Cleansing of the Temple

Today's Reflections

                                                                                 

 

Cleansing of the Temple

Jn 2:13-22

¹³Since the Passover of the Jews was near, Jesus went up to Jerusalem. ¹⁴He found in the temple area those who sold oxen, sheep, and doves, as well as the money-changers seated there. ¹⁵He made a whip out of cords and drove them all out of the temple area, with the sheep and oxen, and spilled the coins of the money-changers and overturned their tables, ¹⁶and to those who sold doves he said, “Take these out of here, and stop making my Father’s house a marketplace.” ¹⁷His disciples recalled the words of scripture, “Zeal for your house will consume me.” ¹⁸At this the Jews answered and said to him, “What sign can you show us for doing this?” ¹⁹Jesus answered and said to them, “Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up.” ²⁰The Jews said, “This temple has been under construction for forty-six years, and you will raise it up in three days?” ²¹But he was speaking about the temple of his body. ²²Therefore, when he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this, and they came to believe the scripture and the word Jesus had spoken.

ZEAL FOR GOD'S TEMPLE. King David, after taking Jerusalem from the Jebusites, made it his very own city and built his palace there. He thought of building a temple for God, since the Ark of the Lord was housed in a tent, but he was, as a warrior, “a man of blood.”

It fell on David’s son Solomon, who lived at a time of peace, to proceed with the project. With the temple, both political and religious authority was consolidated in Jerusalem. Solomon’s temple lasted until 587 BC, when it was destroyed by the Babylonians who also sent the inhabitants of Judah into exile.

Under Zerubbabel, a descendant of David, the returnees began to rebuild the temple in 537 BC. This “second temple” was later magnified by Herod the Great.

In the Synoptic gospels, the cleansing of the temple happens in the last week of Jesus’ life. This precipitates Jesus’ condemnation since he is seen by the religious authorities as a threat to the temple.

In John, zeal for the holiness of God’s house pushes Jesus to cleanse it of people who have turned it to a marketplace. But it will cost him his life, just as figures of the past committed to the honor of God were persecuted: Phinehas (cf Nm 25:11), Elijah (cf 1 Kgs 19:10), Mattathias (cf 1 Mc 2:24-26).

The temple, however, is now being replaced by the person of Jesus. Jesus does not just cleanse it; he replaces it with the temple of his body. Israel connects with God through its temple. The time has come for believers to relate to God through Jesus who is risen from the dead.

Today is the anniversary of the dedication of the Lateran Church in Rome. The cathedral church of the Pope as bishop of Rome, it is the “mother and head of all churches of Rome and the world.” Rather than celebrating the church as a structure, a “temple,” the feast points to the Church as a people gathered to worship God “through, with, and in Christ.”