John 2:18-22

RESULTS OF THE CLEANSING

Text 2:18-22

18

The Jews therefore answered and said unto him, What sign showest thou unto us, seeing that thou doest these things?

19

Jesus answered and said unto them, Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.

20

The Jews therefore said, Forty and six years was this temple in building, and wilt thou raise it up in three days?

21

But he spake of the temple of his body.

22

When therefore he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he spake this; and they believed the scripture, and the word which Jesus had said.

Queries

a.

Why did the Jews ask the question (John 2:20)?

b.

What is the meaning of Jesus-' answer in John 2:19?

Paraphrase

The Jews said therefore to Jesus, What Messianic sign do you show us? do you have any credentials for these presumptuous actions in our temple? Jesus answered them, saying, Destroy this Sanctuary of God, the place where God's Presence dwells, and I will raise it up in three days. The Jews therefore said, It has taken forty-six years to erect this Sanctuary, and do you claim to be able to re-erect it in three days? But Jesus was speaking of the Sanctuary of His body, and when He was raised from the dead His disciples remembered these words of Jesus and applied them to His resurrection. When the disciples had witnessed the Resurrection and had seen this prophecy fulfilled, they believed more firmly that the Old Testament Scriptures were fulfilled in Jesus, and that His Word was the Word of God.

Summary

Jesus-' authority to reform their Temple is challenged. The rulers demand from Him a wonderful sign of Messianic proportions. Jesus predicts a future sign. They are now destroying God's typical Sanctuary by evil practices and will eventually seek to destroy the Incarnate Sanctuary of God by crucifying Him. But in three days He will raise the new Sanctuary up!

Comment

At every manifestation of Jesus-' glory the wheat is separated from the chaff. The cleansing of the Temple is no exception. Those of honest heart find spiritual nourishment for their faith (John 2:17; John 2:22). Those concerned with satisfying the vanities of life become more hardened in their carnality (John 2:20). Here Jesus gave an answer at which the Jews scoffed and used to reject His authority. The disciples, however, laid His answer up in their hearts and later their faith was strengthened! Jesus often clothed His greatest spiritual lessons in enigma for the very purpose of separating the spiritual followers from the carnal followers (cf. Matthew 13:10-16; John 6:60-65).

When they regained their composure, the Temple traders turned on this presumptuous Galilean (John 2:18) and demanded that He show proper credentials for His reformatory actions. Undoubtedly some of the rulers of the Temple were among those asking for His authority. There seems to have been a general expectation that a prophet (Elijah or Jeremiah) would come to prepare for the Messiah by confirming present religious practices or changing them. Perhaps they even recognized that this Galilean might possibly be the Messiah Himself!! If so, they must have some amazing and extraordinary signs to confirm their suspicions. According to Jewish tradition, the arrival of the Messiah was to be heralded by great wonders and upheavals. These rulers are like the great multitudes of followers in Galilee (John 6:1-71). Jesus told them that they were only following Him because He had filled their hungry stomachs. When He told the multitudes that He came to feed them on His Word (John 6:63), they turned away from Him. These rulers in Jerusalem refused all the signs of His deity because He would not conform to their carnal ideas concerning the Messiah of the Jews. Christianity is not primarily concerned with relieving hunger or suffering. The New Testament church is not primarily concerned with national or international politics. Christianity IS concerned primarily with saving men's souls by bringing them to trustful obedience to the doctrines of Christ (John 14:15; John 14:21; John 14:23; John 15:1-6; John 15:14; Hebrews 5:9, etc.).

There is a tendency on the part of some interpreters to apply the answer of Jesus (John 2:19) exclusively to His physical body. However, the context demands that a certain amount of literal application to the Jewish temple be included in His answer. As Wescott sees it, there are two distinct ideas which have to be brought into harmony here, Jesus is referring to both the actual Temple and the Sanctuary of His body. The Jews were at that very moment destroying God's Temple, the place where the presence of God dwelt, by their unholy desecration of it. But this Sanctuary of stone was only a figure of the Person of Jesus Christthe Incarnate Presence of God dwelling among men (John 1:14). They are now desecrating the typical Sanctuary and will eventually destroy the fulfillment, even Jesus.

When they shall have rejected and put to death the Christthe fulfillment of the typewhat further use will there be for the type (the Sanctuary of stone)? The crucifixion of Jesus, in Whom dwelt the fulness of God, brought with it necessarily the destruction of the Temple. Why should God allow a rebellious Israel to keep the type when they spurn the Antitype? Thus the Jews brought about the destruction of their Temple and the judgment of God upon themselves (cf. Matthew 27:25). When the Lord expired upon the cross, the veil of the Temple was torn in two, signifying that it was all over with Israel and their typical Sanctuary (Matthew 27:51). Henceforth God may be worshipped anywhere if the worship is in Spirit and in truth (cf. John 4:23).

Jesus warned that the unfaithfulness of the Jews and their rejection of Him would end in terrible judgment upon the nation and complete destruction of their Temple (Matthew 23:37; Matthew 24:1-28). He intimated that these very rulers of the Jews would see such judgment come upon their nation (Matthew 26:64). As Lenski so aptly puts it, Thus the sign the Jews demanded will be theirs indeed. a sign of final judgment.

The Messiah perishesthe Temple and the Jewish economy fallsthe Presence of God is withdrawn from His people. The Messiah lives againthe true Sanctuary of God risesthe Presence of God is restored among His new people. God's presence among men was restored by the glorification of Christ and the giving of the Holy Spirit to believers (John 7:37-39; Acts 2:1-47). God does not dwell in temples made with hands (Acts 7:48; Acts 17:24), but the church (the universal body of Christ) is the temple of God. Every Spirit-filled believer is a living stone in God's spiritual house (1 Peter 2:5; cf. also 1 Corinthians 3:16; 2 Corinthians 6:16; Ephesians 2:21-22). Every Christian's body is individually a temple of the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 6:19-20).

The Jews scoffingly interpreted His words literally. It had taken them forty-six years to partially reconstruct the temple. Would this Galilean rebuild it in three days? Preposterous! The reconstruction of the Temple was begun by Herod the Great in about 20 B.C. This is forty-six years later, and it is still unfinished. It was not completed until 64 A.D., thirty years after the crucifixion of the Lord Jesus. And then, only six years after its completion (70 A.D.) it is so levelled by the Roman destruction that, according to the Jewish historian Josephus, one stone was not found upon another.

The Jews, their carnal minds closed to any spiritual comprehension of Christ's words, scoff at Him for predicting that He will do in three days what they have not even finished in half a lifetime. When Jesus was on trial for His life, bribed witnesses brought lying testimony against Him by perverting these words of prophecy (cf. Mark 14:57-58; Mark 15:29-30).

Even the disciples did not then realize the significance of His words. John, writing years after His death and resurrection, records that the disciples remembered this prophecy after they had witnessed the resurrection. Their retrospective look at a fulfilled prophecy was spiritual foodnourishment for their faith.

Quiz

1.

Why did Jesus clothe His answer in enigma?

2.

What kind of sign did the Jews demand of Jesus?

3.

Is there any reference to the literal Temple of the Jews in Jesus-' answer? Explain!

4.

Give three Scripture references which show that the Jews brought about judgment upon themselves.

5.

Where is the Sanctuary of God today? Cite Scripture references to prove your answer.

6.

How long did it take to complete the Jewish temple? When was it destroyed?

7.

Was this prediction of Jesus ever repeated? Where?