Table of Contents
The Cleansing of the Temple
Jesus cleansed the temple two times during His earthly ministry. The first cleansing took place in the spring of A.D. 28, at the beginning of His early Judean ministry (John 2:13–17). By this act, He declared His authority and announced His mission as the Messiah at the Passover.
When Jesus heard the noise and saw the bargaining in God’s dwelling place (Exodus 25:8), He rushed to cleanse the temple and took a “whip” and drove “those who sold oxen and sheep and doves, and the money changers doing business” (John 2:14). And He said, “Take these things away! Do not make My Father’s house a house of merchandise!” (John 2:16). By making the sacred symbols of the temple a source of personal profit, the rulers were making sacred things common and robbing God of His honor and also robbing the worshipers of an opportunity to know the truth.
Then, His disciples remembered that it was written, “the Zeal for Your house has eaten Me up” (John 2:17). This is a quote from Psalms 69:9. Jesus earnestly desired that His Father’s house should be used exclusively for worship (Exodus 25:8, 9; Matthew 21:13). When the temple officials confronted Him immediately asking Him for a sign to prove His authority, He gave them the undeniable sign of His resurrection from the death (John 2:18-20).
Three years later, Jesus cleansed the temple again, at the end of His public ministry. This took place at the fourth Passover just after His triumphal entry into Jerusalem in the last week of His life (Matthew 21:12–17; Mark 11:15–19: Luke 19:45–48). At this time, Jesus said, “It is written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer,’ but you have made it a ‘den of thieves” (Matthew 21:13).
God’s House
Jesus spoke of the temple as “my house” (Matthew 21:13). But when the leaders rejected His final appeal the following day, He referred to it as “your house” (Matthew 23:38). This quotation is from Isaiah 56:7 and points to the fact that Gentiles were to be called to the temple to know the true God (Isaiah 56:6–8).
Those who earnestly seek to make their Father’s house a “house of prayer” (Matthew 21:13) should not make it a place for unholy thoughts, words, or actions. Rather, they should cleanse the temple and be reverent in His holy presence (John 4:23, 24) and worship Him “in spirit and in truth” (John 4:24).
Since the bodies of Christians are holy shrines of the Holy Ghost, they must not corupt it by sin. Because they are the members of Christ and temples of the Holy Spirit, which is given to us by God (John 14:16, 17), every sin that is done against our bodies is a sin against our Creator and against the Holy Spirit. Therefore, the Lord says to the believers, “ Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body [a]and in your spirit, which are God’s” (1 Corinthians 6:19-20).
In His service,
BibleAsk Team
