A Sermon by Thomas Dymock
John 2:13-17. And the Jews’ passover was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem, and found in the temple those that sold oxen, and sheep, and doves, and the changers of money sitting: and when He had made a scourge of small cords, He drove them all out of the temple, and the sheep, and the oxen; and poured out the changers’ money, and overthrew the tables: and said unto them that sold doves, Take these things hence; make not My Father’s house an house of merchandise. And His disciples remembered that it was written, The zeal of Thine house hath eaten Me up.
The event recorded here is not to be confounded with a similar one mentioned in all the other gospels. That cleansing of the temple took place the last time the Saviour observed the passover; this cleansing was on the first. Thus we see that He acted in the same way at the beginning and end of His public ministry, showing (1) how quickly and easily the professed worshippers of God can again fall into abuses connected with His worship after it has been reformed, and (2) that Christ Himself was unchangeable – zeal for the glory of His heavenly Father continued to glow in His breast with unabated warmth.
The background. When John wrote this Gospel, the sacrifices and feasts of the law of Moses had been abolished. So he speaks of “the Jews’ passover” – by then it was superseded by the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper. However, at the time John here refers to, the ceremonial law was yet in force, and it became Jesus “to fulfil all righteousness” – to render perfect obedience to God’s law. So He went up from Galilee to Jerusalem, with a view to not failing in any requirement, and to avail Himself of opportunities to advance His kingdom among the multitudes assembling there.
As the passover has been abolished, the particular example of Christ here is not to be followed literally – even to observe any particular solemnities at that season of the year is not binding on His followers. The time has now come when neither in Jerusalem or on Gerizzim only may people worship the Father. The spiritual observance of the Christian passover may have as much solemnity, and as much acceptance, at any time or in any place where the people of God assemble – in spring, summer, autumn or winter; under a thatched roof or by the side of a mountain.
To observe particular seasons therefore, such as Easter, or to imagine that
1Taken, with editing, from The Free Church Pulpit, vol 3; the headings have been added. Dymock (1804-1888) was a minister of the Free Church in Perth when the sermon was published. References to recent events are to those of the Disruption.
the public ordinances of religion can only be acceptably performed in certain places, may do for the Jewish economy but not for the Christian. And it is difficult to understand why those who fancy themselves bound to observe particular times or seasons do not feel equally bound to observe the whole ceremonial law. Let us rejoice that God is a Spirit and that all worship Him with acceptance who “worship Him in spirit and in truth”.
The scene in the temple. The Saviour never entered either that part of the temple called the holy place, or the holy of holies, as no one went into the former but the priests, and only the high priest went into the latter. Christ did not belong to the tribe of Levi, but to Judah; He was therefore neither priest nor high priest in the Jewish sense. Coming into the outer court, also called the court of the Gentiles, Christ saw merchandise of various kinds being sold. There were sellers of oxen and sheep and doves, animals to be offered in sacrifice to the Lord. Many Jews, coming to Jerusalem from distant places, would find it inconvenient to bring the required sacrifices with them, and so had to purchase animals nearer the temple (Deut 14:24-26). Yet the market might have been held outside the temple area. There were also changers of money. Judaea was tributary to the Romans, and these moneychangers provided the worshippers with half-shekels, their tribute to the temple, in exchange for Roman money, making a profit on every transaction.
Thus Christ said that His Father’s house had been made “a house of merchandise”. On another occasion, He declared that they had made the temple “a den of thieves” (Mt 21:13). The holy place was profaned – the place of prayer, the place where God had chosen to set His name. These worldly men could scandalise the devout Gentile proselytes by converting their court into a cattle-market and a place for changing money; they could forget the reverence due to Zion, in whose gates the Lord delighted. We have little difficulty in believing that, as they dishonoured God, they would defraud man – just as we are easily persuaded that those who violate any of God’s commandments would commit other sins to which they are tempted. Now, the position of these traffickers was favourable to the practice of fraud and extortion. They might easily take advantage of the needs of the people, as they were providing what was essential for many, if not all, of the worshippers.
Our Lord could not look unmoved at such a scene as this, where, instead of devout and pious worshippers, He saw only abominable commerce being carried on by formal professors. When therefore “He had made a scourge of small cords, He drove them all out of the temple, and the sheep, and the oxen; and poured out the changers’ money, and overthrew the tables; and said unto them that sold doves, Take these things hence; make not My Father’s house an house of merchandise”. The cords were most probably twisted rushes or
reeds – used as an emblem of authority – but, from the very weakness of the instrument, we may more clearly see that miraculous power must have been exerted to accomplish His end.
Here one single individual drives from the courts of the temple a multitude of men who had strong influence with the priests. One would think that the pride and greed of these men would have led them to offer all possible resistance, for at a particular passover no fewer than 256 500 animals were sacrificed, according to a Jewish historian. The men not only retreated before Him who had “suddenly come to His temple”, but did so abashed and confounded, not daring to utter a word to vindicate themselves. This can only be accounted for by regarding it as a miracle. Perhaps the dealers’ consciences reproved them; the Jews may have been expecting the great Prophet and did not know but that this might be Christ; possibly a commanding dignity in Christ’s appearance overawed them. But none of these things of itself explains what happened – only the interposition of superhuman power can account for it.
The miracle was wrought for an end not usual in Christ’s miracles. When He exerted His divine power while on earth, it was almost invariably in deeds of mercy, and we can scarcely recognise here Him “who was meek and lowly”. How, when no personal insult or injury could provoke Him to utter even a hard word, did He now act in this violent way? It was because the honour of His Father was at stake – whose will He delighted to do. It was because the temple was habitually profaned – because the world had been carried into the Church – because there was buying and selling, extortion and fraud, where the hearts of men should have been set on God and engaged in His service, and where there should have been no sound but supplication and praise. It was this that fired Him with holy indignation.
Other similar sins. Does the history of the visible Church in every age not demonstrate that abuses, as gross as those then practised by Jews, are liable to creep in – abuses connected with government, discipline and ordinances? False prophets, “through covetousness . . . with feigned words, make merchandise” of the people; men seek the priest’s office for a piece of bread. Here is the buying and selling of the right to nominate ministers; there the buying and selling of indulgences to commit sin, and pardon for sins already committed. Here Caesar’s throne is erected within the walls to the dishonour of the Lord of the temple – the secular power controlling, where the Word and will of God should be the only law, and almost everywhere people are too indiscriminately admitted into the Church and its sealing ordinances?
Are these things so? Then let us remember that Christ has lost none of His indignation on account of such sins. He is manifesting His displeasure on
account of them. His Word and providence agree in showing His will for His Church – just as of old He instructed as well as punished. He said, “Take these things hence”, as He drove them out with the scourge of small cords. He did all this as Lord of His Father’s house, as King of Zion, on His own responsibility, exercising His own power. Let Him then be acknowledged as supreme. As no partial reformation will satisfy Him; as He will have every abuse removed, let us seek to reject all that would offend Him. Let us be fellow workers with Him in promoting the purity of Zion. Let us pray that our own “holy and beautiful house” may be so freed from every corruption, so purified by His dealings with it – dealings that are gentle yet express displeasure, like using the scourge which had small cords only – that God may be glorified in us, and that the Messenger of the covenant may remain within our walls, where we believe He now is.
Christ’s power. Numerous and serious as abuses may be in the visible Church, Christ’s power can remove them all. We might think the temple was almost beyond purifying. Yet how quickly and easily Christ removed all that was offensive! We may see much heresy, and much corruption in worship, government and discipline, and ask, When will the Church “arise and shine, and put on her beautiful garments?” Let us remember that He who is her King and Head has all power in heaven and earth. When it is His will, He can effect the most thorough reformation, even by very feeble instruments, as in this instance. Let us pray that He may arise and plead His own cause. Then shall His Church, purified and united, shine forth “fair as the moon, and clear as the sun, and terrible as an army with banners”.
We may see, in this action, the Lord’s interest in His Church generally – His holy jealousy for its purity, His anger against abuses in it, and His purpose to purify it of them, even if He uses afflictions. May we not infer from this what most concerns us as individuals: His displeasure when we attend worship under the influence of improper thoughts and feelings? We are aware that this passage relates to the Church as a body and may therefore not apply directly to individual congregations or places of worship under the Christian dispensation. Neither do we claim that our churches are consecrated places, but we may safely assert that they should be entered for worship under the influence of holy desires, and that the sins of the sanctuary are very heinous in God’s sight. He yet says, “My house shall be called the house of prayer”. Each professed worshipper should regard it as the “house of God”, the place where His glory and beauty are seen – where, though everywhere present, He specially makes Himself known.
Your duty. You should “reverently enquire in His temple”. You should come to God’s house in obedience to the Householder; you should come to
behold Him and meet Him – to seek His glory and obtain His blessing. But it is the “house of prayer” also, and you should see to it that it is a house of prayer to you. It is not so if you do not pray. It is not enough that you hear. It is not enough that one should pray for all. All must pray. We must all join in heart; the church will not be the house of prayer to those who fail in this.
Do you always remember why you ought to come? Are you occupied in worshipping Him in His house? Are the services your delight? Does the Lord find you seeking Him? Some do so, but many do not. Are there none whose look of unconcern and wandering eye betray the listlessness and indifference of their souls? Does no one bring the world into the church, their hearts going after their covetousness even in this holy place, pondering schemes of worldly pleasure or profit while sitting before God as His people sit? You who do so are the buyers and sellers and money-changers of the Christian temple; you are in danger of being called by the Lord of the temple to give account for profaned Sabbaths and dishonoured sanctuaries. And if He was terrible even with his scourge of small cords – if the dismayed multitudes fled from Him, what must the majesty of His appearance be when He comes in His glory, and what the infliction of His anger when He shall shut and no man open, and when formal and worldly worshippers shall be for ever excluded from His presence!
How great is the power of the love of gain over those possessed by it! We see it impelling the Jewish priests to let out this temple as a market-place, while their professed reverence for it formed part of that righteousness for which they expected God to accept them. And we see it impelling the traffickers to forget the sacredness of the place where they stood and to forget how near they were to the symbol of God’s presence.
Does the bare mention of such deeds shock the feelings of professed worshippers? But the love of gain has lost none of its force. Does it not lead people to neglect the Bible and prayer? Does it not lead many to be absent from public worship? Whence comes the flagrant desecration of the Sabbath in the pursuit of business, in receiving and answering letters, in using trains and ships on this holy day? It is the very same spirit that actuated the cattle-dealers and money-changers of old – the spirit that made them prefer their merchandise to their religion, to serve mammon at the expense of God’s honour, to put the god of the world before the God of the Bible.
Every act by which a requirement of God is set aside or trampled on, and by which dishonour is done to Him or His law, in order that worldly ends may be served, is a direct imitation of those here offending. It is the same Lord to whom the insult is offered. He resents the insult as keenly as He did of old, and if He does not for a time visibly interpose in judgement, He will
do so before long. He may come suddenly, and in the end it will be seen that all shall be excluded from the courts of the heavenly Zion “that defileth, or worketh abomination, or maketh a lie”.
The heart of each believer is a temple of God, who claims the heart of every individual for this end – to be dwelt in by His Spirit: “My son, give Me thine heart”. You who are His people, beware of defiling this temple. Beware of harbouring thoughts or of cherishing desires which are not consistent with your state as believers. If corruptions once subdued return upon you, if the power of sin rises within you, if you have become worldly and polluted, let your earnest prayer be, “Wash me thoroughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin”. Seek that God, by His Word and providence, may sanctify you wholly. Let your wish be that the Lord would visit you with His rod rather than that your heart should be filled with such wickedness as would drive Him away from you.
If the Lord has not yet come to you, let me exhort you to ask Him to take up His abode within you. Where He does not reign, Satan has his seat. Would you leave off serving the world and sin? Come to Jesus. The only authority the devil will own is His who drove the traffickers from the temple. No other can cleanse you. No other can save you. But, coming to Him, He will deliver you; He will “come in . . . and sup” with you and will make you a pillar in the heavenly temple not made with hands, where carnality and temptation and sin can never enter.
Learning from Scripture. The disciples, no doubt amazed at what they saw in the temple, and struck with the difference from what they used to observe in Christ, would for a time be at a loss to explain it. On reflection, a passage occurred to them from Scripture which threw light on what was otherwise inexplicable. They “remembered that it was written, The zeal of Thine house hath eaten me up” (v 17). If we see that these words from Psalm 69 recurred most seasonably to the disciples, let us see the propriety of our searching the Scriptures, and remembering the words of inspired truth. Had they disregarded the Old Testament, as too many disregard both the Old and New Testaments, they would not have understood the important event that had just taken place. Such is the ignorance of all who do not know the Scriptures, which alone can make them “wise unto salvation”.
Plainly the disciples had often read these words before, but not till now did they learn their real meaning. What an argument for early instilling God’s Word in the minds of the young! Some would have them left untaught until they can comprehend the meaning of all they read or commit to memory. But let us see from this passage that the seed is to be sown early, and in God’s time and way it may be expected to take root downward and bear fruit upward.
The young should be encouraged to treasure up the words of Scripture in their memory, in the hope that what they do not know fully now, they may know hereafter – that the Spirit and providence of God will bring to light what now appears to be dark, mysterious and unintelligible.
How often God’s people are like the disciples on this occasion! As their experience enlarged, they came to see a force and a beauty in the inspired words, to which before they were entire strangers. It became a wonder to them that their eyes had been so long held shut, and that they could hear and read and repeat portions of Scripture without seeing in them what afterwards appeared so obvious. And the way in which light is thrown on Scripture is very often just as in this case: by observing Christ’s doings. It was His act that recalled and explained the verse in Psalm 69 to the disciples.
So it is often by observing the acts of Christ in His holy providence that the eyes of our understandings are opened to see the wonders of His law”. How often afflictions, for instance, show His people the point and application of statements and promises in the Word! And how often during recent years, in the events that have befallen us as a Church, have saints been constrained to say that they have read Psalms and other portions of Holy Writ with double emphasis, finding them to have more meaning and application than they could previously have imagined! How often have they remembered, like the disciples, that thus and thus it had been written!
As the works of Christ reflect light on His Word, a right understanding of it leads us to admire and acquiesce in His works. The cleansing of the temple, when imperfectly understood, may have appeared harsh to the disciples, but Scripture remembered removed their doubt and darkness, and calmed their troubled breasts. Then no word of murmuring, uneasiness or alarm escaped their lips. Would we acquiesce in His dealings? Would we be still and adore, even when His judgements are abroad? Would we see His faithfulness, truth and mercy in everything He does? Then let us look on providence in the mirror of the Word. Let us see His motives, even when His hand is raised to smite, and we shall say, “It is the Lord: let him do what seemeth Him good”. “Great and marvellous are Thy works, Lord God Almighty; just and true are Thy ways, Thou King of saints.”
The words quoted from Psalm 69 applied primarily to David, but they had their complete fulfilment only in Him of whom David was a type, the Son and Lord of David. Zeal shows itself in an earnest regard for the honour and interests of the object loved and in opposing what is contrary to it. Now God was the object of the Saviour’s love, and His zeal was shown in a regard to His honour. He was zealous in all that concerned God – He sought His glory in everything. Here it is zeal for God’s house that is spoken of, chiefly as
connected with His worship in the temple. Because of His zeal, He was enraged at its profanation and was led to purify it. This zeal was so great that He had said in prophecy: It “hath eaten me up”. It was to purchase, reform, purify and perfect the Church that He came and denied Himself; His strength was spent in it. His zeal for the house of God must either get vent or it would consume Him. At last, like the divine fire that fell on the sacrifices and burned them up, it led Him to give His soul an offering for sin, that the glory of His Father might be displayed in the salvation of sinners.
The disciples saw how applicable the phrase was to Christ. They thought, as it were, We have heard of the zeal of God’s house eating one up, but now we see it. What holy grief and indignation must have appeared on Jesus’ face! His zeal for God’s ordinances had already been shown: attending them, delighting in them, exciting others to do so. Now it especially led Him to reform and purify. What an example to ministers! In removing all abuses, in fulfilling all parts of their ministry, His motives are to be ours: zeal for the honour and glory of God, a desire that His worship should be pure so that He can approve it, a love to promote whatever honours God and a hatred of all that dishonours Him. This is the only zeal that is according to knowledge.
Final application. Let all who love God, not only ministers, be fired with zeal for His glory – avoiding sin themselves, disapproving it in others. Let them pray for God’s ordinances to be preserved in purity. Let them use means to promote the coming of Christ’s kingdom universally. How little such zeal there is! How little grief for the dishonour done to God by abounding iniquity! How few feel a sword within their bones when His name, Word or ordinances are profaned! How little love for His House! How little care for its purity! Why the lukewarmness? Why are so many neither cold or hot? Is not this the reason: few can, like Christ, call the house of God “My Father’s house”. There is a lack of filial love to God, which originates zeal for His house. Seek the dignity of being God’s adopted children, and you will be willing to spend and be spent in His service.
You who are already His: remember your relationship to Him. If you would resent any affront offered to the reputation or honour of your earthly parents, or rejoice in what pleased them and promoted their credit among others, how much more should you feel what concerns your heavenly Father? How it should be your aim to live to Him and not to yourself! How you should grieve because of sin and long for the time when the glory of the Lord shall fill the earth? Let the mind of your elder Brother be ever in you, and rejoice that the Messenger of the covenant will yet so come to His temple that He will so refine and purify, that thenceforth “shall the offering of Judah and Jerusalem be pleasant unto the Lord, as in the days of old”.