¹³ The Passover of the Jews was near, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.
¹⁴ In the temple, he found people selling cattle, sheep, and doves, and the money changers seated at their tables.
¹⁵ Making a whip of cords, he drove all of them out of the temple, both the sheep and the cattle. He also poured out the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables.
¹⁶ He told those who were selling the doves, "Take these things out of here! Stop making my Father's house a marketplace!"
¹⁷ His disciples remembered that it was written, "Zeal for your house will consume me."
¹⁸ The Jews then said to him, "What sign can you show us for doing this?"
¹⁹ Jesus answered them, "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up."
²⁰ The Jews then said, "This temple has been under construction for forty-six years, and will you raise it up in three days?"
²¹ But he was speaking of the temple of his body.
²² After he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this; and they believed the scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken.
²³ When he was in Jerusalem during the Passover festival, many believed in his name because they saw the signs that he was doing.
²⁴ But Jesus on his part would not entrust himself to them,
²⁵ because he knew all people and needed no one to testify about anyone; for he himself knew what was in everyone.

• (v.14) The temple cleansing incident occurred in the outer court, the court of the Gentiles, of the Jerusalem Temple. The cattle, sheep, and doves were sold for sacrifice. Roman money, the dinarii, was changed into Jewish money to pay the temple tax, which was a half-shekel (Mt 17:27).
• The presence of the animals and the money changers constituted a desecration to the temple: "Stop making my Father's house a marketplace" (v.16).
• The evangelist composed this passage by putting together three incidents: the temple cleansing, the request for sign, and the temple destruction prophesy. In the Synoptic Gospels, these incidents were located in separate narratives, and the temple cleansing was the immediate cause for Jesus' death.
• This passage contained two sections:
  a) Jesus' action, vv. 14-15; Jesus' words, v.16; "remembering" of the disciples, v.17.
  b) The Jews's action, v.18, Jesus's words, v.19; misunderstanding of the Jews and comment by the evangelist, vv.20-21; "remembering" of the disciples v.22.
• (v.17,22) "Remembered" is a special term in John, indicating a process by which John's community came to see how Jesus fulfilled the Scripture. They came to understand his zeal's for "[his] Father's house" (v.16), his suffering and death (v.19), and his resurrection (v.21).

Faith in Jesus: The disciples remembered what Jesus said and done, and "they believed in the scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken." (v.22).

1. Imagine that you are a high priest in the Jerusalem Temple, and you are witnessing the temple cleansing incident. What do you see? What do you hear? How do you feel?
2. After the resurrection, the disciples came to believe in Jesus. What experiences do you have to believe in Jesus?

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A synthesis by the Vietnamese Christian Life (Dong Hanh) Community