John 2: Jesus, the True Temple Who Opens the Way to God

Introduction

When Jesus walks into the temple, says Jesse Rose, it is not like arriving at a place of worship. It is more like stepping into a busy marketplace. Preaching at Aburayama Shalom Church in Fukuoka on John 2:13-22, he dwells on a disturbing scene: Jesus makes a whip of cords, drives out the merchants, and overturns the tables of the money changers.

"I don't know about you, but when I read that Jesus gets angry, it doesn't feel quite natural to me." The reaction seems extreme. Is it justified? Why was Jesus so angry?

The preacher answers in three steps: the anger of Jesus, the presence of God, and the true temple. The central verse is John 2:19: "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up."

Message Outline

1. A Marketplace Instead of a House of Prayer

Passover celebrates the day God brought Israel out of Egypt, out of the power of slavery. Families traveled from far away to worship at the temple in Jerusalem.
According to one historian, Jerusalem had about 300,000 inhabitants at the time. During the feast, the city swelled to more than a million people.
Every family brought an offering: more than 250,000 sacrifices were offered in a short time.
Originally, this trade tied to the sacrifices took place outside the city. By the time of Jesus, it had been moved inside the temple grounds. Jesus finds thousands of people there, but also thousands of sheep, oxen, and birds.
Faced with this sight, he shows fierce anger: "Take these things out of here! Don't make my Father's house a marketplace!" (John 2:16).

2. Anger, a Way of Expressing Love

"It may sound strange, but anger is a way of expressing love."
In Tokyo, a government building offers a public observation deck, very popular with tourists from around the world. On a clear day, you can see all the way to Mount Fuji.
Years ago, when his second child was still a baby, the family was taking photos in front of the glass windows. A stranger came up, took the baby out of his wife's arms without asking, and walked away to have his picture taken with this American baby. "I will never forget it."
"If it were your child, how would you react?" Anger is the reaction that rises when what we love and treasure is threatened. We love our children, so we get angry at whatever puts them in danger. That is a right reaction.
The same goes for poverty, injustice, and wars in which innocent children are killed. "Shouldn't we be angry?" God himself is: "God is a righteous judge, yes, a God who has indignation every day" (Psalm 7:11). He loves justice, and his anger is the right response to the injustice of the world.

3. What Is Your Heart Trying to Protect?

"In reality, our anger is often unjust. Our anger is itself part of the world's problems."
A child bothers us, and we flare up at once. Someone wrongs us or looks down on us, and anger rises.
The preacher examines himself: when he gets angry with his children, it is often because he is clinging to something that does not deserve it. He wants to protect his comfort, his good reputation as a father, or the feeling that he is in control. When he corrects his children, it is not always because he longs to see them grow.
Since anger reveals what we love, it becomes a mirror: "When we get angry, we should always ask ourselves: what is my heart trying to protect right now?"
By asking this question, we come to know our own heart. And we can ask it about Jesus too: what did he love so much that he became this angry?

4. What Jesus Loved: the Presence of God

The Jewish leaders gather around Jesus and ask him for a sign: "What sign do you show us, seeing that you do these things?" (John 2:18). In other words: by what right do you drive out the merchants?
The disciples, for their part, understood the sign. Driving out the merchants showed who Jesus is and why he came: "His disciples remembered that it was written, 'Zeal for your house will eat me up'" (John 2:17).
The quotation comes from Psalm 69: "For the zeal of your house consumes me. The reproaches of those who reproach you have fallen on me" (Psalm 69:9). The word "consume" carries two meanings. David is consumed by God's enemies: his zeal makes him a target. But he is also consumed by his own thirst for the presence of God.
The temple is God's house, the place where his presence rests among his people. The anger of Jesus comes from his burning desire for that presence. Intimate communion with God was more precious to him than anything.
This communion continues the one that existed before the creation of the world. "God is love" (1 John 4:8). To love, you need someone to love. Yet the Bible does not say that God became love when he created man: he has always been love.
"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God" (John 1:1-2). There is one God in three persons: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
God did not create man because he was lonely or lacked someone to love. He has always existed as a community of love. Man was created out of the overflow of the love of the triune God, and God's desire is to bring us into this communion of love between the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

5. A God Determined to Dwell With Us, and Walls

Genesis 1 and 2 show Adam and Eve enjoying communion with God without the slightest obstacle. In the garden of Eden they were naked, and they felt no shame as they walked together in the presence of God (Genesis 2:25).
Sin changed everything. Because of it, we can no longer simply step forward into the presence of God.
Yet the whole story of the Bible tells of God's determination to remain with man. In the desert, he has a tent built, the tabernacle, to make his presence known there. Later, a building, the temple, takes its place.
The temple is like a new Eden: in a broken world, the place where man can meet the presence of God. But there is a problem: there are walls.
Walls and veils kept people from coming too close. A Gentile who had been purified could enter the outer court, but could not go past the first wall. A Jewish woman could not go past the second. Further restrictions closed the way even deeper in. The innermost place was open to only one man, once a year.
On one side, God's decision to be with his people. On the other, because of sin, limited access. The temple constantly reminded people of this tension.
That is why Jesus became angry: the trade set up in the temple built one more wall, made by human hands, between the people and God. Jesus came to resolve this tension and to tear down every wall that keeps man from approaching the presence of God.

6. The True Temple: Jesus Destroyed and Raised

"Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up" (John 2:19). Jesus was speaking of the temple of his body (John 2:21): he was announcing that he would die and rise on the third day.
His burning desire for the presence of God was going to consume him on the cross.
On the cross, Jesus cries out: "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" (Matthew 27:46). A little later: "Jesus cried again with a loud voice, and yielded up his spirit. Behold, the veil of the temple was torn in two from the top to the bottom. The earth quaked and the rocks were split" (Matthew 27:50-51).
When Jesus lets out this cry, he himself experiences, before the Father, the wall that separated God and man. Because he was consumed in our place on the cross, we are forgiven.
The veil that held the presence of God at a distance was torn from top to bottom. What separated has been broken. Thanks to Jesus, we can now approach the presence of God freely.
And as Jesus thirsted for the presence of God, we in turn become people who thirst for that presence.
In the time of prayer that follows the message, the congregation is invited to remember what Jesus loved and wanted to protect above all: the presence of God. Then comes the question: "Do we have the same thirst as Jesus?" To long to know God more, to be in deeper communion with him, and to rejoice in the communion that Jesus won for us.

Key Takeaways

Anger rises when what we love is threatened. The anger of Jesus in the temple reveals what he loved most: the presence of God.
Righteous anger responds to injustice. Anger that protects our comfort, our reputation, or our control shows that we love too much something that does not deserve it.
God has always been love: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. He created us to bring us into his communion of love.
The temple brought man closer to God while keeping him at a distance by walls. Jesus came to tear down all those walls.
Jesus is the true temple: through his death and resurrection, the veil was torn, and you can approach God freely.

Personal Reflection

The last time you got angry, what was your heart trying to protect?
Does your anger respond more to injustice that hurts others, or to whatever disturbs your comfort and your image?
What walls, built by you or by others, keep you from approaching God today?
Do you experience the presence of God as free access won by Jesus, or as a place you have to earn the right to enter?
Like Jesus, do you thirst to know God more? What could you do this week to rejoice in that communion?

Bible Passages Cited

Frequently Asked Questions

Why did Jesus get angry in the temple?

For Jesse Rose, anger is the reaction that rises when what we love is threatened. Jesus loved the presence of God above all. By setting up trade inside the temple grounds, people had built one more wall between the people and God. Zeal for God's house consumed Jesus (John 2:17, Psalm 69:9).

What does Jesus mean by "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up"?

Jesus was speaking of the temple of his body (John 2:21). He was announcing his death and his resurrection on the third day. At the cross, the veil of the temple was torn from top to bottom (Matthew 27:51): the wall that separated man from the presence of God has fallen, and we can now approach him freely.

How can I tell if my anger is righteous?

Jesse Rose suggests a simple question: what is my heart trying to protect right now? Righteous anger responds to injustice, as God's anger does. Anger that defends our comfort, our reputation, or our need to control everything reveals that we love too much something that should not hold that place.