Lesson for March 16, 2025
The Book of John
Lesson 7
The Cleansing of the Temple
John 2:12-25
Verses 12-13
“After this He went down to Capernaum, He and His mother, and His brothers and His disciples; and they stayed there a few days. The Passover of the Jews was near, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.”
The Passover
The Feast of Passover commemorated the Israelites’ deliverance from slavery in Egypt. The event is described in Exodus 12, where God instructed the Israelites to sacrifice a lamb without blemish and to mark their doorposts with its blood. This act was a sign for the Angel of the Lord to “pass over” their homes during the final plague, the death of the firstborn of each household in Egypt. Exodus 12:13 states, “The blood on the houses where you are staying will distinguish them; when I see the blood, I will pass over you. No plague will fall on you to destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt.”
A lamb was sacrificed and eaten as part of the meal. As the Israelites left Egypt in haste, there was no time for their bread to rise. Exodus 12:39, “They baked unleavened cakes of the dough that they had brought out of Egypt, for it was without yeast; because they had been driven out of Egypt and could not delay, they had not prepared any provisions for themselves.”
The Passover became a memorial ritual for the nation of Israel, to remind them of God’s deliverance from bondage. Exodus 12:23-24, “For the Lord will pass through to strike the Egyptians; but when He sees the blood on the lintel and on the two doorposts, the Lord will pass over the door and will not allow the destroyer to come into your houses to strike you. And you shall keep this event as an ordinance for you and your children forever.”
Passover is therefore a reminder of God’s deliverance and faithfulness. It emphasizes themes of redemption, sacrifice, and covenant. The blood of the lamb, which protected the Israelites, foreshadowed the sacrifice of Jesus, the “Lamb of God.” 1 Corinthians 5:7, “For Christ, our Passover also has been sacrificed.”
The last meal that Jesus shared with His disciples was a Passover meal. During this meal, Jesus instituted the Lord’s Supper (Communion) as a new covenant in His blood. Luke 22:19-20 records, “And He took the bread, gave thanks, broke it, and gave it to them, saying, ‘This is My body, given for you; do this in remembrance of Me.’ In the same way, after supper He took the cup, saying, ‘This cup is the new covenant in My blood, which is poured out for you.'”
(John 2) Verses 14-16
“And within the temple grounds He found those who were selling oxen, sheep, and doves, and the money changers seated at their tables. And He made a whip of cords, and drove them all out of the temple area, with the sheep and the oxen; and He poured out the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables; and to those who were selling the doves He said, ‘Take these things away from here; stop making My Father’s house a place of business!’”
The Temple was a place of worship, even though the Jewish religious leaders had turned it into a money-making enterprise. The articles in the Temple were reminders of the Person and the work of Jesus Christ. So, the Temple contents represented the whole realm of Christology. The Jewish leaders had turned it into a place for a religious business by employing money changers to do their “dirty work.”
The Money Changers
Because Jewish law required a temple tax of a half-shekel (Exodus 30:11–16), Jews came to pay their taxes when they offered their sacrifices. But coins with the likeness of pagan emperors would not be accepted in God’s Temple. So, money changers exchanged those foreign coins for Jewish money, but they did so at an exorbitant profit. Rather than provide this service as a business in another part of town, they exploited the religious zeal of the visitors to Jerusalem and did their business on Temple grounds. Because they determined their own exchange rate, money changers easily took advantage of the poor and the foreigners pouring into Jerusalem for Passover. (GotQuestions.org)
These same money changers were associated with others who engaged in shady business practices in the temple courts. Some sold sacrificial animals, overcharging people who did not bring their own. Others were in charge of examining the animals to be sacrificed, and it was a simple matter to declare an animal “unapproved” and force the worshiper to buy another animal—at an inflated price—from the temple vendors. Such goings-on, exploiting the poor and the foreigner, angered Jesus (righteous indignation) and was strictly forbidden in the Mosaic Law (Exodus 22:21; Leviticus 19:34).(GotQuestions.org)
Verses 17-22
“His disciples remembered that it was written: ‘Zeal for Your house will consume me. (Psalm 69:9) The Jews then said to Him, ‘What sign do You show us as Your authority for doing these things?’ Jesus answered them, ‘Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.’ The Jews then said, ‘It took forty-six years to build this temple, and yet You will raise it up in three days?’ But He was speaking about the temple of His body. So, when He was raised from the dead, His disciples remembered that He said this; and they believed the Scripture and the word which Jesus had spoken.”
The Jews then said to Him, ‘What sign do You show us as Your authority for doing these things?’ When Jesus confronted these hypocritical religious Jews, He was challenged as to His authority to drive them from the Temple. They did not acknowledge Jesus as the Messiah, which was His authority to not only remove them from the Temple, but to destroy it if He wished to do so. But Jesus’ reply was that if they destroyed this temple, He would raise it up in three days. He was referring to His body, of course. However, these religious Jews did not know what He was talking about, due to their lack of understanding of God’s Word, where the Resurrection is written about in Old Testament (Psalm 16:8-11) and quoted in the New Testament (Acts 2:25-28; 13:35-37).
The Jews then said, ‘It took forty-six years to build this temple (Herod’s temple), and yet You will raise it up in three days?’ The point Jesus was making to these religious Jews was that they had no clue as to the truth about the Scriptures. They could think only in terms of the physical.
So, when He was raised from the dead, His disciples remembered that He said this; and they believed the Scripture and the word which Jesus had spoken. Later, when Christ was resurrected, they remembered the things Jesus had taught them. He most likely had taught them about the Resurrection from the Old Testament passages like Psalm 16; Daniel 12, and Isaiah 26.
Verses 23-25
“Now when He was in Jerusalem at the Passover, during the feast, many believed in His name as they observed His signs which He was doing. But Jesus, on His part, was not entrusting Himself to them, because He knew all people, and because He did not need anyone to testify about mankind, for He Himself knew what was in mankind.”
Those who believed in Jesus in Jerusalem apparently wanted Jesus to place Himself in their hands so they could make Him some kind of “hero.” This, of course, was not God’s plan for Jesus. Jesus knew what was in the minds of those who had believed in Him, and it was not God’s plan for Him. His “heroship” will come at a later time, when He returns at the Second Coming. Jesus had not come at that time to be their deliverer from the oppression of the Roman Empire. Jesus had a mission to provide salvation for mankind, planned by God the Father in eternity past. And Jesus was quite capable of fulfilling the Father’s plan, without putting Himself in the hands of others. Hebrews 12:2, “Looking only at Jesus, the Originator and Perfecter of the faith, Who for the joy set before Him endured the Cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.” This verse clearly states that God the Father was completely satisfied with Christ’s sacrifice for sin, which fulfilled the plan of salvation for mankind. He alone endured the suffering and shame of dying on the Cross.