So the Jews said to him, “What sign do you show us for doing these things?” Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” Then the Jews said, “It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and will you raise it up in three days.” But he was speaking about the temple of his body. When therefore 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.
John 2:18-22
“Who in the world do you think you are?” The Jews ask Jesus in so many words. And Jesus does not answer directly, as he did on occasion. He answers on his terms, not theirs. “Destroy this temple, and in three days, I’ll raise it up!”
It took 46 years to build this thing, and he’s going to build it in three days? They have no idea what Jesus means. What is he saying? He is the temple?
You come here to meet with God. But now, to meet with God, you’ll go through me.
The temple and everything in it is just a sign that points to Jesus.
Jesus brings the presence of God to Earth in a way the temple never quite could. And Jesus is the sacrifice that would atone for the sins of the world.
Jesus made a way for you to know the presence of God. He bore on himself all of your sins. He is our sacrifice, he is our temple, and he is God. When he rose from the dead, the disciples remembered what he said. Nothing in the Bible makes sense without the Resurrection.
And they remembered. He is the temple. It was all about him. It all pointed to him. The tabernacle, the temple, the sacrifices–all of it. It pointed us to him!
Now, we don’t go to the temple, the temple comes to us. We are the temple of the Living God. God dwells with his people, and in the person of the Holy Spirit, God dwells in his people.
Jesus cleaned out the temple to show us that he will come to clean out our lives, to clean out our sin, to get rid of everything that distracts us from the glory and holiness of God. Because Jesus is zealous about your worship.
And Jesus is after your whole heart.