‘And the Passover of the Jews was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.'
John constantly tells us that Jesus went up to Jerusalem for the different Feasts of the Jews, and especially for the Passover (John 1:13; John 5:1; John 7:10; John 10:22; John 11:55 with John 12:12). But even if we had not been told we would have assumed it. One point that is being made is that Jesus did not ignore the traditions of Israel. It is probable also that the writer saw these feasts as pointing forwards towards what the Christ had come to do as the Lamb of God Who would take away the sins of the world (John 1:29). This is apparently Jesus' first Passover after taking up His calling. Perhaps John therefore intends us to link it with the final Passover, and to bring to us an awareness of the shadow that lies already over the ministry of Jesus, something that will come out in the course of the narrative. These verses emphasise that Jesus' ministry continued over some years. All these emphases underline the Jewishness of the writer.
However, the incident he will now describe is paralleled at the end of Jesus' life by what at a superficial first glance looks to be a similar incident before His final denunciation (Mark 11:12-19 and parallels), and this must raise the question as to whether there were two such incidents or one. It is of course always possible that John deliberately puts the incident here in order to reinforce the message that the old is passing way and the new has come (chronology was not a major factor to the Gospel writers). He does, however, put it in such a context that it suggests that it did occur early rather than late in the ministry, and on examination the incidents are in fact so dissimilar on most counts that it seems far more likely that this is a different incident altogether.
Given the fact that the trading in the Temple must always have angered Jesus this is not surprising, especially in view of Malachi 3:1-4. What is rather surprising is that He did not do something like this every time He went to Jerusalem, although we must recognise that, at least for a period after this incident, they would be on their guard, and He would perhaps realise that such repeated actions could precipitate a collision which would prematurely end His ministry. He knew, after all, that it could only be a token gesture. Having made His point He possibly felt that He had done what was necessary. But by the time of the later incident the passage of years would have convinced the guards that He was no longer a danger. They would have considered that the young hothead had matured and have relaxed their guard. After all the Temple was open to all an it would have caused great consternation among Galileans if Jesus had been excluded. Thus we might consider that two incidents, taking place years apart, might really be expected by us, the first occurring when in His new zeal He faces men up to the matter of the need for purity of worship in the Temple for the first time, the second occurring as a thought out policy in order to expose corruption before He is finally put to death. The first He gets away with as being the act of a zealous young man who may well hold promise for the future, the second is to be a seal on His death warrant.
The reason for His act here is described very differently from that in Mark 11 and parallels, and fits better into the beginnings of His ministry when He was probably not quite as aware, as He was later on, of the dishonesty that was going on in the Temple. The reason described is exactly the kind of reason that might well fire up a younger man without containing the thought out attitude revealed in the later incident. He enters quite innocently into the temple. But becoming aware of the commotion caused by incessant trading in the court of the Gentiles, He feels in His new awareness of His Messiahship that He has to do something, for they are treating God's house like a market and making a mockery of the opportunity for Gentiles to truly worship! He may well have had in mind the words of Zechariah, ‘In that day there will be no more a merchant in the house of the Lord of Hosts' (Zechariah 14:21), and the words of Malachi, ‘The Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple, even the messenger of the covenant whom you delight in --- for he is like a refiner's fire or a launderer's soap --' (Malachi 3:1-3), and ‘zeal for your house will eat me up' (Psalms 69:9). His concentration here was on emptying the temple of the cattle, sheep and doves, although the only way He could demonstrate His displeasure with the money-changers was by turning over the tables.
We should note that in the other incident in Mark 11 He enters the Temple with a deliberate aim (He had looked around earlier). Then His concentration will be on the misbehaviour of the people, and He ignores the cattle and the sheep. He also stops those who are taking a short cut through the Temple, whilst His words are about the total dishonesty of all involved. They have turned the house of prayer into a den of thieves. Given that they took place in the same Temple (there was no other) the two incidents could not be more different.
It is not too surprising that it is not mentioned in the other Gospels, for the other Gospels tell us little about His early ministry in Jerusalem, especially in its earlier stages, concentrating rather on His itinerant ministry, thus they tended to disregard the happenings at the trips to Jerusalem, possibly because they were not present (in John ‘His disciples' is a vague term not necessarily always meaning the twelve), or possibly because they saw Galilee rather than Judea as the true reflection of Jesus ministry. Galilee welcomed Him. Judea put Him to death. But John, who records a number of trips to Jerusalem, perhaps did not wish to jar the account of the final visit by describing a violent visit to the Temple, and perhaps wished to finish his Gospel on a spiritual note with his concentration on the cross. He does after all leave out the physical details of the last Supper, and of Jesus' prayers in Gethsemane, and he ignores Jesus' actual baptism and the transfiguration, while hinting at both. His later concentration is on the new coming of the Spirit. And he might well have seen the repetition of such an event as superfluous to what he wanted to say, or even as taking attention away from what he saw as important.
But he does remember this early incident and describes it because it fits in well with his purpose, to indicate that the new has come. He is well aware that the later cleansing is already well known in the Christian church, whilst an action like this helps to explain why in the other Gospels the leaders are so antagonistic to Jesus at an early stage (e.g. Mark 3:22). And this one provides an opportunity for him to hint at the coming death and resurrection of Jesus (‘Destroy this Temple and I will raise it again in three days').