He made a whip out of cords
and drove them all out of the temple area
They asked for a sign to see how Jesus would explain entering the temple and acting as though he owned the place. Who, exactly, did he think he was? They did have their reasons for not wanting foreign currency, often with images of foreign kings and emperors, to taint the inner parts of the temple. Who was he to object?
Jesus did act as though he understood the purpose of the temple better than they did. He said that they were making the temple a marketplace and implied this was not what God truly intended. What was meant to serve the end of honoring God had seeming become an ecosystem that now existed for its own sake, in which people were focused more on monetary exchange than worship. Jesus said this was wrong and that he knew it to be wrong because it was his Father's house. He implied that he, as the only Son of the Father ,knew what was fitting for this house. This was consistent, coming as it did from the one who also said of himself, "something greater than the temple is here" (see Matthew 12:6).
"What sign can you show us for doing this?"
Jesus answered and said to them,
"Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up."
Jesus was the Son of the Father. The earthly temple was merely a symbol foreshadowing the way that God's presence would dwell among men in his person. But this didn't make Jesus indifferent to the earthly temple, as though it didn't matter after all now that he had arrived. Instead, he still used it as a prophetic sign to symbolize the mission he had come to accomplish. He had come to eliminate everything that could be a barrier to the presence of God dwelling in human hearts. He would zealously oppose any false claimants to the throne of the human heart that was meant for God alone. He would pursue this goal so zealously that he would even allow all of the hostility and opposition against it to fall on his own head. He would bear the cost of making a new way to worship in Spirit and truth available for the human race. In himself he would end all that was corrupt or even partial and incomplete in the old sacrificial economy of the physical temple. In himself he would reveal the new and definitive temple and sacrifice. He would offer to humanity a new covenant sealed at the cost of his own Precious Blood.
But he was speaking about the temple of his Body.
The fact that the zeal of Jesus accomplished what he intended in his paschal mystery does not necessarily mean we are now free to just sit back and relax, as though he was potentially dangerous then but now safely defanged and declawed. If anything, now that the symbol has given way to the reality we should have an even greater level of holy fear. This was what Paul spoke of to the church at Corinth:
Do you not know that you are the temple of God,
and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?
If anyone destroys God's temple,
God will destroy that person;
for the temple of God, which you are, is holy.
If Jesus cleansed a temple that was only a symbol of what was to come with such violent vigor, to what lengths will he go to ensure that our hearts are cleansed? We know that "our God is a consuming fire" (see Hebrews 12:29). Just as Jesus knew the purpose for which the temple was made and acted to ensure it could function in accord with that purpose so too will he do for us, who are meant to live "to the praise of his glory" (see Ephesians 1:12). He does this, not because he delights in violence or punishment, but to ensure as much as possible the blessings that he longs to bestow.
Every month they shall bear fresh fruit,
for they shall be watered by the flow from the sanctuary.
Their fruit shall serve for food, and their leaves for medicine.
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