We explore this verse in John’s Gospel:
"Making a whip of cords, he drove all of them out of the temple, both the sheep and the cattle. He also poured out the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. He told those who were selling the doves, "Take these things out of here! Stop making my Father’s house a marketplace!" His disciples remembered that it was written, "Zeal for your house will consume me." The Jews then said to him, "What sign can you show us for doing this?" Jesus answered them, "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up." The Jews then said, "This temple has been under construction for forty-six years, and will you raise it up in three days?" But he was speaking of the temple of his body. "
1. The Setting
The story takes place within the 3rd temple (1st Solomon’s, 2nd one returning from Babylonia). Herod’s temple did take a generation to build. He ruled 36 years and the temple took 46 years to construct – and it was huge! The Temple area had been enlarged to a size of about thirty-five acres. Today the Western Wall, the so-called Wailing Wall, is all that remains of the ancient walls of Herod’s Temple
More specifically, the events took place outside in the Court of Gentiles. There was a market there selling sacrificial animals and birds outside the place where the priests worked. There was also a money exchange, since the Temple dues had to be paid in Tyrian coinage, and most people had Jerusalem coinage only. This meant that the atmosphere in the Court of the Gentiles was like an oriental bazaar where merchants haggled with Jewish pilgrims – like souvenir shops clustered round modern-day cathedrals
The market did provide a valuable service. Those selling animals were providing a service to those who needing an animal to sacrifice during Feast time. Obviously this had been approved by the Jewish leaders in the temple. This was a great convenience to Jews traveling great distances, since they did not have to have livestock in tow. They could buy the necessary sacrificial animals right at the temple.
The money changers were providing a valuable service. A tax was collected from every Israelite who was twenty years old. This was due during the month preceding the Passover and was either sent in by those who lived at a distance or paid in person by those who attended the festival. They had to pay in Jewish money and not by a foreign coin and thus the need to have their money exchanged
2. The issues
A. Jesus saw trade in the Temple as a desecration of its true purpose so, maybe with the help of others, he tried to shut down the trade in sacrificial animals and the money-changing that was going on. It was not a case of type of activity but where it was done.
B. He saw the Court of the Gentiles as a sacred place, part of God’s Temple. The tradespeople used the Court of the Gentiles as a short-cut between the city and the Mount of Olives – the Temple precincts could be entered from all four sides. The Court of the Gentiles was something less than a place of prayer.
Jesus was not the only one to object: there was widespread criticism of the 1st-century Temple scene among Jewish writers. The general hullabaloo of the area made this impossible, and it angered him. There is a strong contrast between "my Father’s house" and "a house of merchandise." This Father and any house of his have to do with prayer, worship, true religion.
Jesus is claiming to have the authority to correct evils performed in the temple. John is interested in showing his audience early on that Jesus is the long awaited Messiah, and as such, he is divinely empowered from on High to purge the Temple of its impurities.
C. He made an assessment that the trade and money changing exploited people, especially the poor, by making excessive charges, so he intervened. This is based on the other Gospels not John who never uses the phrase "den of robbers." Their endeavor to buy God’s favor is what fueled Jesus to cleanse the temple precincts.
D. Jesus thought the priests and Temple personnel were abusing their sacred roles by being involved in business in a sacred area. It was not the animal vendors and money-changers he criticised as much as the Temple establishment who allowed it. The ruling priests, especially the high priest himself, gave permission for these commercial activities to take place. They were ultimately responsible for this desecration of a holy place.
In the end, the temple story is important in John because he wants to convey the idea that what contributed to Jesus’ arrest and death was his so-called profanation against the Temple, and that it would be through his death and resurrection that he would fulfill the role as Messiah.
3. Contemporary voices
David Lose – God is no longer just accessible through the temple. In today’s world, church is not the destination but where we receive and then sent to partner to God in ordinary life.
Lawrence – The temple represents economic exploitation
Becky Zink-Sawyer – It is a message against all injustices that seek positive transformation
Daniel Clendenhim –The cleansing of the temple is a stark warning against every false sense of security — against every nice-n-neat box I try to stick Jesus into for my own comfort. Jesus comes to challenge rather than to reinforce my prejudices and illusions. He comes to defamiliarize what religion makes safe and cozy. He never once says, "understand me." He says something far more radical. "Follow me.
Bill Loader – "We don’t need the Temple to find God, we have Jesus for that"
Scott Hoezee – The money changers et. al. were eclipsing the real role of the temple. The Jews no longer saw the temple as God’s house and lacked their faith of the past.