When it was almost time for the Jewish Passover, Jesus went up to Jerusalem. In the temple courts he found people selling cattle, sheep and doves, and others sitting at tables exchanging money. So he made a whip out of cords, and drove all from the temple courts, both sheep and cattle, he scattered the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. To those who sold doves he said, “Get these out of here! Stop turning my father’s house into a market!” His disciples remembered that it is written, “Zeal for your house will consume me.” The Jews then responded to him, “What sign can you show us to prove your authority to do all this?” Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple and I will raise it again in three days.” They replied, “It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and you are going to raise it in three days? But the temple he had spoken of was his body. After he was raised from the dead, his disciples recalled what he had said…

(Jn 2.13-22)

Those who trust in the Lord are like Mount Zion, which cannot be shaken but endures for ever. As the mountains surround Jerusalem, so the Lord surrounds his people both now and forevermore…. Lord, do good to those who are good, to those who are upright in heart. But those who turn to crooked ways the Lord will banish with the evildoers. 

Peace be on Israel.

(Ps 125, 1,2 4&5)

That was then and this is now… As I become more experienced in reading and thinking about the scriptures of the Old and New Testaments as a coherent story, I find myself getting more excited about the many ways in which themes occur and develop across the great narrative. There are many such themes, and any one of them may be studied to great advantage as they enlarge our understanding of God’s purposes and especially of the person and work of Jesus himself.

The temple as a theme originates in Genesis, where Eden itself is established as the place where God meets us, before sin broke that fellowship and God embarked upon the long restoration of relationship. The tent in the wilderness, and the great temple of Solomon in turn symbolise how a holy God may dwell among sinful people, but these are only ever looking ahead to an effective and eternal removal of sin, and restoration of intimacy. In this passage in the gospel, John clearly states that Jesus has come to supersede the role played by the physical temple. After the coming of Messiah, after his sacrificial and atoning death, and his resurrection, there is no longer any need for a physical location of ritual encounter and worship.

Jesus will say as much to the Samaritan woman, and Stephen in his final speech before his martyrdom stirs up the fury of the religious authorities by affirming that God has never been contained by and limited to the human construction of the temple building. It has always been God’s will that his children should live with him in daily and intimate communion, and one day, we will realise that to the full, in the new creation. All the ways that the temple was used – to make God known; to meet with God; to make peace with God; to move people to growing faith in, loving commitment to and service of God – these are found as we come to Jesus himself.

In the old days, songs of ascents (like psalm 125 above) or pilgrimage were sung, as people travelled to festivals in Jerusalem, celebrating the joy and privilege of coming to the temple and remembering what it means to belong to the God whom they met there… These are now our songs as those who belong to God, and who in Jesus find they dwell with the Almighty and are in turn being shaped into his witness to others. We don’t need to make a long or arduous journey, Jesus has travelled all the way from his Father’s side to meet us.. let us then celebrate, remember, and grow ever closer to him.

Almighty God, thank you that in Jesus, we meet you; in Jesus we are made at peace with you; in Jesus you are made known, and by him we are moved to love and hope. Lord God, let me not depart from your presence in Jesus; let me grasp more deeply the reality of forgiveness and freedom which is mine in Him; let me learn from and through Him of you; and let me be moved ever more effectively to witness to you, walk with you, and share all I have in your kingdom-building work. Thank you that in Jesus, all that was signified by the temple of your dwelling among us is more than fulfilled!

*with sincere thanks to Stuart Smith for the sermon on 16th February, 2025, which inspired this piece.