In His Temple
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that in Him the prophecies concerning the Messiah were fulfilled. The
sin of the desecration of the temple rested, in a great degree, upon the
priests. It was by their arrangement that the court had been turned
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into a market place. The people were comparatively innocent. They
were impressed by the divine authority of Jesus; but with them the
influence of the priests and rulers was paramount. They regarded
Christ’s mission as an innovation, and questioned His right to interfere
with what was permitted by the authorities of the temple. They were
offended because the traffic had been interrupted, and they stifled the
convictions of the Holy Spirit.
Above all others the priests and rulers should have seen in Jesus
the anointed of the Lord; for in their hands were the sacred scrolls that
described His mission, and they knew that the cleansing of the temple
was a manifestation of more than human power. Much as they hated
Jesus, they could not free themselves from the thought that He might
be a prophet sent by God to restore the sanctity of the temple. With a
deference born of this fear, they went to Him with the inquiry, “What
sign showest Thou unto us, seeing that Thou doest these things?”
Jesus had shown them a sign. In flashing light into their hearts,
and in doing before them the works which the Messiah was to do, He
had given convincing evidence of His character. Now when they asked
for a sign, He answered them by a parable, showing that He read their
malice, and saw to what lengths it would lead them. “Destroy this
temple,” He said, “and in three days I will raise it up.”
In these words His meaning was twofold. He referred not only
to the destruction of the Jewish temple and worship, but to His own
death,—the destruction of the temple of His body. This the Jews were
already plotting. As the priests and rulers returned to the temple, they
had proposed to kill Jesus, and thus rid themselves of the troubler. Yet
when He set before them their purpose, they did not understand Him.
They took His words as applying only to the temple at Jerusalem, and
with indignation exclaimed, “Forty and six years was this temple in
building, and wilt Thou rear it up in three days?” Now they felt that
Jesus had justified their unbelief, and they were confirmed in their
rejection of Him.
Christ did not design that His words should be understood by the
unbelieving Jews, nor even by His disciples at this time. He knew
that they would be misconstrued by His enemies, and would be turned