Destroy This Temple

After the wedding at Cana, Jesus goes down to Capernaum with His mother, His brothers, and His disciples, and stays a few days (John 2:12). Then the Passover is near, and He goes up to Jerusalem (John 2:13). Yesterday the Son filled jars set for the old washings. Today He walks into the old house of worship and shows who owns it.

John 2:13-16 — My Father’s house

In the temple courts He finds the trade: oxen, sheep, doves, and money-changers at their tables (John 2:14). The sacrifices were commanded (Leviticus 1:2-3). The market was not. Worship had become a business arranged around God’s house, in the very court where the nations were meant to pray (Isaiah 56:7).

He makes a whip of cords and drives them all out, sheep and oxen with them. He pours out the coins and overturns the tables (John 2:15). To the dove-sellers He says, take these things away, and do not make My Father’s house a house of trade (John 2:16).

Hear the pronoun. My Father’s house. No prophet ever talked that way. This is the Lord suddenly coming to His temple, the refiner who purifies the sons of Levi (Malachi 3:1-3). He is not asking the priests for room to reform. He is the Son in His Father’s house, and He sets it in order. Nobody grants Him authority there. He already has it.

John 2:17 — Zeal that will consume Him

His disciples remember what was written: zeal for Your house will consume Me (John 2:17) (Psalm 69:9). Mark where that Psalm goes. It is the cry of the righteous sufferer, hated without cause and given vinegar to drink (Psalm 69:4, 21) (John 15:25; John 19:28-29). The zeal that cleared the courts is the zeal that will put Him on the cross. He is not losing His temper. He is beginning to be spent for the honor of His Father.

Do not shrink that zeal into a personality trait for men to copy at the office. It is the Son’s holy love for the worship of God, and it costs Him His life (Romans 15:3).

John 2:18-21 — The sign they asked for

The Jews ask the predictable question: what sign do You show us for doing these things (John 2:18)? Authority is standing in front of them, and they want paperwork.

He gives them a sign they cannot read yet. Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up (John 2:19). They hear stone. Forty-six years this temple has been building, and You will raise it in three days (John 2:20)? John tells you plainly what they missed. He was speaking about the temple of His body (John 2:21).

The Word who became flesh and pitched His tent among us is the true dwelling of God with men (John 1:14) (Colossians 2:9). The house of stone was a shadow. The body of the Son is the substance. They will destroy it, and He will raise it (John 10:17-18). Note who does the raising. Not the priests, not the disciples, not the crowd. The Son lays His life down and takes it up again, and the Father raises Him by the Spirit (Romans 8:11) (Galatians 1:1). The resurrection is the sign. Every other temple is now measured against Him (John 4:21-24) (Hebrews 9:11-12).

John 2:22 — They remembered, and they believed

The disciples did not understand at the time. When He was raised from the dead, they remembered He had said this, and they believed the Scripture and the word Jesus had spoken (John 2:22). His word sits beside Scripture as the same authority, because it is God’s word.

Understanding came on Heaven’s schedule. The Spirit would bring His words to their remembrance (John 14:26). God was not waiting on the disciples to figure it out. He gave the sight when He meant to give it.