of Christ’s ministry was spent in Galilee and other places outside Judea and Jerusalem. But there is evidence that Christ was in the city for each of the Passover’s during His ministry. The Gospel of John speaks of the Passover in chapters 2, 6, 11, 12, 13 and 18. There are at least three separate Passovers mentioned, and many scholars say that Jesus kept four of them. Not only that, but as an adolescent, He was there at the Passover, when He was left behind by his parents. That suggests to me that He may have been in Jerusalem for every Passover during His earthly lifetime. Christ went often into the Temple – His Father’s house.
It was the pre-incarnate Christ who said to Moses in Deuteronomy 16, “Observe the month of Abib, and keep the passover unto the LORD thy God: for in the month of Abib the LORD thy God brought thee forth out of Egypt by night. Thou shalt therefore sacrifice the passover unto the LORD thy God, of the flock and the herd, in the place which the LORD shall choose to place his name there.” The place where the Lord had chosen to put His name was Jerusalem. The men of Israel were supposed to report for duty at the gates of the Temple three times a year, and we can be sure that the Lord Jesus complied. My point is: Jesus often came to God’s temple, and there is a sense in which He still often comes.
And in this case it is important to remember some of the details of the temple which Herod built. First, at its core, there was the cube-shaped Holy of Holies, wherein was the Ark of the Covenant, covered by Mercy Seat. That room was separated from the Holy Place by a massive curtain which some think was several inches thick. Only the High Priest could enter into the Most Holy Place, where symbolically, God dwelt. And he could enter only on the Day of Atonement, and with all the proper preparations and offerings. Outside the Holy of Holies, in the Holy Place, was the golden Altar of Incense – the Altar of Prayer. There were also several, seven branched golden candlesticks, and the tables of Shew Bread. Into this outer room various priests kept ministering around the clock every day of the year. When this third temple was built, after 46 years of construction, it was surrounded by several court-yards. There was the Court of the Priests where the Brazen Altar and the Brazen Laver were found. Then there was the Court of the Women, where both the men and women of Israel could gather. That was the place of the treasury, where the widow left her tiny financial offering – two mites. Finally, surrounding them all, there was the Court of the Gentiles, where even proselytes could gather.
I won’t try to over complicate things, but if we are temples of God, we possess courts as well as special places. We can basically say that the Lord dwells in our souls or our hearts. Even there, He has his own holiest of places – certainly more holy than our hearts which can be so wicked. The courtyard of our soul can fill with the foulest of things. Our hearts are by nature, desperately wicked. But of course, the Lord Himself will never be contaminated. He is above and beyond sin. Our hearts and souls are temporarily confined within the courts of our physical bodies. It is there in the outer courts where we come into contact with the world, where we are most vulnerable to temptation, and which most often fill with sin.
Christ often visits His temples, and when He does, it is with a discerning eye.
Christ often visits His temples, and as the owner and possessor of that place, He comes as its judge. “And the Jews’ passover was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem, and found in the temple those that sold oxen and sheep and doves, and the changers of money sitting.” This was most likely in the Court of the Gentiles, and Jesus judged it to be filled with secular activity.
What was it that so upset the God of that Temple? He found that the Temple of God had been turned into a money-making stockyard. Apparently there were pens filled with various sacrificial animals, or at the very least, stringers or ropes to which sheep, goats and even oxen were tied. There were vendors’ tables covered with cages filled with doves to be sold as offerings. And there were others who would exchange foreign currency for Israeli shekels, acceptable to the priests. Each year it was expected that the men of Israel would pay half a shekel for support of the Temple, and if they only had a full shekel, they could exchange it for a pair of half shekels.
But here is the thing which, I think, most urked the Saviour: To exchange a Roman denarius, a Mexican peso, or an Indian rupee, everyone had to pay a small fee. And those who sold the doves probably had to rent their tables, like vendors at trade shows do today. The people selling the oxen and sheep charged more than the value of the animals, because they had to pay a commission to Jewish priesthood. There were priests who were called “Presidents,” and they had oversight of these various branches of income. I would guess that the presidents had vice-presidents, who had vice-vice-presidents under them. Each of them would get a cut from every transaction carried out in the court of the Temple. The priests were some of the wealthiest people in Israel, often through their profiteering in the Temple. Can you imagine what it would cost to buy an ox? There was a great deal of money changing hands. And the Passover season, like an American Christmas, was the busiest time of their financial year.
I’m sure that when the practice began, the priests offered logical excuses for their actions and transactions. There were people sailing into Israel from various countries around the Mediterranean. They couldn’t bring sacrificial animals from their homelands. And there were others walking miles and miles from Galilee, Egypt and countries to the East. Some of them brought their sacrifices with them, but most did not. The doves were offerings made by ladies who had recently been given birth. Even if those ladies were not present themselves, their husbands were told they had to sacrifice a dove for each of their children, before they could properly worship the Lord. So there were probably thousands of doves sold every time there was one of these special feasts. In order to encourage the people’s attendance at the temple, and their obedience to God, the priests thought they would do God a service and help these travelers out. Sure, they might have been able to buy a sheep in town or in one of the suburbs, but to have the animals right there where they would be sacrificed made a great deal of sense.
No. What it actually did was make a great deal of money for the people who were in charge. This is why the Lord Jesus accused them of turning God’s temple into a “house of merchandise.” It was worse than that, they had turned the court of the temple into a “den of thieves.”
Laying aside all the sins to which we Christians can be prone during our daily lives… What the Lord may hate more than any other are the sins we commit in the name of God our Saviour. What pride some people display when they come to the house of God to worship. What arrogance some show when they look down their noses at other struggling saints, or even at the publicans who are looking for forgiveness and justification. How often do we go about our worship with hearts more filled with the world than with God. We make the church of God a “house of merchandise” and “den of thieves” by secularizing our worship.
And the people were just as culpable as the priests they were supporting. If the common folk had refused the priestly price-gouging, by bringing their own sacrifices, the practice might have stopped. Luke says that Christ “cast out them that sold, AND them that bought in the temple” both sellers and buyers. In fact, the Lord “would not suffer that any man should carry a vessel through the temple.” The Saviour doesn’t want that which belongs to God to be used to make money in any way.
Going back to our daily lives, I am not talking merely about a church which we may picture as a temple. I am talking about Christians’ bodies and souls which are all temples of God. There is a sense in which the Lord may come into His temple on any day of the year or the week. He suddenly comes to His temple on Friday nights and finds it a “den of thieves.” He comes to us on a Tuesday morning and asks us why we haven’t spent time in His word and in prayer. Don’t think for a moment that just because you have been justified and are now immune from prosecution, that the Lord doesn’t care what you do and how you behave or think. Christ often comes to His temple, and He comes as Judge.
Furthermore He comes with the intension of cleansing His temple.
“And the Jews’ passover was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem, and found in the temple those that sold oxen and sheep and doves, and the changers of money sitting. And when he had made a scourge of small cords, he drove them all out of the temple, and the sheep, and the oxen; and poured out the changers’ money, and overthrew the tables; And said unto them that sold doves, Take these things hence; make not my Father’s house an house of merchandise. And his disciples remembered that it was written, The zeal of thine house hath eaten me up.”
The Lord Jesus reached back into Isaiah’s prophecies which were often about Himself. In Isaiah 56 we read: “For mine house shall be called an house of prayer for all people.” And it was Jeremiah, preaching repentance to the secularized priests and people of Israel, who said, “Is this house, which is called by my name, become a den of robbers in your eyes? Behold, even I have seen it, saith the Lord.” Then Jeremiah told those priests to travel back in their minds to the old days when the Tabernacle had been set up in the community of Shiloh. “Go ye now unto my place which was in Shiloh, where I set my name at the first, and see what I did to it for the wickedness of my people Israel” – Jeremiah 7. Shiloh had been destroyed because the proper worship of God had been corrupted by the priests and people of Israel.
It has been pointed out that Christ didn’t attack the Temple, per se, but the people who abused it. I marvel without trying to explain it, that He made a whip and physically beat the cattlemen out of the temple. But the sellers of doves were only threatened and told to pack up. Maybe it was because the hoofed animals could be regathered outside the temple, but the doves would have been gone for ever. The Lord is gracious even in His judgments.
He said, “Make not My Father’s house a house of merchandise.” Notice the ownership of that temple. It is God’s house; the place where He dwells. Remember, there is reason to apply this to the individual Christian. Talk about the dignity of the human body. It is special. It is glorious, whatever you might think about your own body. And it is not your own, for you are “bought with a price, therefore you are expected to glorify your Saviour in your body and in your soul.” Christ accused those people of making a profit in, and from, the temple of God. In other words, we have no right to think of ourselves before we think of the Lord. Our lives are not to be lived for our own profit. We are to use our eyes, our ears, our tongue, minds and even our imaginations to magnify the Lord.
On two occasions, the Lord Jesus made short work of those workers of iniquity. He doesn’t want His temple – whether it be the church or the Christian’s body – He doesn’t want His temple prostituted. And He will personally take steps to cleanse His special place. Whips inflict pain; scourges inflict scars. But if they get the work done, they are good for us. The priests tried to fight back, questioning the authority of the Son of God, but it did them no good.
Some day soon we are going to stand before the Judgment Seat of Christ, “that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad.” Yes, we are immune from eternal prosecution. But the fact remains that we are not our own, we have been bought by the blood of the Lord Jesus. And therefore we are obligated to glorify God in our bodies and in our spirits, which now belong to Him.