Big Idea: Matthew emphasizes Jesus’ authority as Messiah over the temple and his critique of its leadership as well as the importance of unwavering faith in following Jesus.
Understanding the Text
In Matthew the account of Jesus in the temple immediately follows his entry into Jerusalem. Both stories highlight Jesus’ identity and authority as Israel’s Messiah, with the acclamation of Jesus as the “Son of David” by the crowds and by children (21:9, 15). In 21:12–17 Jesus acts with messianic authority by denouncing current practices in the temple that have distorted its purposes (21:12–13), as in the analogous and parabolic cursing of the fig tree (21:18–22). This denunciation fits a broader pattern of critiques of the temple and its leaders by Jesus in this part of Matthew (23:38; 24:1–35; see also 26:60–61). This passage also begins a series of conflicts between Jesus and the Jerusalem leadership (21:23, 45; 22:15–46). In contrast to this conflict, Matthew highlights praise (21:15–16) and faith (21:21–22) as appropriate responses to Jesus’ deeds.
Interpretive Insights
21:12 Jesus entered the temple courts and drove out all who were buying and selling there. According to Matthew, the sale of sacrificial animals and the transactions of changing money were happening in the area of the temple courts. The former would have been necessary for pilgrims traveling significant distances to Jerusalem for the various Jewish feasts, including Passover (26:2). Greek and Roman currencies had to be exchanged for the prescribed temple currency—coins from Tyre in Phoenicia, whose weight and value were considered close to the prescribed half shekel required from Jews for temple support (Exod. 30:11–16).
It is unlikely, given that the functions of selling animals and changing money were necessary, that Jesus is protesting these per se. Rather, Matthew is likely indicating that Jesus protests the locating of these transactions within the temple courts, which obscures the temple’s true purpose as “a house of prayer” (21:13; cf. Isa. 56:7). In spite of Matthew’s omission of the descriptor “for all nations” for “house of prayer” in Mark 11:17, the specific temple area probably in view is the court of the Gentiles, which would have had the space to accommodate the large festival crowds. By bringing these commercial activities into the temple courts, the temple leadership was directing the focus of the temple away from its true purposes.
In terms of broader purposes, was Jesus cleansing the temple and restoring it to its proper use (21:13; cf. Isa. 56:7; Mal. 3:1–4)? Or was he enacting God’s judgment prophetically and symbolically on the temple and on the temple leadership (21:13; cf. Jer. 7:11)? It may be that Jesus’ action signals both a purifying of the temple by protesting abuses in it and a judgment of its leadership and practices.1The latter will be clarified in 24:3–35, where Jesus announces future judgment on the temple and predicts its destruction. Additionally, Jesus’ actions in the temple most certainly had revolutionary overtones, whether these were intended or not.2Within a week, he is crucified as a threat to Rome.
He overturned the tables of the money changers. Jesus’ action in the temple functions as an assertion of his messianic authority. This is certainly how the Jewish leaders perceive it, since they come to Jesus to ask about his authority to do this (21:23). Matthew also, by having Jesus’ temple action follow directly upon his entry into Jerusalem as its Messiah-King, signals that Jesus draws on his messianic authority to critique these particular practices within the temple.3Within at least some strains of Jewish thought there was an expectation that the Messiah would purify the temple: “He [the Davidic king] will purify Jerusalem in holiness as it was at the beginning” (Pss. Sol. 17:30).
21:13 It is written . . . “My house will be called a house of prayer.” Jesus draws on Isaiah 56:7 to indicate the true purpose of the temple as a place of prayer rather than commerce. The passage from Isaiah (56:1–8) is a powerful picture of the inclusivity of the temple in a future day: eunuchs and Gentiles will be welcomed into Yahweh’s temple (a reversal of Deut. 23:1). This inclusive vision coheres with Matthew, who portrays the blind and the lame being healed by Jesus at the temple and children shouting acclamations in the temple courts (21:14–15).
a den of robbers. In contrast to the true purpose of the temple, Jesus accuses the sellers and money changers (and so the temple authorities) of making the temple into a “den of robbers.” This language comes from Jeremiah 7:11, from a passage in which Yahweh warns the people of Judah that their lack of covenant faithfulness will follow them into the temple. So they will not find safety and protection in the temple; instead, their trust in the temple will prove misplaced when God judges them for their idolatry and injustice (Jer. 7:4, 10, 14).
21:14 The blind and the lame. The portrait of Jesus healing in the temple is unique to Matthew but fits the various summaries of his healing ministry in Galilee (e.g., 4:23–25; 9:35; 12:15; 14:34–36; 15:29–31). The specific reference to the blind and the lame (typhloi kai choloi) may be an evocation of either Leviticus 21:18 or 2 Samuel 5:6–8. The former is found in the prohibition against any priest who is “blind or lame” serving in the temple (Lev. 21:17–18), although this says nothing of strictures about who may worship at the temple. A type-scene parallel to 2 Samuel 5:6–8 seems likely. There King David (note Jesus in Matt. 21:15 as “Son of David”) fights to claim Jerusalem and is taunted that “even the blind and the lame” could keep him out (5:6 LXX: hoi typhloi kai hoi oi choloi). David, in turn, calls his enemies defending Jerusalem “those ‘lame and blind’” (5:8). The narrator of 2 Samuel then indicates that this is the origin of the saying “The ‘blind and lame’ will not enter the palace [house]” (5:8). As R. T. France suggests, “Here, in ‘the house,’ Jesus the Son of David is approached by the blind and the lame, and, far from dismissing them [as David does], he heals them.”4
21:15 children shouting in the temple courts, “Hosanna to the Son of David.” Matthew again highlights Jesus as the messianic “Son of David,” this time through the words of children’s praises. Earlier in the narrative, children have signified those of low status (18:1–5; 19:13–15). Here they are paired with the blind and the lame to exemplify the audience of Jesus’ ministry as those with little to offer, when perceived in terms of value and status in the first century.
the chief priests and teachers of the law . . . were indignant. With his reference to the chief priests, Matthew introduces the central antagonists to Jesus in Jerusalem. While Galilean teachers of the law have been paired with Pharisees during Jesus’ ministry there (e.g., 5:20; 12:38; 15:1), here such teachers join with the temple leaders—the chief priests—to challenge Jesus (see 2:4). The chief priests will also collude with the elders of the people (e.g., 21:23; 26:3; 28:12) and the Pharisees (21:45–46; 27:62) to plot Jesus’ demise.
21:16 From the lips of children and infants. Jesus’ reply to the complaint of the chief priests and elders derives from Psalm 8:2 and accents the unlikely source of praise for Israel’s Messiah: not from the leaders of Israel, but rather from children and even infants.
21:19 May you never bear fruit again! Jesus’ cursing of this tree is another symbolic action, corresponding to his action of judgment upon the temple (21:12). The fruitlessness of this tree is an analogy to the temple that should be bearing fruit (prayer and worship [21:13–16]) but whose purpose is being obscured by commerce.
21:21 if you have faith and do not doubt. Matthew has highlighted the importance of faith for Jesus’ followers already at 17:20 and through the portrayal of various supplicants who trust Jesus for their healing (e.g., 9:2, 22, 29). The disciples, on the other hand, have been characterized by “little faith,” which has been tied to doubt or wavering at 14:31.
say to this mountain. That this story of the fig tree points back to Jesus’ judgment upon the temple is confirmed by this reference to a mountain. As they return to Jerusalem from Bethany, the obvious referent of “this mountain” would be the Temple Mount itself, further underscoring its coming judgment.5
21:22 If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer. Prayer has been highlighted as the purpose of the temple at 21:13. Here Jesus ties prayer to trust in God and indicates that such trust will result in efficacious prayers. Jesus has already indicated that believers can trust God to answer their prayers (7:7–8), grounding their trust in the covenantal goodness of God. Matthew does not qualify this promise of Jesus, but the whole of his story does caution against applying this teaching in absolute fashion. Jesus himself prays (presumably in faith) to be rescued from his coming death (26:39), but he recognizes that God’s plan for him should take precedence over his own wishes (26:42).
Theological Insights: Temple Theology
Jesus was not the first Jew to critique the temple’s practices and leadership, as the Jeremiah text cited by Matthew attests (Jer. 7:1–20; see also Ezek. 8; Mal. 1:6–14). In his critique Jesus and his Jewish audience could well have been aware of the Jewish expectation for a “final temple wrought not by human hands” (cf. Heb. 9:24).6This eschatological hope within Judaism gives context to Jesus’ critique without assuming that he was rejecting the temple outright. Instead, he and his contemporaries likely were assuming that the physical temple would one day be obsolete when God established the heavenly temple. This picture fits well with other New Testament writers who present (1) Jesus as the manifestation of the eschatological temple (John 2:19–21); (2) the church—Christ’s body—as the temple (1 Cor. 3:16–17; Eph. 2:19–22; 1 Pet. 2:4–5); (3) the vision of a “new Jerusalem” that has no temple “because the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple” (Rev. 21:2, 22).
Teaching the Text
1. Jesus shows his messianic authority over the temple by critiquing the Jerusalem temple administration. Matthew seems to draw on expectations for the Messiah to purify the temple in this scene, in which Jesus emphasizes God’s intention for the temple as a place of prayer and worship. This is the first of a number of indicators in chapters 21–28 that God’s judgment will come upon the temple in Jerusalem. Jesus will predict the temple’s destruction (24:3–35) and lament its desolation (23:37–39). And immediately after Jesus dies, the temple curtain is torn from top to bottom (27:51). Matthew communicates Jesus’ authority over the temple and also seems to point to him as the center of Jewish worship (21:15–16) and as the eschatological inaugurator who will make temple-focused faith obsolete (27:51).
As we preach this passage, we can highlight Jesus’ relation to the temple as messianic authority, as prophetic voice, and as inaugurator of the kingdom. We should be careful, however, not to overreach on this front. It can be easy to move from Jesus’ critique of the temple and its leadership and his announcement of judgment on the temple to claims that he is issuing judgment on Israel as a whole in this passage and elsewhere. This conclusion would not fit Matthew’s portrayal of the people (laos) or the crowds (ochlos); the people remain open to Jesus even at the end of the Gospel (see 27:64). It has become all too easy in Christian sermons and reflection to castigate all of Judaism, in spite of Matthew’s portrayal of Jesus as the (Jewish) Messiah and as savior of Israel (1:21). We would be wise to consider carefully how our preaching characterizes first-century Judaism in this regard. For Matthew, Jesus is the center of the good news not because Judaism offered bad news but because he is the fulfillment of Israel’s hopes and the completion of Israel’s story.
2. Jesus calls his disciples to unwavering faith. As Matthew has already emphasized, followers of Jesus can and should trust in him and his authority in their lives (e.g., 6:25–34; 17:20). Here Jesus calls his followers to have faith and not doubt. The disciples are not models of this kind of unwavering faith; in fact, they are characterized by “little faith” across the Gospel (6:30; 8:26; 14:31; 16:8; 17:20). But there are other models of faith in Matthew that can help us as we preach and teach this theme, such as the seekers who come to Jesus for healing (8:5–13; 9:1–8, 18–26, 27–31; 15:21–28).
Illustrating the Text
Jesus shows his messianic authority over the temple by critiquing the Jerusalem temple administration.
Quote: Stanley Hauerwas provides helpful context for understanding Jesus’ temple action:
It is tempting for us—for people who have learned to distinguish between politics and religion—to describe [Jesus’] entry into Jerusalem as political and his entry into the temple as religious. But his going to the temple is perhaps even more politically significant. . . . The temple defines Israel. The worship of God and political obedience are inseparable. The abuses surrounding the temple and Israel’s political subjugation are but aspects of the same political reality.
To call Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem and his cleansing of the temple politics challenges the dominant understanding of politics in modernity. We normally do not associate questions of truth and worship with politics. But I am suggesting that Jesus’ drawing on the promise of God to Israel refuses to let Rome determine what counts or does not count for politics. Politics, for Jesus, is about power. But the power that Jesus exercises is that which is life-giving, drawing as it does on the very source of life itself.7
Jesus calls his disciples to unwavering faith.
Scripture: Examples of faith can be found all around us. You might ask someone who has trusted God in difficult circumstances in recent days to share their journey of faith—both the difficulties of trusting and the ways God answered that person’s prayer and gave him or her strength to keep on trusting. The author of Hebrews looks to the Old Testament Scriptures when thinking of examples of faith and faithfulness. In Hebrews 11 the author provides a litany of believers who trusted God for their futures and the future of God’s redemptive work in this world. The list begins with Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, and Sarah and concludes with untold others who faced death and were “destitute, persecuted and mistreated—the world was not worthy of them” (11:37–38). The author concludes this renowned “faith chapter” with these words (11:39–40):
These were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised, since God had planned something better for us so that only together with us would they be made perfect.