Leaving Capernaum, Jesus went up to Jerusalem (2:12, 17, 22: 3:22) for the Jewish liturgical feast, the Passover. As an observant Jew, Jesus makes a pilgrimage to Jerusalem and enters the temple area. The temple, operating under the auspices of the priestly aristocracy, is the most important institution and building in Jewish life.  The temple is where God made Himself known, instructed His people, and received their worship.  

Passover attracted an international crowd of pilgrims swelling the population with hundreds of thousands of people and filling the temple’s Court of Gentiles.  Foreigners’ coinage was considered a violation of the law (Exod. 20:4), so the pilgrims needed to exchange their currency to pay the temple tax and buy sacrificial animals in money acceptable in the temple (hence the moneychangers). Upon entering the temple precincts, Jesus saw those who sold oxen, sheep, and doves, as well as the moneychangers seated there.  

“Take these out of here, and stop making my Father’s house a marketplace,” Jesus commanded.  Jesus is the son of God, and His relationship with the Father legitimizes His astonishing actions, especially when He disrupts the business related to sacrificial offerings.  By disrupting the sacrificial system, Jesus symbolically implies a claim and control over the temple, and announces the changes to come in the worship of God.  Just as the water of Sinai was transformed into wine at Cana, so will the worship of God be transposed into the worship of the new covenant: “worship in Spirit and truth” (4:24).  

Only in John’s account does Jesus speak of the commerce in the temple as turning into a “marketplace.”  This could be a subtle allusion of Zech:14 envisioning the day the Lord will come to rescue His people, defeat their enemies, and establish a perfect state of affairs in the world.  God will so sanctify His people that they will have no need to purchase animals for sacrifices in the temple: “No longer will there be merchants in the house of the Lord of hosts on that day” (Zech. 14:21). Jesus’ command that the commerce must stop is a prophetic indication that the Lord has now come with the salvation for His people that Zechariah foretold.  

By placing the temple incident at the start of Jesus’ public ministry, John provides a lens for viewing the entirety of Jesus’ life and mission. For the first time in the Gospel, Jesus speaks of His relationship with the Father. The Father is the source of Jesus’ authority and His mission.  His claims about His relationship with the Father and His actions that follow from it will be the cause of controversy between Him and the Jerusalem religious authorities throughout His life and will lead to His death.

The temple authorities challenge Jesus:  What sign can you show us for doing this?  They are looking for some sign from God that would provide sanction for Jesus’ provocative actions in the temple.  Jesus gives them an answer: “Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up.”  The temple authorities, however, do not understand, and they issue a further challenge:  “This temple has been under construction for forty-six years and you will raise it up in three days?”  The temple authorities think that Jesus is talking about destroying and rebuilding the actual temple building, but John provides us with the intended spiritual meaning of Jesus’ words:  He was speaking about “the temple of his body.”  The evangelist has taught that the incarnate Word is the new dwelling of God in the world: the divine “Word made His dwelling among us” in Jesus (1:14).  Similarly, when Jesus alludes to Jacob’s dream at Bethel (which means “the house of God”; 1:51), He suggests that His disciples will see that the incarnate Word is the “house of God”, the place of divine revelation. The bodily resurrection of Jesus—the raising up of the temple of His body after death—will be the sign that provides the Father’s confirmation and sanctioning of all that Jesus said and did. 

I want to take this opportunity to thank all of you who generously contributed to the Fund for the replacement of my chalice.  If anyone did not get an opportunity to do so and would like to be included please let me know.

Yours in Christ,  

Fr. Vincent Clemente