Did Jesus 'Blow It' in the Temple?

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Did Jesus “Blow It” in the Temple?

Tom: We’re going through the Gospel of John, and I keep saying this, because it’s just important. We want to get to know the Lord better, and the Gospel of John, if you have to start somewhere, that’s a book, for a first book, that we would greatly recommend to you.

Dave, we’re in the gospel of John, chapter 2. Last week we concentrated on one verse, and each verse is a treat, as I’ve said before, but let’s pick up with verse 13: “And the Jews’ Passover was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem, and found in the Temple those that sold oxen and sheep and doves, and the changers of money sitting.” Verse 15: “And when He had made a scourge of small cords, He drove them all out of the Temple, and the sheep and the oxen, and poured out the changers’ money and overthrew the tables, and said unto them that sold doves, Take these things hence! Make not my Father’s house an house of merchandise.” Verse 17: “And His disciples remembered that it was written, Zeal of thine house hath eaten me up.”

Dave, again, we’re going through this gospel to learn more about Jesus…

Dave: Mm-hmm.

Tom: In previous programs, we talked about the wedding feast of Cana, where many people believe that this was the beginning of Jesus’s public ministry, and here—boy, this is a real contrast. On the one hand, He’s providing service for those who came to the wedding feast, and now, we see Him really taking charge in the Temple. Interesting contrast.

Dave: Well, as I often say, Jesus apparently had not taken a Dale Carnegie course in How to Win Friends and Influence People. That wasn’t what He was interested in. And I suppose, had Jesus taken some of these courses, and had He been a bit more “positive,” as they say today, He could have been whole lot more popular. In fact, He might have become so popular that He wouldn’t have even been crucified. And, of course, we wouldn’t be saved.

But they had perverted the Temple. They had corrupted… It says, verse 13—the wording is rather significant: “The Jews’ Passover.” This wasn’t the Passover that God had instituted, but they now have sort of taken it over, and they’re making money out of it. It’s a money-making deal! And…

Tom: Well, what do they mean by…what does it mean by “Jews”? Are you talking about all Jews, or… Jesus was a Jew…

Dave: Well, when it says, “Jews,” it means the rabbis, the leaders of the Jews. And they now have made this what they wanted it to be. You read that…

Tom: This was the establishment…the religious establishment.

Dave: Right. The religious establishment. You would read that in Matthew 15, for example, where Jesus said to them…(they’re complaining that He’s not going along with their tradition), and He says, “By your tradition you have made void the Word of God.” That’s what this program is about—the Word of God. And tradition—if you wanted to be “one of the boys,” if you wanted to be part of what, as you said, “the establishment,” then you would go along with this. Jesus is not interested in being part of the establishment. He’s not interested in becoming popular. He’s interested in truth. In fact, He is the truth. And they have corrupted this whole thing.

Now, they’re making money off of it. People have to come to the temple to make an offering, according to the old Levitical law, but you can’t bring your own lamb, you can’t bring your own dove, but you have to buy it from them. So, they’ve got quite a franchise…

Tom: Yeah, so this is more than just providing a service.

Dave: This is a money-making deal. And they have a monopoly on it. And I would have to say that’s pretty much representative of religion. I was talking to someone on the plane the other day and trying to explain a little bit about it, and…what were his words now? Oh, yes, it’s…I was trying to explain to him what “religion” is, and what men have made of this. You get in between men and God—Jesus says it in Matthew 23. He says, “You scoundrels! Not only don’t you enter into heaven, but you stand in the way of those who would, because you set up a system of religion so complicated they have to rely on you! They can’t get to God except through you, and you set the rules! And you’ve turned this into a money-making deal!”

And his comment was, he said, “Oh, yeah. They’re middlemen!” And that’s what these guys were: kind of middlemen to God. They get their commission. And so, they’re not really interested in bringing you to God. They’re interested in making money on supposedly bringing you to God and having a monopoly on it. And that was what was going on.

And Jesus was angry, and He drove them out. He said, “Make not my Father’s house a house of merchandise!”

So that’s the tipoff. You get exactly the purpose behind the whole thing. And it shows the necessity of examining our own hearts! You know, David in Psalm 139 said, “Search Me, oh God, know My heart. Try me and know my thoughts. See if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.”

And, you know, we’ve quoted it a number of times, Jeremiah. God, speaking through him, said, “The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. Who can know it? I the Lord search the heart…”  So I have to search my own heart. I write a book. Am I writing it so I can make money? I’ve been accused of that! Well, if I were doing that, I guess I would pick a different subject. I would try to appeal to people rather than trying to speak the truth.

But Jesus was not interested in that. He’s interested in bringing people to God, His Father. And, again, He is introducing a term here that most of these people had never heard: “My Father’s house!” he says. Wow! Nobody used that terminology before. “This is my Father’s house.” So, “I’m the Son of God,” He’s claiming. “And you have corrupted this thing; you have turned it into a den of thieves, and you’ve made merchandise out of this.”

Well, Tom—and, again, it just shows what the Bible is all about. The Bible is about truth. The Bible is truth.

Tom: But Dave, when people think about Jesus, this is not an image that’s promoted a lot…

Dave: Mm-hmm. Meek and mild Jesus…

Tom: Right.

Dave: Kind of a milquetoast. No, no!

Tom: Yeah, and it says, “Zeal of thine house….” The things of the Father He had a great zeal for, and He took action. Now…

Dave: He must have been an awesome figure! They all fled. They didn’t gather a gang and try to put Him down. There was something about Him, the authority with which He spoke, and I think the fire in His eyes—you get a little bit of that in John’s meeting Him in heaven in Revelation 1: you know, “His eyes were as a flame of fire.” I think they were terrified.

Tom: Yeah. Dave, we as fallen creatures, as sinful creatures, when we see Jesus do something like fashioning this scourge of small cords and driving these merchandisers from the Temple, sometimes it’s hard for us to forget [remember] that this is the perfect Man. That He did these things without sin, without anger that’s sinful…

Dave: Right.

Tom:  But it…

Dave: It was righteous anger.

Tom: Yeah. Even a zeal, or being jealous of His Father’s house—this is all without sin.

Dave: Yeah, the only thing that…the only comeback they have is they say, “Yeah, well, what’s your authority? Show us a sign. How do you dare to do these things?” you know. “Who are you, this upstart?” They’d never seen Him, unless they remember Him as a boy of twelve in the Temple, some of them. And they’re upset! This is a reflection upon them. Why, the rabbis, they’re e supposed to be the ones in authority here. “How dare you do this sort of thing? Do you have a sign that you can show us?”

And Jesus says, “Destroy this temple…”

Tom: Yeah, verse 19: “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” Wow! That was a sign. That was the sign of our salvation.

Dave: And they said, “Forty-and-six years was this temple in building, and wilt thou rear it up in three days? But He spake of the temple of His body.” Amazing. The tabernacle in the wilderness, and then the Temple in which God dwelt, and John begins this, chapter 1, it says, “And the Word ‘taberacled’ among us.” This is God in a body—He’s become a man, now, and that’s what He’s talking about, and His resurrection.