Temples and Borders
Reflections on John 2 and Jesus prophesying about “this temple.”
Borders define. Who is in? Who is out? Who belongs? Who does not belong? Who has power? Who does not have power? Whose authority are you under? Whose authority has reached its limit?
Borders easily become zones of violence. The authority to enforce and establish borders is usually external to a person. Border enforcement has to be granted. At a border it can feel like some bodies are worth less than other bodies.
Watch Jesus at The Temple.
13When it was almost time for the Jewish Passover, Jesus went up to Jerusalem. 14In the temple courts he found people selling cattle, sheep and doves, and others sitting at tables exchanging money. 15So he made a whip out of cords, and drove all from the temple courts, both sheep and cattle; he scattered the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. 16To those who sold doves he said, “Get these out of here! Stop turning my Father’s house into a market!” 17His disciples remembered that it is written: “Zeal for your house will consume me.”
18The Jews then responded to him, “What sign can you show us to prove your authority to do all this?”
19Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days.”
20They replied, “It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and you are going to raise it in three days?” 21But the temple he had spoken of was his body. 22After he was raised from the dead, his disciples recalled what he had said. Then they believed the scripture and the words that Jesus had spoken.
23Now while he was in Jerusalem at the Passover Festival, many people saw the signs he was performing and believed in his name.
24But Jesus would not entrust himself to them, for he knew all people. 25He did not need any testimony about mankind, for he knew what was in each person.
John 2:13-25, NIV
Jesus walked right into the domain of the Temple border patrol. That’s why the authorities who observed Jesus clearing the temple courts were questioning him. He had run some bodies out of the Temple. He had made room for other bodies in the Court of the Gentiles. To progress through the thresholds of the Temple was to move across several border zones. The further in one went towards the Holy of Holies, the smaller the crowd. The Temple had clear borders: The Court of the Gentiles, The Court of the Women, The Court of Israel. The Court of Priests. Jesus had cleared the Court of the Gentiles, so they ask him, “What sign can you show us to prove your authority to do all this?”
Throughout his ministry Jesus entered the border zones of Israel and disrupted their standard operating procedures. When he entered the Temple as a thirty year old he did not come with the questions and explorations of a twelve year old boy seeking to be about “His Father’s business.” Jesus entered and took up what appeared to his disciples to be a zealot’s reformation enthusiasm. They recalled, “Zeal for your house will consume me.”
It was a busy day just before Passover when Jesus ran the sellers of sacrificial animals and the money changers for the temple tax out of the temple courts. He had cleared the Court of the Gentiles and was saying to them, “Get these out of here! Stop turning my Father’s house into a market!” Perhaps Jesus had come there because the cry of the nations had risen up to the ears of the LORD. Now the persons of power were asking for signs, just as Pharaoh had asked.
What sign will you show us?
Jesus offered them one sign.
“Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days.”
His answer must of been shocking. The splendour of Herod’s temple was great. Even the disciples later sought to engage Jesus in consideration of its awesomeness. Those listening to Jesus blurt out, “It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and you are going to raise it in three days?”
Only when they could look back from the Resurrection and the Cross did the disciples begin to get Jesus.
“But the temple he had spoken of was his body. After he was raised from the dead, his disciples recalled what he had said. Then they believed the scripture and the words that Jesus had spoken.”
Jesus treated His body as The Temple. Jesus treated bodies as temples. Yes, zeal for His Father’s house consumed Him. Jesus ached to see people become gloriously occupied as temples of the Holy Spirit.
The Temple was a border.
The Temple was a meeting place of Heaven and earth.
The temple Jesus had spoken of was His body.
Jesus’ body is a temple.
Having come from the communion of God, He embodied His own authority.
Jesus’ body crucified and resurrected is His promised sign.
The body is a temple.
When Jesus cleared the Jerusalem Temple He was making room for bodies.
Jesus cleared the Temple to make room for Gentile bodies.
The body as temple is of utmost concern for Jesus.
You are of utmost concern to Jesus.
There is no body that is worth less!
Don’t you know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit?
You have been bought at a price!
Jesus has authority to make room for you.
But you have authority to make room for Jesus in the temple of your body.
The bodies of people at borders are temples.
The bodies of people at borders are sacred.
Where is our zeal for our Father’s house?
Jesus knows what is in a person.
Jesus can see into our temples.
We can’t easily see what’s in each temple.
But we can treat all bodies as temples, just as Jesus did.
Holy.
This the Way of all who are His Temple.
Temple politics are strangely differentiating.
So are borders.