ly. There is no need to think of any use of miraculous power. His moral
earnestness, coupled with the underlying consciousness on the part of the
traders themselves that they had no business in God's house, readily
explains the confusion and departure of the intruders. Even those who
challenged Jesus' conduct did not venture to defend the presence of the
market in the temple. They only demanded that Jesus show his warrant for
disturbing a condition of things authorized by the priests.

116. The temple cleansing is recorded in the other gospels at the end of
Jesus' ministry, just before the hostility of the Jews culminated in his
condemnation and death. Inasmuch as these gospels give no account of a
ministry by Jesus in Jerusalem before the last week of his life, it is
easy to see how this event came to be associated by them with the only
Jerusalem sojourn which they record. The definite place given to the event
in John, together with the seeming necessity that Jesus should condemn
such authorized affront to the very idea of worship, mark this cleansing
as the inaugural act of Jesus' ministry of spiritual religion, rather than
as a final stern rebuke closing his effort to win his people. Against the
conclusion commonly held that Jesus cleansed the temple both at the
opening and at the close of his course is the extreme improbability that
the traders would have been caught twice in the same way. The event fits
in closely with the story of the last week, because it actually led to the
beginning of opposition in Jerusalem to the prophet from Galilee. At the
first the opposition was doubtless of a scornful sort. Later it grew in
bitterness when it saw how Jesus was able to arouse a popular enthusiasm
that seemed to threaten the stability of existing conditions.

117. The reply of Jesus to the challenge of his authority for his
high-handed act shows that he offered it to the people as an invitation;
he would lead them to a higher idea and practice of worship (compare John
iv. 21-24). When they demanded the warrant for his act, he saw that they
were not ready to follow him, and could not appreciate the only warrant he
needed for his course. He cleansed the temple because they were destroying
it as a place where men could worship God in spirit. In reply to the
challenge, he who later taught the Samaritan woman that the worship of God
is not dependent on any place however sacred, answered that they might
finish their work and des