John 2:15, commentary and pictures

Early in His public ministry at a crowded Passover He found the outer court turned into a noisy cattle market where priests and traders sold sacrificial animals at extortionate prices and brokered temple money for great profit. Gathering a scourge of small cords He drove out traders, buyers, sheep and oxen, told the sellers of doves to take them away, poured out the changers' money and overthrew their tables. Though appearing as a youthful travel-stained Galilean He acted by divine authority with stern dignity and searching power, so hardened priests, rulers and merchants fled without resistance and left the courts in solemn silence. The act announced His mission as Messiah zealous for God's house and as the one who cleanses the human heart-temple from selfish lusts, evil habits and worldly clutter to dwell there by the Holy Spirit. That first cleansing, repeated with greater authority near the close of His ministry, is the pattern for His purification of the church through trial and for the cleansing He will again perform in displeasure just before His second coming when commerce and hurry have crowded God out.

Passover Setting and Corrupt Trade

John 2:15 took place early on a Passover morning when Jerusalem was crowded with worshipers come from a distance, and the temple courts were filled with those needing sacrificial animals and the exchange of foreign money and different denominations for temple coins. The outer court had been arranged as a cattle market and place of general traffic, with stalls for beasts and tables where the priests themselves acted as money-brokers and exchangers, because custom required each Passover attendant to pay money to the priests on entering. Under the plea of accommodating those who had come too far to bring their own offerings, cattle, sheep, doves and sparrows were sold at exorbitant prices, and the changing of money had grown into a disgraceful traffic and source of great profit shared by the dealers with the avaricious priesthood and men of authority among the Jews. That profit was made still larger by the immense number of beasts sacrificed yearly at the Passover.

The trade was fraudulent extortion and robbery that oppressed and burdened worshipers, who were exploited by greed and treated like thieves in God's sight. It bore especially hard on the poor, who were distressed and burdened by unfair prices while believing they must buy sacrifices to secure God's blessing and forgiveness. Sharp bargaining, buying and selling, lowing of cattle, bleating of sheep, cooing of doves, chinking of coin and angry disputation made confusion like a noisy cattle market rather than the sacred temple of God. That noise disturbed worship inside and drowned out prayer, disrupting the sacred purpose of the temple service.

The sacrifices were offered without understanding that they represented the one perfect Sacrifice present among them unrecognized and unhonored, so their symbolic meaning was perverted and misunderstood. Worship had thus lost its spiritual meaning, no longer joining priests and rulers to God, and the traffic had become a means of gain instead of prompting repentance and obedience. The turning of the outer court into a marketplace had been arranged by the chief authorities of the temple, so the crowd driven out was comparatively innocent beside them. The great sin of desecration lay upon the priesthood, hypocritical speculators who under cover of holy profession practiced extortion and perverted and disgraced their sacred office into a source of personal revenue.

Actions of the Cleansing

This was the first cleansing of the temple at the beginning of Christ's public ministry, when seeing God dishonored and the people oppressed He drove out sellers, buyers, traders and animals, poured out the changers' money, and overturned their tables. The buying and selling had turned its court during Passover into a noisy market where worldly trade desecrated His Father's house, the money charged for sacrificial offerings was robbery of the people, and priests profited from money-changing and overpriced sacrificial animals. His action confronted the temple's conversion into a place of unjust trade and extortionate traffic, and showed His authority to cleanse it of sacrilegious business. It condemned the sacrilegious practices of the Pharisees and their hypocritical religion consisting of forms and ceremonies, where rigorous exactions stood without reverence for the true requirements of God which were daily trampled beneath their feet.

He made and gathered a scourge of small cords, picking up a whip left from driving animals, then surveyed the traffic, commanded the traders out, overthrew the tables so coin rang on the marble floor, and drove dignitaries, priests, brokers, cattle-traders, sheep, oxen, doves and sparrows beyond the sacred portals. At Passover sellers had charged exorbitant prices for sacrificial animals, burdening poor people who believed sacrifices were necessary for forgiveness, and Jesus drove out the traders exploiting worshipers through unfair trade with their animals. He did not strike the traders with the scourge, but its presence in His hand made His authority and condemnation seem terrible.

He did not drive out the doves with the scourge but told their sellers to take them away, because doves were the poor people's only offering. After the sellers were removed the suffering and afflicted remained in the courts, where they had come to present offerings and ask blessing on fields, crops, children and homes, making way for acts of mercy. The cleansing made way for acts of mercy in which He healed the sick, restored sight and speech, enabled the lame to leap, cast out demons, and blessed dying infants who returned well to their mothers. His authority to drive out those who profaned the temple was thus joined with compassion for the suffering.

Manner and Divine Authority

The driving out was done by divine authority, not by human power. Though He stood in the courts as a travel-stained youthful Galilean, divinity shone through humanity, and His very presence made the temple sacred as His presence had sanctified Sinai. That sudden forceful display of divinity through human form also foreshadowed the judgment in which hidden sins will face those who reject God's messages.

He surveyed the traffic with calm dignity turning stern and terrible, until fear and awe hushed all bargaining as if arraigned before God. He rose in the majesty of His sacred mission, lifted above humanity, with a ringing voice like the voice at Sinai, a searching gaze that exposed hypocrites and robbers, and the lifted whip looking in His hand like a kingly scepter. That look and command struck the crowd with sudden fear, condemnation, panic, and conviction of His mastery. With stern, Godlike authority He struck terror into the traders.

He did not strike anyone with the whip, but used the scourge to drive them out. To guilty eyes its appearance in His hand seemed like circling gleaming swords, and guilt and fear made the simple cords seem like threatening swords and a flaming sword. So the crowd felt threatened by divine judgment and by His authority and condemnation.

His authority was irresistible, so that even the most hardened and avaricious traders, dignitaries, priests, rulers, brokers, cattle-traders and merchants fled precipitately in panic from a single youthful Galilean, without resistance and without stopping to gather their money though coin rang on the marble floor. They fled as though pursued by armed soldiers, leaving the courts free from unholy commerce in deep solemn silence.

The act announced His mission as Messiah and the beginning of His work, proclaiming Him the Son of the Eternal. It displayed zeal for the sacredness of God's house and authority to cleanse it of sacrilegious business and unjust trade, and it anticipates His work of opposing those who obstruct the gospel and make merchandise of God's grace.

Responses and Results Afterward

Many were convicted that the driving out of sheep and oxen and the overturning of the tables with irresistible authority marked Him as sent by God and as the long-expected Messiah. His appearance and the tones of His voice, together with the power He exercised over the multitude, were freely talked about and discussed by Pharisees, priests and elders. Nicodemus witnessed that display of power and, joined with Christ's care for the poor and sick, took it as evidence of a divine commission.

The act should have brought the Jews to His feet as worshipers, for it revealed an authority surpassing that of the temple leaders. Instead leaders feared that His greater works and superhuman authority would take their power and influence over the people. They expected a king who would come with great pomp and exalt the nation politically, and they hated His teaching of humility and love, so they hardened their hearts and determined to disbelieve. Their terror showed they recognized their guilt and felt themselves judged as hypocrites and robbers, yet they resented His rebuke and growing influence and refused to repent. After panic subsided they drifted back irresolute and timid, amazed at His cures yet wondering at their own terror, questioning His right to interfere with temple dignitaries and rebuke them with greater authority than their own, and not daring at once to resume their occupation.

The crowd driven out was comparatively innocent, because the turning of the outer court into a marketplace had been arranged by the chief authorities, so the great sin of desecration lay upon the priesthood who perverted their sacred office for profit. Fleeing moneychangers, priests, rulers and merchants warned others on their way to the temple that a man with authority had driven out the animals and expelled them. The day after the cleansing He spent healing the sick and relieving the afflicted in the temple, comforting sufferers who had come to present offerings and ask blessing. The cleansing made way for acts of mercy in which He restored sight and speech, enabled the lame to leap, cast out demons, and blessed dying infants who returned well to their mothers. He looked on the fleeing crowd with deep pity, and many who remained hoped He was the Messiah.

Reports of His power against priestly greed, abuse and arrogance spread to Galilee with those returning from Passover, and led many to hope He was the promised Deliverer who could put the rulers to flight. That report helped prepare Galilee to receive Him and encouraged the nobleman to believe He could heal his dying son. The disciples remembered this display of power and later hoped He would again disperse His enemies at His trial and prove Himself King of Israel. The scene also symbolized the dispersion of the Jewish nation for wickedness and impenitence, and foreshadowed the judgment in which those who reject God's messages will face the sins they have hidden. That He drove the defilers frightened from His presence by a look or word proves He possessed divine power able to strike down the excited multitude in the judgment hall like dead men and deliver Himself from their power. He did not use that power there because it was in the plan of redemption that He should suffer the scorn and abuse of wicked men, to which He had consented when He became Redeemer.

First and Second Cleansing Pattern

John 2:15 belongs to the first cleansing of the temple at the commencement of Christ's public ministry, three years before a second and final cleansing near the close of His earthly mission. The cleansing at the beginning was repeated near the end because the temple remained desecrated and the priesthood corrupt, with the same unholy traffic and sacrilegious commerce for profit still defiling it. That traffic had turned the sacred Passover service into a means of gain instead of prompting repentance and obedience, and had obscured that animal offerings pointed to Christ's sacrifice and His blood shed for the life of the world. His sudden forceful driving out of traders and animals and overturning of the money changers' tables displayed divinity shining through His human form, and His words and actions also foreshadowed the judgment in which those who reject God's messages will face hidden sins.

At the first cleansing Jesus was youthful and a single humble man, yet at His command the dignitaries of the temple fled precipitately in unquestioning obedience. Afterward they were ashamed of their undignified surrender and wondered at their own fear. The second cleansing was done with greater authority, with indignation that quenched opposition and trumpet-like tones, driving all with cattle and merchandise in greater terror and haste from the temple of the Most High. Both cleansings together show that Christ with all His infinite love and mercy can execute stern justice. By the time of the later cleansing the courts had become even more defiled than three years earlier, and although reforming the corrupt priesthood would be in vain He still had to do the work entrusted to Him after the people proclaimed Him King of Israel and He accepted their homage and the office of king and priest.

The two cleansings form a pattern for the last warning work for the world, in which two distinct calls are made to the churches. The first corresponds to the second angel's message, and the second corresponds to the voice from heaven calling God's people to come out of Babylon because her sins have reached unto heaven and God has remembered her iniquities. The cleansing at His first advent is the pattern for a cleansing He will again perform in displeasure just prior to His second advent. That future cleansing is needed because commercial work has been brought in and God has been forgotten amid hurry here and hurry there with no time to think of heaven, in violation of the principles of God's law. Those who say, The temple of the Lord are we, do not thereby gain authority to do things the Word of God forbids, and must learn what it means to be temples of the Lord. In the cleansing the principles of God's law are presented with the question how much of the law has been obeyed, as God cleanses and purifies His temple.

The burning of the Review office and a sword of fire hung over Battle Creek are warnings of this cleansing. If leaders go on exalting themselves after these burnings God will next take bodies, speaking to them in language they cannot fail to understand. The cleansing is also a pattern for His purification of the church through tests and trials, for its present and eternal good. As God's temple the church must likewise be purified of defilement, and Christ's purifying of the temple at the beginning of His ministry on earth is the example of how He purifies His church. God cares for His people without ceasing and allows no affliction except what is essential, and every test and trial He brings purifies from the dross of earthliness and comes to give deeper piety and greater strength to carry forward the triumphs of the cross and make it a holy temple. The tables of money-changers beside Rome's altars and the sale of indulgences echo that temple scene, presenting the trade in forgiveness as a profanation of worship and a source of corrupt power.

Spiritual Meaning for the Heart

The driving out of buyers and sellers with a scourge of cords announced the mission to cleanse the human heart from sin, from earthly desires and selfish lusts and evil habits and thoughts. The temple was meant to witness to the high destiny open to every soul, yet it became an object lesson of God's purpose to dwell in every created being. Sin defiled humanity and turned the heart from a temple revealing God's glory, but through the incarnation God dwells in humanity and by saving grace makes the heart His temple again.

The courts occupied by traders picture a heart crowded and cluttered with worldly business and cares and desires, where Christ has no room. Continual business without a living connection with God dries up spirituality and leaves a person Christless. Corrupting the soul-temple, where Christ should dwell, with worldly dealings desecrates it as trading profaned a sacred place. When the heart is occupied by worldly things it is closed to the truth, yet the truth can renew and transform even its hidden places.

The purifying illustrates the inward work that must be accomplished in everyone who would secure eternal life. It is the great necessity of a new moral birth, a removal of polluting sins and a restoration to true knowledge and genuine holiness through the transforming work of the Holy Spirit. Not one who fled that day was fitted by grace to be connected with the sacred services, for zeal to appear holy and strict attention to the letter of the law did not make holy in heart while the spirit of the law was violated.

The act struck directly at the selfish, avaricious spirit beneath outward show of religion, exposing those who honored the letter while neglecting inner holiness. It showed professed children of Abraham refusing his example, zealous for external righteousness while transgressing daily the spirit that forbids hatred and theft and making the Father's house a den of thieves. Name and position count for nothing beside virtue and purity of character and honesty and righteous dealing. Mere profession of religion has no value before God; what matters is a pure, holy character maintained with strict integrity, with gain never taking the place of godliness nor outward display taking the place of inward purity.

Cleansing the temple of pollution with authority and holy wrath illustrates the desire to cleanse hearts of anything resembling fraud. The fearless rebuke of religious hypocrisy and corruption was marked by truth and holiness in word and action. Dishonest traffic profaning the temple shows that violators of God's law will face the consequences of rebellion against Creator and Redeemer.

Pure religion expressed in works of mercy and love enters the polluted soul-temple and drives out sinful intruders. It then takes the throne and consecrates the soul by its presence. So cleared of sin and worldly influences, the heart can receive the indwelling Spirit of God.

The driving out is the removal of all that defiles from heart and mind so the Spirit can take possession of heart and mind. More than intellectual knowledge of the truth is required; heart as well as understanding must be enlarged by heartwork. None is left to question personal need of a personal Saviour, for the worker into whose experience true conversion has not entered cannot be used. In this time of test and trial, working with Christ forms character after the divine pattern and likeness.

Jesus must occupy the heart each day and cleanse it from defilement, from selfishness and unbelief and impurity. Cleansing the soul-temple means removing worldliness and keeping God's entrusted goods separate from worldly commerce. Those who need cleansing are to look to Jesus in faith and claim Him as Saviour.

Applications to Worship and Institutions

The same cleansing shown in the making of the scourge applies to schools for youth, for should Christ enter them He would cleanse them as He cleansed the temple. He would banish the many things that have a defiling influence in order to elevate the standard of righteousness with instruction after God's order. Many of the books the youth study would be expelled as teaching falsehood and corrupting ideas, and their places would be filled with books that inculcate substantial knowledge, abound in sentiments to be treasured in the heart, and give precepts that safely govern conduct and shape heart and conduct.

He would likewise remove from the publishing office and God's publishing house literature that dishonors Him and undermines faith. The same kind of defilement happens when God's publishing house is defiled by commercial and objectionable printing work that should never have been given to the workers, when commercial work has displaced its sacred purpose of publishing present truth. That defilement from misuse, injustice, selfishness and unprincipled conduct is tenfold more disastrous and even worse than the defilement of the temple when God's house, which is to be called the house of prayer, had been made a den of thieves. As when He was upon earth He drove out corruption and overthrew defilement in the temple, so He will just as surely cleanse the Review and Herald Office from its defilement if there is not a change. The cleansing confronts men who are not under control to God, not walking in the light, without the working of the Spirit upon mind and character, with strange ideas of purity, justice and righteousness, and without sense of the difference between sacred and common fire.

The commercial work grown large and crowding out the purpose for which the institution was established is the same offense to God that required driving buyers, sellers, sheep, oxen and money-changers from the temple. Selfishness and covetousness which is idolatry, corrupted principles, unsanctified judgment in the work received and handled, and placing human judgment above Bible directions are that same offense. The same desecration takes place when God's publishing house accepts commercial work displeasing to God and prints matter containing principles that lead to false doctrines, which shows blindness and lack of spiritual discernment. Its influence poisons the minds of the workers just as the temple desecration by commercial, money-handling work had a corrupting influence on those connected with it.

The cleansing is the pattern for God cleansing institutions into which corruption has been brought, and the judgments upon the two largest institutions are God speaking to the workers in them and to all in His other institutions, declaring there is to be a reformation and that He will cleanse them. Unless men's ideas of right and wrong are entirely changed there is cause to tremble for the future. The same cleansing will soon come upon the publishing house where leading men do not take time to talk with God and are not led and guided by justice, integrity and the love of God, but show unsanctified individuality and follow a perverse, unsanctified, crooked course. The Lord will not bear with such iniquity long, and the longer men practice iniquity the harder and more unimpressible their hearts become, while the printing of false doctrine poisons workers' minds.

The cleansing of the temple is applied to the institution at Battle Creek: Christ is needed to remove buying and selling, corrupt practices, and principles that deprive people of their rights. God does not want His temple to become a den of thieves and money changers but wants it purified and His servants pious and holy, and His favor cannot be restored while fraud and injustice remain. His action in driving out those engaged in commerce and overturning the money changers' tables provides the pattern for speaking against and removing injustice, fraudulent dealings and moral pollution, including in the publishing house.

He will surely cleanse His temple, which is His institutions with their representative workers standing in high places, of selfish grasping for higher wages and power. The cleansing is aimed at lawyers and leading workmen who manipulate the various lines of work, plan and scheme for higher wages and greater authority to do as they please, and appropriate to themselves their own estimate of their labor while ministers and missionaries are cut down in wages. This selfishness is a branch of selfishness devised by Satan to ruin souls, into which judgment and equity cannot enter and with which God will not work. It must be cut off through sanctification of the truth in the life, or the whole plant will be uprooted and destroyed, for the unequal distribution leaves no means to send workers into cities and places where the truth has never entered.

The cleansing serves as the example for removing underhand and concealed practices from a place of work by the converting power of God and the transforming grace of Christ. It is applied to the need for institutions to be cleansed of selfishness that harms others and of selfish, arrogant rule that makes one person lord it over another's conscience. The Lord's cleansing is applied to cleansing the Board of people unfit to serve because dishonesty and an unchristian spirit govern their management, and those who refuse to reform will be allowed to reveal the spirit controlling them. At His first advent it illustrates that the course of hostile clergy and rulers needed to be regulated, purified and cleansed.

He would drive out those who desecrate churches through feasting and unholy trade conducted in religion's name. His action overturning the money-changers' tables and removing the animals is the rebuke due when churches turn religious worship into unholy trade or use appetite and pleasure to raise money. Christ with a scourge of small cords would likewise drive out people who use religious meetings to sell goods and pursue gain, diverting attention from the meetings' purpose, and who bring selfish speculation into places entrusted to sacred purposes. Such desecration of houses of worship through worldly pleasures, theatrical plays, fairs, and buying and selling reflects the impiety that existed among God's favored people during His ministry, and when those in responsible positions vacate them He will make a thorough cleansing. Jesus driving out those who profaned the temple is applied to the display of fashionable dress and ornaments in churches, which dishonors the house of God, and Jesus would drive out those who desecrate it in this way.

The scourge of small cords represents the correction needed to remove practices that are unlawful despite being treated as acceptable. Applied to physicians, selfishness and extortion have no place in Christian service, for dishonest and exploitative practices are evils that need to be driven out. When physicians become extortioners, Christ can only drive them from His courts.

This driving of defilement out of the temple and overthrowing what polluted it supports health reform in its object to give life and health and to cure and prevent sickness. It requires ministers to become intelligent on true health reform and teach its principles by precept and by quiet, consistent example, arousing intellect and conscience to practice temperance in all things. It is cited in connection with the duty of all to care for the body, preserve its powers and physical powers for acceptable service to God, and respect the laws that sustain health and the body's sacred purpose.