Luke 19:45-48--Jesus Cleanses the Temple

Luke 19:45-48
English Standard Version

Jesus Cleanses the Temple
45 And he entered the temple and began to drive out those who sold, 46 saying to them, “It is written, ‘My house shall be a house of prayer,’ but you have made it a den of robbers.”

​47 And he was teaching daily in the temple. The chief priests and the scribes and the principal men of the people were seeking to destroy him, 48 but they did not find anything they could do, for all the people were hanging on his words.

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I believe I've alluded to this over the past couple of days as well as there is a consistent them here of Jesus coming and expecting the people to be ready.  The place that He was to come to and that the people were to recognize Him and worship Him was in His holy Temple in Jerusalem.  Jesus had already once before cleansed the Temple at the beginning of His ministry, so this is twice that He has done this within three years.  You think they would have listened the first time, but they went right back to their old ways showed that they were lovers of money and not lovers of God, as even the system of sacrifices was a way to for them to extort and exploit their brothers and sisters who couldn't bring their own animals for sacrifice--either because they were unable to raise their own animals or they came from too far away and their animals couldn't make the journey.

This also happens during the time of purification, when the Jews were supposed to be cleaning their houses of all the leaven that represented the sin in their lives.  Here Jesus is cleaning out the Temple and He speaks of it as "My house."  He did not call it My Father's house this time.  I don't think the Jews missed this.  Jesus identified Himself as the one that people came to the Temple to worship.

So, we've seen Jesus selected as the sacrifice by the people on the day of the Triumphal Entry (Palm Sunday) and He has entered Jerusalem as the Passover lambs are entering through another gate preparing to be inspected.  Only those found to be without blemish will be acceptable, and we are going to see Jesus tried and tested during this period.  The scribes, Pharisees, teachers of the Law, Sadducees, and event he Herodians will all come together to test Jesus and try to prove that He is not worthy, and the people will listen to His teaching and come to the conclusion that He is who He says He is--even the Temple guard who were sent to arrest Him during the time He was preaching in the Temple came back to the religious leaders empty handed because they believed Him and said that the people would have begun to riot if they would have publicly arrested Him.  All this was done to fulfill prophecy, to fulfill the "prophetic type" that Jesus was the Passover Lamb that was to provided redemption and freedom for His people, and the spotless Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world.  Jesus is controlling the timeline here knowing exactly when things need to take place.  He didn't have to be in the Temple to preach during these days leading up to the Feast, but He is making sure the "principal men" come in direct opposition to Him and conclude they must destroy Him.  Their thoughts must be, "How dare He come into our house and say such things....."  But was it their house?  It was not!  They fancied themselves as the owners when they were really just slaves that were given stewardship of God's people and the King had returned.  The LORD was in His holy temple.

Jesus will have much to say in the next few days, but it will be impossible to miss that He is indicting this system of religious leaders who were supposed to prepare people for His coming and failed to do so.  Instead they are out for money, power, and popularity.  They take advantage of the people of God and put burdens on the people they themselves cannot bear and they find ways to exempt themselves from their own laws and regulations (sound like any other politicians you know?).  These leaders see that they are about to lose everything if the judgment comes now or even if the judgment doesn't come, if they allow the people to install Jesus as king, then Rome will respond with a war and they will be ousted from their positions of power that Rome had been quite happy to let them have in exchange for helping Rome keep the people in check.  All the high officials from the High Priest to Herod and of course Pilate were all selected by Rome who had no idea that God had given rules for how these leaders were to be selected.  These were nothing more than political appointments to the Romans, so they picked people that would use religion to manipulate the people, but Jesus would expose this cabal as the phonies that they were.  He was the one who had the authority and the people were recognizing that He was in charge and they were not.  The High Priest will even say this is the reason that they had to kill Him.

This passage is around the same time as today's passage (maybe a little before as the resurrection of Lazarus that happened on the Saturday prior to this sparked this conversation).


John 11:45-57
English Standard Version
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The Plot to Kill Jesus
45 Many of the Jews therefore, who had come with Mary and had seen what he did, believed in him, 46 but some of them went to the Pharisees and told them what Jesus had done. 47 So the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered the council and said, “What are we to do? For this man performs many signs. 48 If we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him, and the Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation.” 49 But one of them, Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, said to them, “You know nothing at all. 50 Nor do you understand that it is better for you that one man should die for the people, not that the whole nation should perish.” 51 He did not say this of his own accord, but being high priest that year he prophesied that Jesus would die for the nation, 52 and not for the nation only, but also to gather into one the children of God who are scattered abroad. 53 So from that day on they made plans to put him to death.

54 Jesus therefore no longer walked openly among the Jews, but went from there to the region near the wilderness, to a town called Ephraim, and there he stayed with the disciples.

55 Now the Passover of the Jews was at hand, and many went up from the country to Jerusalem before the Passover to purify themselves. 56 They were looking for Jesus and saying to one another as they stood in the temple, “What do you think? That he will not come to the feast at all?” 57 Now the chief priests and the Pharisees had given orders that if anyone knew where he was, he should let them know, so that they might arrest him.

See how got put it in the hearts of these leaders to fulfill His good purposes.  They thought they were eliminating the threat to them, but in accord with Genesis 50:20 that what these brothers of Jesus meant for evil, God meant for good and for saving the lives of many of their brethren (and not just the Jews, but also all who would believe in Jesus and come into the family of God by adoption, as Joseph's two sons point to in the Old Testament being a "double blessing" for Joseph).