Stroll through Scripture for January 18, 2026

Based on John 2:13-25

John’s Gospel has Jesus doing the cleansing of the Temple right at the beginning of his ministry as opposed to the end of his ministry like the Synoptic Gospels portray.  There’s debate about why this is.  We don’t know for sure.  But it does offer a theological argument.  In John’s Gospel, a big focus is on revealing who Jesus is.  Last week in John 2 we read about the wedding at Cana and Jesus’ first sign of changing water into wine. It’s not just a neat trick. It’s showing that Jesus is concerned with abundance and joy.  Here in the temple, Jesus is showing his concern for purifying worship from corrupt influences.  

There have been many arguments about this passage.  Some argue that with Jesus making a whip, it shows that he is ok with violence, or at least selective use of violence.  Humanity is often just too eager to make Jesus a reflection on itself, rather than on God.  There are problems with this argument.  For one thing, this whip of cords would hardly be used for anything other than swatting some animals’ rumps to get them moving.  

Another thing to note is that this is the time of Passover.  What is interesting in this passage is that the government authorities do not react to what is going on.  Passover would have meant Jews from around the known world traveling to Jerusalem.  This would trigger an increase in Roman presence to maintain the “peace” and prevent an uprising.  And here is Jesus causing a kerfuffle in Temple, which doesn’t trigger the guards who are watching over the Temple to react.  

But maybe this has to do with when John’s Gospel was written.  It is believed that John’s Gospel is the last one written – sometime around the turn of the first century.  This would have been after the Jewish revolt in 66-70AD, which caused the Romans to slaughter the Jewish population and destroy the Temple.  In this passage we hear about the destruction of the Temple.  But in this case, Jesus is referring to himself as the true temple of God.  In a way, John is pulling from the past to again reveal who Jesus really is.  

Questions for further reflection:

• How do we, like John, draw on the past to tell our faith story and how Jesus shows up?  
• Why do you think John puts the cleansing of the temple so early in his Gospel?