John 2:12-22 - This is Jesus: The New Temple
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© Eric M Schumacher – Preached September 16, 2007 at
Two weeks ago, we looked at Jesus’ first sign, when he turned water into wine at a wedding in
It was an act of authority. The Son had entered his Father’s house (which is what he calls it) and exercises the authority of a son.
It was an act of rebuke. Jesus’ action was a prophetic act, rebuking their sin of abusing and defiling his Father’s house. Instead of a place of humble and sincere worship, focused on God, they turned it into a spectacle, a marketplace, a hideout for thieves, all while excluding Gentile believers.
So, last week we saw Jesus assert his Messianic authority and rebuke the sin of the Jews. This morning we will see how the Jews respond and hear Jesus teach us about his relationship to the temple.
The Response
In verse 18, we see the response that Jesus received. The Jews said to him, “What sign do you show us for doing these things?” “The Jews” here refers to the Jewish authorities or representatives of the Sanhedrin, who would have oversight of what was done in the temple.
Their request for a “sign” is a request for a miraculous display to show that Jesus has the right to exert such prophetic authority in the temple. What should we think of their question?
On the one hand, the question may indicate openness to Jesus being a prophet. And, they had a right to inquire regarding authority. Not just anyone had the right to waltz in the temple and speak to how things should and should not be done. God-given authority was a requirement for giving such instruction in God’s house.
On the other hand, they ask the wrong type of question. They require a miraculous display. Jesus repeatedly refuses to do miracles on demand. And, Jesus repeatedly condemns the attitude that is behind the question. In Mark 8:11, we read that “the Pharisees came and began to argue with him, seeking from him a sign from heaven to test him.” Their purpose in asking for a sign was only to test Jesus. He refuses their request and leaves them.
In Matthew 12 (38-40) and Luke 11:29, Jesus responds to a request for a sign by calling them an “evil and adulterous generation” that seeks for a sign.
The fact is, in cleansing the temple, Jesus had already given them a sign, which should have sufficed. If they had meditated on the Old Testament, they would have understood the meaning of Jesus’ actions and his accompanying words.
Don Carson sums up the response of the Jews:
…the way they cast their question betrays two critical deficiencies. First, they display no reflection or self-examination over whether Jesus’ cleansing of the temple and related charges were foundationally just. They are therefore less concerned with pure worship and a right approach to God than they are with questions of precedent and authority.
In other words, the response of the Jews is wrong because it not accompanied by any evident reflection on what Jesus has just done and said. They do not stop to examine the righteousness of their behavior or the validity of Jesus’ rebuke. They are not concerned so much with pure and God-honoring worship, as they are with protecting their authority and maintaining their precedent.
Here is a good spot for reflection and application, is it not? Before we go any further, it is worth asking, “When sin is addressed in my life, do I stop to examine the righteousness of my behavior and the validity of the rebuke? What concerns me more—a pure and God-honoring life or protecting my pride and justifying my behavior?”
Husbands, when your wife suggests that you respond to her to harshly and abrasively—or wives, when your husband suggests you’ve begun to nag and whine a bit too much, how do you respond? Or, when a friend points out to you some fault, what is your initial response?
Husbands, do you immediately assert your husbandly authority or recite your list of responsibilities and hours at work to justify your lack of gentleness? Wives, do you sulk and pout and hold over his head that he doesn’t know what its like to be at home with “them” all day! Friend, do you react with pride and anger—“How dare they point out a fault in me!? Who does he think he is, Mr. Perfect? What made her my judge!?”
When these are our responses, we have the heart of a Pharisee. We care more about protecting ourselves and justifying our behavior than we do about having pure and God-honoring lives.
When we find ourselves in the position of “the Jews,” rebuked by Jesus through his word or his people, let us not respond like the Jews. Rather, we should have the attitude of David in Psalm 141:5: “Let a righteous man strike me--it is a kindness; let him rebuke me--it is oil for my head; let my head not refuse it.” And the attitude of David’s son, Solomon in Proverbs 27:5-6, “Better is open rebuke than hidden love. Faithful are the wounds of a friend; profuse are the kisses of an enemy.” We should view the rebukes of the righteous as open, faithful love, a kindness and an anointing that is not to be refused.
If Jesus appeared this morning and did something equivalent to the temple-clearing, how would we as a church respond? Something like that should be happening every Sunday morning (and every day), when we encounter the word of God. We should be being convicted of sin.
I would challenge us that when our beliefs or behaviors are confronted and challenged—whether in a sermon or in our Bible reading or in the words of a friend (or enemy!)—to not respond with a knee-jerk reaction that seeks to protect ourselves and justify our own behavior. Those who respond by justifying themselves, go away from worship unjustified. But the man who beats his breast, confesses his sin, and pleads with the Lord for mercy goes down to his house justified. Let’s be open to God convicting us, correcting us and conforming us more into the image of his Son.
Jesus’ Answer
In verse 19, we find Jesus’ answer, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.”
Don’t you just love Jesus! He responds with an answer that is understood by no one, not even his disciples. They would only understand after his resurrection.
The Jews’ Response
Anybody who had the ability to build the temple in three days would certainly have the authority to cleanse the present temple. Of course, they are not going to take up Jesus offer! (Actually, they will take Jesus up on his offer—they will tear down the temple of which he speaks; and he will raise it up again in three days.)
The Jews are incredulous. They respond: “It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and will you raise it up in three days?”
As I said last week, King Herod had taken on the temple as the greatest of his building projects. The second temple, rebuilt by Zerubabbel, was smaller and less glorious than the temple built by Solomon. Herod intended his building project to rival that of Solomon. He not only restored the temple proper—the vestibule,
Herod began work around the year 19 bc. The restoration of the temple proper (the actual temple building) took about eighteen months. The entire project, however, would not be completed until about 63 ad, which meant that they were still building and renovating the temple complex at this time. This is why the Jews can claim that what has been built has taken 46 years to build. One commentator notes that “a total of 18,000 men worked full time until it was finished” (Burge, John). No wonder the Jews respond with disbelief!
The
But, John informs us, Jesus was not speaking about the physical temple made from stone. He was talking about “the temple of his body.” We should note that the word used here for temple is different than the word used in verse 14. This word refers to the inner part of the temple, to the
His Disciples Remembered
John also tells us that his disciples would only remember that Jesus had said his when he was raised from the dead. In John 14:26, before Jesus is crucified, he tells his disciples that the Father will send the Holy Spirit who “will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.” This is one of those things that the Holy Spirit brought to their remembrance after Jesus’ resurrection.
They Believed…
John tells us that they remembered “and believed.” Belief is the response of the disciples to Jesus’ first miracle in verse 11. It is their response here. Belief is the response that John is aiming at in his Gospel. It is the response that you should have this morning—you should believe that Jesus’ body is the
Jesus the New
In this passage, Jesus is claiming that he—the Word made flesh—is the
Sometimes, when people speak of “prophecy,” they speak of “verbal predictions;” they speak of clear and precise future predictions that have a neat and easy fulfillment. That does not seem to be Jesus’ view of prophecy. Jesus’ understanding of how the Old Testament prophecies goes far beyond “verbal predictions.” Jesus saw a typological connection between his body and the
For Jesus, Old Testament prophecy includes not just verbal predictions, but the pictures, the people, the events and the institutions throughout the Old Testament as pointing forward to him. There was no “verbal prediction,” no text that could be easily cross-referenced in a prophecy study-bible, which said “And it shall come to pass that the temple of stone shall be replaced by the body of the crucified and risen Messiah.” Though the
I also believe that the New Testament authors learned from the Lord himself how to interpret the Old Testament. We see this in the way that they use Old Testament passages to prove who Jesus is. They use just such a typological reading as Jesus did. It is not right to say that they are inspired and so they can interpret the Scripture in wrong ways. No, they interpret the Scripture in the correct way.
I believe that the Scripture is sufficient for teaching us how to interpret Scripture. Therefore, I believe that we should learn from John and Matthew and Paul and Peter how to read the Old Testament as pointing to Jesus.
Jesus, the New
What does it mean that Jesus is the
The
…God’s gracious gift to his covenant people.
…a new “
…the dwelling place of God with his people.
In Leviticus 26:11-12, the Lord promises in the Law:
I will make my dwelling among you, and my soul shall not abhor you. And I will walk among you and will be your God, and you shall be my people.
The Lord walking among his people is reminiscent of the Garden of Eden, where the Lord walked (Gen 3:8). Adam and Eve (and therefore their descendants) were sent out of the garden, out of God’s dwelling place, as a result of their sin.
For the Lord to walk and dwell with his people again is to see the curse undone. In his covenant with his people, the Lord promised to make his dwelling place among them. Instead of abhorring them, he would walk with them and be their God.
This promise was initially fulfilled in the wilderness when the Lord dwelt in the Tabernacle and walked with them through the desert. It was fulfilled later when the presence of the Lord filled the temple built by Solomon.
This is why Psalm 84:10 says, “a day in your courts is better than a thousand elsewhere.” The Lord’s personal presence to bless his covenant people was found in the
…the centralized location of worship for God’s people.
David writes in Psalm 122:1-4:
I was glad when they said to me, "Let us go to the house of the LORD!" Our feet have been standing within your gates, O Jerusalem!
The Lord was not worshipped just anywhere. You went up to
Jesus is the new, greater temple.
John tells us that Jesus was speaking of “the temple of his body” when he said, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” Some have said that “his body” refers to the church. But, the church was not destroyed and raised up in three days. His resurrection is the key factor in sparking their memory. Therefore, it is clear that Jesus means that this body is the temple.
What implications does this have? It has far more than I have time to mention. (I would recommend that you go back and the study the temple and look to the Old Testament for how Jesus fulfills what you learn.) For now, I will says that Jesus’ physical body is…
…the dwelling place of God with his people.
This flows from the incarnation, right out of John 1. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God…And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.” The virgin conceived and bore a son and his name was called “Immanuel,” which means “God with us.”
Being fully God and fully man in one person, Jesus is the place where God meets man. Standing on earth, he is God dwelling in the midst of his people. F.F. Bruce writes that Jesus’ body is the “living habitation of God on earth.”
Jesus is a greater temple because the temple of stone concealed the glory God. But Jesus is the living, breathing, glory-revealing
In the New Heavens and the New Earth, there will be a New Jerusalem. And Revelation 21:3, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God.” Yet, God will not dwell with his people in the New Jerusalem in a stone temple. In fact, there will be no structural temple in the New Jerusalem. John writes in Revelation 21:22. “I saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb.”
…the centralized location of worship for God’s people.
If Jesus is the place where God dwells, then he is now the place to which you go to worship the Lord.
Under the Old Covenant, you traveled to the
This means that we do not need to travel to
When I was a child, our church building was a long rectangular room. At the front of it there was a raised platform. On that platform, there was a lectern to one side and a pulpit on the other. Behind these there was a rail, fencing off a large “alter,” on which the communion elements sat. Behind the alter was a large wall. Either side of the wall was open, and the pastor would walk out around from behind that wall to greet the congregation on Sunday mornings.
I remember as a child that I somehow got it into my head that God lived behind that wall. I viewed the space behind that wall—which I had never seen at that point—as the holiest place in the building. It was where God dwelt.
When I finally got to go behind that wall I was shocked by what I found. On one side there was an exit door and a cleaning supplies closet. On the other side was a robe closet and a counter on which communion was prepared. And in the middle—in what would have been the “holy of holies” to me—was a small room with a sink and a toilet. God did not dwell there.
I hope that you do not think of this room as the place where God dwells. I hope that you do not think of this platform as being more holy than the floor space. This platform is not more holy than where you are sitting. And, this room is not more holy than the bathroom.
Have you ever noticed the radical shift in worship that there is from the Old Testament to the New? Jesus tells the Samaritan woman at the well in John 4 that “the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in
As the book of Acts unfolds, we immediately see believers leaving
In fact, when you read the letters of Paul, you see a man who often labors to teach his readers that worship is not something that we do in a special building or on a special day. Rather, all of life is now worship, just as Jesus is with us always, to the end of the age. Paul appeals in Romans 12:1, “Present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.” Paul says in Colossians 2:16, “Let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink, or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath. These are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ.” In other words, now that Christ is here, you do not need to go back to the old ways of worship. The new has come, the old is gone.
Rob made a map of the church grounds and sent it to me this week. We had to go back and forth on what to call this room. I didn’t want to label this room as the “Sanctuary,” because “sanctuary” literally means “holy place.” This building is not a temple with a holy place. Likewise, I did not want to call it our “worship center” as so many churches do. Jesus Christ is our center of worship. We do come here to “worship” the Lord together, but we are to be worshipping with all of our lives.
In fact, I cannot think of a passage of Scripture in the New Testament that calls the gathering of the local church “worship.” I can find no mention of a “worship service.” They gather to pray, to hear the Apostles’ teaching, to practice baptism and the Lord’s Supper, and to fellowship. Believers are commanded not to forsake this regular gathering. The person who says, “I can worship God as well in the fishing boat or at home because all of life is worship” and skips gathering with the church is sinning. But, strangely enough, it is never called worship.
I would strongly encourage you to follow the lead of the Lord Jesus, the Apostle Paul and the rest of the New Testament in breaking any superstitious connection that you have formed between an earthly place and the presence of the Lord.
You no longer go to a place to worship the Lord; you go to a person—the Lord Jesus Christ.
…the place of the ultimate sacrifice.
The ultimate reason that Jesus replaces the
But, Jesus is the Lamb who takes away the sin of the world. He will be offered once for all. His sacrifice will never need to be repeated. When a final and ultimate sacrifice has been offered, the need for the former temple ceases.
You no longer need then to go to a special place and perform a special ritual or sacrifice to have your sins forgiven. Christ—and Christ alone—is all you need. In his death and resurrection, you have the presence of God. You only need to go to Christ alone to worship God.
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