John 2:13-25,

13 The Passover of the Jews was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. 14 In the temple he found those who were selling oxen and sheep and pigeons, and the money-changers sitting there. 15 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. 16 And he told those who sold the pigeons, “Take these things away; do not make my Father's house a house of trade.” 17 His disciples remembered that it was written, “Zeal for your house will consume me.”

18 So the Jews said to him, “What sign do you show us for doing these things?” 19 Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” 20 The Jews then said, “It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and will you raise it up in three days?” 21 But he was speaking about the temple of his body. 22 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.

23 Now when he was in Jerusalem at the Passover Feast, many believed in his name when they saw the signs that he was doing. 24 But Jesus on his part did not entrust himself to them, because he knew all people 25 and needed no one to bear witness about man, for he himself knew what was in man.

The setting of a story is one of its most important parts. If you want to fully understand the significance of an action, then you need to know the when and where that the action takes place, and so that’s where I want to direct our attention right away.

Jesus is in Jerusalem at the temple during Passover week (and this is a very different setting than that wedding at Cana we just saw last week). Jerusalem during Passover week was the busiest time of the year because worshipers from all over would have flooded the city to visit the temple and make sacrifices — and John tells us that Jesus is right in the middle of this. He’s at the temple. Verse 14:

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

Put your imaginations to work for a minute and try picture this:

First of all, the temple was a massive building. It was a total of about 36 acres, which is like 27 football fields combined. And again because it was Passover, the normal population of Jerusalem would have swelled to be around 2.5 million people. 

So think: big number of people in one city and a lot of them are coming to this big building — that would have been the first thing you noticed if you were there — but then John tells us that Jesus found people at the temple who were selling stuff. There were some selling oxen and sheep and pigeons, and there were others who set up basically first-century ATMs. This was a full-out marketplace set up at the temple, and for a decent reason.

If all these worshipers had traveled to Jerusalem to sacrifice, they needed animals for that, and so these animal salesmen had set up shop in the area closest to where the buyers needed the animals. And because these buyers came from all over, the money-changers were there to make sure people had the right currency to buy the animals. 

What’s happening here is pretty basic human reality: Events influence supply and demand, and that supply and demand shapes markets. We see this sort of thing all the time today. This is why parking prices downtown go up when the Wild play at home. We have all kinds of examples of this. There’s nothing unusual about it, and nobody at the temple thought anything of it — but Jesus found the people who were doing this and he started making a whip of cords.

I don’t know the last time you made a whip, but this doesn’t seem like the kind of thing you just do in a minute. Jesus has a plan here. Whatever is about to happen, this is a pre-meditated situation. 

Verse 15 tells us that, with this whip, Jesus drives out all these animal salesmen and their animals away from the temple. So whatever your imagination volume-level has been, crank it up!

Try to picture this: Jesus is cracking a whip and oxen and sheep are running everywhere in a crowd of people. Then Jesus dumps out all the coins of these money-changers; he flips their tables, and he tells the pigeon people to get their birds outta here. This is absolute chaos. 

Honestly, it reminds me of one of those Allstate commercials (you know what I’m talking about?) I’m waiting for Jesus to say: “Get Allstate, and be protected from Mayhem like me.” 

Jesus is mayhem in this story! He’s making a mess. 

And that’s the setting here. We don’t get to the meaning of this until verse 16, but already we can tell this is very different from that wedding we were at last week.

Last week, at that wedding, Jesus was the hero. This week Jesus is the headache.

Last week Jesus provided the wine. This week Jesus cracks the whip. 

And here’s the thing: we need all of it. 

All of Chapter 2 is meant to show us who Jesus is, and there are at least two things we learn about him in our passage today. And I want you to know that something here could be the most relevant truth about Jesus you’ve ever heard. I’m not kidding. 

Because these are not merely truths about who Jesus was, these are truths about who Jesus is … like right now. And when he confronts us, like he does here, it has an effect. And my prayer has been that you open your heart for Jesus to do what he wants. So let’s pray that:

Lord Jesus, as we study your ways this morning in the Gospel of John, we ask that you would have your way in our hearts and lives, in your name, amen. 

Here’s the first truth we learn about Jesus:

Again we don’t even start to get an idea of what’s going on in this crazy scene until the end of verse 16. Everybody, if you can, find verse 16, and look at the end of the verse, the part in quote marks. Jesus says,

“Do not make my Father’s house a house of trade.” 

That’s a big statement. Jesus is criticizing these animal salesmen and money-changers (and he criticizing everybody else who’s okay with what they’re doing) — but the problem is not so much their commerce, but it’s where the commerce takes place. They were doing all this at the temple. 

This would have all been happening in the Court of the Gentiles, which was an area set aside for Gentile God-seekers — but instead of that area being open for prayer for all nations it was crowded with money-making. The house of God, the place set aside for the worship of God, had been made into a house of trade. Matthew, Mark, and Luke stress this point. The problem here is misuse, which reveals unfaithfulness, which requires judgment. That’s real here. 

But at the same time, if we’re tracking with the Gospel of John, the most important thing that Jesus says in verse 16 is not about the business deals going on, but it’s that he calls the temple “my Father’s house.” Don’t let all the animals distract us from this!

This is the first time in the Gospel of John where Jesus calls God his Father — we already know this about Jesus from Chapter 1 — Jesus is the only begotten Son of the Father, and he has made the Father known — but this is the first time where Jesus himself says that. The temple, he says, is my Father’s house. 

And that’s why Jesus did what he did. The focus here, John wants us to know, is on the authority of Jesus.

And we can tell that’s the issue because that’s exactly what the Jewish leaders targeted. Right away, after this scene, they wanted to know what grounds Jesus had for doing what he did. They don’t argue with him about the “house of trade” comment. They say, basically: Who do you think you are?

And it makes sense that they would think this way. We have to understand that these Jewish leaders considered themselves to be the authority of the temple. To them, they were the ones in charge of that place. 

So it would kind of be like if you got home this afternoon and you went into your house and you found a stranger in your kitchen rearranging what’s in your cabinets. The first thing you’re gonna say is not, “Why’d you put the coffee mugs there?” 

You’re gonna wanna know Who are you? Who do you think you are?

That’s the conflict that’s setting up the dialogue, but first, by the end of verse 16, as the readers of this story, we know more about what’s going on here than the people in the story Jesus is talking to. 

That’s often the case in the Gospel of John. John as the narrator helps us out along the way by telling us little things here and there to give us a fuller picture of what’s going on. So as readers, we know the grounds Jesus has to do all this. We know what he means when he says the temple is my Father’s house. More than authority, Jesus has ownership! The temple is his.

And in simple terms: Jesus has the right to clean what’s his. 

And look: nobody would have a problem with any of this until Jesus claims to be in charge of something they thought they were in charge of.

We’re all fine with Jesus going and cleaning stuff up and rearranging dishes … until it’s my stuff, my dishes. 

This is where we need to zoom out for just a minute and remember New Testament theology. The apostle Paul tells us that as Christians we ourselves become the temple of God because the Holy Spirit is in us. The dwelling place of God is in us by the Spirit! And the implications are clear. Paul says: “You are not your own” (1 Cor. 6:19). 

Not if you’re a Christian. 

If you’re a Christian it means Jesus is in charge. And sometimes that means he’s gonna have to overturn a table. He might have to make a little bit of a mess. He’s up to something good, but it might be uncomfortable.

It might not make sense. It might be a little mayhem. But remember Jesus is the cleaner of what’s his, and to be his is a good thing.

We learn that right away.

In order for this to make sense we need to see how this passage is structured. Notice that verses 18–20 is the actual dialogue between Jesus and the Jewish leaders. They ask him a question; he answers; they respond. It’s straightforward. But then on both sides of this dialogue, in verse 17 and verses 21–22, John chimes in as the narrator to give us a fuller picture of what’s going on. 

Because of the way the paragraphing is laid out in our English translations, it might look like verse 17 goes with verse 16, but it’s better to understand verse 17 as setting up what comes after it. Verse 17 and verses 21–22 go together. They’re both places where John is speaking.

So the dialogue with Jesus is here (verses 19–20), but John introduces here (verse 17) and John concludes it here (verses 21–22).

We’re gonna look at both parts. First, the dialogue with Jesus.

In verse 18, the Jewish leaders demand an explanation for why Jesus did the whole thing with the whip and tables at “their temple.” They want to know, “What sign do you show us for doing these things?”

They rightly interpreted Jesus’s actions to be a claim of authority. They got that message. But now they want him to prove that authority. And Jesus says, All right.

Verse 19: Jesus answered them,

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

Verse 20: The Jews then said,

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

And the dialogue is over. 

That’s it. It’s a short exchange. What’s really important here for John is that we understand this dialogue through a certain lens.

That’s why John tells us right away in verse 21 that Jesus of course wasn’t talking about destroying the physical temple, but he was talking about his own body. 

Jesus himself is the new temple. He is the dwelling place of God embodied as a man. And the proof that he has the authority to run the physical temple is that he’s going to be destroyed (by the very people he’s talking to) and he’s going to rise from the dead. Whoever has authority over death is the one in charge.

Now John admits that the disciples didn’t understand all of this when Jesus said these words, but later on, after the resurrection, that’s when everything clicked for them.

Now why is it so important that John tell us this in verse 22? Why does John have to come in here in verse 21 and clarify that Jesus wasn’t actually talking about the literal temple?

Verses 21–22 all have to do with how John introduces this in verse 17.

Everybody look at verse 17 for minute. It’s a short verse, and I want you to see it.

Verse 17:

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

This is from Psalm 69, verse 9. Remembering that psalm is what makes sense of the dialogue in verses 18–20. When John says in verse 22 the disciples “believed the Scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken” he’s talking about Psalm 69. They believed that Scripture and connected it to what Jesus was doing.

So then what is Psalm 69 about?

Let me go back and read more of Psalm 69. This is a psalm of David. Listen to this, Psalm 69, verse 7:

7  For it is for your sake that I have borne reproach,

that dishonor has covered my face.

8  I have become a stranger to my brothers,

an alien to my mother’s sons.

9  For zeal for your house has consumed me,

and the reproaches of those who reproach you have fallen on me.

10  When I wept and humbled my soul with fasting,

it became my reproach.

11  When I made sackcloth my clothing,

I became a byword to them.

12  I am the talk of those who sit in the gate,

and the drunkards make songs about me.

Psalm 69 is a psalm of shame. David, the psalmist, is bearing shame and dishonor, and he’s speaking as the Messiah. That’s how the New Testament authors understood this psalm.

A clear example is Psalm 69 verse 21, which says,

“They gave me poison for food, and for my thirst they gave me sour wine to drink.”

Where else do we see that? 

All four Gospel writers tell us that Jesus, when he was on the cross, was offered sour wine. 

Psalm 69 is about the Messiah’s shame. The Messiah had been speaking up for God’s sake. He was zealous for God’s house. But in his faithfulness to God, his own people turned on him. “His own people did not receive him” (John 1:11), but instead he became the lightning rod of their insults. The reproach and dishonor the people had directed at God was directed at him. That’s what he means: “the reproaches of those who reproached you have fallen on me.” God-haters became Messiah-haters. 

The Messiah was shamed. He was dishonored. 

That’s the message of Psalm 69 and John wants us to keep that in mind because we see it start to happen in this dialogue. 

When Jesus says “Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up” we know what he’s talking about — John makes sure we know — but the people Jesus is talking to don’t know and they shut Jesus down here. When they reply “It took us 46 years to build this temple” that’s a “gotcha” statement. It’s a mic-drop. If you were there on the ground, seeing all this happen, you would have thought that Jesus just got roasted. They shame him.

And see, John is trying to help us understand Hey, it’s okay — a shamed Messiah is the true Messiah. 

Just in case we think this whole thing is going to be a party … all wedding feasts and high-fives … Jesus just kicking butt and taking names … taking charge … he’s the new temple … he’s come to show us God … he’s manifesting his glory — this thing is going to be easy.

No it’s not. Not if you want the true Messiah. The true Messiah is a shame-bearer. People didn’t hoist him up on their shoulders and trot him around in victory. They esteemed him stricken, smitten by God and afflicted (Isaiah 53:4). And that didn’t just happen out of nowhere on the cross, but that was part of his entire ministry. 

And the Old Testament would tell us this is to be expected — the Messiah is a shame-bearer — but I want you to know that a Messiah who bears shame is the Messiah we need. 

Shame is one of the most powerful forces in our world. Right next to death, it is every human’s greatest fear. And when I’m talking about shame, to clarify, I’m not talking about a feeling. I don’t mean shame as a subjective, personal sense, but I’m talking about shame as a social verdict. Shame is to be exposed as unworthy and rejected. Shame is when your worst nightmare for yourself, true or not, is put on display for everyone to see, and they see it and agree that you deserve rejection.

That’s what the old medieval village stocks were about. You know that wooden thing you put your head and arms through and people throw rotten tomatoes at you. The whole thing is about public humiliation. So was the dunce cap teachers put on kids 50 years ago. Today it happens all kinds of ways online. Public scorn. To be shamed. It’s all downstream from crucifixion. That’s what I’m talking about.

So how does Jesus bearing shame help us?

He shows us there is a reality more powerful than the shame we fear, and that reality is the verdict of God. The eyes of God are the only eyes that really matter — and Jesus knew that whether he was getting pats on the back at a wedding feast or insults in the aftermath of mayhem. 

Jesus was not defined by man’s opinion — he knew what was in man (verse 25) — and he knew that what man would say about him will not be the same as what God says. There’s a disconnect, and the same goes for us!

“If they have called the master of the house Beelzebul, how much more will they malign those of his household?” (Matthew 10:24)

Just like with Jesus, there is a disconnect between what the world says about us (and sometimes what we even say about ourselves) — there’s a disconnect between that and what God says. So what does God say? What is God’s verdict of us? 

To all who receive [Jesus], who believe in his name, Jesus gives them the right to become children of God (John 1:12). That’s what God says. He calls you “my son” or “my daughter” and that’s the reality that will overcome and outlast any shame.

And that’s what we remember at this Table. 

As Christians, we come to this Table each week to remember this ultimate reality of who we are. We remember what Jesus did for us to make us his own. Even if there’s a little mayhem going on, we’re his and he’s good. 

And so Christian, son or daughter of God, you who trust in Jesus, come to this table, eat and drink, and let us give him thanks.