Text for the Week: John 2

Scripture: John 2:13-22

¹³ It was nearly time for the Jewish Passover, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. ¹⁴ He found in the temple those who were selling cattle, sheep, and doves, as well as those involved in exchanging currency sitting there. ¹⁵ He made a whip from ropes and chased them all out of the temple, including the cattle and the sheep. He scattered the coins and overturned the tables of those who exchanged currency. ¹⁶ He said to the dove sellers, “Get these things out of here! Don’t make my Father’s house a place of business.” ¹⁷ His disciples remembered that it is written, Passion for your house consumes me.

¹⁸ Then the Jewish leaders asked him, “By what authority are you doing these things? What miraculous sign will you show us?”

¹⁹ Jesus answered, “Destroy this temple and in three days I’ll raise it up.”

²⁰ The Jewish leaders replied, “It took forty-six years to build this temple, and you will raise it up in three days?” ²¹ But the temple Jesus was talking about was his body. ²² After he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered what he had said, and they believed the scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken.

Questions

1. Why does John place the story of the Temple cleansing at the beginning of his gospel when the other Gospels place it at the end of Jesus’ ministry?
2. What is the importance of “zeal” in Jesus’ ministry and how can we best emulate Jesus’ passion for God?
3. How should we understand Jesus’ actions in the Temple and how do they relate to the idea that John gives us that Jesus is the new Temple?

Background

Related Scriptures: Psalm 69, Romans 12:3-17,

John narrates the Temple cleansing at the beginning of his Gospel as a bookend, it is Jesus’ last demonstration placed after the account of his first, so the reader will think about the theme of Jesus as the new Temple throughout the subsequent stories.

Unlike the other Gospels, John does not imply there was anything underhanded going on in the Temple here Jesus seems to be upset at the fact the Temple is not the proper place to conduct that specific type of transaction.

Zeal or passion is the only emotion Jesus shows in the first ten chapters of John’s Gospel and is likely mean to be a pointer for us in our life in God. The word reflects someone who is driven by a deep passion to a cause, in this case God.

In Jesus’ response to the Jewish leaders in verse 19 the word for Temple is changed to reflect a sacred space. Using this word allows the Jewish leaders to miss the meaning as they think about the physical Temple while Jesus talks about himself.

The disciples remember Psalm 69:9 which discusses a person who is persecuted for their desire to maintain and uphold God’s law.

For more background information you can find my video here

Reflection

It might not seem like the most spiritual way to think about John 2:13-22 by asking why John places this event at the beginning of his Gospel, but it is a valid question that helps us think about John’s goal in recounting this event. The issue is that John places this event early in Jesus’ ministry and the other Gospels place it at the end, and though some interpret the Gospels to say there were two cleansings of the Temple that does not seem accurate. It seems more likely that John intentionally placed this event at the start of his book to provide his readers with themes for understanding Jesus. John joins this event to the first sign in Jesus’ ministry to help us better understand who Jesus is and what his ministry was about. So, as we approach this story we should be interested in key words that will become themes for john. And the most central theme is that of passion or zeal, the disciples’ calling to mind the quote from Psalm becomes the hinge of the encounter. It is this quote that underscores the significance of Jesus’ actions. It is significant that passion is the only emotional motivation Jesus displays in the first ten chapters, John wants us to understand that everything Jesus does in these chapters grows from his passion. Jesus’ passion is meant to be a defining character trait for him, and it is one that we should certainly emulate in our modern world.

The idea of passion is to be completely committed to a person or cause, and though John certainly uses this term positively of Jesus it is important to understand passion can be a double-edged sword. If this single-minded commitment is given to the wrong person or cause or expressed in the wrong way our passion can end up doing a great deal of harm to the world. Thus, we have to understand where Jesus’ passion was focused if we are going to properly follow his lead. This is where the second theme of this passage comes into play. Obviously, since the story takes place in the Temple it is a major theme, and we should pay attention to how the building is used. Jesus’ words and actions lead us to the conclusion that he wants to see the Temple properly respected, that in his mind selling cattle is not appropriate in the place where worship is performed. But there is a twist to this, in that Jesus, when talking with the leaders does not use the typical word for Temple but uses one more commonly translated, sanctuary or holy place. It would be natural for those questioning Jesus to think of the Temple since they were standing inside it but as John points out, it has a double meaning for Jesus’ own life.

The theme of Temple works together with the themes of Psalm 69 that are in the disciples’ minds as they witness the encounter. John is trying to show that Jesus’ passion is not for the building in which the conflict is unfolding, nor is his passion for the scriptures, the paragraph of Psalm 69 which the disciples reflect on is a cry from the psalmist that he has been completely faithful to God. This might sound like hair-splitting, but Jesus was passion was not simply for the Temple or the law, it was to honor God and to help the community that claimed to honor God do so in the most diligent manner. Jesus’ action in driving out the people from the Temple was not meant to be violent, the text indicates he only used the whip on animals. His action was meant to be a dramatic sign, interrupting the lives of the community around him so they could all refocus their zeal on God. Though the quote used says that he was overtaken by passion for the Temple, in truth he was trying to get people to look beyond the worship in the Temple and recognize how their worship reflected on God. His goal was not to overturn the Temple (he especially was not trying to do so through violence that would have been futile) he was trying to get people to reexamine why they were doing the things they did.

Takeaway

Passion is a sign of a person’s commitment and connection to God, but our passion can be a loose canon and so it is important to recognize where our zeal is leading us and how it is being manifest.