Why did Jesus refer to the temple as "my Father's house" (John 2:16)?

He does act as the Lord with Divine rights, yet as the lowly sent One and servant. Nevertheless He does not withhold the testimony to the glory of His Person in the very command not to make His Father's house a house of merchandise. He was the Son of God, announced as such, even as Nathanael had already owned Him, judicially dealing not merely on moral grounds, such as might be open to any godly Israelite, but openly as the One Who identified Himself with His Father's interests; and this was His house. So too, the Spirit of prophecy spoke of the rejected Messiah, as the disciples remembered at a later day.

The cleansing of the Temple (verses 13-17). If the marriage at Cana tells us that man cannot secure his own happiness by the natural means that God has instituted, the second scene, at Jerusalem, demonstrates that man cannot avail himself of the religion that God has given. If God provides a religion suited to man in the flesh, to regulate his conduct and secure his earthly blessing, man immediately corrupts it into a means of making gain. The House of prayer for all nations becomes the resort of changers of money, who turn the Father's House into a house of merchandise. The Lord deals with this great evil, and justifies His judicial act by claiming His relationship with God as His Father, and asserting that the Temple is His Father's house. Thus, once again, He manifests forth His glory before His disciples as the Son acting in zeal for the glory of His Father's house, according to the Scripture, "The zeal of thine house has eaten me up" (Psalm. 69:9). This psalm, now that the Son has come, receives a fuller and deeper meaning, disclosing to us that the rejected Man, of whom the Psalmist speaks, is none less than the Son.

But as we have been seeing, this devotedness characterized His entire life. He goes into the temple, which is for Him His Father's house, but He finds it polluted by men who, under the plea of caring for God's things, are really seeking their own. Our Lord with a scourge of small cords drives them out, and casts out all their traffic. "Make not My Father's house a house of merchandise," He says, and His disciples remember the words of the 69th psalm (Ps. 69:9) — one of the sacrificial psalms — "The zeal of Thy house hath eaten Me up." This very zeal and devotedness to His Father's glory was a pledge of His death. So when asked by the Pharisees by what authority He did these things, His reply shows that He knew full Well where such zeal was leading Him: "Destroy this temple" — take My life — "and in three days I will raise it up" (John 2:13-22).

56 John 2:16. — "My Father." This contradicts the Gnostics' idea that the God (Creator) of the Old Testament was not "the Father" spoken of by our Lord. Observe that in the cleansing of the Temple described by the Synoptists, instead of "My Father's house," we find "your house," because then the Jews had fully rejected Christ. For this designation of His opponents, here especially the leaders, cf. John 7:15, 35, John 8:22, John 13:33, etc.

The purging of the temple is closely connected with the marriage and miracle of Cana. When He comes again the Father's house, the temple, will be cleansed. "Yea every pot in Jerusalem shall be holiness unto the Lord of hosts... and in that day there shall be no more the Canaanite (which means translated: merchantman) in the house of the Lord of hosts." (Zechariah 14:21). This is the first cleansing of the temple, mentioned exclusively by John. The synoptic Gospels report the cleansing which occurred at the close of His ministry. He manifested in it His authority as the Son of God, and Psalm 69:9 was fulfilled in His action. (The whole transaction is a remarkable one, as exhibiting our Lord using more physical exertion, and energetic bodily action, than we see Him using at any other period of His ministry. A word, a touch, or the reaching-forth of a hand, are the ordinary limits of His actions. Here we see Him doing no less than four things:-- (1) Making the scourge;--(2) Driving out the animals;--(3) Pouring out on the ground the changers' money;--(4) Overthrowing the tables. On no occasion do we find Him showing such strong outward marks of indignation, as at the sight of the profanation of the temple. Remembering that the whole transaction is a striking type of what Christ will do at His second coming, we may get some idea of the deep meaning of that remarkable expression, "The wrath of the Lamb." (Revelation 6:16)--Expository Thoughts on John.))

In all the gospels the record occurs of the Lord's cleansing the temple and driving out those who had so grossly misrepresented God therein. Shortly after the start of His ministry, in John 2, He recognises it as His Father's house in which as a house of merchandise they had prostituted its purity for material profit. The other gospels refer to the incident near the close of His ministry of similar character when still referring to it as the house of God which should have been maintained for prayer for all people (one of the initial aspects presented in Gen. 28 as 'the gate of heaven'). He declares the leaders of the people had made it a den of thieves. A little later in His ministry He disowned the house as of God and said 'your house shall be left unto you desolate.' The two-fold aspect had been apparent from the outset but so long as the Lord was on earth it was God's centre for those who feared the Lord and thought upon His name. So there were those like the widow who bestowed all their possessions (even two mites) in the treasury of the house irrespective of what base gain others might be extracting from contact with the temple. There had been elderly people like Simeon and Anna at the birth of the Lord, who were intelligent as to the mind of God and who clung to the temple (despite its blemishes) not in a vague sentimental way but positively waiting for the consolation of Israel and looking for its counterpart, namely, redemption in Jerusalem. Although the Jewish leaders had given a false impression, the true character of the house was unchanged and the Lord could speak of it as 'my Father's house'.

Afterwards, in judging the Jews and judicially cleansing the temple, He presents Himself as the Son of God. It is His Father's house. The proof of this which He gives is His resurrection, when the Jews should have rejected and crucified Him. Moreover He was not only the Son: it was God who was there — not in the temple. It was empty — that house built by Herod. The body of Jesus was now the true temple. Sealed by His resurrection, the scriptures and the word of Jesus were of divine authority to the disciples, as speaking of Him according to the intention of the Spirit of God.

Further, of that long prophetic discourse concerning Jerusalem (Matt. 24; Mark 13; Luke 21), spoken by the Lord in answer to a request preferred by Peter, James, John, and Andrew, not a word has John written; while of much that the Lord said on the evening before His crucifixion, when alone with His Apostles, the son of Zebedee is our only informant (13 — 17). Another fact we may mention. There were two cleansings of the Temple — the first ere John the Baptist finished his ministry, the second near the close of the Lord's life. John, and he alone, records the first of these. The other Evangelists, and they only, tell us of the last. On the first occasion Christ cleansed it as His Father's house (John 2:16). On the second occasion He cleansed it of traffickers as His own (Matt. 21:13, etc.). In John 2. He is the Son. In Matthew He is Jehovah, and there presents Himself to Jerusalem as her King, and as the Son of Man as well. He entered as King riding on the colt, the foal of an ass; He cleansed the house as Jehovah; and He accepted the tribute of praise from the children as the Son of Man (Ps. 8). In these three characters Jerusalem rejected Him. She knew not the things that belonged to her peace (Luke 19:42).

Another proof of the above principle is found in the Lord's attitude, during His life, towards the temple at Jerusalem. The Jews had profaned it in many ways — made it a house of merchandise (John 2) and a den of thieves (Matt. 21), but He still called it His Father's house; and He continued to recognize it as such, until, finally judging it, He said, "Your house is left unto you desolate. For I say unto you, Ye shall not see me henceforth, till ye shall say, Blessed is He that cometh in the name of the Lord." (Matt. 23:38-39.) And immediately we read that "Jesus went out, and departed from the temple." Until that moment, spite of the abuses and corruptions that had grown up around it, He had borne with His people, and regarded the temple as His Father's house; but now, having judged it and them, the house was desolated by His own departure from it. In the same way — whatever the unfaithfulness of His servants, and however indeed they may corrupt the temple of God — He waits in His long-suffering and grace before He pronounces judgment upon it; and, as also in the case of the Jewish temple, He still treats it as God's house on the earth.

Finally, the temple is Christ. "Destroy this temple," He said, "and in three days I will raise it up." Here below He was the temple in which the Father dwelt (John 14:10). But if in a general way the temple is Christ, all its parts present Him in diverse characters. The ark with the law in its heart, the mercy-seat on the ark, the veil, all the utensils of the holy place and of the court, all the way to the walls and foundations of the building — all, absolutely everything, just as in the tabernacle in the wilderness, speaks to us of Him. Everything presents His glories, the efficacy of His work, the light of His Spirit, the perfume of His Name, the value of His blood, the purity, the holiness, the glory of His Person. Wherever we turn, whatever object our eye contemplates in this marvelous building, we ever find the perfections of Him in whom the father has found His delight, in whom He has manifested Himself to us. If we enter into the Father's house, it is to find the perfect manifestation of all that He is, in the Person of His Son.