Jesus Cleanses the Temple from Jesus as seen by John

I guess that everyone needed a little break in the action after the great wedding party! At least this is the way John writes his gospel. Jesus, his disciples and his family go down to Capernaum. Cana and Nazareth are in the hill country just west of the Sea of Galilee and Capernaum is a town along the shore. This is one of the few times that Jesus' brothers are mentioned. the little town itself is very important in the ministry of Jesus. I have had the privilege of visiting there; the ruins of the synagogue where Jesus taught is there. Simon Peter's house is there. A good place to visit. Let's look at the story as told by John:

After this he went down to Capernaum with his mother and brothers and his disciples. There they stayed for a few days.
When it was almost time for the Jewish Passover, Jesus went up to Jerusalem. In the temple courts he found people selling cattle, sheep and doves, and others sitting at tables exchanging money. So he made a whip out of cords, and drove all from the temple courts, both sheep and cattle; he scattered the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. To those who sold doves he said, “Get these out of here! Stop turning my Father’s house into a market!” His disciples remembered that it is written: “Zeal for your house will consume me.”  The Jews then responded to him, “What sign can you show us to prove your authority to do all this?”
 Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days.”
 They replied, “It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and you are going to raise it in three days?” But the temple he had spoken of was his body. After he was raised from the dead, his disciples recalled what he had said. Then they believed the scripture and the words that Jesus had spoken.
Now while he was in Jerusalem at the Passover Festival, many people saw the signs he was performing and believed in his name. But Jesus would not entrust himself to them, for he knew all people. He did not need any testimony about mankind, for he knew what was in each person.(John 2:12-25 NIV)

All of this, the wedding and the break at Capernaum must have occurred in the Spring because it was nearly the feast of the Passover, one of the major feasts in the Jewish calendar. Of course this goes back to the time of Moses when in the book of Exodus the final plague on the land of Egypt was the death of the firstborn son. The people of Israel would escape this plague by killing a lamb and putting blood on the doorposts of the house; the angel of death would see the blood and pass over the house. Every year this was (and still is) celebrated. In those days, the people were expected to celebrate this feast in Jerusalem if at all possible. A side note is that even today the closing line in a Seder dinner (the ritual dinner of passover) is "Next year in Jerusalem." It was for this reason the Jesus and his disciples journeyed to Jerusalem; not far in this day, but several days walking. As might be expected, Jesus went directly to the temple; his father's house.

When Jesus went to the temple, he was disturbed, or perhaps more accurately, angered. Why? First we need to understand the layout of the temple. The temple itself was a large building on a much lager level place called the temple mount. You can still visit this today even though there is no longer any temple there; it is the home of the "Dome of the Rock" and a major Mosque. Even though the temple was there -- it wasn't like a church; the people did not enter it, only the priests entered for their duties. The men could worship close to the temple where the altar was located. Outside of this was where the women were allowed. Then there was a fence with signs posted stating that a gentile went closer on the pain of death. There was still a lot of temple mount left where gentiles could come and worship. Remember, the Old Testament emphasized that God had said, "My house shall be a place of worship for all nations."  This is the situation, but there was a problem.

People journeying to Jerusalem from out of town needed to buy the sacrificial animals. Where did they get them? Entrepreneurs opened shops to sell them; in the court of the gentiles on the temple mount. To give offerings, the Jewish shekel must be used, not Roman coins. Where could the money be changed? Entrepreneurs set up shops to change money; in the court of the gentiles on the temple mount. Jesus chased them out, overturning tables as they went. The disciples remembered the quote from Psalm 69:9 " Zeal for your house shall consume me."

I think that is interesting that the authorities didn't argue against chasing the business people out of there; they just wanted to know where Jesus got the authority to do the chasing. He was cleansing the temple without

Evidently Jesus went around Jerusalem doing other miracles; healing the sick and casting out demons. People loved it and believed. But how deep did their belief go? Jesus loved the people, but he didn't trust their belief. He knew their hearts, he knew that they could shout "Hosanna" one day and "Crucify Him" the next. I think of when Samuel was to anoint a new king and he went to Jesse of Bethlehem and had him bring out his sons. Eliab was the first and Samuel thought, "This is a king if I have ever seen one. What a man." But God told him no. So it went through all of the sons. There was no one chosen. "Do you have any other sons," Samuel asked Jesse. He was told that there was the runt of the family out tending the sheep. Samuel took one look; God said yes; Samuel said, "Are you sure?" God told Samuel, "You look on the outside, but I look at the heart." So it is with people. We tend to be fickle.

Well, what does all this tell us. First we must realize that worship is important to Jesus and he wants to give access to all people. Second, we must not be like the people in Jerusalem (really they were no different than us.) We must believe the miracles and take pleasure in them, but it is not the miracles themselves that must be worshipped. We must worship the one who performs the miracles.