The Sign of Cleansing

Read: John 2:13-22

Jesus’ cleansing of the temple is in all four gospels, but John places it at the beginning, prophetically. Passover is the setting for the beginning and the end of Jesus’ earthly life.
Passover was the great thanksgiving festival of Judaism, which believers came from all over the Roman empire to celebrate in their holy city, Jerusalem. Jesus was one of thousands who came to remember God’s mercy to the Hebrew slaves, when the angel of death “passed over” their houses while the first born of the Egyptians were dying. The celebration is of God bearing up God’s children on eagle’s wings, to carry them to the promised land.

But in the temple Jesus finds that faith and gratitude have been overcome by greed. A bureaucracy is established to profit from the “law” requiring sacrifices to be brought in order to thank God properly. Not only are the pilgrims required to buy animals on site (as opposed to bringing their own from home) as offerings, but their Roman coins have to be changed into temple money, at an extremely unfair exchange rate.

So, Jesus is furious. And the temple establishment is appalled, when he turns over their tables and drives them out of the temple with a whip of cords (not the usual picture of Jesus we put up on our Sunday School walls!). They question his authority, but Jesus promises them that there is more to come—that if the entire temple were to be destroyed, he would raise it up again in 3 days.

“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.”

Prayer: Cleanse my heart, O God, and prepare me for the celebration of Christ’s resurrection, in his name I pray, Amen.

Betsy Lunz