John 2:11-17 The first temple-cleansing

John 2:11-12 Jesus' disciples were impressed. Although Nathanael had previously been impressed by Jesus' knowledge of his whereabouts, the other disciples, who had only been with him a few days, believed in Him when they saw this miracle. They had previously testified that He was the Messiah (John 1:41,45,49) they now understood the power of God incarnate in the flesh. He was not just another Judas Maccabeus.

          Jesus and His disciples went from Cana to Capernaum for a few days. A hike of slightly less than 30 km, mostly downhill. What did Jesus and the disciples do during those days? John does not say.  One suspects that John the apostle must have either already been part of His traveling company, or else he was called at this point, since he was a fisherman not far from Capernaum, as Mark 1:19-21 suggests. John may have already been part of the company since he gives what appears to be an eyewitness account to the miracle at the wedding in Cana. But he is very sketchy on autobiographical information because he is writing about Jesus, not himself.

John 2:13-17 Jesus and His disciples went up to Jerusalem to observe the Passover. Luke 2:41-42 records that Jesus went up to Jerusalem to observe Passover with His parents as a child, so this must have been customary. Except that in this case, since He had begun His ministry, things took a different turn. The gospels record two apparently separate occasions on which Jesus drove the money-changers out of the temple. This marked the beginning of His public ministry, the other event occurred just prior to the Passion, and is recorded in Matt 21:12-13, Mark 11:15-16, and Luke 19:45-46. On this occasion His words are very specific: You! Take these things hence! Do not be making My Father's home a store!

          What was He so incensed about? The Mosaic law had given specific instructions for the tabernacle in the desert. There was no provision for setting up vendors to provide currency exchange or selling sacrificial animals. Of course, in the desert Israelites would have had no need of such things since they were essentially shepherds and all of one tribe. But in the cosmopolitan world of the Roman Empire, in which Jews had been dispersed to the entire known world, and in which many people had other trades, some means needed to be provided in order for these people to be able to make the designated offerings. What seems to have offended Jesus is that these merchants had set up shop on the Temple grounds. That is, the world system of things that are needed to survive and function in the world are what they are, but His Father's house was to be set apart from the world. They should have set up shop outside the Temple, not within it. At the second cleansing, Jesus said that His house was to be a house of prayer, but they had made it into a cave of plunderers. (Luke 19:46)

          There is a specific message for our lives in this. The message is not that we need to separate the life of faith from the life in the world. To compartment our lives would make us schizophrenic as regards important decisions, or even the day to day activities of life. The lesson is that influence should flow the other way. The world should not be influencing the way we worship and the way we approach God. Rather, our worship of God and our interactions with Him should influence the way we do things in the world. God is building His kingdom on earth. We participate in His kingdom-building to the extent that we do what He says to do,in the world, not just in His house.

          The disciples at some point (then or later) remembered the prophetic verse in Psalm 69:9. John recorded that they understood that verse to apply to this situation. (John 2:17)  Psalm 69 is a prayer to YHWH to save the afflicted from his adversaries. Aspects of it are prophetic of the crucifixion, as for example Psalm 69:21 was fulfilled in Matthew 27:34. More generally, how many martyrs have suffered because of their faithfulness, their zeal for the one true God? And certainly, this must have angered the priests, scribes, and Pharisees either because they had approved the arrangement and felt some degree of conviction because they knew it was not right, or perhaps because they profited from it. And so Jesus' zeal for His Father's house was one of the steps that led to His enemies ultimately having Him arrested and executed.