The Kingdom Movement

A Literary & Pastoral Study Guide to the Gospel of Matthew

The Inspiration of Matthew,

by Caravaggio

On the King's Errand

Devotional Reflections on Matthew's Gospel

Jesus Replaces the Temple:  Mt.9:1 – 13

^9:6 …the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins…¹³ But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire compassion, and not sacrifice,’ for I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners.’

In the spring of 2009, I had a public discussion with the Hillel rabbi at Tufts University.  He and some other Jews objected to the idea of Jesus being the Messiah because Jesus did not cleanse and renew the physical Temple of Jerusalem.  For many Jews, that is one of the criteria of what the real Messiah would do.  I responded with a full literary analysis of the Torah, arguing that the Tabernacle – Temple structure was God’s Plan B.  God decided to dwell veiled from the people, in a tent, because they did not want to meet Him face to face on the top of Mt. Sinai.  For more on that, see my summary of the Pentateuch or my presentation at that Tufts meeting.  God’s Plan A was always to dwell among and within human beings, not in a building.  So when Jesus said he was the ‘new Temple’ where God dwelled, he was getting back to God’s Plan A.  The idea that the Messiah would rebuild the physical Temple building in Jerusalem was, I argued, an invalid criterion.

          Matthew’s Gospel highlights Jesus’ claim to be a new Temple, a new dwelling place of God in human flesh.  A comparison to Mark and Luke reinforces the point.  Significantly, Matthew includes Jesus’ comment, ‘But I say to you that something greater than the Temple is here’ (Mt.12:6).  This phrase does not appear in the parallel accounts in Mark 2:23 – 28 or Luke 6:1 – 5.  Matthew also includes Jesus’ remark about the priests in the Temple on the Sabbath (Mt.12:5), which does not appear in Mark or Luke.  Jesus’ main point, acknowledged by Old Testament example and pattern, seems to be that in the presence of God, certain things change.  David and his men were in the ‘house of God’ and could therefore eat the bread.  Similarly, the priests also work in the Temple on the Sabbath without breaking the Law.  These are significant literary moves Matthew is making, deepening the argument.  Matthew, much like John, presents Jesus as the new Temple, the new presence of God and point of disclosure about the knowledge of God. 

As I have explored in earlier reflections, Jesus’ claim to forgive sins was startling in nature and had startling implications.  Forgiveness of certain sins was something that normally was declared at the Jerusalem Temple when a sacrifice was offered.  The following phase peppers Leviticus 4 – 6:  ‘So the priest shall make atonement for them, and they will be forgiven’ (Lev.4:20, 26, 31, 35; 5:10, 13; 16, 18; 6:7). The Temple sacrifices symbolically cleansed the worshiper of sin.  If the sacrifice was an animal, it was symbolically eaten by God, drawn into Him to be consumed.  Those sacrifices pointed forward to Jesus’ cleansing of human nature (Heb.10:1 – 21; see below), where God drew the corruption in human nature to Himself to be consumed.  God had provided the Temple to develop a sense of hope and expectation in Israel that one day, God will cleanse human nature itself.  Israel needed to understand the symbolism first.  It would prepare them to understand the reality of sin-cleansing in Jesus. 

That is why Jesus quotes the prophet Hosea, who said, ‘I desire compassion, and not sacrifice’ (Hos.6:6a, quoted in Mt.9:13).  Hosea criticized Israel for prioritizing the ceremonial aspects of worship while engaging in violence and deceit.  Hence, ‘I desire compassion, and not sacrifice, and in the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings’ (Hos.6:6).  Hosea’s ultimate hope lay not in animal sacrifices but in God’s unique work, after a period of exile, to heal them from their sins (Hos.6 – 14).  Jesus declares that Israel’s exile under the Gentile powers is over.  He says that God no longer wants ceremonial sacrifices at all.  The time for those sacrifices is over because Jesus has cleansed human nature in himself and offers that new humanity back to us.  Notice the theme of cleansing from sin through the body of Jesus in the letter to the Hebrews:

^10:1 For the Law, since it has only a shadow of the good things to come and not the very form of things, can never, by the same sacrifices which they offer continually year by year, make perfect those who draw near. ² Otherwise, would they not have ceased to be offered, because the worshipers, having once been cleansed, would no longer have had consciousness of sins? ³ But in those sacrifices there is a reminder of sins year by year. ⁴ For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins. ⁵ Therefore, when He comes into the world, He says, ‘Sacrifice and offering You have not desired, but a body you have prepared for me; ⁶ in whole burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin You have taken no pleasure. ⁷ Then I said, ‘Behold, I have come (in the scroll of the book it is written of me) to do Your will, O God.’’ ⁸ After saying above, ‘Sacrifices and offerings and whole burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin You have not desired, nor have You taken pleasure in them’ (which are offered according to the Law), ⁹ then He said, ‘Behold, I have come to do Your will.’ He takes away the first in order to establish the second. ¹⁰ By this will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. ¹¹ Every priest stands daily ministering and offering time after time the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins; ¹² but He, having offered one sacrifice for sins for all time, ‘sat down at the right hand of God,’ ¹³ waiting from that time onward ‘until his enemies be made a footstool for his feet.’ ¹⁴ For by one offering He has perfected for all time those who are sanctified. ¹⁵ And the Holy Spirit also testifies to us; for after saying, ¹⁶ ‘This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, says the Lord: I will put My laws upon their heart, and on their mind I will write them,’ He then says, ¹⁷ ‘And their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more.’ ¹⁸ Now where there is forgiveness of these things, there is no longer any offering for sin. ¹⁹ Therefore, brethren, since we have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus, ²⁰ by a new and living way which He inaugurated for us through the veil, that is, His flesh, ²¹ and since we have a great priest over the house of God, ²² let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.