He Came to Purify His House

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

So the Jews said to him, “What sign do you show us for doing these things?” Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” The Jews then said, “It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and will you raise it up in three days?” But he was speaking about the temple of his body. 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 (John 2:13-22).

Jesus was Jewish, so He followed the prescribed laws of Judaism. He went to the Temple to celebrate Passover, the Feast of Unleavened Bread… “This day shall be for you a memorial day, and you shall keep it as a feast to the LORD; throughout your generations, as a statute forever, you shall keep it as a feast” (Exodus 12:14). God commanded the children of promise to celebrate this feast annually with a sacrifice at the future temple in Jerusalem… “Three times a year all your males shall appear before the LORD your God at the place that he will choose: at the Feast of Unleavened Bread, at the Feast of Weeks, and at the Feast of Booths. They shall not appear before the LORD empty-handed. Every man shall give as he is able, according to the blessing of the LORD your God that he has given you” (Deuteronomy 16:16-17). But Jesus was also “The Word (that) became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth” (John 1:14). Jesus’ appearance at the temple was God coming to His house, and He came to purify His house.

The Spirit of Truth moved the prophet Malachi to describe this event hundreds of years before it occurred… “The Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple; and the messenger of the covenant in whom you delight, behold, he is coming, says the LORD of hosts” (Malachi 3:1). The Spirit-inspired prophet revealed the truth that Christ’s appearance at His temple would produce some drama. When the Word and glory of God entered the temple there would be a refining and cleansing of the house of God… “But who can endure the day of his coming, and who can stand when he appears? For he is like a refiner’s fire and like fullers’ soap” (Malachi 3:2). The Lord’s cleansing would purify the temple and even more important, the Lord would refine and purify the hearts of the priests who served in the temple… “He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and he will purify the sons of Levi and refine them like gold and silver, and they will bring offerings in righteousness to the LORD” (Malachi 3:3). The offerings made on behalf of the people would no longer be the products of buying and selling in the temple’s courts, but after this cleansing of both the temple and the hearts of the priests, their offerings would be considered righteous and pleasing to the Lord… “Then the offering of Judah and Jerusalem will be pleasing to the LORD as in the days of old and as in former years” (Malachi 3:4).

The Word entered and cleansed the temple to illustrate the truth that Christ desires to enter our hearts to cleanse us and make us righteous and pleasing to God. The Spirit teaches the truth that Christ followers are the temple of God today… “Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own” (1 Corinthians 6:19). As we mature in the faith the presence of Christ in our hearts convicts and compels us to live above and apart from the sin of this temporal world… “What agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God; as God said, ‘I will make my dwelling among them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people’” (2 Corinthians 6:16).

As we grow up into Christ and yield to His cleansing work we get increasing victory over sin because…

He Came to Purify His House.