“The Passover of the Jews was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. In the temple he found those who were selling oxen and sheep and pigeons, and the money-changers sitting there. And making a whip of cords, he drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and oxen. And he poured out the coins of the money-changers and overturned their tables. And he told those who sold the pigeons, ‘Take these things away; do not make my Father’s house a house of trade.’ His disciples remembered that it was written, ‘Zeal for your house will consume me.’ So the Jews said to him, ‘What sign do you show us for doing these things?’ Jesus answered them, ‘Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.’ The Jews then said, ‘It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and will you raise it up in three days?’ But he was speaking about the temple of his body. When therefore 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. Now when he was in Jerusalem at the Passover Feast, many believed in his name when they saw the signs that he was doing. But Jesus on his part did not entrust himself to them, because he knew all people and needed no one to bear witness about man, for he himself knew what was in man.”

The Passover, the solemn remembrance of the final plague and God’s deliverance of His people from Egypt is at hand. While Christians today don’t observe the traditional Jewish feasts, the Old Testament gives us some scope for what a big deal Passover is. God saved His people from famine, establishing them in Egypt through His servant Joseph, where they thrived and multiplied. When a new pharaoh came into power who had no memory or care for Joseph, God’s people became slaves and their lives turned to misery. While the first nine plagues are terrible for the Egyptians and awesome displays of God’s power, it is the tenth and final plague, the death of all firstborn males that causes Pharaoh to relent and dismiss the Israelites from Egypt. Throughout the Old Testament, God makes a point of repeatedly referring to Himself in two ways. One is as the God of Abraham, Issac, and Jacob, reminding His people of their lineage, of how God set them aside as His people and established a covenant with their ancestors. The other we see used again and again is that He is “the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt,” repeatedly reminding His people of the great power He displayed in proving His infinite superiority to the false, Egyptian gods and the provision He made for His chosen nation. The flight from Egypt was finally permitted after the Passover and the Passover points entirely to Jesus.

Exodus 12:3, 5-8, 10-13 “Tell all the congregation of Israel that on the tenth day of this month every man shall take a lamb according to their fathers’ houses, a lamb for a household.”… “Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male a year old. You may take it from the sheep or from the goats, and you shall keep it until the fourteenth day of this month, when the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill their lambs at twilight. Then they shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and the lintel of the houses in which they eat it. They shall eat the flesh that night, roasted on the fire; with unleavened bread and bitter herbs they shall eat it.” … “And you shall let none of it remain until the morning; anything that remains until the morning you shall burn. In this manner you shall eat it: with your belt fastened, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand. And you shall eat it in haste. It is the LORD’s Passover. For I will pass through the land of Egypt that night, and I will strike all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and on all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments: I am the LORD. The blood shall be a sign for you, on the houses where you are. And when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and no plague will befall you to destroy you, when I strike the land of Egypt.”

A spotless lamb, consumed all at once, who’s blood turns aside the judgement of death. This symbolized, hundreds of years ahead of time what Jesus would perfect as the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. While Passover is without question a celebration, we see that the first Passover was eaten with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. We see that in future observances of the Passover, unleavened bread is a key theme, remembering the haste with which the Jews fled Egypt.

Jesus arrives in Jerusalem with His disciples for what is to be a reverent celebration in remembrance of what God has done for His people. A celebration that speaks of the work Jesus is on the earth to do, and will ultimately be commemorated and forever transformed by His death and resurrection. But what He finds in the temple fills Him with righteous anger. While only the Jews could enter the inner temple to worship or offer sacrifice, the outer courtyard would have been where the unconverted Gentiles, sometimes called “God fearers,” would have worshiped. We see people throughout the Bible, who though they are not converted under Mosaic law, they offer praise and worship or even sacrifice to God. Examples could include Naaman, the Syrian commander, after God healed him of leprosy in the time of Elisha in 2 Kings chapter 5; the Ethiopian Eunuch that we see the disciple Philip share the gospel with in Acts chapter 8; or Cornelius, the Roman centurion that God sends Peter to minister to in Acts chapter 10. While none of these people were practicing Jews or worshiping under the law, we see in Jesus’s teachings that the desire or aim of anyone to worship and honor God is not necessarily about the law, but that the law serves as a guide to the Father. So when Jesus arrives He finds that the outer courtyard of the temple, the only place for the non-Jewish, God fearers to worship has been overrun by extortionist salesmen and money changers. This speaks to the problem that had deeply rooted itself in Jewish religious practices, which Jesus addresses in Matthew 23:16-22,

“Woe to you, blind guides, who say, ‘If anyone swears by the temple, it is nothing, but if anyone swears by the gold of the temple, he is bound by his oath.’ You blind fools! For which is greater, the gold or the temple that has made the gold sacred? And you say, ‘If anyone swears by the altar, it is nothing, but if anyone swears by the gift that is on the altar, he is bound by his oath.’ You blind men! For which is greater, the gift or the altar that makes the gift sacred? So whoever swears by the altar swears by it and by everything on it. And whoever swears by the temple swears by it and by him who dwells in it. And whoever swears by heaven swears by the throne of God and by him who sits upon it.”

This shows the mark that the religious elite were missing so terribly. To them it was only the inner temple that was to be jealously, tenaciously guarded. But the outer courtyard where the unclean Gentiles were permitted, held no significance and was freely turned over to a space of financial gain. They were blind to the fact that the entire temple ground was a space devoted to God, all of it was for and dedicated to Him.

Even if what is taking place wasn’t being done on temple grounds, it’s still morally corrupt. The men are essentially practicing extortion, taking advantage of the influx of travelers in Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover. More than a simple matter of supply and demand, the money changers manipulate the need to convert currency, benefiting from inflated exchange rates. Those selling the animals seem to be committing an even worse offence. Where money is just a human matter, there was a standard, specific instructions for the animals that could be sacrificed before God. In this, some of the ruling Jews show their corruption as well, deeming some animals unfit for sacrifice and profiting from the ones sold on site. Bearing in mind that these things are taking place on temple grounds, these men are ultimately guilty of profaning the temple. If we look to the standard of Mosaic law, death isn’t off the table and being cut off from the people of Israel would be likely. But what we see Jesus do is, filled with righteous anger, He flips the tables of the money changers. He moves the men and their animals from the temple grounds, driving them with a whip fashioned from cords. This is not something that would injure or damage like a scourging whip, which He will be beaten with before His crucifixion, but will certainly hurt. The rebuke is real, but the punishment is not to the full measure that it could be. Even overcome with zeal for His Father’s house, Jesus doesn’t do what had become so prominent among the Pharisees and prosecute to the full extent of the law, but shows mercy. This seems to recall the sentiment of what God said to David in 2 Samuel 7:14-15,

“I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son. When he commits iniquity, I will discipline him with the rod of men, with the stripes of the sons of men, but my steadfast love will not depart from him, as I took it from Saul, whom I put away from before you.”

This action calls to mind for Jesus’s disciples Psalm 69:9, the first part of which says,

“For zeal for your house has consumed me…”

What is interesting is that what we see happen next fulfills the second half of Psalm 69:9,

“…the reproaches of those who reproach you have fallen on me.”

We see that the religious elite demand answers from Jesus for why He has driven out the money changers and salesmen, wanting to know what sign he produces to justify His actions. Just as they misunderstand and misuse the temple of the Living God, they completely miss the truth and purpose of Jesus’s ministry.  At this point we know that in the way of miracle work Jesus has manifested His power at the wedding at Cana, transforming water into wine, but Jesus doesn’t cite this sign. He doesn’t tell these blind guides anything more than what He says He will offer them when they seek a sign in Matthew 7:38-40,

“Then some of the scribes and Pharisees answered him, saying, ‘Teacher, we wish to see a sign from you.’ But he answered them, ‘An evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.”

While this event lies chronologically after what we’re seeing in John’s gospel, this reflects Jesus’s perfect steadfastness in His message to the ruling Jews. When they push Him for a sign, He offers the sign of Jonah. And again, using the fact that He can see perfectly through the worldly veil of time, this declaration is remembered and servers as affirmation for His disciples when it comes to pass.

So the Jews said to him, ‘What sign do you show us for doing these things?’ Jesus answered them, ‘Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.’ The Jews then said, ‘It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and will you raise it up in three days?’ But he was speaking about the temple of his body. When therefore 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.

Some translations offer “This temple was built forty-six years ago” as an alternative to “It has taken forty-six years to build this temple,” but either way, what we see remains the same. The ruling Jews miss the point entirely, overlooking the Spiritual nature of the statement and looking to that which is physical, worldly, and reassuring, just as they do in their faith. They ask for a sign, and He references the greatest of all His signs. They are in Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover, and He points to how He will serve as the ultimate, transformative, final Passover Lamb of God. But blind guides do not have eyes to see.

“Now when he was in Jerusalem at the Passover Feast, many believed in his name when they saw the signs that he was doing. But Jesus on his part did not entrust himself to them, because he knew all people and needed no one to bear witness about man, for he himself knew what was in man.”

We see that while Jesus did not offer additional signs for the religious rulers, He did perform miracles while in Jerusalem. It is a recurring lesson throughout the gospels that Jesus’s miracles work to validate His ministry and the truth of His teaching, but the ministry and teachings were never about the miracles. Some of those He interacted with understood this, one example being the man with leprosy we see in Mark 1:40-42,

“And a leper came to him, imploring him, and kneeling said to him, ‘If you will, you can make me clean.” Moved with pity, he stretched out his hand and touched him and said to him, ‘I will; be clean.’ And immediately the leprosy left him, and he was made clean.”

The man sought Jesus for His help, but what we see is an act of surrender. He acknowledges Jesus’s position, His ability, but surrenders himself to the will of the Lord, and in his faith, he receives mercy. But then we see those like the Jews in John 6, after Jesus has performed the miracle of multiplying bread and fish to feed a multitude of people for the first time. When those seeking are given a lesson in the Spirit and a deeper explanation of what Jesus has to offer them, they grumble, seeking that which is worldly and perishable. Just as Jesus showed perfect, divine discernment upon meeting Peter and Nathaneal, we now see His ability to know the hearts of men on a grand scale. Despite many believing Him through His signs, He doesn’t entrust Himself to them. Just as His acceptance of Peter and Nathaneal we’re based on the recommendations of Andrew or Philip, but His own discernment of the two men’s hearts, we see again that Jesus doesn’t need one man to bear witness about another for Him to know what lies within each of them. John’s gospel does an excellent job in very openly and subtly declaring Jesus’s deity, and this again shows us that. After rejecting Saul, God sends Samuel to anoint a son of Jesse the Bethlehemite, where He has provided Himself a king for Israel. When Samuel sees Jesse’s oldest son, he thought this was the man, but God corrects him. 1 Samuel 16:7

“But the LORD said to Samuel, ‘Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him. For the LORD sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the LORD looks on the heart.’”

God is omniscient, omnipresent, perfect, holy, without beginning or end. He is not limited in any way, and so He sees beyond the flesh, beyond what our minds can comprehend, to know the true nature of the hearts and minds of men. John’s gospel, allowing us again to see this quality in Jesus, this time on a grander scale, emphasizes as it did from the beginning the co-authority of the Father and Son. John 20:30-31, one of my favorite sections from the entire Bible makes the entire matter crystal clear,

“Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.”

Everything in John’s gospel is “written so that you may believe.” It is all aimed at knowing and affirming Jesus as the Son of God, boldly and unapologetically declaring the Truth of the gospel so that all might be saved.

Pastor Chris’s sermon: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vkuKQrdA7e4