2:13
The Passover was one of the festivals that the Jews celebrated, remembering the escape from Egypt when the angel of death “passed over” them (Exodus 12). They had to remember the haste with which they ate. It is, of course, most significant that it was the blood of the lamb that protected them from the angel of death, the judgement that came upon the land of Egypt. Jesus is our passover lamb.
The synoptic gospels record a clearing of the temple (Matt 21:12,13; Mark 11:15-17; Luke 19:45,46). Most assume that John is recording the same incident and has placed at an early stage in Jesus’ ministry for some reason. The simpler, and more likely explanation, seems to me to be that there were two clearings. There are differences in the accounts, and there seems to be no reason why Jesus wouldn’t have done this twice. The people clearly weren’t into repentance in a big way, so it is no surprise that they had reverted back to their old ways.
2:14
People came from far and wide to the temple in Jerusalem. They needed animals to sacrifice and it clearly wasn’t practical for them to bring them from their homes, so they needed to buy them at Jerusalem.
The animals were sold in the outer court. Now this was the one place where the Gentiles were allowed to pray, so this activity hindered Gentiles from praying. It had always been God’s plan that salvation for Israel would spread to the whole world (Gen 12:3), and the activity of the merchants was stopping Gentiles from praying. Israel never got to grips with the idea of God’s salvation going to all nations.
Furthermore, money needed to be changed, and it is a fair bet that they took a significant mark-up.
We need to be careful that we do not negate some part of God’s plan for pragmatic reasons.
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