A CHANGE OF RESIDENCE

A CHANGE OF RESIDENCE
Jesus Clears the Temple
John 2:13-22

Read Text (2:13-22)

I want to point out two problems with the Jews practice of setting up merchants and money changers in the temple: first, devout Jewish pilgrims who had been dispersed six centuries earlier by the Babylonians were visiting from all over the world to worship according to the command of Moses. They were being fleeced at the temple.

The second problem was that Gentiles; those non-Jews who must have been sincerely seeking the God of Israel were being crowded out of the place of worship that had been set aside for them.

The situation calls to mind Jesus’ biting criticism of the Pharisees in Matthew 23, he said “For you shut up the Kingdom of heaven against men; for you neither go in yourselves, nor do you allow those who are entering to go in.”

The other gospels place the clearing of the temple closer to the end of Jesus ministry, after his triumphal entry. But John placed the story of the cleansing of the temple thematically at the beginning. The reason for this ordering of the events must lie in the context in which we find it.

Let’s quickly review the flow of the gospel so far:

1. in the prologue we learned that Jesus is Everlasting God, Life and Light shining over against the darkness;
2. and in the introduction of John the Baptist we learned that when the long awaited Saviour of Israel walked among his people they did not recognize him;
3. then in the calling of the disciples we learned that Jesus, the Son of Man, promised his disciples that they would the angels of God ascending and descending upon him;
4. finally in the first part of chapter 2, we learned that Jesus was able to perform miracles and that the first miracle was a sign that the New Covenant is better than the Old Covenant.
5. All this would occur to set us up for the clearing of the temple and transition us into the dialogue between Jesus and Nichodemus regarding the need to be born again of the Holy Spirit in order to enter the New Covenant.

Notice that, so far, Jesus’ movement has been away from Jerusalem, in fact the movement has been towards the Diaspora and towards the Gentiles. (Two of Jesus’ disciples, Philip and Andrew had Greek names.) Cana was at the northern tip of the nation and bordered with what the Judeans considered the defiled heathen dark lands. It was the bottom of Israel where Jesus spent most of his human existence.

Cana was near Capernaum (Jesus’ home town). He returned there briefly in verse 12. The thing about Capernaum was that it was too far from Jerusalem for them to have even bothered to build a synagogue and so the only Synagogue in that city was the one built by a Roman centurion (Luke 7:5, Edersheim, “sketches of Jewish…” p. 233).

So imagine Jesus’ fury at coming from his hometown-after-the-flesh, where the only place of worship was built by a Gentile, to his house and the symbol of his heavenly home to see that those same Gentiles were prevented from entering his house because of greed and the abuse of religion.

Perhaps we need to put the Temple into the perspective of Jewish history:

The first temple was planned by King David himself, but because of the blood on his hands, he was not permitted to build the temple. Let’s look at that first, turn to 2 Samuel 7 (Read vv. 1-17).

So the person whom God chose to build the temple was David’s son and God made a covenant with David (the Davidic covenant) linking the temple with that covenant, which would find it’s ultimate expression in the coming of Jesus Christ- the Son of God; the son of David.

There is a familiar theme being repeated here: clearing the temple was similar to how the water changed into wine symbolized the failed Mosaic Covenant being transformed into a better covenant.

But now it is the temple, not water jars, that represents the failure of the Old Covenant to bring the worshiper into a relationship with God. Into that earthen vessel entered one greater than the temple of whom the temple is merely a symbol. And Jesus is about to, figuratively speaking, turn water into wine by making a place of spiritual abuse into a place of access to God. Except, this time, instead of a celebration, it is a judgment.

But let’s return to the history of Israel and her temple. The first temple was completed by Solomon and when the Ark was placed within it, the temple became so filled with the cloud of the glory of the Lord that the priests could no longer do their work. That was when Yahweh moved in!

After Solomon, the nation turned from God and began to worship foreign gods. They even erected Baals and Ashterahs in the temple of God. They began to revere the temple over the one whom it represented. So arrogant were they about their temple that Jeremiah prophesied to them saying:

“Will you steal, murder, commit adultery, swear falsely, burn incense to Baal, and walk after other gods whom you do not know and then come and stand before Me in this house which is called by my name… Has this house which is called by my name become a den of thieves in your eyes?

God was preparing to move out!

We studied this last Fall in Bible study at Deryck and Sandy’s; Ezekiel 10:18 says that after pronouncing judgment upon Israel, “the glory of the Lord departed from the threshold of the temple….” God moved out!

Eventually the Babylonians came and destroyed the temple and it lay waste for another seventy years until Ezra came and rebuilt it.

The interesting thing about the second temple was that it was never revisited by the cloud of the glory of God… until now. God’s glory, no longer embodied by a cloud, but in human form was standing among the religious leaders and they did not recognize him.

I’m going to conclude here, but I want to point out something to you about the changing constitution the Temple of God. Look at the Jews’ response to Jesus: (Read vv. 18-22)

You see, the house of God, His temple, is not brick and mortar…. The true sanctuary is erected by God and not man (Hebrews 8:2). These things are just shadows of the lasting covenant that he has written on our hearts. That’s why Jesus could tell the Samaritan women that an hour was coming (and is now here) when you will neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem worship the Father. But true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth” (4:22-24).

True worship has nothing to do with whether it occurs in a church building or in a school gym or a parking lot or even a prison or hospital. True worship has to do with whether or not it is in spirit and in truth.

Let me wrap this up with a personal application: God moved out of the temple because the temple has become your heart. He has moved into a better temple- one not made by human hands.

The Bible tells us that we are now the temple of God because the Spirit of God dwells in us (1 Cor 3:16-17). Paul exhorted the Corinthians to, “Flee sexual immorality” saying “he who commits sexual immorality sins against his own body. Or do you not know your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own?” (1 Cor 6:18-19).

The Greek word for sexual immorality is Porneia- it’s where we get the word pornography and is sometimes used to convey the idea of idolatry- it implies even the contemplation of sexual immorality and fornication.

Jesus once condemned the Pharisees for being focused on external righteousness. He said,

…what comes out of the mouth comes from the heart, and this defiles a man. For from the heart come evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, sexual immoralities (porneia), thefts, false testimonies, blasphemies. These are the things that defile a man, but eating with unwashed hands does not defile a man. (Matthew 15:19)

External things do not defile this temple! Internal things do!

When we consider the darkness and sin of our own hearts, we must remain ever thankful that the Lord does not come into our temples with the same wrath that he entered this dead temple in Jerusalem. He gently perseveres with us through our struggle and loving brings us into perfection through the abiding work of the Holy Spirit who will never depart this temple.

Isn’t that enough to remind us of the kindness and patience and mercy we ought to demonstrate to one another. Shouldn’t we assume the best of one another’s motives, not the worst. Shouldn’t we be constantly erasing wrongs done to us by others rather then keeping score of them when we consider how generously he has erased our sin?

If someone says something to you that is unkind or offensive, or hurtful or insulting or whatever, don’t assume they had a malicious or evil motive. Assume that they were having a bad day, assume that they just got some bad news that you don’t know about. Maybe it was over the cell phone and they were making a left hand turn into heavy traffic and they sighed in a way that intoned something they did not intend.

If you find it hard to forgive them, go to them at another time- if they ask your forgiveness, forgive them, you have just won back your brother or your sister. Remember the parable of the unforgiving steward- don’t become like him. The damage that you cause could be more odious to God then the damage you felt was caused to you.

I want you to know, if you have ever offended me I hold no grudge against you. I love you. And if I have ever offended you, please forgive me. Can we here today, this morning, decide to let go of any offenses we have received not only from one another, but from everyone: other Christians; family members, other churches, co-workers, strangers…?

Let us go from here released of the baggage of unforgiveness toward others.

After all, how can we do anything else but forgive one another the small sins we regularly commit against each other when we consider that he forgave us a bottomless pit of sins against Him?


He desires mercy not sacrifices, a pure heart not ritual washings. (Read vv. 23-25).