All four of the gospel writers give an account of Jesus cleansing the temple. Three—Matthew, Mark and Luke—place it during what we call Holy Week. Matthew seems to arrange it immediately following Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem, which would have been on Sunday. However, scholars point out that Matthew (as well as the other gospel writers) condenses some of the narrative of what Jesus did during Holy Week, not placing events in chronological order. Mark’s account (11:15-17) clearly places it the next day following His triumphal entry, or on Monday morning. Luke (19:45-46) abbreviates the Temple cleansing, placing it immediately following Jesus’ weeping over the city of Jerusalem but before Jesus began to teach those who listened raptly within the Temple courts. John’s account (2:13-21), on the other hand, places it early in His ministry, immediately after the wedding of Cana in Galilee, when He had turned water into wine. Scholars see John’s account either as the “first cleansing” of the temple by Jesus, or, certainly, as one of the “signs” by which Jesus was identified as “the Word made flesh and dwelling among us” (John 1:14). This sign of His cleansing the temple certainly showed His authority from God to apprehend those who desecrated the Temple of God and that such action was not acceptable.
In cleansing the temple, Jesus showed His prophetic zeal for God’s house and foreshadows judgment on the Jewish leaders who had allowed worship and all associated with it to deteriorate into commerce. The portion of the Temple and the persons involved in the wrath of Jesus were in the area known as an outer portico of the Temple near the “Court of the Gentiles. There merchants set up booths and sold animals and birds offered as sacrifices. This was a convenience. Jews were dispersed into many countries. When they returned to Jerusalem to worship at the Temple at Jewish holy seasons (the Passover being the one during Holy Week), they had a place to purchase sacrifices without having to bring them on their long journeys or go somewhere within Jerusalem to buy them. But the din and base commercialization—and the profits made by those who bought and sold—were an abomination to the sacred area of the house set aside for God’s worship. “As it is written,” Jesus said, “My house shall be called a house of prayer, but you have made it a den of robbers.” Jesus, well-versed in the Hebrew scriptures, was quoting Isaiah 56:7, which indicated the sacredness in which the house of prayer was to be held, and how it was intended “for all peoples,” not just the Jews.
Do you ever wonder what Jesus would do and say if He visited our places of worship today? Our church buildings, set aside for the worship of Almighty God, are sometimes used for many activities other than genuine worship of the Lord God. Do we sit on Sunday mornings distracted by those talking around us, and are we guilty ourselves—totally unprepared for worship? Our minds should be called to prayer and worship by the strains of a lofty prelude—or, even prior to that time in the service—we should have quieted our hearts and stilled our minds before an awesome God. May Jesus’ act of cleansing the Temple remind us that we enter sacred ground when we go to church. Doris Akers wrote in her beloved hymn, “There’s a sweet, sweet spirit in this place, And I know that it’s the Spirit of the Lord.” Pray that we may be more aware of adoration of the living God when we enter His presence, whether at church or at our personal altar. With the Psalmist may we say, truly, “I was glad when they said unto me, Let us go into the house of the Lord” (Psalm 122:1, KJV).
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