JESUS AND THE TEMPLE

III SUNDAY OF LENT - Jn 2:13-25

The importance of the Temple

The gospels of Matthew and Luke present Jesus  being tempted while in the desert. One of the temptations had to do with the Temple, when the devil took him to the top of the temple and proposed that he throws himself down to show that God protects him. 

The Temple - and there was only one in Jerusalem -played a very important role in the religious life of every Jew. Whenever in Jerusalem, Jesus spent time in the Temple, where he had the opportunity to meet people coming from everywhere. There, he preached to all willing to listen to him and held discussions with Scribes and Pharisees, who opposed him.

The Temple, which Jesus knew and frequented, was the third temple. The first one, built by Solomon, was destroyed by the Babylonians. The second was built by the  exiles who returned from Babylon. And the third was built by King Herod, in an effort to please the Jews. It was a huge and magnificent temple, completed only in 65 AD, and then totally destroyed in 70 AD by the Roman army.

The exploitation done in the Temple

The Temple was administered and controlled by the priestly families, mainly the High Priest’s family. During Jesus’ life, Annas and Caiaphas held the highest religious position as high priests. And we can say that Annas maintained the control of the Temple for a long time, since five of his sons held the position of High Priest, and Caiaphas was his son-in-law. 

The money exchangers and the animal sellers were doing a great to the worshipers, mainly the ones coming from afar. By expelling them from the Temple, Jesus was inconveniencing many people by disrupting the normal functioning of the Temple and the offering of sacrifices.  However, this service had become a big business, controlled by the priestly families, who exploited it for their own profit. Moved by zeal for God’s house, Jesus, like the prophets of old, decided to take action - a prophetic action, cleansing the Temple and making it clear that it must be a house of prayer for all peoples.

According to the gospel of John, Jesus accused the people involved in this trade of transforming the Temple into a “market place”, robbing it of the dignity and the holiness of the “Father’s house” (Jn 2:16). In the gospel of Matthew, Jesus used even harsher words, speaking of the way they transformed “the house of prayer” into a “den of robbers” (Mt 21:13).

To use the name of God in vain

There is no doubt that Jesus denounced the exploitation taking place in the Temple and the great abuse of using God’s name and God’s service to justify that exploitation. Throughout the centuries, in all cultures, and in all religions, time and again the sacred and the divine has been used to justify oppression and exploitation. We can find everywhere evil actions and evil customs hiding under the name of God and being proposed as good. To use the name of God, his word, his house and the service due to him in order to gain power, prestige, influence and wealth is a grave sin. Jesus suffered this temptation, when the devil proposed that he should throw himself down from the top of the Temple and force God to save him for the amazement of the crowds. We cannot force God and put him at our service, and we cannot do evil things and justify them by hiding under the name of God. Jesus refused the devil’s proposal, considering that we cannot put God to the test (Mt 4:7). And when we do, we are the losers.

Nowadays, many Christian churches are like a “market place” or a “supper market”, with churches for all likes, offering all kinds of promises. The Father’s house cannot be transformed into a “market place”.

Jesus is the new Temple

The religious authorities demanded from Jesus a justification of his action. His answer was puzzling: “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” (Jn 2:19). This would be used against him in the religious trial before the High Priest (Mt 26:61). But Jesus was referring to a different temple, the Temple of his body. Jesus is the Temple, the new temple, not build by human hands, which is really the Father’s house, where we can feel at home.