Matthew 21:12-17

Introduction

English Standard Version Chapter 21

Jesus Cleanses the Temple

12 And Jesus entered the temple and drove out all who sold and bought in the temple, and he overturned the tables of the money-changers and the seats of those who sold pigeons. 13 He said to them, “It is written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer,’ but you make it a den of robbers.”

14 And the blind and the lame came to him in the temple, and he healed them. 15 But when the chief priests and the scribes saw the wonderful things that he did, and the children crying out in the temple, “Hosanna to the Son of David!” they were indignant, 16 and they said to him, “Do you hear what these are saying?” And Jesus said to them, “Yes; have you never read,

“ ‘Out of the mouth of infants and nursing babies

you have prepared praise’?”

17 And leaving them, he went out of the city to Bethany and lodged there.

As we started in on Matthew 21 two weeks ago I mentioned that one of the overarching themes present in these final chapters of Matthew’s Gospel is judgement. In fact, almost all of chapter 21 will be focused on various symbolic acts of God’s coming judgement against Isreal, and most prominently, its religious leaders, the city of Jerusalem and its Temple.

In Matthew chapter 23, starting in verse 37, Jesus famously says,

English Standard Version Chapter 23

37 “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing! 38 See, your house is left to you desolate. 39 For I tell you, you will not see me again, until you say, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.’ ”

While often overlooked, Jesus was addressing the religious leaders in Jerusalem, they had not cared for Jerusalem’s children, and they would not allow him to gather them together. So he says to them, “See, your house is left to you desolate.” Then in the chapter that follows, chapter 24, Jesus describes to his disciples, from the Mount of Olives, just how this will take place, just how Jerusalem will be destroyed, and how the Temple will be leveled to the ground.

So as we read chapter 21, remember that these events are a part of an overarching theme of judgement, and that the verses before us today will reflect just that. As I’ve said before the two primary components of the Messiah’s ministry was expected to be salvation and judgement. Unfortunately, the Jewish assumption of who would be the object of that judgement was misplaced, and I don’t think they realized it would be them.

No Messianic Secret

Now, if you recall, during our last time together, in verses 1-11 of chapter 21, Jesus has finally made his entrance into Jerusalem. And what’s striking is that his entrance wasn’t obscure, or quiet. In fact, Jesus rode in on a donkey to purposefully elicit a response from the crowds. And they immediately recognized his message, that this is the Son of David, their Messiah, so they all begin to chant, “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!” And we’re told that as Jesus entered the city that the crowds began to spread their cloaks on the road, along with palm branches, in front of Jesus, like some sort of red carpet or royal procession fit for a king. So what Jesus sought to keep under wraps in Galilee he’s now making known from the rooftops. There’s no longer any messianic secret!

Then when we reach verse 12 we read,

English Standard Version Chapter 21

12 And Jesus entered the temple and drove out all who sold and bought in the temple, and he overturned the tables of the money-changers and the seats of those who sold pigeons.

Now, in Mark’s Gospel, he seems to indicate that this event took place the following day. That Jesus and his disciples retreated back to the town of Bethany on the Mount of Olives for the night, and then returned the next morning. If you remember, Bethany would become Jesus’ home base while staying in Jerusalem (the same place Jesus had raised Lazarus from the dead), that because of the 150,000 pilgrims traveling to the city for Passover, most travelers were forced to spend their nights outside of the city.

So when Jesus returns to Jerusalem the next morning Matthew says that he entered the temple. Now, what Matthew calls the temple is merely a reference to the temple’s outer court, or what some call the Gentile’s Court. It was the only location on the Temple Mount that Gentiles were permitted, and it was like a magnificent courtyard that could hold tens of thousands of visitors, and it was typically where Jesus taught. It’s also likely where Simeon encountered Jesus as an infant and took him in his arms, as Luke records for us in his Gospel account.

Magnitude of the Temple

The temple itself was located at the center of the Temple Mount and the temple was approximately two times larger than the temple built in Solomon’s day. It’s often referred to as Herod’s Temple because of the major upgrades and renovations that he made to the Second Temple, which was built approximately 500 years earlier after the Babylonian exile. He expanded the Temple Mount significantly in size, more than doubling it, to 36 acres.

Its dimensions were approximately 1,600’ x 1,000’ which is over 5 football fields long, and more than 3 football fields wide. It’s estimated that the Temple Mount could hold upwards of 75,000 people at a time. The retaining walls of the Temple Mount were 15’ thick, and as high as 200’, with much of it still visible today. Herod hired something like 10,000 laborers over 46 years to complete the project. One rabbi remembered that, “It used to be said: He who has not seen the temple of Herod has never seen a beautiful building.” (b. B Bat. 4a)

A Functioning Bank

And like other temples in the ancient world the temple also functioned as a bank. In fact, the high priest, Caiaphas, had recently authorized the sale of items necessary for sacrifices within the temple itself, and since the annual Temple tax had to be paid using a particular kind of shekel, visitors were able to exchange their “pagan” coins to pay the tax onsite, hence the need for money-changers.

Business vs. Worship

And as you can imagine the purchase of animal sacrifices had become an enormous source of annual income for the city of Jerusalem during the Passover. Much like today, the Christmas season has become an enormous economic expectation for nearly every type of business. Many of which even depend upon that time of year to keep their businesses in the black. According to the Jewish historian Flavius Josephus of the 1st century, the demand for lambs during Passover was something like 250,000.

And the problem wasn’t so much that a market existed to buy and sell items used for sacrifices, for it would have been impossible for pilgrims to bring their sacrifices with them, but that this market had lead to abuses, where business became more important than worship. In fact, it’s likely that the high priest’s decision to permit this buying and selling inside the Temple Mount elicited Jesus’ overturning of the tables. This is the historical backdrop of Jesus’ actions. He’s walking into the temple and all along the perimeter of the Gentile Courtyard are hundreds of tables setup for business.

Though such business activity was necessary for temple worship, it was never intended to be carried out where people had come to pray and worship. So, after Jesus drives them out and overturns their tables, we read there in verse 13,

English Standard Version Chapter 21

13 He said to them, “It is written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer,’ but you make it a den of robbers.”

He actually quotes from the OT prophet Isaiah, in Isaiah 56:7 when the Lord is emphasizing the role of the Temple, and his people’s obligation to righteousness, and says,

English Standard Version Chapter 56

7  these I will bring to my holy mountain,

and make them joyful in my house of prayer;

their burnt offerings and their sacrifices

will be accepted on my altar;

for my house shall be called a house of prayer

for all peoples.”

Jesus is saying that to bring commercial activity into the Temple is to destroy it’s purpose, thereby destroying its people. Again, it’s an indictment against the religious leaders in Jerusalem who have brought this commercial activity into the Temple. That rather than it being a house prayer, they’ve turned it into a den of robbers.

Den of robbers

And to any careful listener the weight of Jesus’ words would have been obvious, because not only does he quote from Isaiah to remind them of the purpose of the Temple, but he also quotes from Jeremiah 7:11 when he tells them that they’ve made his house into a den of robbers. Jeremiah prophesied judgement against Isreal just before they were conquered and enslaved by the Babylonians, and in one of his indictments he says,

English Standard Version Chapter 7

11 Has this house, which is called by my name, become a den of robbers in your eyes? Behold, I myself have seen it, declares the LORD.

What happened in Jeremiah’s day was also happening in Jesus’ day.

Jesus’ Authority

Now, the implications of Jesus’ actions are significant. That he had the audacity to overturn the tables of the money changers and those selling items for sacrifices assumes his authority to do so. That he had the right and prerogative to cleanse the Temple, to judge its practices. Mark actually says in his account that Jesus stood up and would not allow anyone to carry anything through the temple, teaching them that the Temple was intended solely for worship, not commerce and trade.

And remember the imagery that we saw just a few verses earlier, of Israel’s king and Messiah riding on a donkey into the city, preceded and followed by an enormous Galilean crowd. And when this Son of David arrives at the Temple he sees the money changers, and the buying and selling of sacrifices, and in righteous anger he overturns their tables. Which was an assault against the Temple’s management, it was a direct assault against the chief priest’s governance of the Temple. And when Jesus does this, Marks tells us that the chief priests heard it and were seeking a way to destroy him, because all of the crowd was astonished at his teaching.

Wonderful things

Then we also read there in verse 14 that,

English Standard Version Chapter 21

the blind and the lame came to him in the temple, and he healed them. 15 But when the chief priests and the scribes saw the wonderful things that he did, and the children crying out in the temple, “Hosanna to the Son of David!” they were indignant, 16 and they said to him, “Do you hear what these are saying?” And Jesus said to them, “Yes; have you never read,

“ ‘Out of the mouth of infants and nursing babies

you have prepared praise’?”

So not only does Jesus take it upon himself to cleanse the Temple but we’re also told that the blind and the lame came to him, and that he healed them. If Jesus’ authority was ever in question his miracles were intended to dispel all doubt. His miracles, that he performed at will, were indisputable proof of his authority. However, the religious leaders refused to submit to his authority, they refused to acknowledge that he was the Son of God, so rather than Jesus’s miracles eliciting joy and repentance, his miracles made them angry.

Notice Matthew’s use of the phrase wonderful things when he describes the miracles Jesus performed, yet he says the chief priests and the scribes were indignant, they were angry, that these wonderful things instead prompted them to seek out his destruction. What we’re supposed to see is that their reaction is wrong, that it’s evil, wonderful things shouldn’t elicit anger, or indignation, it should elicit praise and joy. But not so for the chief priests and scribes.

Zeal and reproach

In what appears to be a parallel account of this incident in John 2:17, the Apostle John says, that after Jesus upended the tables,

English Standard Version Chapter 2

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

Now, this text is taken from Psalm 69:9 where David is lamenting the reproach (or disapproval) that has fallen upon him because of his zeal (passion) for God’s house. In other words, because David was so passionate for God’s house, it’s caused those who did not share his zeal to despise him. Which is exactly what’s happening to Jesus. His zeal for God’s house has consumed him, and it’s generated in him outrage toward the money-changers in the Temple, but his outrage doesn’t stop their, the money-changers and businesses are there because of the chief priests. Therefore, Jesus’ zeal for his house is a direct assault against the actions of the chief priests, so they take offense at him. His zeal makes them look bad, his criticism of the money-changers in the Temple is an assault against their own character and so their reproach falls upon Jesus, they hate him and they want to destroy him.

Which is why these little children make them so angry! They’re running around the temple crying, “Hosanna to the Son of David!” and the chief priests can’t stand it! And so they say to Jesus, “Don’t you hear what they’re saying!” And Jesus says to them, “Yep, I do! And have you never read Psalm 8:2?”

English Standard Version Chapter 21

“ ‘Out of the mouth of infants and nursing babies

you have prepared praise’?”

In fact, Psalm 8:2 goes on to say that God uses the praise of babies and infants to still his enemies. So just as God silences his enemies by the weakest things, so the chief priests and scribes are silenced by the cries of these small children. Jesus’ authority is vindicated, even by these children.

Closing

And this in many ways is a parable for us as believers. Jesus bore the reproach and rejection of the Jews, and likewise our identification with Christ will also mean that we too will share in that same kind of rejection and reproach from the world. When Jesus was crucified and bore the punishment for our sin, he hung just outside the city of Jerusalem at a place called Golgotha, which also was representative of Jerusalem’s ultimate rejection of him. Jesus’ disciples would also have to face expulsion from Jewish society to their their synagogues, all because of their identification with Christ, they would be excommunicated. And for some that even meant death. But ultimately the disciples saw the reproach and their suffering as an honor.

In Acts 5:40 the Apostles were arrested for preaching that Christ is Jesus and it says that the high priest and others arrested them and,

English Standard Version Chapter 5

beat them and charged them not to speak in the name of Jesus, and let them go. 41 Then they left the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer dishonor for the name. 42 And every day, in the temple and from house to house, they did not cease teaching and preaching that the Christ is Jesus.

We will bear the reproach that Jesus did.