And Jesus went into the temple of God, and cast out all them that sold.
The purification of the temple
I. This act shows the mind of Jesus concerning the reverence which is due to the house of God. He regarded it not so much as the temple of the Jews as the temple of God; He revered it more than they did. Their reverence was formal, pompous, selfish; His was spiritual, looking with solemn eyes on the meaning of its name, and the holiness of its purpose. It was sacred to the holiest hopes of man. The place where human souls held communion with the Father cannot be common.
II. The purification of the temple seems to be a striking intimation of the great purpose of His ministry, to purify God’s worship everywhere, in the outward and inward temple, in the house, the heart, the life.
III. We may behold in this act of our Saviour one of the primary expressions of the universal and impartial philanthropy of His gospel; that noble principle which, regardless of prejudice or artificial distinction, gathers in the whole family into one equal brotherhood, one worshipping assembly, under the roof of one undivided sanctuary. The desecrated portion was the court of the Gentiles. All is holy. The rights of Gentiles are to Jesus as sacred as those of the Jews. The temple was His Father’s house. (F. W. P. Greenwood, D. D.)
Thieves in the temple
What is that which we must labour to destroy? What weeds be those which we must endeavour to root out? We read here, that our Saviour did cast buyers and sellers out of the temple, terming them “thieves.” For although to buy and sell be actions in themselves lawful and honest, yet the time and place, with other circumstances, may so change their quality, that he which buyeth shall be as one that robbeth, and he that selleth as one that stealeth. They bought and sold in the temple; this Christ condemneth. Yet behold what a beautiful colour they had set upon their wicked practices, to make them seem allowable before men! For of the judgment of God they made no account. It is written in the law (Deuteronomy 14:23-26). Under the pretence of providing that, according to this law, men which dwelt far off might always, at their coming to the temple, have sacrifices there, and offerings in a readiness to present before the Lord; their covetous humour fed itself upon the people without all fear of God, without any reverence at all of His sanctuary. May they not justly be termed “thieves,” who, pretending thus to serve the Lord in His sacrifices, robbed and spoiled Him in His saints? No doubt Jerusalem, had she known the things which belonged to her peace, would have blessed the hour wherein the Lord of the house came to ease that holy place of so intolerable burthens, to rid His temple of so noisome filth. (Archbishop Sandys.)
Den of thieves
An expression that was probably used by our Lord in allusion to the rocky caves and dens in the mountainous parts of Judaea, which were often the receptacles of thieves and robbers. (C. Bulkley.)
The temple of God
The relation we have by the Evangelist of the way in which the Lord came outwardly to His temple may suggest to us His coming to the temple of the human heart; for we are told the soul of every Christian is a temple. The stones of the temple on Mount Moriah were common stones till they were consecrated for God’s house and service. So the talents, the capabilities, the powers, and, above all, the affections, become by conversion and regeneration a dwelling-place for Jesus. He refines and purifies them, and the figure of the legal consecration becomes in the gospel scheme a real and vital holiness. Let us recollect that the sheep and oxen, the doves, and the tables of the money-changers, were all in themselves needful and right. It was bringing these things even into the outer court of the temple that defiled it. So it is with the temple of the heart. How does selfishness, how do selfish schemes gradually creep into Christian hearts-nay, how do they sometimes at last find a footing in the inmost shrine! The Christian whose heart has once been purged from his old sins is not in a position of absolute security because he is in Christ, but only if he abide in Christ, and is bringing forth really good fruit. The Lord’s choicest earthly blessings misused become, if not idols, yet like the doves, not occupying the right place. And our Lord’s action warns those who, on whatever pretext, use His outward visible Church for unholy purposes. (R. Barclay.)
Cherished evils
I recollect when in Pompeii I saw, in what two thousand years ago was a large and splendid house, a shrine or temple where the Lares and Penates were placed; and its shape and form are still in existence, in professedly Christian lands, under a Christian guise. Is there not sometimes something which has a resemblance to this in Christian hearts, or in Christian families-relics of the old nature, things not quite sanctioned by our conscience, dispositions of mind not quite in accordance with the mind that was in Christ Jesus, which have nevertheless been entertained until we are almost unconscious of our danger? (R. Barclay.)
Christ cleansing the temple
We have a similar record to this in each of the four Gospels.
I. The place at which this event occurred. Jesus went into the temple of God.
1. The appliances and construction of the temple in our Lord’s time indicated a process of development in the system of Judaism.
2. It was into the capacious court of the Gentiles that our Lord entered, and in which He found these desecrations. That the Jew should have done this, marked a want of reverence and a proper spiritual feeling with regard to God’s worship that was most strange when contrasted with all the holy traditions of that sacred place.
II. The time and the significance of this occurrence. The chronology of the first three Gospels differ considerably from that of the fourth. I have no hesitation in saying that this act was done twice-that it did occur at the beginning and at the end of His ministry. I can see a considerable difference in the circumstances at each period. We may interpret the first doing of this act, as recorded by John, as done almost exclusively, certainly pre-eminently, as Jesus the prophet-as a reformer, as one belonging to the old dispensation, and speaking -in the spirit of it. But at the end of His ministry the act had a deeper significance and a wider meaning: “My house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations.” That which is polluted and degenerate, let it pass away. Let a new age come. Let a new dispensation be established, and let all the nations of the earth be welcomed, etc. He did this second action more emphatically in His character as Messiah. In each separate act there was a deep significance, and both teach their peculiar lessons.
III. Some of the general lessons of instruction which we may gather from them. (T. Binney.)
The cleansing of the temple
Jesus Christ
(1) did not connive at abuses for the sake of securing popular favour;
(2) did not allow abuses to be continued on the ground that the circumstances were temporary; He knew the temple would soon be destroyed;
(3) showed that man’s convenience was to be subordinated to God’s right;
(4) showed in this, as in all other cases, that the right one is morally stronger than the wicked many. (J. Parker, D. D.)
Varied worshippers
The temple itself is full of vacant worship. It resounds with rash vows and babbling voices. It is the house of God; but man has made it a nest of triflers, a fair of vanity, a den of thieves. Some come to it as reckless and irreverent as if they were stepping into a neighbour’s house. Some come to it, and feel as if they had laid the Most High under obligation, because they bring a sheaf of corn or a pair of pigeons; whilst they never listen to God’s word, nor strive after that obedience which is better than sacrifice. Some come and rattle over empty forms of devotions, as if they would be heard because of their much speaking. And some, in a fit of fervour, utter vows which they forget to pay; and, when reminded of their promise, they protest that there must be some mistake; they repudiate the vow, and say it was an error. (Dr. J. Hamilton.)
A worshipping spirit
It was said of Sir William Cecil, sometime Lord Treasurer of England, that when he went to bed he would throw off his gown and say, “Lie there, Lord Treasurer,” as bidding adieu to all State affairs, that he might the more quietly repose himself: so when we go to any religious duty, we should say, “Lie by, world; lie by, all secular cares, all household affairs, all pleasures, all traffic, all thoughts of gain; lie by all; adieu all!”
The blind and the lame;-physical infirmities typical of moral defects
It demands but little acquaintance with Holy Scripture to be aware that either of these two forms of bodily ailment is the common, as well as the obvious emblem of a corresponding moral defect (Isaiah 42:7; Isaiah 9:2; Isaiah 35:6). To these two classes of cures Christ Himself refers as evidence of His Messiahship (Matthew 11:4-5). A subject is thus set before us in which we find our place without difficulty. We are reminded of our own great spiritual infirmities; of our need of His Almighty aid who poured the light of day on sightless eyes, and gave those ankle-bones strength which before were powerless in Israel.
I. For surely the life of many of us-Our own life, in too many respects, is the life of the blind. We grope our way in self-reliance, and we often lose it. We stumble and fall. We feel after, and we find not; we reach forth, and we grasp not.
1. We read God’s Holy Word, yet we see nothing, or very little, of the many wonders which it contains. The veil is upon our hearts while we read.
2. We look abroad on the Miracles of Love which surround our dwelling; we look within, on the mystery of Divine goodness in which we live and move and have our being; yet we recognize little or nothing of the hand of God either within or without us.
II. Who, again, does not see in the helplessness of the lame a lively type of his own condition which, so far from “running in the way of God’s commandments,” knows not how to “walk with God” for a single hour?
1. Reluctant to begin what we know to be holy.
2. Unwilling to persevere in good courses begun.
3. Sluggish in spiritual growth.
4. Remiss in prayer, regarding it as a task instead of a recreation. (J. W. Burgon, D. D.)