Matthew and Mark begin recording Jesus’ public ministry immediately following the imprisonment of John the Baptizer, saying: “when Jesus had heard that John was cast into prison, he departed into Galilee” (Matthew 4:12); “after John was put in prison, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God” (Mark 1:14). Luke spends some time to record some of what occurred during Jesus 40 days in the wilderness of people (Luke 4:14 to Luke 7:1). The Gospel of John begins his record of Jesus’ public ministry by recording events that occurred before John’s imprisonment (cp John 3:24). Currently, our study takes place six months after Luke ends his record of Jesus’ temptation in the wilderness of people (Luke 4:14 to Luke 7:1). Luke records events that occurred during the fall festivals of 27 AD, but John, aside from the wedding at Cana, begins in Jerusalem during Jesus’ first Passover season of his ministry in the spring of 28 AD (John 2:13).
When Jesus arrived in Jerusalem and entered the Temple, he found it smelling like a stable, and ordinary business was conducted in the presence of God within the very precincts of the Temple compound (John 2:14). He, therefore, made small whip with cords and drove out the animals and the businessmen, overturning their business tables and casting all their money on the Temple floor (John 2:15-16). While they sought to salvage their wealth on the Temple floor, Jesus revealed their sin, accusing them of making the Lord’s House a house for conducting private business.
We need to understand this event in the light of John 2:6, where the Gospel narrator has Jesus’ disciples (the Temple of God; cp. 1Corinthians 3:16) both washed and changed (viz. water that cleanses and wine that changes behavior), placing their trust in Jesus as the Christ. On the other hand, cleansing the Temple (viz. the Jewish nation) doesn’t have the same result, because, by asking for a sign (John 2:18), they expressed unbelief and didn’t place their trust in Jesus as Christ. They had gone the way of Balaam, who ran greedily after the wealth of unrighteousness (2Peter 2:14-15), teaching the children of God to serve in the manner of those who served other gods (Revelation 2:14; cp. Acts 19:24-27). They kept returning to their old ways, as understood in the Lord’s need to cleanse them over and over again during the final week of his public ministry (Matthew 21:12; Mark 11:15; Luke 19:45). So, the nation remained unclean and in them was fulfilled the scripture:
“As a dog who returns to his vomit, [is] a fool who repeats his folly (Proverbs 26:11; cp. 2Peter 2:22).
Jesus’ disciples were watching, as he did this and, later, when Jesus was going away via the crucifixion, resurrection and ascension,[1] they remembered the scripture:
because I have borne reproach for Your sake, shame has covered my face. I have become a stranger to My brothers, and a foreigner to My mother’s children. For the zeal of Your house has eaten Me up; and the reproaches of those who reproached You have fallen on Me. When I humbled my soul with fasting, it turned to my reproach. I also made sackcloth my clothing, and I became a proverb to them. They who sit in the gate speak against me; and I was the song of the drunkards. (Psalms 69:7-12)
So, while his disciples were continually cleansed by Jesus’ words, and changed thereby, his enemies became angry that their behavior was checked, and all they could think of was the loss of wealth due to Jesus’ zeal for his Father. There is shame in trusting in God and in following Jesus. Jesus embraced the shame he endured due to his zeal for his Father, and in doing so he became the enemy of those who claimed to serve God.
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[1] See my earlier study: We Beheld His Glory!
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