John 2:13

THE CLEANSING OF THE TEMPLE.

The Gospels are silent concerning any visit of Jesus after his twelfth year until the first Passover after his ministry began. The Lord, after his baptism, the temptation, and the witness of John, had begun his work rather quietly in Galilee, but when the Passover season came he joined the vast crowds who were seeking the city of David, and repaired to the national capital where popular expectation held that the Messiah would reveal himself. The following events have. fuller significance when it is borne in mind that it is the Lord's first visit to the temple after his work began. The cleansing is an assertion of his Lordship, and authority over the temple,. declaration to the religious rulers that the Holy One of Israel had come.

And the Jews' Passover was at hand.

Observe that John writes as one far from Judea and among Gentiles. He does not say the, but the Jews' Passover. For an account of the institution of this annual feast, see Exodus, chapter XII. There is no account that John the Baptist ever went to Jerusalem, but the Savior attended all the Passovers but one during his ministry.. short time before he had been baptized and anointed for his ministry; since then his time had mostly been spent in Galilee. Now, first, since his work began he visited the capital of the nation and the Temple. His life had thus far been quiet, but it behooved him to assert his authority in the very center of national worship, and his collision with the corruptions of the times brought upon him immediately the antagonism of the priesthood and Pharisees. From this time onward his pathway is stormy.