Christ in the temple.
He went up straightway to the Passover at Jerusalem, for he honoured every ordinance of the old dispensation so long as it lasted.
I. THE ACT OF OUR LORD IN THE TEMPLE. His ministry must open in the temple, which was the sanctuary of Judaism, and it must open with an act of holiness rather than a display of power.
1. His attitude was the subject of prophecy. "The Lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to his temple … he shall purify the sons of Levi" (Malachi 3:1-3).
2. It was quite in keeping likewise with the character of him of whom the Baptist said, "Whose fan is in his hand" (Matthew 3:12). Christ was about to vindicate the sanctity of his Father's house by cleansing out the rabble of money-changers and dealers.
II. THE TIME OF THIS ACT—THE PASSOVER. As one of the great feasts of the Jews, it attracted to Jerusalem the entire people of the country, in their ecclesiastical relationships. His hour was now come.
III. THE ACT ITSELF. As to sellers of oxen and sheep and doves, and money changers, "he drove them all out of the temple, and the sheep and the oxen, and poured out the changers' money, and overthrew the tables."
1. It was an act of supreme courage. The dominant hierarchy, corrupt and faithless as it was, was supported by the public opinion of Jerusalem, and might have crushed this zealot on the spot. Yet our Lord proceeds with the utmost deliberation to the work of purifying the temple with the "whip of cords" in his hand, not wielded as an instrument of offence, but as a symbol of authority. He has, no doubt, the consciousness of a supernatural force that could be put forth in case of need.
2. It was an act of holy zeal. "Make not my Father's house a house of merchandise."
3. He was supported in his act by the very conscience of the Jews themselves, who knew that he was right and they were wrong.
IV. THE EFFECT OF THIS ACT. It had a double effect.
1. Consider its effect upon the disciples.
2. Consider its effect upon the Jews. As soon as they had recovered from the surprise of this sudden act, they began to question its authority. "What sign showest thou unto us, seeing that thou doest these things?"
(a) The words were naturally taken by the Jews to refer to the temple he had just cleansed. The false witnesses of Christ on his final trial, and Stephen's accusers, remembered the saying in its literal application (Matthew 26:61; Acts 6:14).
(b) But the apostle refers them to "the temple of his own body," which would in three days be raised up again. The apostolic comment is decisive as to their true meaning. But what connection could there be between the temple and his body?
( α) The destruction of the temple was to come about by the slaying of the Messiah: "The Messiah shall be cut off … and the people of a prince who shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary" (Daniel 9:26). The death of the Messiah ends the temple; the veil of the temple is rent; there is no more to be a holy place, a priesthood, a sacrifice. The destruction of the temple was destined to be in Christ's person: "On his body the fatal blow struck by the hand of the Jews would fall, which would lay the sanctuary in ruins."
( β) The restoration of the temple is to come likewise through his body raised from the dead. "The Messiah perishes: the temple falls. The Messiah lives again: the true temple rises on the ruins of the symbolical."