Zeal for Your house has eaten Me up

 

 Now the Passover of the Jews was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.  And He found in the temple those who sold oxen and sheep and doves, and the money changers doing business.  When He had made a whip of cords, He drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and the oxen, and poured out the changers' money and overturned the tables.  And He said to those who sold doves, "Take these things away!  Do not make My Father's house a house of merchandise!"  Then His disciples remembered that it was written, "Zeal for Your house has eaten Me up."  

So the Jews answered and said to Him, "What sign do You show to us, since You do these things?"  Jesus answered and said to them, "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up."  Then the Jews said, "It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and will You raise it up in three days?"  But He was speaking of the temple of His body.  Therefore, when He had risen from the dead, His disciples remembered that He had said this to them; and they believed the Scripture and the word which Jesus had said.

 

- John 2:13–22 

 

Yesterday we were given the sixth and seventh days of Christ's beginning ministry:  There was a wedding in Cana of Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there.  Now both Jesus and His disciples were invited to the wedding.  And when they ran out of wine, the mother of Jesus said to Him, "They have no wine."  Jesus said to her, "Woman, what does your concern have to do with Me?  My hour has not yet come."  His mother said to the servants, "Whatever He says to you, do it."  Now there were set there six waterpots of stone, according to the manner of purification of the Jews, containing twenty or thirty gallons apiece.  Jesus said to them, "Fill the waterpots with water."  And they filled them up to the brim.  And He said to them, "Draw some out now, and take it to the master of the feast."  And they took it.  When the master of the feast had tasted the water that was made wine, and did not know where it came from (but the servants who had drawn the water knew), the master of the feast called the bridegroom.  And he said to him, "Every man at the beginning sets out the good wine, and when the guests have well drunk, then the inferior.  You have kept the good wine until now!"  This beginning of signs Jesus did in Cana of Galilee, and manifested His glory; and His disciples believed in Him.  After this He went down to Capernaum, He, His mother, His brothers, and His disciples; and they did not stay there many days.

 

  Now the Passover of the Jews was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.  And He found in the temple those who sold oxen and sheep and doves, and the money changers doing business.  When He had made a whip of cords, He drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and the oxen, and poured out the changers' money and overturned the tables.  And He said to those who sold doves, "Take these things away!  Do not make My Father's house a house of merchandise!"  Then His disciples remembered that it was written, "Zeal for Your house has eaten Me up."   John's Gospel has just given us the first seven days of Christ's ministry, beginning with the preaching of John the Baptist preparing the people for the Messiah.  In the Synoptic Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke, this event of cleansing the temple comes near the end of Christ's ministry, at the beginning of what we know as Holy Week, the final week of Christ's earthly life.  But here in John, this event is placed at the beginning.  All together, John's Gospel includes three Passover feasts attended by Jesus in Jerusalem.  My study Bible notes that certain Church Fathers teach that, in fact, Jesus performed this act twice.  It is significant that, after the first seven days which parallel the seven days of creation in Genesis, Jesus' first act beyond Galilee is to go to the temple in Jerusalem and attend the Passover feast.  It is also the first confrontation withe religious leaders in John's Gospel.  Those who sold oxen and sheep and doves traded in live animals which would be used for sacrifices.  The money changers would trade Roman coins for Jewish coins.  Roman coins bore the image of Caesar (considered to be a god), and so were considered to be defiling in the temple.  My study Bible says that the cleansing of the temple also points to the necessity that the Church be kept free from earthly pursuits.  It notes that each person is considered to be a temple of God in our faith (1 Corinthians 3:16; 6:19), and so it works also as a sign that our own hearts and minds must be cleansed of earthly matters.  The disciples recall the words from Psalm 69:9, testifying to Christ's cleansing of the temple as an act of ardent love for His Father's house.

So the Jews answered and said to Him, "What sign do You show to us, since You do these things?"  Jesus answered and said to them, "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up."  Then the Jews said, "It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and will You raise it up in three days?"  But He was speaking of the temple of His body.  Therefore, when He had risen from the dead, His disciples remembered that He had said this to them; and they believed the Scripture and the word which Jesus had said.  My study Bible explains that, since Jesus is not a Levitical priest, these religious leaders question and challenge His authority to cleanse the temple.  It recalls to us that John's use of the term Jews in this Gospel most frequently refers specifically to the religious leaders.  In this case, it's referring to the chief priests and the elders (see Matthew 21:23).  At the time this Gospel was written, we should recall, the followers of Jesus had begun to be persecuted and put out of the synagogues, and so "the Jews" is used as a sort of political term, like a label for one political party in a dispute.  All of the people in this event are Jews, including Jesus and His followers, among whom as witness is John the author of this Gospel.  My study Bible also notes here that Jesus is careful not to reveal Himself to scoffers, and so He answers these religious leaders in a hidden way.  Christ's ultimate sign will be His death and Resurrection.  

Here in this first Passover attendance by Jesus given in John's Gospel, and so shortly after the beginning of His ministry and the first week given the Gospel, we read the hints of the splits in the faith to come, when Christianity will branch off from Judaism in a separate path, with Christ at its center.  This is what my study Bible identifies as Christology.  That is, the center of Christianity, as it notes, is the Lord Jesus Christ Himself.  In effect, and through this split beginning with the religious leaders, Christ is seen as the centerpiece of all history, as we read the Old Testament in the light of Christ, as a many-splendored, many voiced reference to Him as Messiah.  One such reference is the quotation from Psalm 69:9, recalled by the disciples after the cleansing of the temple, "Zeal for your house has eaten Me up."  Hence the disciples give this first example here in today's reading, in which the Scripture is understood as the voice of the Coming One, Jesus.  Although central to Christ's ministry are, of course, His conflicts with the religious leaders, these conflicts reflect His zeal for the faith and His love for the Father, not a rejection of the whole religious and spiritual history of Judaism.  Quite the opposite is true, we understand Christ to be the fulfillment of what is prophesied, the Lord represented in the Old Testament Scriptures.  John makes this clear right from the beginning when He identifies Christ in the first verse:  "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God" (John 1:1).  The seven days given in the beginning of His ministry parallel the seven days of creation in Genesis 1:1-2:7.  If we understand Christology properly, we see that Christ, the Son of God and Son of Man, "energizes" human nature with divine energy, as my study Bible puts it, so that human nature is redeemed from sin and death and brought into union with God, thereby "deifying" humanity.  The whole of the Old Testament Scriptures testify to the activity of human beings after Creation, and God's interaction and leading through the patriarchs and prophets and the figures of Israel.  But Christ the prophesied Messiah comes to heal, to redeem.  The cleansing of the temple is a part of that healing and redemption, an example for us, as my study Bible noted in the notes referenced above, so that we also understand we are to be "cleansed" of what forms a stumbling block to our own spiritual healing.  Again, the Old Testament Scriptures point to humankind's wandering from God; so we also are drawn back by Christ when we go in the wrong direction.  Through Him, we are taught to put sin away and come to terms with our redemption so that we may more fully participate in His life.  Through Baptism, my study Bible says, we're given the opportunity to experience Christ's Incarnation in our lives.  Therefore our understanding of Christology (that is, Christ at the center of all things) means that because the Son of God became human, we all may participate in God.  And this is indeed the truth of redemption and grace.  Ultimately, the final sign of death and Resurrection comes out of Christ's zeal for us, His beloved -- those whom He came to redeem and to save for life with Him.