2. The disciples reacting, ch. 2.17 (22)
“…and the disciples remembered…”. You know, those disciples had very short memories…I guess a lot of us can relate to that. They constantly needed to be twigged; in the first case, they immediately thought of a quote from the scriptures, Psalm 69.9…”The zeal of Thine house hath eaten me up”, or more plainly…”My love for (the house of the Lord) has made me mad with jealousy!” Jesus took this offense personally! In the second case, as noted in v. 22, those disciples practically admit having forgotten practically everything the Lord had taught them in three years of theology classes! And then, having the audacity to state that now…”they believed the scriptures, and the word which Jesus had said”!! Shame on us!
You know, I believe that it’s OK to get angry once in awhile, in the Name of Jesus, when you see an injustice being comitted. It doesn’t hurt in the least for us to be “eaten up with zeal” for the righteousness of the Lord. Of course, just as it was with Him, those times need to be reserved for only the most serious offense. You need to be very wise and very discerning and well-filled by Holy Spirit, when you feel called to use your God-given authority in the way that Jesus did here. We need to remember that our purposes are not always Christlike, nor are our reactions always Christlike. In fact, the letter of James warns us to measure our words carefully before spitting them out for consumption, for that very reason! The last thing a believer needs is to have someone constantly running around behind us, putting out the huge fires that our seemingly little sparks ignite!
3. Jesus prophesying, vss. 18-25
Well, as you might expect, Jesus’ actions, just as they would throughout the rest of His life, brought about an immediate response from the “religious elite”. They were no longer interested in God’s idea of “the old-time religion”; rather, they wanted to make religious exercise as comfortable as possible, so that more people would be encouraged to participate (sound familiar?). After all, raising your own animal for the yearly sacrifice was time consuming, hard work. And it didn’t come cheap, either! Just as easy and just as effective to buy yourself a pair of doves right there in the very house of God, and a whole lot easier on the chequing account, too! Both economy and convenience, all in a one stop shop. And so the religious leaders demanded to know by what, or Whose authority He did these things.
Now this was the mark, or the nature of the Jews. They needed, or at least wanted a sign of the authenticity of Jesus as the promised Messiah. It’s interesting to note that they were not so much interesed in what He did, as they were in Who He really was. And this is exactly the way they would always respond to the Saviour…questioning Him and baiting traps for Him, but Jesus wasn’t about to fall for it!
Remember that Jesus’ time had not yet come (v. 4). The only sign that they would see would be His ressurection from the grave (v. 21), and they would even scoff at that! So that’s the riddle that Jesus offered them (v. 19), and His reasoning is self-explained in the Gospel of Matthew 13.13…”I speak to them in parables, so that seeing they see not and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand”. So in reality, Jesus’ reply to those Jews was very much to the point, in light of our present-day knowledge of events. In rising from the dead, He would furnish the final proof that He was God in the flesh, “the Lamb of God come to take away the sin of the world” (1.29), the only One with any power or any authority to cleanse the temple, the defiled house of God. And the only sign they were to get, would be Jesus, Himself.
Many people would claim to believe in Jesus, just as they do today, because they saw the miraculous events that took place. But just as always, Jesus knew their hearts. He knew, and knows those who truly embrace Him as their Saviour, as we read there in vss. 23-25.
You know, that’s a pretty deep thought! God knows the depths to which man has fallen, and He knows us! Even having professed faith in Jesus…”He did not commit Himself to them, because He knew all men”. Adam had shown long before, that man can’t be trusted, and the law had shown long before that man cannot be trusted; and even Paul, in His letter to the Romans explained how man, because of his carnal nature, cannot be relied upon to do the will of God. We are still ruled by our flesh.
That is exactly why Jesus focussed on the temple in the very beginning of His ministry…that is, the temple at Jerusalem, the house of prayer; and His own bodily Self…the focus of our worship; and of course, the temple of our own bodies, in need of a good house-cleaning every day!
In this present age remember, believers are the temple of God. And yet there is still the danger of contaminating the temple for the sake of economy and convenience. We allow Satan to occupy a corner of our hearts and minds, and then, we need to be constantly at work, doing damage control and emergency repairs! It’s just a reflection of who we are, and I know that God sees and understands. And that’s why He provided us His own means…His own soul-perfecting blood and His Holy Spirit, to help us in our life-walk; we just don’t have what it takes to complete the task all on our own.
We must realize that our faith requires constant maintenance; any one of us who fails to acknowledge that truth, or to teach and to practice it, has already shown himself to be one to whom God cannot fully be revealed, because He knows that we’re headed for a fall, and then another. Our faith is about a relationship; an open, honest, life-long and life-giving relationship between you and Jesus. One that will have its highs and lows, but one that’s built on building trust to last for eternity.
Jesus comes into our lives with all authority, and He wants to cleanse our temples of shallow religion and shallow lives and shallow faith. So prepare for a cleansing when you choose to believe and receive!
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