NOTES for Joh 2:13-22

The delicate point in the situation is that animals are needed in the temple for daily sacrifices, and money exchange is needed for the temple tax, which had to be paid in sacred shekels and not in ordinary money. Of course, the place of trade and the house of prayer could have been separated spatially, but how many churches have you seen with candle counters in the courtyard?

In response to the indignation of the Jews, the Lord Jesus speaks not only about the order that must exist in the Father's House, but also shows that from now on the center of God's presence is not here. He is the divine Word, and His body is the true Temple, in which God dwells not figuratively and not in part, but truly, having forever become flesh: a human being named Jesus. In His presence sacrifices and offerings lose their meaning, for the sacrifice is the whole life of Jesus. Even today He abolishes and makes unnecessary all our "religious constructions," our "sacrifices and offerings," performed not for Him and not for His Temple, built on the third day after Golgotha: on the first paschal morning.

It often happens this way in religious life: some tradition takes shape, no one knows when or why, becomes firmly established and enters common use, and it becomes more unshakable than traditions about which everything is known and whose spiritual soundness cannot be doubted. And often this tradition is not merely unsuccessful, but even directly contradicts the norms of the Torah or the Gospel. Such was the trade in the courtyard of the Jerusalem Temple: it contradicted the Torah directly and unambiguously, it had arisen who knows when, but no one encroached on it, because the false authority of false tradition so thoroughly supported a bad tradition.

Yet, as usually happens in such cases, convenience and profit supported the bad tradition even more than authority did. The convenience of those who came to the Temple from far away and could buy everything necessary right there in the temple courtyard. The profit of those who were ready and glad to sell it to them, as usual, at a higher price than the same things sold for in Jerusalem's city markets. And a violation of the Torah became customary.

It would seem a small thing: in the Temple of the Gospel era there were so many courts that several small markets could have fit there without harming the sacrifices themselves. But Jesus does not treat this "small thing" as small at all. For Him everything is absolutely serious. If it is the house of God, then it is the house of God. Completely. Without compromises. Without appeals to a bad tradition that contradicts the Torah. Without looking back at convenience or profit.

And the issue here is not some special legalistic harshness in Him, not some rigorism; there is nothing of the kind in Him. The issue is that He understands: in the spiritual life, and in life generally, there are no small things. Not because God is petty, but because any compromise spiritually divides a person. And serving two masters, as the Savior says, has no future. After all, in the Kingdom there is only one King: He Himself, set over this Kingdom by His heavenly Father.

And there, in the life of the Kingdom, compromises cannot exist. Simply because it is always life in fullness. To the maximum. As much as one can contain, but without discounts and without indulgences. Otherwise one will not be able to live in the Kingdom. This means that those seeking the Kingdom would do better not to get used to compromises, at least so they do not later have to unlearn them, slowly and perhaps painfully. This is how people sometimes painfully rid themselves of bad habits and traditions that have soaked into flesh and blood and entered common use, habits and traditions that are easy to introduce but not so easy to get rid of afterward.

Everyone - pilgrims who had come for Passover, priests, Pharisees - everyone was satisfied that brisk trade was going on around the Jerusalem Temple. The voices of the sacrificial animals drowned out the hymns? Well, what can be done; at least there is always a chance to buy those animals. Surely a pilgrim would not lead them from home, which could be hundreds of kilometers away... The money changers, bargaining with clients, argue and curse so loudly that it is disgraceful? Sad, of course, but denarii have to be exchanged for drachmas and back again... Strictly speaking, no one approves of all this noise in the temple courts, but everyone puts up with it as an unavoidable evil, a kind of tribute to eastern temperament.

Strictly speaking, devout Jews endured all this not so much from indifference as because they were waiting tensely for the coming of the Messiah. Through the prophets the Lord more than once angrily rebuked Israel for its lack of reverence. The words quoted by Jesus, "My house shall be called a house of prayer, but you have made it a den of robbers," belong to the prophet Jeremiah and were spoken 600 years before the events described in the Gospel. But in Israel there was a conviction that the coming Messiah would order the service in the Temple and, so to speak, "put things in order." In carrying out this cleansing, the Lord acts precisely as the One long-awaited Messiah. This is exactly how the Jews perceive it, and therefore they demand a sign from Him.

Yet one cannot fail to notice that the dialogue between the Jews and the Lord takes place in raised tones: the Jews react to Christ's action with a certain hostility. This happens because the Lord calls things by their names. His words, "Do not make My Father's house a house of trade," do not fit at all within the framework of tolerance and indulgence toward lawlessness and irreverence. It is important to see this, because in our own time, when someone tells us about what we softly call "disorders" in our spiritual and church life, we often react the same way the Jews did then, in April of A.D. 27. Fear and uncertainty about God's love make this kind of truth very offensive to people. It is useful to remember this and notice it in ourselves, so as not to become like those Jews.

Supporters of the use of violence like to appeal to the driving of the merchants out of the Temple in order to justify their claims about the "need to restore order by force." But let us note that Christ did not go to the Temple with instruments of punishment. He made the whip on the spot from ropes, from material at hand there, since a whip is used to drive livestock. There is not a single mention that He struck even one of the people whose tables He overturned.

His restoration of order in the Temple courtyard was neither a pogrom nor violence that led to disorder and physical injuries. Incidentally, let us also remember to note that accusations of violence in the Temple were never brought against Jesus; they were not charged to Him even at the trial before the Sanhedrin. He had the right to restore order from above, something no apologist for the "strong hand" can say about himself.

It is also hardly accidental that immediately after the account of this event the evangelist says that Jesus Himself knew what was in man, and He saw for what purpose a person was in the Temple. After all, a place of prayer can be turned into a place for extracting practical gain even without trade in the literal sense...

He did not need human testimony. We are the ones who need His testimony about the purity of our intentions.

Today's reading returns us once again to the event usually called the driving of the traders from the Temple.

In itself, Jesus' action was entirely in accordance with the Torah, though it ran counter to established custom. But not everyone, of course, could venture to do such a thing: only someone who could say that he acted in God's name. What Jesus did was not simply an effort to restore order. It was a call, expressed in action, to follow strictly the norms of the Torah, which, in the view of the One issuing the call, were being violated in this case. This naturally raised a question, immediately put to Jesus by those around Him: who are You to call us to what You are calling us to, and to do what You are doing (v. 18)?

It is not surprising that they asked specifically for a sign. It was obvious to everyone that this Man had, and could have, no official authority to restore order in the Temple; in the eyes of those around Him, He was simply a private individual. If, however, He had been a prophet, for example, or still more the Messiah, they would of course have had no questions: a prophet, and all the more the Messiah, had every right to act in this way. But prophetic charisma, and still more a claim to be the Messiah, had to be proved. Something had to be done that everyone would clearly recognize as a miracle, as proof that the One cleansing the Temple really was a prophet or the Messiah.

This is the kind of sign those around Jesus demand of Him. He, however, speaks of only one thing: His death and resurrection, and not directly but figuratively, so that most of those present remain perplexed (vv. 19–21).

At first sight, such an answer seems plainly unsatisfactory, since it explains nothing to anyone. Yet what mattered most to Jesus, apparently, was to bear witness to those around Him about the central purpose of His coming into the world: the Kingdom and victory over the evil in which this world lies. Death has undoubtedly always been seen as the very essence of the world's evil. The allusion to the Resurrection was therefore, in essence, the most fitting answer to the question of power and authority, just as the Resurrection itself was the clearest and most indisputable proof that Jesus had every right to do what He did in the Temple.

Of course, only someone who has themselves come to share in the Kingdom can understand and grasp such a sign. But it cannot be otherwise: one cannot describe the Kingdom as if it were some abstract reality. One can only show it. And then those who are able to see will need no further proof.

Temple trade in Gospel times had long been an established tradition. The temple courtyard could not do without traders: city dwellers had nowhere else to get either animals for sacrifice or everything else needed for observing the temple ritual. And the presence of traders, of course, made life easier for the overwhelming majority of pilgrims.

Of course, from the point of view of the Torah such trade was not entirely lawful, but loopholes in the law were found, and the trade continued, and continued under the most respectable pretexts. And when a certain Prophet appeared in the temple courtyard and demanded an end to the sacrilege, everyone naturally had a question: who was He to oppose something with which the overwhelming majority of His fellow believers had made peace? In reply He speaks figuratively to those around Him about His death and His resurrection.

What is this? A witness to His messiahship? Yes, of course, first of all that is exactly what it is, although at that moment even the apostles did not understand this witness in such a form. But it is also a reminder: in the life of the Kingdom there are no compromises. Even when they are convenient and suit everyone except God.

The issue here is not some special severity, but the fact that any compromise touching spiritual life destroys that life completely. In our world, not yet transformed, compromise means giving up a part for the sake of the whole or for the sake of another part of it. In the Kingdom, compromise means giving up the life of the Kingdom in all its fullness, because the Kingdom is indivisible. Here it is impossible to give up one thing for the sake of another, and if you give up anything, even the smallest thing, you lose everything. Such is the path of righteousness, the path of salvation, and such is the Kingdom. All or nothing. There is no other way.

Jerusalem. The Temple. Walls. Stones. How much they had seen! "Before their eyes" the future Mother of God was raised. Soon after His birth her Son was brought here. This is where He appears as a boy. The grown Christ comes here too. Here He teaches and heals. When you understand how much was revealed to these stones, Christ's words stop sounding surprising: if people stop praising Him, the stones will do it for them (see Luke 19:40), and God can raise up children for Himself from stones (see Luke 3:8).

For some reason, one thinks these stones must have been carefully chosen. They were used to build the Temple of the Living God, to whom everything best belongs. But over the years even the stones must have darkened, the Temple faded, and faith grown dim. And then the Owner Himself of this holy place comes and, though He turns everything upside down here, in reality puts everything back where it belongs: trade to the world, and the Temple to God. For this, among other things, He was later lifted up by that same world on the place called the Skull.

And in today's reading from the Book of Acts we see that the disciples really are not greater than their Teacher (see John 15:20). They do the same thing He did: they use the Jerusalem Temple for its proper purpose. The sick should not receive alms at the Temple, but healing. We too would do well to take up a broom and go clear the rubble in our own heart, the new Temple of the Living God.