“Laws requiring that only unblemished animals be used for sacrifices meant that most pilgrims purchased the animals for sacrifice after they arrived in Jerusalem” (Culpepper, p132). “At one time the animal merchants set up their stalls across the Kidron Valley on the slopes of the Mount of Olives, but at this point they were in the temple courts, doubtless in the Court of the Gentiles (the outermost court)” (Carson, p178).

Also, people coming from all over the Roman Empire for the high festivals would bring many different coins with them; “but the temple tax, had to be deposited in Tyrian coinage (because if its high purity of silver). The money-changers converted money to the approved currency, charging a percentage for their service” (Carson, p178).

“There is no evidence that the animal merchants and money-changers or the priestly authorities who allowed them to use the outer court were corrupt companions in graft. Jesus’ complaint…is that they should not be in the temple area at all” (Carson, p179).

It is interesting that the authorities do not at this time react to Jesus’ referral to the temple as “My Father’s house.” “The Jews who witnessed the incident posed a question that focused attention on the issue of Jesus’ authority rather than on the meaning of his action or his motivation for doing it” (Koester, p82).

“The authorities respond by asking what sign he could show them. Even the authorities speak in a Johannine idiom at this point, using the same word the narrator used in verse 11 to describe the Cana miracle” (Culpepper, p132).

“Indeed, if the authorities had eyes to see the cleansing of the temple was already a ‘sign,’ they should have thought through and deciphered in terms of Old Testament Scripture” (Carson, p182).

“Dodd suggests there is an allusion to Zechariah 14:21: ‘And on that day there will no longer be a merchant in the house of the Lord Almighty.’ Equally, John may be alluding to Malachi 3:1, 3: ‘Then suddenly the Lord you are seeking will come to his temple… He will purify the Levites and refine them like gold and silver.’ This means that this act of prophetic symbolism was a denunciation of worship that was not pure… At the same time, it leads into a related theme: the temple itself, the focal point where God and believers meet, where God accepts believers because of a bloody sacrifice, will be superseded by another ‘temple’, another sacrifice (vv18-22)” (Carson, p179).

“Jesus responds by pointing the authorities to the ultimate sign, his death and resurrection” (Culpepper, p132). “On the face of it, Jesus was inviting the authorities to destroy the temple and was promising to raise it again within three days of its destruction… He was offering them a powerful ‘miraculous sign’ to justify his authority for cleansing the temple” (Carson, p181).

The authorities as well as his disciples do not understand Jesus’ response, but the narrator pauses to make sure the reader understands saying, “But he was speaking about the temple of his body” (v21).

“First, the text suggests that the function of sacrifice, which was integral to the Jerusalem temple, is fulfilled and replaced by Jesus… Second, the temple in Jerusalem was the place where God made his name or glory to dwell… Jesus’ promise of a new temple suggests that God’s glory would be manifested not in a building but in a person, as it had been at Cana” (Koester, pp83-84).

“It was important that worship of God in its precincts be pure; it is even more important to recognize that the temple itself pointed forward to a better and final meeting-point between God and human beings. Jesus cleansed the temple; under this typological reading of the Old Testament, he also replaced it, fulfilling its purposes” (Carson, p182).

In verse 22, the narrator gives a later, post-Easter reflection on the significance of Jesus’ ministry in the light of his resurrection. “By temporarily disrupting the trade necessary for sacrifice, Jesus foreshadowed the permanent cessation of sacrificial worship in Jerusalem and its replacement by his own death… He became a sanctuary that transcended and replaced other places of worship (cf 4:21) and endured beyond the destruction of the Jerusalem temple to unite the community of those called to worship in Spirit and truth” (Koester, pp84-85).

Revelation 21:22: “And I saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb.”

Point: The Father loves us as His children and comes to meet us in His Son, Jesus.

Problem: We don’t recognize the one who comes to us and, on account of that, our worship suffers.

Promise: Jesus continues to be faithful in bringing the love of the Father to us. By the power of the one he has sent, the Holy Spirit, we see and understand.