Destroy This Temple, and in Three Days I Will Raise It Up (John 2:19)

2024-01-06

Jesus cleansed the Temple twice during His ministry. The first time was at the beginning of His ministry. When He drove those money changers out, the people went to Him.

Then answered the Jews and said unto him, What sign shewest thou unto us, seeing that thou doest these things? Jesus answered and said unto them, Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up. Then said the Jews, Forty and six years was this temple in building, and wilt thou rear it up in three days? But he spake of the temple of his body. (John 2:18-21)

Jesus would give one major sign to the people that would lay to rest any doubt that He was Christ: He would die and rise from the dead. This is consistent with other passages where He said He would only give the sign of Jonas, though the multitude of healings and miracles should have sufficed as “signs.”

But He did not explicitly speak here concerning His death and resurrection; He called His body a temple. They remembered this a few years later when He was on trial and tried to convict Him of wanting to destroy the Temple building.

Was Jesus mincing words here? Not at all. There is more teaching here, because that Temple building was something that always pointed to Him, which is discussed in detail in the epistle to the Hebrews. However, of the New Jerusalem, we read, “And I saw no temple therein: for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it” (Revelation 21:22). No temple is needed any longer since Jesus the Temple rose from the dead.