“The Jewish Passover was near, so Jesus went up to Jerusalem. In the temple complex He found people selling oxen, sheep, and doves, and He also found the money changers sitting there. After making a whip out of cords, He drove everyone out of the temple complex with their sheep and oxen. He also poured out the money changers’ coins and overturned the tables. He told those who were selling doves, “Get these things out of here! Stop turning My Father’s house into a marketplace! ” And His disciples remembered that it is written: Zeal for Your house will consume Me. So the Jews replied to Him, “What sign of authority will You show us for doing these things? ” Jesus answered, “Destroy this sanctuary, and I will raise it up in three days.” Therefore the Jews said, “This sanctuary took 46 years to build, and will You raise it up in three days? ” But He was speaking about the sanctuary of His body. So when He was raised from the dead, His disciples remembered that He had said this. And they believed the Scripture and the statement Jesus had made. While He was in Jerusalem at the Passover Festival, many trusted in His name when they saw the signs He was doing. Jesus, however, would not entrust Himself to them, since He knew them all and because He did not need anyone to testify about man; for He Himself knew what was in man.” John 2:13-25
Oddly, in the Gospel of John, as precise as John’s been about Jesus’ 1st 3 days of ministry, this event, noted 2nd, REALLY happened almost at the end of Jesus’ ministry. (Matt 21:12-17, Mark 11:15-19 & Luke 19:45-48. Its almost like John goes into “priority-event mode” rather than writting chronologically.
So its almost Passover, a holiday that coincides with what we call Easter when the Hebrew Nation celebrates God’s rescuing them from slavery in Eygpt. So its time to celebrate and Jesus and company are at the temple in Jerusalem. (Totally different setting/time)
So Jesus and His guys show up in Jerusalem and Jesus starts acting kinda bizarre. He sees the people selling sacrifical animals to those who couldn’t bring them (usual practice). He sees the money changers sitting there (temple taxes snd donations could only be made in approved temple currency, not the contemporary Roman currency of the day), whoch was not unusual. But what He also saw was those selling sacrifical animals price gouging the actual value of those animals and money changers cheating people as they overcharged already poor people in a currency exchange. He saw lying, cheating, dishonesty and extortion happening IN GOD’S HOUSE in the Name of God Himself. This enraged Jesus. He flipped tables, sending coins flying, let animals go and drove out those selling them. He literally cleaned up the house, saying, “Get these things out of here! Stop turning My Father’s house into a marketplace!” Of couse this ticked-off the religious leaders–now He was in their pockets financially, but Jesus was standing up for the poor and common people who were being taken advantage of as they made the trip to Jerusalem to worship!
Jesus disciples remember Psalm 69:9 saying “zeal for Your house has consumed Me”, so they got what Jesus was doing but the enraged religous leaders harshly asked Jesus Who authorized Him to fo this and what sign or miracle He could do to prove it? Jesus answered, “tear down this temple and I’ll rebuild it in 3 days”! Of course Jesus was talking about His physical body and upcoming resurrection but the leaders scoffed at Him saying, “you fool–it took 46 years to build this temple and you think You can rebuild it in 3 days?!?
All this made sense to the stunned disciples after He rose from the dead.
What did happen at the festival was important though. Vs 23 says, while at the festival, “many trusted in His name when they saw the signs He was doing.”
Sometimes what God does doesn’t make sense til after some time has passed. Know He ALWAYS works for your good and you can trust Him anyway!
Think about it!
Leave a Reply