The Temple
John 2:13-22
Should anyone have understood what Jesus was talking about?
Photo by Levi Meir Clancy on Unsplash
The Passover of the Jews was near, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. In the temple he found people selling cattle, sheep, and doves, and the money changers seated at their tables. Making a whip of cords, he drove all of them out of the temple, both the sheep and the cattle. He also poured out the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. He told those who were selling the doves, “Take these things out of here! Stop making my Father’s house a marketplace!” His disciples remembered that it was written, “Zeal for your house will consume me.” The Jews then said to him, “What sign can you show us for doing this?” Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” The Jews then said, “This temple has been under construction for forty-six years, and will you raise it up in three days?” But he was speaking of the temple of his body. After he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this; and they believed the scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken. - John 2:13-22
The disciples remembered what was written, but did they understand what Jesus was referring to when he said the Temple would be raised in three days?
We know what Jesus meant because John told us what he was referring to, but would we have arrived at that conclusion on our own?
I don’t think so. We don’t think of Jesus as a temple.
The temple was understood to be the meeting place between heaven and earth, where God’s presence resides. This is where people went to atone for their sins, so it makes sense for Jesus to describe himself this way.
It would have been shocking for people to hear, and blasphemous for the leaders of the Temple at the time.
God’s glory resides within the most holy place in the temple, a place not approached by anyone but the high priest. To claim to be that place in public was radical.
It meant that God has torn down the wall between Him and us. We can now access God directly through Jesus.
So, the Temple reference holds a great deal of meaning, way beyond what we can comprehend when we hear Jesus refer to himself in this way.
One no longer needs to go to the Temple to atone for one’s sins and be granted forgiveness. It doesn’t come with a price. It is freely granted by God.
With Jesus, access to God is easy. You don’t need to prove yourself worthy. You just need to want to have a relationship with God.
Jesus makes that possible.
More to come...