John 2:18-22 Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up

So the Jews answered and said to Him, "What sign do You show to us, since You do these things?"  Jesus answered and said to 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 of the temple of His body.  Therefore, when He had risen from the dead, His disciples remembered that He had said this to them; and they believed the Scripture and the word which Jesus had said.

(18) So the Jews answered and said to Him, "What sign do You show to us, since You do these things?"   The religious leaders objected as Jesus was chasing the merchants out of the Temple.  The fact that neither the Jews nor the Roman authorities sought to arrest Jesus for cleansing the Temple indicates that Herod's Temple had become more of a public attraction than a dedicated house of God.  The Jews' inquiry also suggests that they may have, themselves, held some private concerns about the spiritual integrity of operating a bustling bazaar within the courts of the Temple.

Within the structure of the Jewish religious system, only a confirmed prophet would be considered to hold authority equal to, or higher than, the priesthood.  The priestly offices were filled by qualified men who were descendants of Aaron.  But according to precedent established by Jewish tradition, a prophet would only be accepted as a prophet after he had been validated by a supernatural act of God.  The Jews expected that anyone qualified to challenge their authority would need to perform a miracle similar to the miracles of Elijah and Elisha; such as, calling fire down from heaven.

(19)  Jesus answered and said to them, "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up."  Jesus did not offer the sign of a prophet, because He was not just another prophet - He was the Christ.  Jesus promised to perform the most physically impossible feat of all time.  Not merely a resuscitation of His body; but a complete regeneration of His body into a glorified body - a resurrection to an eternal and immortal body.  Jesus knew before He started His ministry that, as the Lamb of God, He would be required to lay down His life as a sacrifice.

 

Jesus pronounced in the tenth chapter of this gospel; "Therefore My Father loves Me, because I lay down My life that I may take it again.   No one takes it from Me, but I lay it down of Myself.  I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This command I have received from My Father." - John 10:17,18  This command from the Father was both personally imparted to Jesus; and it was stated in the Scriptures in the last verses of Isaiah 53, as well as in the Psalms:

 

Therefore my heart is glad, and my glory rejoices;
My flesh also will rest in hope.
For You will not leave my soul in Sheol,
Nor will You allow Your Holy One to see corruption.
You will show me the path of life;
In Your presence is fullness of joy;
At Your right hand are pleasures forevermore. - Psalms 16:9-11 

 

Herod's Temple

(20)  Then the Jews said, "It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and will You raise it up in three days?"  At the beginning of Jesus' ministry, the Jewish leaders would not have believed that Jesus would gain such popularity among the people.   Neither would they have been willing to admit that such jealousy would rise up within them that they would seek to destroy Jesus - the living Temple of God.  But His hour had not yet come.  Therefore no more details were provided by Jesus.  Thus, leaving His hearers with an unexplained riddle.

 

(21) But He was speaking of the temple of His body.  From the time of His childhood visit to the Jerusalem Temple, Jesus must have contemplated the fact that His own human body was the real earthly housing of the presence of God, rather than Herod's stately stone monument.  Although the Tabernacle and the Temple were once the appointed dwelling places for God's Name, Emanuel had now come.  God tabernacled with men - as the man Jesus of Nazareth in a Temple of flesh.

 

(22)  Therefore, when He had risen from the dead, His disciples remembered that He had said this to them; and they believed the Scripture and the word which Jesus had said.  From the beginning of His ministry Jesus forewarned the Disciples that He would be betrayed, beaten, and put to death; and, that He would rise again the third day.  But Jesus allowed them to miss the connection between His role as the Lamb of God and His upcoming crucifixion.  Many have supposed that the Disciples must have been too simple to grasp what Jesus was saying.  And the Disciples admit in their own gospels that they were afraid to ask Him about these things.

 

But God, in His great mercy, would not let the Disciples realize beforehand that Jesus would be dying on the cross for their own sins (and for ours).  Peter would hardly allow Jesus to wash his feet on the night of His betrayal.  How unthinkable would it have been for Peter to let Jesus die for his sins.  What if God had permitted Peter and the others to understand, as they gazed up at the cross, that Jesus was actually suffering and dying in their place?  Had she known the true meaning of the cross at the time, we can imagine that Mary Magdalene (who had been completely possessed before she was set free by the Savior) might have attempted to tear the cross down with her bear hands rather than see her beloved Rabbi suffer on her behalf.

 

But, in fact, the salvation being wrought by the cross was kept hidden from the understanding of helpless mankind - until after the fact.  Jesus went to the cross alone, forsaken by all.  And He alone knew the purpose of His passion.  That is; until the Holy Spirit was sent so that the sinners Jesus died for might lay hold of the true message of the cross - the message of salvation.  Thus He told the Disciples on the eve before the cross:

 

I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now.  However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come.  He will glorify Me, for He will take of what is Mine and declare it to you. - John 16:12-14  The Holy Spirit did indeed come and has declared to us the redemption from sin and the victory over death which were completed by Christ on the cross.  This truth is the good news of the gospels and the declaration of the entire New Testament.

O What a wonderful Savior!  May we be filled with the knowledge of that great salvation for which our Lord Jesus suffered and died!