Christ driving moneychangers from temple by Theodoor Rombouts (1597–1637)

Dry core rot in an apple is really something disgusting. The outside of the fruit looks delectable, but slice it in half and center has a brown fungal rot. Appearances are deceptive. A second temple in Jerusalem had been constructed in the days of Ezra, Haggai, and Zechariah1 and Herod the Great launched a massive temple renovation project which began in 20 BC and continued to AD 64. Even in AD 27 it was quite the spectacle, and the disciples of Jesus complimented the fine stonework (Matt. 24:1; Mk. 13:1; Lk. 21:5). However, a core rot of sin existed and Jesus took notice.

The Gospel of John tells us about Jesus observing the first century Jewish custom of making a pilgrimaging to Jerusalem for the annual Passover Feast. But we are told that “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” (Jn. 2:14-16).2 Why did Jesus respond in such an extreme and disruptive way?

Temple worship fell into corruption and sacred spaced had been transformed into a marketplace. Jesus took offense to two things going on:

First, although the selling of sacrificial animals (2:14) was necessary for worship, it may be that this usually took place in the Jerusalem market area east of the city in the Kidron Valley. Obviously the high priest Caiaphas has brought the commercial enterprise into the Court of Gentiles. Second, money changers converted pagan coinage (with imperial images) to acceptable currency in order for Jewish men to pay their half-shekel annual tax (cf. Matt. 17:27). The cacophony of noise and the spirit of commercial self-interest had little to do with the purposes of the season.3

Jesus entered into the Jerusalem temple’s Court of the Gentiles and found the presence of the moneychangers selling birds, sheep and cattle to be a defilement of pure worship. Thing were really off: “Instead of solemn dignity and the murmur of prayer, there is the bellowing of cattle and the bleating of sheep. Instead of brokenness and contrition, holy adoration, and prolonged petition, there is noisy commerce.”4 The Lord then tells the pigeon dealers, “Take these things away; do not make my Father’s house a house of trade” (Jn. 2:16).

The Lord’s criticism about turning the Father’s house into a house of trade alludes to the words of Zechariah the prophet: “There shall no longer be a trader in the house of the Lord of hosts on that day” (Zech. 14:21).5 The prophet Malachi is also in mind: “The Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple” and “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” (Mal. 3:1, 3). Put it another way: “This act of prophetic symbolism was a denunciation of worship that was not pure…It was a prophetic invitation to worship God from the heart, without clamour or distracting influences.”6

The desecration of the Court of the Gentiles opposed the Old Testament vision of the eventual worldwide reign of Yahweh with people from all nations pilgrimaging to Jerusalem to worship in the temple. For example, Micah says “It shall come to pass in the latter days | that the mountain of the house of the Lord | shall be established as the highest of the mountains, | and it shall be lifted up above the hills; |and peoples shall flow to it, | and many nations shall come, and say: | ‘Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, | to the house of the God of Jacob, | that he may teach us his ways | and that we may walk in his paths.’ | For out of Zion shall go forth the law, | and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem” (Mic. 4:1-2). Zechariah similarly foresaw a day when “the Lord will be king over all the earth” (Zech. 14:9), and the forces that wage war against God and Jerusalem comes to an end, but “everyone who survives of all the nations that have come against Jerusalem shall go up year after year to worship the King, the Lord of hosts” (Zech. 14:16).7 The very presence of the moneychangers, the money transactions, the animals along with their stench within the Court of the Gentiles contradicted the spirit of worship yearned for by Spirit-led writers who gave to us the Old Testament. A loss of ethos occurred among second temple worshipers in the days of Jesus.

Like apple core rot, all things about the Jerusalem temple appeared spectacular, but underneath it all sin existed like the fungal infection. The sacred space for Gentile worship was transformed into a marketplace. How could anyone give prayers and praises to God in a place reverberating with noises from moneychangers and animals? Not to mention the stench from the animals doing their business! This would have been an offense to the proselytes whose lives were deeply influenced by the teachings of the Old Testament proclaimed by Jews throughout the ancient world. They made a pilgrimage to the temple only to find it became a marketplace. How could such disrespect for the Court of the Gentiles be allowed? Most of all, those who facilitated temple worship lost sight of the what venerable Old Testament saints yearned after — the worldwide reign of Yahweh wherein all nations would flock to the temple in Jerusalem for worship. This was an abomination. Core rot in an apple is most displeasing experience and defiled worship presented to the Lord is detestable a trillionfold.

Psalm 69:9 came to the minds of the disciples who witnessed the Lord’s cleansing of the temple: “Zeal for your house will consume me” (Jn. 2:17). They realized that “Jesus’ cleansing of the temple testifies to his concern for pure worship, a right relationship with God at the place supremely designated to serve as the focal point of the relationship between God and man.”8 But, just as David takes a stand for the Lord and suffers for it, so too one can anticipate the suffering of the Christ.

Jewish authorities overseeing temple activities took notices of the incident asked, “What sign do you show us for doing these things?” (Jn. 2:18). They sensed Jesus had been carrying on in the role of a prophet, but they wanted spectacular miracle to validate the upending activities inside the temple.

No miracle is provided but the Lord says, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up” (Jn. 2:19). This perplexing declaration certainly confounded the Jewish leaders, and they mistook Jesus for saying that He would literally destroy the Jerusalem temple and rebuild it in three days. Such would be an impossible task for a single man to do. However, John tells us that “he was speaking about the temple of his body” and “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” (Jn. 2:21). The evangelist offers a post-Easter rearview mirror commentary on the Word of the Lord — the sign of Jesus’ death, burial, and resurrection (cf. Matt. 12:38-42; Lk. 11:29-32). Ancient Christian apologist Lactantius (c. 260-c. 330) tells us that “[Christ] meant that his passion would be brief and that when he was put to death … he would raise himself up on the third day. For he himself was the true temple of God.… For when there was no justice on the earth, [God] sent a teacher, a living law, as it were, to establish his name and a new temple, to sow the seeds of true and loving worship throughout the whole earth by his words and example” (Divine Institutes, 4.18, 25).9

The glory of God filled the temple of God (1 Kings 8:1-11; cf. 2 Chron. 5:2-14), and this makes Jesus’ equating His own body to the temple all the more significant. We can say that “it is the human body of Jesus that uniquely manifests the Father, and becomes the focal point of the manifestation of God to man, the living abode of God on earth, the fulfillment of all the temple meant, and the centre of all true worship.”10

Elsewhere John presents an apocalyptic vision of the New Jerusalem coming down from heaven as a bride adorned for her husband (Rev. 21:2). Constructed with gold and precious stones, but this is the most conspicuous feature the Revelator notices: “I saw no temple in it, for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple” (Rev. 21:22). Again, the identification of Jesus Christ with the temple. We can say that “the city needs not temple, a special place of God’s presence, because the whole city is filled with God’s immediate presence. As a result the city itself becomes a temple.”11

John depicts in word pictures a corrupt temple dissolving away and the rise of another temple where the glory of the Lord will inhabit. The new temple is the Messiah. It is in Jesus that we find all that God had intended for the temple coming to ultimate fulfillment. He is our Great High Priest who offers a once-for-all sacrifice for sin so that we can enter into a right relationship with the one true God of the universe. He is simultaneously the priest offering the sacrifice and the slain Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. He is the last sacrifice of all the sacrifices that could ever be performed. It is through His priestly ministry that all nations are able to enter into the presence of the Lord. He breaks down the dividing wall between Jew and Gentile.

Worship extends far beyond a few songs sung on a Sunday morning before the sermon. The centerpiece of all Christian worship is Christ. It is only on account of Christ that we can enter into the worship of the one true Triune God of the universe. Christians give glory to the Father through the Son by the power of the Holy Spirit. God seeks those who will worship in spirit and truth.

It is because our own frailty that worship can become defiled. Sin can infect what is sacred and turn it into sacrilege. How easy it is even today for the purity of worship to be lost. Avarice can deform the true faith into a means of exploitation. A good example is the financial burdens that came as the result of the abuse of the indulgences — especially the infractions of Johann Tetzel — which led Martin Luther to seek reforms both in doctrine and practice, orthodoxy and orthopraxy. Overall human sinfulness can be the impetus for the invention and propagation of all sorts of illegitimate doctrinal innovations meant to lend credence to all sorts of evils such as bigotry, disunity, immorality, murder, selfishness, slavery, and violence. Just as core rot comes to apples, a church may come in need of addressing a sinful infection from within in order to preserve the purity of worship.

Christ is the temple. The center of Christian worship resides in Christ. In Him dwells the glory of God. To know Christ is to know the one true God of the universe. He redeems us from our sin. He died for sinners. He rose again on the third day. In Him is the blessed hope of everlasting life. He reconnects us to the Heavenly Father. He asks the Father to send the Holy Spirit, the Father sends the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit brings us into the fellowship of the Trinity. If there is ever such a thing as pure worship, it begins and ends with Christ. If there is a problem with all the evil done in the name of Christ, the corrective begins and ends with coming to the true Christ. Christ never passes us apples with core rot; rather, He promises to allow the faithful to partake in the fruit from the tree of life, nourished by the river of life flowing from the throne of God, which bears twelve different kinds of fruit, and whose leaves bring healing to nations (Rev. 2:3; 22:1-5).

— WGN

  1. Solomon built the first temple in Jerusalem (1 Kings 6:1-37; 7:13-8:66; 2 Chron. 3:1-7:22), which was destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar (2 Kings 25:8-9; 2 Chron. 36:15-21). The destruction occurred in 587 BC.
  2. All Scripture quoted from the New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update, Mt 21:12–13 (LaHabra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995), unless noted.
  3. Gary Burge, The Baker Illustrated Bible Commentary, ed. Gary M. Burge and Andrew E. Hill (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 2012), 1120.
  4. D.A. Carson, The Gospel According to John, (Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1991), 179.
  5. The New King James reads: “In that day there shall no longer be a Canaanite in the house of the Lord of hosts.” The Hebrew word kĕnaʿănî can be translated “Canaanite,” “trader” or “merchant.” The reason is “because Canaanites, especially Phoenicians, were traders” (Francis Brown, Samuel Rolles Driver, and Charles Augustus Briggs, Enhanced Brown-Driver-Briggs Hebrew and English Lexicon [Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1977], 488).
  6. Carson, 179.
  7. The same anticipation for Jews and Gentiles coming together in the worship of the Lord is reflected in the psalms. David sings, “All the ends of the earth shall remember | and turn to the Lord, | and all the families of the nations | shall worship before you. | For kingship belongs to the Lord, |and he rules over the nations” (Psa. 22:27-28). Elsewhere the shepherd king says, “All the nations you have made shall come | and worship before you, O Lord, | and shall glorify your name” (Psa. 86:9; cf. Rev. 15:4). Even Isaiah prophesied, “Israel will be the third with Egypt and Assyria, a blessing in the midst of the earth, whom the Lord of hosts has blessed, saying, ‘Blessed be Egypt my people, and Assyria the work of my hands, and Israel my inheritance’” (Isa. 19:24).
  8. Carson, 180.
  9. As cited in Joel C. Elowsky, ed., John 1–10: Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2006), 105.
  10. Carson, 182.
  11. Richard Bauckham, New Testament Theology: The Theology of the Book of Revelation (United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press, 1993), 136.

Published by Warren Nozaki

Hello, my name is Warren Nozaki. I typically blog on topics related to Christian apologetics. Check out what is posted, leave a comment if you like. I work at the Christian Research Institute in Charlotte, North Carolina. I also create sonic landscapes on the electric guitar.

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