John 2:13-25

John 2:13-17 The cleansing of the Temple

Why does Jesus go to Jerusalem?

In John’s Gospel, Jesus spends much more time in Jerusalem than he does in the other Gospels.  He goes from Bethany east of the Jordan River, where John was baptizing, to Galilee (where he grew up), where he starts gathering disciples, and now to Jerusalem for Passover.

Passover was the annual spring religious feast celebrating God’s liberation of the Israelites from slavery in Egypt.  It was marked by the sacrificing of lambs to commemorate how they were protected when the angel of death “passed over” the houses of the Israelites that had the blood of a lamb on their doorposts.  In the Gospel of John, Jesus goes to Jerusalem 3 times for Passover, suggesting that his public ministry lasted more than 2 years, and perhaps longer.  Luke tells us (Luke 2:41) that Jesus’s parents brought him to Passover in Jerusalem every year as a child, and presumably he continued that practice throughout his adult life.

What does Jesus do in Jerusalem?

John places the cleansing of the Temple at the beginning of Jesus’s ministry, whereas the Synoptics place it at the end.  The Gospels writers arranged their stories to achieve their theological purposes, not to tell the story in chronological order.  In the Synoptics, this event is the precipitating factor that leads to the final murder plot against Jesus.  For John, the precipitating factor is the raising of Lazarus.  There are other, more minor differences that at a minimum suggest that the story was passed down orally in two slightly different forms from different eyewitnesses.  Some scholars think he cleared the Temple twice, once at the beginning of his ministry and again at the end.

What were the sheep, oxen, and doves used for, in the Temple?

Oxen, sheep, and doves were sacrificed in the Temple.  You  could buy the appropriate animals for your sacrifice, so that you would not have to travel to Jerusalem with your own animals for sacrifice.  Also, if you brought your own animal to the Temple, the authorities might reject it, saying it was blemished, and tell you to buy one of theirs.  The Synoptic Gospels and secular historical accounts indicate that people were often fleeced by the merchants in the Temple.

Why were there moneychangers in the Temple?  (It’s understandable if you do not know the answer to this question.)

The moneychangers were there to accept payment for the Temple tax that every adult male was obligated to pay annually.  The Jewish leaders accepted only certain coins – for example, they did not accept Roman coins, which carried the image of Caesar – so you needed a moneychanger to exchange your money for the accepted coins. 

All of this business was conducted in the outer court of the Temple complex – the Court of the Gentiles – making it a noisy place not conducive to prayer.  Jews could proceed into the courts that were closer to the Holy of Holies, but Gentiles had to stop here and could not proceed further in order to find a quiet place to pray.

What reason does Jesus give in verse 16 for his action?

Jesus does not want God’s house to be a marketplace.  It had lost it sense of reverence as economic concerns overshadowed the primary purpose of the Temple as a place where people could interact with God.

Jesus’s action reminds many scholars of the last verse of the book of Zechariah (Zech. 14:21), which prophesies that when the Lord comes there will no longer be merchants in the house of the Lord.  What do you think Jesus wants God’s house to look like?

How might economics, money, and market considerations affect how the Church as a whole and our local churches operate?  How might those concerns interfere with our primary purposes as God’s people?

John may have a deeper point in mind.  Sheep and oxen were essential to the Temple’s role as a place of sacrifice.  Therefore, what might be the deeper symbolism in driving them out of the Temple?  What would it mean if there were no longer any sacrificial animals in the Temple?

There could only be no animals if Temple sacrifice was no longer necessary.  This could happen because Jesus is here and will sacrifice himself as the “Lamb of God,” as John the Baptist called him in 2:29 and 2:36.

There may be even more to this, in the mind of John the evangelist.  In the other Gospels, the Last Supper is on Passover night.  But in John’s Gospel the Last Supper is on the night before Passover, and Jesus is dying on the Cross in his ultimate act of sacrifice just as the Passover lambs are being slaughtered in the Temple in preparation for that evening’s Passover meals.  Jesus’s sacrifice will make the whole sacrificial system in the Temple unnecessary, which would obviate the need for merchants buying and selling animals for sacrifice.  That would bring to fulfillment Zecharia’s prophecy that when the Lord comes there will no longer be merchants in the Temple.

Verse 17 tells us that Jesus’s action reminds his disciples of Psalm 69:9 (69:10 in the NABRE), which talked about zeal for God’s house.  They were struck by the zeal with which Jesus cleansed the Temple.

Why do you think Jesus cleared the Temple?

What is your reaction to what Jesus did?

John 2:18-25 Jesus is challenged by the Jewish leaders

In verse 18, John refers to “the Jews,” a phrase he will use repeatedly throughout his Gospel.  Sometimes, he is just referring to the Jewish people generally (for example, in John 2:13: “The Passover of the Jews was near”).  But other times, as in verse 18, he is referring specifically to the Jews who opposed Jesus: the leaders of the Jews in Jerusalem.  John’s references to “the Jews” are never a general indictment of all Jews.  John and Jesus and Jesus’s mother Mary and many people in John’s community were Jews.  John was not speaking against all Jews.

What was the reaction of the Jewish leaders to Jesus’s cleansing of the Temple?

Why do they challenge him?  What do they want?

What “evidence” does he offer them?

John often tells stories where someone misunderstands something Jesus says.  What does Jesus mean by the “temple,” and what do the Jewish leaders think he means?

Why do you think Jesus answers their challenge in this way?

Note: If this confrontation seems premature, we need to remember that John is not necessarily telling us everything in chronological order.

Where would you have been in this scene?  (One of the disciples?  One of the people challenging Jesus?  A moneychanger or merchant?  A Temple leader?  A bystander?  Or would you not even have been in the Temple?)

Consider the person you just named in the previous question.  How do you think they would have reacted to the clearing of the Temple and the discussion that followed?

What does this story say to you?

Saint Paul said that we are temples of the Holy Spirit, who resides in us (1 Cor. 6:19).  Is there any part of the “temple” of your life that needs some cleansing by Jesus?    What would he like to do?

How do we let Jesus clear away the distractions so that we are proper temples of the Holy Spirit?

Take a step back and consider this:

Verse 23 tells us that Jesus did other signs while he was in Jerusalem that John does not tell us about, and many people began to believe in his name – but Jesus did not trust these apparent declarations of faith.

The New Testament scholar Raymond Brown wrote that Jesus “did not trust their faith because it stopped at the miraculous aspect of the sign and did not perceive what was signified” (Brown, p. 341).  In other words, they saw only the miraculous action and not the message or meaning to which the sign pointed.

We are called to look for what God’s miraculous signs “signify” – the deeper messages they point to, the eternal truths that lie behind what God has done at the surface or physical level.  The human tendency is to stop at the surface of what God has done and is doing.  We can only reach our full calling when we go beyond the surface and embrace what the signs signify.

How can we train ourselves to look for the deeper spiritual meaning behind what happens on the surface of our lives?