Luke 19: Christ Cleanses His Temples

For the nation of Israel, no feast was more culturally significant than the Passover. Roughly fifteen centuries before Jesus cleansed the temple, God’s people were enslaved in the land of Egypt, which was the mightiest empire on the face of the earth. The Lord then called upon the prophet Moses to confront Pharaoh and demand the release of His people. When Pharaoh refused, the Lord unleashed a series of plagues upon the land of Egypt. Prior to sending the tenth and final plague (i.e., the death of firstborn sons), the Lord instructed each Israelite household to slaughter an unblemished lamb and to paint the doorposts of their home with its blood. All households marked by the lamb’s blood were spared from the curse of death. This great act of deliverance, which anticipated the sacrificial ministry of Jesus, was memorialized when God commanded an annual celebration of the Passover feast.

This day shall be for you a memorial day, and you shall keep it as a feast to the Lord; throughout your generations, as a statute forever, you shall keep it as a feast (Ex 12:14). 

The Perfect Storm for Corruption

Each year, millions of faithful Jews and Gentiles would make the long journey from their homelands to the temple in Jerusalem in order to present a sacrifice in celebration of the Passover and to partake in the feast. Rather than bringing animals with them on the journey and risking the chance of having the priests reject their animals as blemished, the people would often bring money in order to purchase a lamb or doves, which had been pre-approved by temple priests. The people were also required to pay a half-shekel tax to support the temple. However, payments would not be accepted if they were made in foreign currencies like Roman denarii, because these coins featured pagan images and inscriptions.

Those seeking to worship God would be forced to convert their currency into acceptable forms of payment. As a result, the temple’s Court of the Gentiles was flooded with money changers and merchants. This created a perfect storm for corruption and greed. And sadly, these money changers often exploited foreigners with grossly unfair exchange rates. God intended for the Passover celebration to remind the people of His faithfulness to deliver them. Likewise, the Passover sacrifices were intended to sober the people as they witnessed the scale of the slaughter, which was required for the sins of the people. The Jewish historian Josephus estimated that 255,600 lambs were slaughtered in Jerusalem’s temple during the Passover celebration in 66 ad. But rather than drawing the hearts of the people to worship and repentance, it had been transformed into an occasion for swindlers to prosper. Sadly, in the chaos of the irreverent commerce, the worship of God was entirely neglected. 

And he entered the temple and began to drive out those who sold, saying to them, “It is written, ‘My house shall be a house of prayer,’ but you have made it a den of robbers” (Luke 19:45-46).

Zeal for the Lord’s Temple

When Jesus entered into the temple court and he saw the abuse of religion for the sake of greed and corruption, He became furious. This is not a side of Jesus that we are used to seeing. When confronted by prostitutes and tax collectors, Jesus demonstrated gentleness and compassion. He tenderly pointed them toward a life of dignity and repentance. However, in this instance, Jesus exhibits a righteous anger and a zeal that will not tolerate irreverence or exploitation in the temple of the Lord.

While we might not realize it, this story is quite instructive for believers today. In each of the Gospels, we find this story in which Jesus entered into His temple and forcefully sought to purge the temple of all hypocrisy, exploitation, and unclean elements. The Gospel of John informs us that Christ’s zeal to maintain purity within the temple of God had consumed Him. With this zeal, the personification of pure love was willing to brandish a whip and cleanse His temple.

So here’s a doctrinal bombshell… YOU are now the temple of the Lord, and the Spirit of God now dwells in YOU (1 Corinthians 3:16). So what does this mean for us, as believers?  Just as Christ zealously guarded the holiness of God’s temple, so too does the Holy Spirit maintain an incredible zeal to maintain purity in the temple of the Lord. The Lord who dwells inside of you will not stand idly by and comfortably share your heart with sin. The Spirit simply will not allow your sinful nature to comfortably set up shop at the bargaining table of your heart. When you feel deep conviction and godly sorrow for sin, take comfort in knowing that the Holy Spirit is tossing over the tables of our hearts! He is demonstrating the same zeal that consumed Jesus. The Lord is jealous for your affections, and He will not share His temple with petty idols. He loves you too much!

After Jesus demonstrated his zeal in driving out the animals and the money-changers, the Jews demanded a sign to prove that Jesus had authority to take charge this way in the temple. Jesus’ response was quite beautiful. He simply told them: “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” The text then tells us that he was speaking of his own death and resurrection. Why would this be a sign of Jesus’ authority to cleanse the temple? What does Jesus’ death and resurrection have to do with the cleansing of the temple? It has everything to do with the cleansing of His temple.

At the beginning of John’s Gospel, Jesus fashioned a whip and drove those who greedily exploited religion from the courtyard of the holy temple. These men sold doves (i.e., the emblem of the Spirit), and they took advantage of those seeking to worship God. Such an injustice infuriated our Lord. Yet at the end of Christ’s life, this story is inverted upon Jesus, and everything is turned on its head.

When Jesus was betrayed, one of His closest disciples exploited his religious position and sold the Lord for silver coins. Ironically, the Lamb of God was sold cheaply, and the priests ensured his sacrifice. But at the end of the Gospel, it is not Jesus who approaches the temple brandishing a whip. Instead, the Roman soldiers bring forth their own whips and viciously flog our Lord (i.e., our true temple). Incredibly, it would be these lashings that would ultimately serve to purify the hearts of His temples. Once again, Christ was zealously cleansing His temples in the eyes of God. Only this cleansing came through his suffering. As Isaiah wrote, “By His stripes we are healed” (Isaiah 53:5).

We are naturally uncomfortable in imagining this scene in which our Lord drove people from His dwelling place. After reading about such a gracious and gentle Savior, we are stunned by the intensity of the Lord’s displeasure with man’s sin. Yet on the Cross, Jesus was transformed into a temple far more revolting than the temple in Jerusalem. In the temple of His body, Jesus consumed the sin of all the world! Your sin! My sin! In that moment, Jesus was utterly revolting in the sight of God. And the same zeal that consumed Jesus in His righteous indignation over the impurities within the Jerusalem temple consumed the Father as He poured forth His fiercest wrath upon our sin-drenched Savior.

Now you are the temple of God — a house of prayer. But the Cross was the cost of your cleansing!