Cleansing the Temple

The Passover of the Jews was near, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. In the temple he found people selling cattle, sheep, and doves, and the money-changers seated at their tables. Making a whip of cords, he drove all of them out of the temple, both the sheep and the cattle. He also poured out the coins of the money-changers and overturned their tables. He told those who were selling the doves, ‘Take these things out of here! Stop making my Father’s house a market-place!’ His disciples remembered that it was written, ‘Zeal for your house will consume me.’ The Jews then said to him, ‘What sign can you show us for doing this?’ Jesus answered them, ‘Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.’ The Jews then said, ‘This temple has been under construction for forty-six years, and will you raise it up in three days?’ But he was speaking of the temple of his body. After he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this; and they believed the scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken.

- John 2:13-22

In John's gospel, the cleansing of the temple occurs at the beginning of Jesus' ministry. In the synoptic gospels, it is at the beginning of Holy Week. In this way, my study bible notes, John (the evangelist also known as the Theologian) emphasizes the "newness" of Jesus' ministry -- this is something that has not occurred before. It is not merely a continuation of the Old Covenant and his role is not that of a prophet, renewing faith under the Old Covenant. A note in my study bible reads, "Rather, he is instituting a new kind of worship altogether." For myself, I find this passage immediately following the wedding at Cana a reinforcement of the idea of something new coming about. Jesus' miracle at the wedding at Cana, as we discussed in yesterday's commentary, is truly the introduction of something brand new. As Logos ("Word"), he has only to say the word and the water in the stone jars for ritual cleansing becomes the wine of celebration of the wedding feast. This is clearly something entirely new and different; Jesus is the Bridegroom himself who has been awaited.

According to my study bible, St. John Chrysostom, Church Father, believed that Jesus cleansed the temple twice, at the beginning and again at the end of his public ministry. Chrysostom points out in his homilies on the gospel of John that Jesus is reported using two different phrases in the cleansing of the temple. Here in John's gospel, his protest is against commercialism: "Stop making my Father’s house a market-place!" Elsewhere, in the cleansing reported at the beginning of Holy Week in the other gospels, the criticism is a much stronger rebuke: "It is written, My house shall be called a house of prayer, but you have a den of thieves!" It is Passover, and in John's gospel there will be three different Passover feasts reported during Jesus' ministry, which scholars believe is historically accurate. My study bible points out that Jesus performs his miracles during the major Jewish feasts - as we shall see as we go through this gospel - "demonstrating that the Old Law is fulfilled in Jesus Himself." His disciples, we are told, remembered the words of the psalmist: "Zeal for your house will consume me" (see psalm 69:9). This is to relate to us that Jesus' actions are not directed against the temple, but are made out of love for it.

Again, turning to Chrysostom's homilies, we read that he points out the response of those in the temple: "What sign can you show us for doing this?" When miraculous healings happen, Jesus is accused of awful things, like working by the power of Beelzebub. But here in this instance, he is merely asked for a sign as proof of his authority in the temple. Jesus' reply is a hidden message, a riddle, a mystery, but a poetic one: "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up." We know that he was alluding to his Passion, death and Resurrection, but to all who heard this in the temple, disciples and opponents, his answer made no sense. All understanding will depend upon faith. Jesus' concern here echoes over the broad expanse of time, and those who will believe -- not those who are questioning his authority standing in front of him. What they understand are words they think are about the temple itself, which was rebuilt by Herod the Great starting in 20 B.C. We are told by the Evangelist that "he was speaking of the temple of his body. After he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this; and they believed the scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken."

What are we to make of this incident? Certainly we can see that this begins a public ministry in stark contrast -- two incidents we are already given: the miracle of the wine at the wedding in Cana, and this cleansing of the temple in Jerusalem. To those who come to the feast, abundance, richness, goodness and joy abound. To those who finagle finances in the name of the temple for their own profit, destruction will be the result. And that is contrasted by another miracle predicted, giving us the nature of his body - and of his kingdom. For those who slavishly follow the law, making gains by avoiding its spirit but following the letter, the future holds a dead end. We recall the future destruction of the temple, predicted by Jesus in the gospels following the cleansing at the beginning of Holy Week. For the faithful who are capable to understand it, an eternal resurrection will serve the Body.

As you go about your life today, think about these contrasts. How do we understand worship? How do we think of living faith and of Spirit? We see the great contrast in the elements in these stories: the wedding feast and the miraculous abundance of the good wine, and the cleansing of the commercialism in the temple. How do you celebrate a life of abundance? How do we avoid the pitfalls of "the letter of the law"? Focus on the compassion and the abundance of goodness and joy in that wine, and think about what it tells you of the Spirit of worship. The mystery of Resurrection to which Jesus alludes in his riddle before his inquisitors teaches us more about abundance and about grace, and its eternally giving nature. We should always remember this about our faith.