John 2:12-22 record for us Jesus’ first cleansing of
the temple. The other Gospels record another cleansing of the temple towards
the end of His earthly ministry before He went to the cross. In both times, what
Christ saw in the temple truly infuriated Him! What the money changers, and the
Jewish authorities did, were totally incongruous to true worship. They were practicing
the opposite of what is truly right. The purpose of the temple was to glorify
God. And the objective why people would come to the temple was to worship the
true and holy God. Hence what was an affront to Christ was that the money
changers and the religious authorities would give the impression that they
acknowledge the holiness of God, but in practice show something contrary. The
whip of Jesus tells us how He detests the way they had made a mockery of the
glory of God and true worship. This shows us that we must seek to be sensitive
to the reason why we come to church, we must be sensitive to His presence. We
must never let our heart resemble the outer courter of that temple that Jesus
cleansed that day. Let’s seek to be attentive to God and give Him the reverence
due Him.
In John 2:18-21, we see the
detractors questioning the Lord, seeking to know by what authority He did what he had just done. Their
question was, “What sign do You show us as your authority for doing these
things?” His response to them was, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise
it up.” What He said seems to them be out of sync. They thought Jesus was talking
about the physical temple. So they reasoned with their minds, saying that the
temple took forty-six years to build, then how could He rebuild a destroyed
temple in three days. They didn’t know that Christ was referring to His death
and resurrection that would gloriously vindicate and authenticate His
authority. So we see in verse 22 that His disciples realized what
He said was indeed true after His death and resurrection. And they believed the Scriptures and what Jesus had said.
Verses 23-25, highlight for us the
knowledge Jesus has about men. Many were coming to Him because they saw the
signs He was demonstrating. Jesus knew the hearts of men were not for Him. They
were only chasing after His miracles. Jesus always deals with realities and not
façade. Many who saw the miracles would confess to love Him, but the cleansing
of the temple shows us not all who professed to love God show true commitment.
It is one thing to respond to miracles but quite another to commit one’s life
to Him to follow Him in His word. Jesus knows the real situation of our life.
He can truly discern our action. If we love Him we must be congruent.
Paul in writing to the Corinthians
tells us that our bodies are the temples of the Holy Spirit today. The awesome
truth is that Jesus cares about us, His temples. Like the two cleansings of the
temple, He will come again and again to help us to clean our lives. He wants us
to be His true and holy temples that will rightly reflect His glory. Our love
for Christ will be reflected in our worship. When as individuals we all truly
worship Him, than corporately we can be the church that will reflect His glory.
We the church must aim to be a house of prayer for the nations. Then and then will
we be a channel of the wonderful grace of God.
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