Jesus and the Temple
Jesus and the Temple
No single place in all the world was holier to Jews and Christians at the time of Jesus than the Temple Mount. It was known as Har Habayit, the “Mountain of the House [of God].” On this sacred parcel of ground, the God of all creation had conversed with his prophets and priests, and on it a temple had been built to which He could come and in which his glory could dwell.
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Illustrated by Leen Ritmeyer
Of course, God was not and is not limited to a building made by man. Mountains of God—such as Mount Sinai and the high mountains to which the brother of Jared, Nephi, and John the Revelator were caught away by the Spirit (see Ether 3:1; 1 Ne. 11:1; Rev. 21:10)—have often been the settings for templelike experiences.
The Savior himself sometimes “went up into a mountain apart to pray.” (Matt. 14:23.) He took Peter, James, and John to “an high mountain apart” and was there glorified and transfigured before them; there they received the keys of the kingdom and heard the Father himself bearing witness of his Son. (See Matt. 17:1–9; History of the Church, 3:387.) After the Resurrection, the Savior gave his final charge and instructions to the eleven Apostles in “a mountain where Jesus had appointed them.” (Matt. 28:16.)
These mountains were made holy by the divine presence of God.
The Savior and the Temple
But what of the Temple itself during Jesus’ day? How did Jesus—the very Jehovah in whose name it had been built and to whom its sacrifices had been offered—regard the Temple built by Herod?
Although the architectural beauty of Herod’s Temple made it one of the wonders of the ancient world, it had less of the hallowed and spiritual atmosphere that had infused the Tabernacle and Solomon’s Temple. The ark of the covenant, Mercy Seat, Cherubim, and other holy objects were not there; the Urim and Thummim, which provided revelatory contact with God, was not there; and the Shechinah—the divine presence—was absent.
Yet Herod’s Temple was a place of revelation, as seen in the experience of Zacharias. (See Luke 1.) And there is evidence in word and deed that Jesus considered the Temple to be the legitimate sanctuary of the true God. Indeed, Jesus called it “my Father’s house” (John 2:16) and “my house” (Matt. 21:13; Mark 11:17; Luke 19:46).
The Savior’s life from beginning to end was bound to the Temple. When Mary had fulfilled the forty-day ritual of purification after giving birth, she and Joseph took the infant Jesus to the Temple in Jerusalem for the ceremonial redemption of the firstborn. (See Luke 2:22–24.) Twelve years later, Mary and Joseph “found him in the temple, sitting in the midst of the doctors, and they were hearing him, and asking him questions.” (JST, Luke 2:46.)
Near the commencement of the Savior’s ministry, “Jesus was taken up into the holy city, and the Spirit setteth him on the pinnacle of the temple.” (JST, Matt. 4:5.) There Satan made a vain effort to tempt him. During the three years that followed, Jesus was frequently in the Temple courts and in the Temple—that is, in various structures or colonnades of the inner Temple—though apparently not in the Holy Place itself (see illustration):
“The blind and the lame came to him in the temple; and he healed them.” (Matt. 21:14.)
“About the midst of the feast Jesus went up into the temple, and taught.” (John 7:14.)
“And early in the morning he came again into the temple, and all the people came unto him; and he sat down, and taught them.” (John 8:2.)
“He taught daily in the temple.” (Luke 19:47.)
“All the people came early in the morning to him in the temple, for to hear him.” (Luke 21:38.)
“I spake openly to the world,” he said; “I ever taught in the synagogue, and in the temple, whither the Jews always resort; and in secret have I said nothing.” (John 18:20.)
On at least one occasion, people in the Temple cried to him in praise, saying, “Hosanna to the Son of David.” (Matt. 21:15.)
Jesus was protective of the sanctity of his Father’s house. In the very early days of his ministry, he cleansed the Temple court of the merchandisers and money changers. (See John 2:13–16.) Then during his final week in mortality, he again “went into the temple of God, cast out all them that sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the tables of the money changers.” (Matt. 21:12.)
As he taught, Jesus made figurative use of the Temple to foreshadow his death and resurrection: “Destroy this temple,” he said, “and in three days I will raise it up.
“Then said the Jews, Forty and six years was this temple in building, and wilt thou rear it up in three days?
“But he spake of the temple of his body.” (John 2:19–21.)
At Jesus’ death, the veil in the Temple’s most sacred chamber, the Holy of Holies, was “rent in twain from the top to the bottom.” (Matt. 27:51.) For generations, only the high priest had been permitted to pass through the veil and enter the symbolic presence of God—and even he had that privilege only once a year. But through his death, Jesus rent that partition, signifying, among other things, that all people could reach God’s presence. (See Paul’s explanation of the symbolism, Heb. 9:11–14; Heb. 10:19–22.)
Although the Temple had been built by a godless king and was in the hands of priests who had strayed from the true knowledge of Jehovah, Jesus reverenced it and respected it. But he also acknowledged its position in relation to the true Lord of the Temple: “I say unto you,” he told the Pharisees, “that in this place is one greater than the temple.” (Matt. 12:6.)
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