The King Is In His House

There are a variety of ways of playing various games. For some who play the game of Rook, the purists say that there is only one way to play the game. There are those who suggest that the Rook card is always worth the highest amount of points and can take anything. However, most who play Rook, know that the Rook card is worth 20 points only by the person who takes that particular trick. Until it is part of a captured trick, it is worth only 10 1/2 points, meaning an 11 will take it. Which is the way my wife and I believe to be the correct way to play.

A good rule of thumb when visiting different homes is to find out what the house rules are. And whatever the house rules are, one needs to play accordingly.

Here in John 2, we see that there is only one who rules his house of worship. It is none other than King Jesus. It does not matter what anyone on this planet wants to say, the reality is there is only God's way in worship. Today, once again, we are going to see Jesus showing that he is truly God, deity in a human body. We will also understand that when a person discovers just who Jesus Christ is, there has to be a response. It can either be a hostile response, which leads to eternal condemnation; or it can be a response of worship and adoration, which leads to eternal life with Christ.

The King requires that our worship be pure and true.

The King Shows His Righteous Rage - 2.12-17

After this He went down to Capernaum, He and His mother and His brothers and His disciples; and they stayed there a few days.  The Passover of the Jews was near, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.  And He found in the temple those who were selling oxen and sheep and doves, and the money changers seated at their tables.  And He made a scourge of cords, and drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and the oxen; and He poured out the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables; and to those who were selling the doves He said, “Take these things away; stop making My Father’s house a place of business.”  His disciples remembered that it was written, “Zeal for Your house will consume me.”

As we look at the background, we see that this is close to the time of the Passover. This is important to note since this will be the time that many lambs would be slaughtered for the Passover meal. We read that Jesus and his family, along with his disciples, we're going to Jerusalem to observe the Passover. 

As they got closer to Jerusalem, they would've seen a very busy, almost festival like crowd. This was a big time for business as people would come to purchase the ox and sheep and doves that were necessary for the sacrifices. Obviously, it would not have made any sense for people to bring their own animals, as they could become hurt or less than perfect. This is important to understand as they would need to purchase the appropriate animals. Thus, the moneychangers were necessary for this time. Also, every male Jew who was 20 years of age or older was supposed to pay the annual temple tax. But it was required that they use only certain coins which had a very high silver content. As a result, people could not have brought their own money to be used for this. There would need to be an exchange. As a result, historians suggest that these moneychangers had a monopoly and were abusing their role. Originally, they had done a good job. However, because of the corruption of the religious leaders, everything had become materialistic, rather than focusing upon true worship.

We get the impression that Jesus was very angry and upset, likely because of this shift from worship of God to worship of money. This should have been a genuine worship-filled experience, with the excitement of God's chosen people getting together to worship as they remembered the significance of the Passover. However, this was not at all the way it was. Instead of being a place of worship, it had become a place of commerce that had religious leaders taking advantage of others who had come to worship. Recognizing that the temple was being totally abused, Jesus decides to take action. He takes the cords that were probably used to tie the animals and brings them together to drive out the merchants from the temple. In addition, their sheep and oxen were driven out. Plus, he poured out the coins of the moneychangers and overturned their tables. One can assume that the people did not just stand there and watch this take place. They would have left quickly, as well.

This, of course, would have created major chaos as the animals would be running all around, along with the moneychangers who are probably doing everything they could to gather up the spilled coins, along with the bystanders observing this. As a result, the temple authorities went to check it out. Evidently, the chaos that had ensued was not enough to cause the Roman guards to come to do anything.

For those who fear that Jesus was being cruel to the animals or the moneychangers, we do not get that picture here. He was very intense in his anger towards their sin. Then, as well as today, Jesus will not tolerate his people playing the role of a worshiper. By the way, towards the end of Christ's ministry, Jesus would once again cleanse the temple.

It is also interesting that the disciples would recall Psalms 69:9, "zeal for your house will consume me.” This is a reminder to everyone of his absolute desire to honor God's holiness.

Now we see Jesus going from dealing with the physical building of the temple to a different kind of temple.

The King Shows His Royal Right - 2.18-22

The Jews then said to Him, “What sign do You show us as your authority for doing these things?”  Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.”  The Jews then said, “It took forty-six years to build this temple, and will You raise it up in three days?”  But He was speaking of the temple of His body.  So when He was raised from the dead, His disciples remembered that He said this; and they believed the Scripture and the word which Jesus had spoken.

As we look at this, it is important for us to understand that these Jews who had approached Jesus were probably representing the Sanhedrin or a part of the Temple police. Even though this looks like a question, in reality, it is a direct challenge to Christ's authority. They wanted him to provide a sign for a miracle that showed that he had this kind of authority. The reality is that by Jesus clearing the temple all by himself was, in and of itself, a sign. I also find it interesting that they wanted Jesus to explain himself. It seems to me that they should have been explaining themselves for their corruption in the temple.

Jesus responded back to them by not answering their question directly. Yet, He did answer it by letting them know he was God. How do we know this? Because only God has the power to raise the dead. However, their focus was so much on the material aspect of this world, that they were not at all concerned about people. Of course, the authorities did not understand what Jesus was saying. They responded by discussing the physical temple where worship was to take place. They talked about the 46 years of building the temple, which still was not finished in Jesus time. They did not understand that Jesus was talking about his own body. In other words, Jesus authority for making sure that worship was done properly was in the fact that he is God. His sign would be his own resurrection.

Even his disciples did not understand this at the time. We see in other Gospels that they understood this more clearly after his resurrection.

At this point, we have looked at the aspect of worshiping God correctly in a physical building. Then we have recognized that the authority to make those demands comes from the fact that Jesus himself is God. Now we come to the next section which reminds us that Jesus indeed is God and does not need man's approval or affirmation.

The King Shows His Right Recognition - 2.23-25

Now when He was in Jerusalem at the Passover, during the feast, many believed in His name, observing His signs which He was doing.  But Jesus, on His part, was not entrusting Himself to them, for He knew all men, and because He did not need anyone to testify concerning man, for He Himself knew what was in man.

From these verses, we can observe that Jesus continued doing miracles during the Passover as well as the feast of unleavened bread which immediately followed. Interestingly, the passage states that many people believed in his name, observing his signs which he was doing. But Jesus, on his part, was not entrusting himself to them. The words for believed and entrusting come from the same Greek verb. This is like a play on words. It seems that he knew exactly what was going on in their hearts. They probably were agreeing on the fact that he was the Messiah. Yet did they understand their need to be forgiven? Were they being convicted of the reality that he alone can offer forgiveness? It is as if Jesus did not believe their believing, for it was most likely not a genuine belief.

This is an important question for us in our world today. There is a definite difference between faith in facts based upon human reasoning, and a saving faith. Because Jesus is God, he knows exactly what is going on in each person. More than likely, people were drawn to him by his miraculous signs. Whereas, saving faith requires a complete commitment to Jesus Christ as the Lord and Savior of your life.

John deals very specifically with the fact that Jesus is God. That means he is deity. And if, in fact, he is deity, then he must also be Lord. He cannot simply be a Savior unless he is the King of Kings and Lord of lords.

Reflections

In this passage, we have seen Jesus clearly showing that he is God. We saw first of all that he single-handedly cleansed the temple with a righteous anger. Secondly, We read how he predicted his own resurrection which can only be done by God. Finally, we understand that the only one who can know a person's heart completely is God.

These three sections also present a picture of salvation. The first section shows the absolute hatred of sin and the need for righteousness. The second section shows how Jesus' resurrection allows us to have a new life in Christ. Finally we see, that for salvation to actually take place there must be more than an acceptance of facts and visual information. It must be a genuine saving faith.

My friends, the King is indeed in his house. The Holy Spirit indwells each one of us who are believers in Jesus Christ. We need to continue to remember that our worship must not be like that of the religious leaders and money changers; it must be pure and true.