The Life of Jesus: Cleansing the Temple (8)

Wednesday Bible Study The Life of Christ-Jesus Cleanses the Temple

February 21, 2024

JESUS CLEANSES THE TEMPLE

Holy Monday

[Jesus said,] “‘My house will be called a house of prayer,’ but you are making it ‘a den of robbers.’” MATTHEW 21:13

DURING THE PASSOVER,people traveled to Jerusalem from all over Israel to offer sacrifices at the Temple. The Temple in Jerusalem represented the dwelling place of God on earth: a place of holiness where the Presence of God lived among His people. God intended it to be a place where all could come, so it angered the heart of God when certain obstacles made it harder for some people to worship. The whole sacrificial system rested on the buying and selling of animals, and that practice had become mercenary, profiting some and marginalizing others.

On Monday, Jesus, the Holy One incarnate, entered the Temple to demonstrate holy anger at how His house was being defiled. Jesus overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves. “‘My house will be called a house of prayer,’ but you are making it ‘a den of robbers’” (Matthew 21:13), Jesus said, quoting from the prophet Jeremiah, who also confronted the Israelites for making the Temple a “den of robbers” (Jeremiah 7:11).

Jesus’ desire was for the Temple to be a house of prayer for all, including those on the margins. The people in charge used their power for their own benefit instead of for the benefit of those Jesus was trying to gather into His house. In overturning the tables and driving out the profiteers, Jesus wielded a righteous anger to powerfully demonstrate His loving protection of foreigners and people experiencing poverty. He also welcomed children and healed people who were physically disabled, those who were historically excluded from worshiping in the Temple. Lastly, Jesus cursed a fig tree for not bearing fruit (Matthew 21:19). God is not interested in a form of piety that neglects the vulnerable. He is looking for an authentic faith that expresses itself in love for others.

1. Read Matthew 21:12–17. What groups of people are present in this Temple scene? What is each group doing?

2. Read Isaiah 56:6–7; Psalm 140:12; and Proverbs 17:5. What do these verses suggest about why Jesus was so angry at the money changers and animal sellers in Matthew 21:12–13?

The issue is less about the commerce itself than where the exchange takes place and potentially how its purpose became more about profit than worship. Purity laws excluded women and Gentiles from the Court of Israel. The money changers set up shop in the only part of the Temple where these populations were permitted, thus disrupting their ability to pray and worship. These money changers and animal sellers also may have reaped a hefty profit at the expense of those coming to worship in the Temple, a practice that threatened to exclude people experiencing poverty.

3. Jesus demonstrated that anger can be a holy response to injustice, abuse, or oppression of the vulnerable. How can we use holy anger constructively to usher in the Kingdom of God?

Pastor and author Rich Villodas says, “Throughout Holy Scripture, whenever there is abuse or neglect, God calls for a practical restructuring of concern, as well as the judgment of those in power. … Mercy means bandaging up people bloodied in life. Justice refers to systemically stopping those who are bloodying up people in the first place, and creating an environment for everyone’s flourishing. Christ’s followers are called to both kinds of ministries, especially on behalf of the poor and powerless.”

4. After Jesus drove out the money changers and animal sellers, what group of people came to Jesus for healing in verse 14? Why would this be countercultural for the Jewish leaders?

“Mosaic law prohibited those with physical defects from offering sacrifices (Leviticus 21:16–24), and David had banned them from ever entering the temple (2 Samuel 5:8).” Touching someone who was considered “unclean” would prevent a person from offering sacrifices at the Temple. Instead of becoming contaminated, Jesus healed and made clean those who encountered Him. “These two actions—cleansing the temple and the healing miracles—jointly declare his superiority over the temple.”

5. The children at the Temple praised Jesus, echoing what the crowd shouted during His triumphal entry: “Hosanna to the Son of David!” The religious leaders were unhappy with the children’s shouts and with what Jesus was doing in the Temple. How does Jesus’ response to the chief priests’ question in verse 16 further reveal His identity as the Messiah?

6. Read Matthew 21:18–22. Why do you think Jesus cursed the fig tree?

Fig trees bear fruit close to when or shortly after their leaves emerge. Thus, regardless of whether figs were in season, this tree’s leaves advertised that it should be bearing fruit. However, Jesus found no fruit on the tree; the advertisement was false. Jesus cursed the tree not because it was not bearing fruit but because it made a show of bearing fruit while remaining fruitless.

7. How would you describe the connection between Jesus cursing the fig tree and Jesus cleansing the Temple?

Jesus criticized the money changers and vendors (who were disrupting the ability of women and Gentiles to pray in the Temple) and the chief priests (who were indignant about the children’s praises of the Messiah). He opposed those who put obstacles in the way of those who desired to worship Him. D. A. Carson explains: “These [people], like this leafy fig tree, Jesus finds full of advertised piety without any fruit—and them he curses.”

8. What can you infer from Matthew 21:12–22 about the kind of follower Jesus seeks? How is this different from what the religious leaders believed made a person “acceptable” before God?

As author Alia Joy writes, Jesus was looking for those who are poor—not just materially, but poor in spirit: “His heart of compassion always bent toward those suffering under the burdens of injustice, poverty, and calamity. … Understanding Jesus’s presence and incarnational approach to loving our neighbor will always have more to do with identification of our own areas of poverty than with a posture of thinking we’re in any way the savior the poor need. The place of blessing we give from is our understanding that all is grace and everything belongs to God. … Grace levels us and humbles us to see our neighbor as ourselves.”

9. The heart of the Temple was prayer, and sacrifice was a means to be made right with God and have access to Him. What did Jesus want the disciples to understand about prayer as they wondered at the withered fig tree in verses 20–22?

After Jesus’ death and resurrection, Temple sacrifices would no longer be needed because Jesus provided the way to make us right with God. All people who put their faith in Christ have direct access to God through prayer.

10. What is something you would like to bring to God in prayer that may feel like moving a mountain (verse 21)? Share your prayer request with others if you are comfortable doing so, and then pray about it together.

Your Response

In this passage, Jesus condemned those who made a show of piety but took advantage of vulnerable people in His house. He welcomed those who came to Him in honesty and humility: those who desired healing, the little children who praised Him, and those who prayed with faith. How do you come to Jesus? What are some ways you can cultivate an authentic relationship with Jesus rather than just going through religious motions? Ponder how Jesus welcomes you with love and open arms.

For Further Study

In John 2, when the Jews asked Jesus for a sign to prove His authority to cleanse the Temple, Jesus replied, “Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days” (John 2:19). Jesus was referring to His body as the Temple and pointing to His death and resurrection as the sign. N. T. Wright observes that “the Temple was the intersection between heaven and earth; but now the place of intersection is Jesus himself. … Heaven and earth are now joined in the person—in the risen body!—of Jesus himself. … The one who sits in heaven is the one who rules on earth.” In 1 Corinthians 3:16–17, the apostle Paul called all Jesus’ followers God’s temple because the Holy Spirit now dwells in us. We are now equipped with the Holy Spirit, individually and collectively, to be God’s temple. How does viewing yourself and others as God’s temple affect how you see yourself and treat other believers?[1]

[1]Dalrymple, J. K. (2024). Jesus’ Passion Week: A Bible Study on Our Savior’s Last Days and Ultimate Sacrifice (p. 16). NavPress.