Vers. 14-17.-Tlie vindication of a desecrated temple. High purposes were sub- served by the exercise of the Saviour's authority both at the beginning and at the close of his ministry. If there was in this conduct an evidential meaning for the Jews, there was also a symbolical meaning for all time. I. IN WHAT TIIE HOLINESS OF THE TEMPLE CONSISTED. 1. The true answer to this inquiry is to be found in the language of the Lord himself. The temple was his Father's hou.~e. It was the building which was originally erected in a measure upon the model of the tabernacle of the wilderness, the pattern of which had been communi- cated by Jehovah in some way to Moses, the servant of God. It wns by Divine com- mand that a certain special locality and building were set apart and consecrated to the service 9f him, who nevertheless "dwelleth not in temples made with hands." 2. The holy memories of national history gathered around this sacred edifice. The original tabernacle was associated with Moses and Aaron; the first temple at Jerusalem with the great kings-David who prepared for it, and Solomon who built it; the second temple with the great lenders of the return from the Captivity; and this restored edifice, in its costly mngnificence, with the royal Herodian house. 3. '!'he sacrifices which were ollered, the priesthoods that ministered, the festivals which were observed, the praises and. prayers which were presented, in these consecrated precincts, nil added to the sanclity of the place. 4. And it must be remembered that the house of th& Father was tho house of the children; that our Lord himself designated the temple "a house ot' prayor for all nations." This may not have been acknowledged or understood 104 THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO BT. JOHN. [cu. II, 1--26.
by the Jews themselves. Yet there were intimntions throughout their sacred Iiter&ture in its sucet>ssi,·c stages that they, as a nnlion, were elecll->d in order that through thorn nil the nations of the earth might be blcssed. 'l'he width of the counRels of Divine henemlence is apparent to all who study the psalms and prophecies of tho Old 'l'cstn- ment Scripture; and our Lord's bnguagc connect~ those coun~els with the dedicated house al Jerusalem. 5. 'J'o our minds the temple possesses sanctity through its devotio, to a symbolical use, for by anticipation it set forth in emblem the holiness of our Lord's body nnd the purity of the spiritual Church of Christ. 'l'be temple At Jernsnlem should be destroyed in the crisis of Ii:rael's fate; the sanctuary of the Lord'8 body should be taken down; and the holy temple, consecrated to the Lord, should grow in stateliness and beauty until all the living stones should be built into it for grace and glory etern&I. II. BY WHAT THE HOLINESS OF TUE TEMPLE WAS VIOLATED, 'l'here must have been an infamous desecration in order to have awakened such indignation in the breast of Jesus. We can see two respects in which this was so. 1. 'l'he building was abused and profaned in being diverted from sacred to secular uses. Where there should have been only sacrifices, there were sales of beasts and birds ; where there should have been only offerings, there was money-changing. 2. The sanctity of the temple was violat.ed by the cupidity of the rulers, who, it is well known, made a sinful and scandalous profit for themselves by the transactions which awakened the indignation of Jesus. 3. Nor was this all, injustice and fraud were added to cupidity-the temple became "a den of thieves." Ill. JN WHAT WAY THE HOLINESS OF THE TEMPLE WAS VINDICATED. 1, By the interposition of One of the highest dignity, Christ was "greater than the ten,ple;" he was the Lord of the temple; nay, he was himself the true Temple appointed to super- gede the mate1ial structure. 2. By the exercise of just and manifested authority. '!'he demeanour and the language of Jesus were such as to preclude resistance, to silence murmuring. The Lord came to his own inheritance, to the house of his Father. 3. By the comparison of the edifice at Jerusalem to his own sacred body. In the language he used in his subsequent conversation with the Jews, he "spake of the Temple of his body," and in so doing he attached to the sanctuary a holiness greater than was con- ferred upon it by all the associations of its use and of its history.-T. Ver. 11.-The mirade of Cana. Notice- I. ~ MIRACLE IN RELATION TO JEsus HIMSELF. The miracle, with its attending circumstances, was: 1. .A manifestation of his glory. Every act and every word of bis manifested the glory of his character, but his miracles were spiritual nnd natural signs of the Divinity of his Person and the distinguishing feature of his character. His miracles were purely voluntary. Still, he pleased to perform them in order to manifest bis glory-the fulness of his Divine and human life. 2. It was a manifestation of his own glory. The glory manifested by the greatest and best of men is only derived and borrowed; but Jesus manifested his own glory-that which originally and inherently l,elon,,.ed to him as the " Son of God," and now as the Son of God in human naturC', What glory was specially manifested by this miracle and its attending circumstances? (1) The thorough sociality of !,is nature. His first pu~lic appeara:nce was in the house uf joy, at a marriage-feast, and that of a young couple Ill hnmLle circumstances, l!O that he was not attracted by worldly distinction or self-interest, but by the simple sociality of his nature. He wae not an Ascetic or a Stoic, but a perfect Man. His Divine nature did not interfere with his human instincts so as to keep him away from the human family. Thus the human Ride of his character was very different from and superior to that of the "Baptist." He lived out of the world; Jesus lived in it. And on this occasion was strikingly manifested the warm euciality of his nature, one or the chief glories of his Divine-human cbaract.er, and thus representing faithfully the character of God which is intensely social. Although invisible and infinite, yet he mingles with ali the innocent joys and piercing sorrows of his creatures. He is present in the genial sunshine and in the da~k cloud. (2) The absolute independenc'!/ of his c~- duct. His mother innocently rnterfered. She had long expected a display of his power, and, as she thought, the occasion had ~me. She says, "They have no win?." Being touched by the breath of a carnal notion, he gently but firmly rebuked 1t : ., Woman, what have I to do with thee?" In every instance of interference wilh 01{, It, 1-26,] THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. JOHN. 105