My Father's House

John 2:13 ESV

The Passover of the Jews was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.

John 2:14 ESV

In the temple he found those who were selling oxen and sheep and pigeons, and the money-changers sitting there.

Jon Courson’s Application Commentary Chapter 2

The moneychangers would then exchange foreign currency for shekels at a cost of up to ten times the normal exchange rate.

Jon Courson’s Application Commentary Chapter 2

Thus, the oxen, sheep, or doves brought by the people to sacrifice at the temple were, upon inspection by the priests, usually declared unfit for sacrifice due to some microscopic flaw or blemish. Worshipers were then instructed to purchase “preapproved” animals from the stalls in the courtyard. The prices for the “pure” animals were exorbitant, so the priests made a killing off the unsuspecting supplicants.

The Gospel according to John (King James Version) B. Revelation 2: Jesus Is Supreme over God’s House, 2:12–22

He found the temple being desecrated. It was the Court of the Gentiles where so much commercialism took place. There was a regular commercial market within its walls. How did a commercial market ever get into the temple of God? Very simply, greed. Worshippers needed animals (oxen, sheep, doves), incense, meal, wine, oil, salt, and other items for their sacrifices and offerings. Pilgrims from foreign nations needed money exchanged. At some point in the history of the temple, the priests had decided to take advantage of the market themselves instead of letting retailers on the outside reap all the profits. Therefore, the priests began to set up booths within the Court of the Gentiles and to lease space to outside retailers.

The Gospel according to John (King James Version) B. Revelation 2: Jesus Is Supreme over God’s House, 2:12–22

Remembering the teeming thousands who attended the great feasts, we can imagine the loudest commercial commotion, and our picture would still come short of the actual scene. Who can picture thousands of animals with their peculiar noises, wastes, and smells within the temple of God?

The Gospel according to John (King James Version) B. Revelation 2: Jesus Is Supreme over God’s House, 2:12–22

It is no wonder Jesus did what He did. He could not do otherwise, for He was the Son of God, the Messiah sent into the world to bring about a true worship of God; and there was no hope of worship within the Court of the Gentiles. Prayer and worship were impossible.

Ephesians 4:26 ESV

Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger,

John: An Introduction and Commentary i. Cleansing the Temple (2:13–22)

The only place, then, where Gentiles could come and pray in the temple was the court of the Gentiles, and this had been turned into a noisy market

John 3:16 ESV

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

Jon Courson’s Application Commentary Turning Over Tables

what angers the heart of Jesus are those things that keep others from experiencing and enjoying the presence of God

John 2:15 ESV

And making a whip of cords, he drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and oxen. And he poured out the coins of the money-changers and overturned their tables.

John 2:16 ESV

And he told those who sold the pigeons, “Take these things away; do not make my Father’s house a house of trade.”

John: An Introduction and Commentary i. Cleansing the Temple (2:13–22)

First, the temple, Jesus claimed, was his Father’s house. God is his Father, and the temple authorities had allowed God’s house to become a house of merchandise, thus dishonouring his Father.

John: An Introduction and Commentary i. Cleansing the Temple (2:13–22)

Second, his Father’s house was intended to be a place of prayer, but the temple authorities, by allowing these activities to be carried out in the court of the Gentiles, had turned it into a marketplace.

John 2:17 ESV

His disciples remembered that it was written, “Zeal for your house will consume me.”

John 2:18 ESV

So the Jews said to him, “What sign do you show us for doing these things?”

John 2:19 ESV

Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.”

John 2:20 ESV

The Jews then said, “It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and will you raise it up in three days?”

John 2:21 ESV

But he was speaking about the temple of his body.

John 2:22 ESV

When therefore 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.

John 2:23 ESV

Now when he was in Jerusalem at the Passover Feast, many believed in his name when they saw the signs that he was doing.

John 2:24 ESV

But Jesus on his part did not entrust himself to them, because he knew all people

John 2:25 ESV

and needed no one to bear witness about man, for he himself knew what was in man.

John 1. Jesus Drives out the Moneychangers and Sellers of Expensive “Approved” Sacrificial Animals (13–17)

John began with a miracle of conversion (changing water into wine). Then he shows Jesus with a work of cleansing (the cleansing of the temple). This is always how Jesus works in His people: conversion, then cleansing