Raising the Temple

There are many stories about Jesus. The story about Jesus in the temple where he overturned the tables of the money changers is very important. Jesus talked about his death and resurrection many times at the end of his ministry on this earth. We must understand Jesus Christ’s victory over death without seeing Jesus emerging from the tomb.

First, God told Moses in Leviticus to give various offerings to honor and thank God. There were burnt offerings, grain offerings, peace or communion offerings, and sin offerings. The offerings were initially made at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting and after the temple was built the offerings were given at the entrance of the temple in Jerusalem. It was meant to honor God and God’s love for us. The offering also was in gratitude to all of the wonderful blessings that God had given to his people.

In addition, God outlined the different kind of offerings that could be made in the temple for different times in your life such after committing a sin or after the birth of a son. The offering was supposed to be without blemish and it should be the best that you could offer to God. The Jews were instructed that the offering needed to be the best grain or choice animal.

The Jewish leaders twisted the offering decrees that God gave to Moses by saying that the best animals were the ones being sold at the temple. It became very expensive to buy animals even doves for a burnt offering. The Jews who traveled a long distance to come to Jerusalem were not able to bring a lamb or a dove with them. The people who traveled a great distance or lived in the city were also usually very poor. They were the ones at the mercy of the money changers at the temple gates.

The whole process of giving thanks to God had been turned into something very different from that original decree in Leviticus outlining the different ways that offerings could be made to God. God had been forgotten. The profit motive had replaced the goal of giving thanks and honoring God. The actions were similar, but the intent to worship God was no longer part of the goals of Jewish leadership. We get into trouble when we are going through the motions. It is easy to think that the money that we’ve earned belongs to us. It is easy to believe that we don’t need to give our best to God, but God explained to Moses that we should give our best to God when we give our offerings.

Now, we understand the background of the business happening at the temple. There were a lot of faithful people coming to the temple to make their offerings to God. People were coming without the right animals for an offering. They had to pay a very high price to be able to honor God in the Jewish temple.

The time of year that Jesus went to the temple was Passover. Passover celebrates the time when God passed over the Hebrew households in Egypt during the final plague which was the death of the firstborn. The story is summarized in Exodus 12:26-27 “And when your children ask you, ‘What do you mean by this observance?’ You shall say, ‘It is the Passover sacrifice to the Lord, for he passed over the houses of the Israelites in Egypt, when he struck down the Egyptians but spared our houses.”

Jesus referred to the temple as “my Father’s house in John 2:13-22. He firmly believed that the temple should be a place of worship, not a place for profit. He also firmly stated that he was the son of God. I’m not sure if the Jewish priests and elders were more upset about losing the business in the temple or having Jesus tell them that he was Jesus Christ.

The Jewish leaders asked Jesus if he was the son of God. They did not have the faith to believe that they were face to face with the Messiah. Blessed are those who believe without seeing. The Jewish leaders wanted Jesus to prove he was the Messiah by showing them signs, miracles, and wonders. We have to believe in God before we can see God’s signs, miracles, and wonders. Jesus is not a magician who is willing to do magic tricks to make us believe in him.

Jesus was talking about his future crucifixion and resurrection in three days.
Jesus also was explaining that our bodies are temples to God. God lives within each one of us. We are filled with the power of the Holy Spirit. We don’t have to go to the temple to worship God anymore. We have a personal relationship with God because God gave us his only son. Even the disciples did not understand the crucifixion and resurrection until after Jesus rose from the grave on the third day. Jesus died on the cross so that we may be saved. God set the example on gifts when he gave Jesus as the offering so that we might live and have eternal life. Jesus was without blemish and he was the best that God could give us.

God was giving the world the very best he had to offer. He was giving his only son to the world as a sacrifice. Jesus Christ was holy and without sin. Jesus Christ was going to be the lamb at the altar to be the sin offering for the world. The body and blood of Jesus Christ was taking the place of all of the offerings that was outlined in Leviticus. We don’t have to sacrifice a lamb or a dove on our alter, because “God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believes in him shall not perish, but have eternal life.”

Jesus told them that if they destroyed the temple that he would raise it again in three days. The Jewish leaders thought he was talking about the physical Jewish temple, but Jesus was talking about his body instead. The leaders knew that it took forty-six years to build the Jewish temple. The leaders were thinking with their mind and logic and not with their faith to understand what Jesus was trying to tell them. The leaders were trying to understand the Messiah using physical things that they understood like the Jewish temple. We need to believe before we see God with our eyes. We need to believe God by seeing with our heart and with the gifts of the Holy Spirit.

We are weak without God’s strength. We also don’t have wisdom and knowledge without God. The scripture in 1 Corinthians 1:18-25 makes this plain to us. It warns those who trust intelligence instead of God. “Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?” The wisdom of this world tells us that there is no God and that man can create life. The wisdom of this world tells us that if we can’t touch it, see it, and prove it in an experiment, then it doesn’t exist. If we don’t understand the meaning of the cross, then we will perish. God has made the wisdom of the world foolish. Two of the gifts of the Holy Spirit is wisdom and knowledge. God also gives us the ability to discern truth and his love in our lives.

In order to see and understand God, we must not rely on ourselves, the wisdom or truths of the world. If we don’t give our best to God in our offerings, we are losing an opportunity to serve God with our whole heart. God wants us to trust his wisdom. If we walk this world alone, we are weak. If we walk this world with God, we are strong. If we rely on God’s wisdom, then we are truly wise.

Resurrection is victory over death. Jesus had to talk about his death and resurrection many times at the end of his ministry on this earth. The disciples and even those that loved him did not fully understand by hearing about his death and resurrection. They had to see to fully understand what Jesus was saying.

We must understand without seeing Jesus emerging from the tomb. The way we understand God’s greatest gift is to pray, sing praises to God, and worship together. We also must ask God for wisdom, knowledge, and discernment to understand how something so wonderful that happened over 2,000 years ago impacts our lives today. Amen!