We have seen the first sign which manifested Christ’s divinity: the changing of water into wine at Cana (vv. 1-11). Now we will hear Christ speak of the ultimate sign: His own resurrection from the dead. First, the Evangelist gives the occasion for Christ’s prediction of His resurrection: the cleansing of the temple (vv. 12-17). Then he recounts the prediction itself (vv. 18-25). Both miracles, Cana and the Resurrection, demonstrate Christ’s power over nature. He performed the first to confirm the faith of His newly converted disciples; he will rise from the dead to convert the people.

“After this he went down to Capernaum” (Jn 2:12a). After the miracle at Cana, Christ went to Capernaum, which is on the northwest shore of the Sea of Galilee, less than three miles from the Jordan River. Capernaum means “village of Nahum,” and Nahum means “consolation” or “compassion.” St. Matthew tells us that Capernaum was Jesus’ “own city” (Mt 9:1). Some have suggested that St. John’s report of Christ’s visit to Capernaum seems to conflict with what St. Matthew said. St. Matthew reported that, at the time Jesus went to Capernaum, John the Baptist had already been placed under arrest (Mt 4:12), whereas when Jesus went to Capernaum in Jn 2:12, the Baptist was still free, for St. John has the Baptist speaking with his disciples in Jn 3:26. However, there is really no conflict in the historical sequence of events, for each of them was referring to a different trip to Capernaum. The one mentioned by St. John (Jn 2:12) occurred before the Baptist was arrested, whereas the one mentioned by St. Matthew (Mt 4:12) took place shortly after John had been arrested by King Herod.

Christ traveled “with his mother and his brothers and his disciples” (Jn 2:12a). Two errors have arisen with respect to the term, “brothers.” First, Helvidius asserted that these “brothers” were natural children of Mary and Joseph, conceived in the usual manner. But we believe in the perpetual virginity of Mary. Second, others have suggested that Joseph fathered sons by another wife, and that he was a widower when he married Mary. But St. Jerome argued that, since the Lord entrusted the care of His mother to the virgin disciple (Jn 19:27), it seems reasonable to assume that Joseph, who was the special guardian of Mary and Jesus, had also been a virgin throughout his life.

To say that Christ had brothers does not imply that He had siblings, for the term “brother” is used throughout the Bible to denote either a blood relative or a close companion unrelated by blood. It is reasonable to assume that the “brothers” mentioned here in Jn 2:12 and elsewhere are related to Mary or to Joseph by some degree of consanguinity, though not as natural sons. We cannot, however, identify Christ’s “brothers” with His “disciples,” for not all His kinsmen followed Him, as we read, “even his brothers did not believe in him” (Jn 7:5).

Which of his disciples went to Capernaum? If we follow the historical order of the Gospel of St. John, we may conclude that Christ had four or five disciples at that point in time: Andrew (Jn 1:40), his brother Simon Peter (Jn 1:42), Philip (Jn 1:43), Nathanael (Jn 1:47), and an unnamed disciple (Jn 1:35), who may have been Philip, St. John the Evangelist, or someone else. The first four apostles mentioned by St. Matthew are two pairs of brothers: Simon Peter and Andrew (Mt 4:18), and James and John, the sons of Zebedee (Mt 4:21). But St. Matthew has it that they were not called by Christ until after the Baptist was imprisoned and after Christ had gone down to Capernaum: “when he heard that John had been arrested, he withdrew into Galilee; and leaving Nazareth he went and dwelt in Capernaum by the sea” (Mt 4:12). Now, as we discussed above, St. John and St. Matthew are talking about two different visits to Capernaum. And so, there is no discrepancy as to the timing of the visits. As to the discrepancy concerning the names of the disciples who accompanied Him, we can offer two explanations. First, St. Augustine suggested that St. Matthew did not intend to follow the objective historical order. Rather, he summarized events according to a subjective ordering in such a way as to tell the story of Christ in his own distinctive manner. Consequently, he related events that actually took place before the Baptist’s imprisonment as if they had occurred afterwards. Second, St. Augustine noted that one should not equate “apostle” with “disciple,” for many others beside the Twelve were called disciples. This is apparent from Lk 6:13: “he called his disciples, and chose from them twelve, whom he named apostles.” Therefore, it is possible that some of the disciples who went with Christ to Capernaum were not apostles.

“And there they stayed for a few days” (Jn 2:12b). First, according to a literal interpretation, the reason why Christ did not stay there for very long was because the people of Capernaum were not eager to receive His teaching. They failed to believe in Him, even though they had seen His miracles. Thus, He rebuked them, saying, “And you, Capernaum, will you be exalted to heaven? You shall be brought down to Hades. For if the mighty works done in you had been done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day.” (Mt 11:23) Second, according to the spiritual sense, some people can bear only a few of Christ’s words at a time, for they lack the intellectual capacity to take it all in at once, as Christ said to His disciples, “I have yet many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now” (Jn 16:12).

Next, the Evangelist mentions the occasion for Christ’s journey from Galilee to Jerusalem: “The Passover of the Jews was at hand” (Jn 2:13a). The Passover feast (Pesach) was prescribed for every household to celebrate on the fourteenth of Nisan (Ex 12:17), which was reckoned as the first month of the year (Ex 12:2). Christ observed the major feasts, for in doing so, He observed a law which He, the Word of God, decreed. Thus, He said, “Think not that I have come to abolish the law and the prophets; I have come not to abolish them but to fulfil them” (Mt 5:17).

The Gospel of St. John mentions three Passover celebrations. The first one followed the miracle at Cana (Jn 2:12), which is the one we are now discussing; the second one followed the feeding of the five thousand (Jn 6:4); and the third one was the Passover when Christ celebrated His last supper with the apostles (Jn 13:1). From a careful reading of Mt 14:13-21 and Jn 6:4 we can deduce that John the Baptist was beheaded shortly before the second Passover. Mt 14:13-21 tells us that when Jesus heard the news of the beheading, he withdrew by boat to a lonely place, but crowds followed him; He took pity on them, healed their sick, and fed the five thousand. From Jn 6:4, we know that this feeding took place immediately before the second Passover. Hence, we conclude that the Baptist was executed shortly before Christ celebrated the second Passover.

According to tradition, Christ performed the miracle at Cana exactly one year after He was baptized, and He was baptized exactly thirty years after the wise men came bearing gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. Thus, we commemorate, on the same day, the adoration of the magi, Christ’s baptism, and the miracle at Cana. If there was a Passover shortly after Cana, then there was one shortly after He was baptized. Since Christ began to preach and to baptize sometime after His own baptism, we can deduce that He preached for more than three years, but less than four. That is, He preached for part of the year between His baptism and the miracle at Cana; He preached the entire year between Cana and the beheading, the entire year between the beheading and the feeding of the five thousand, and the entire year between the feeding and the Last Supper.

The Evangelist said, “Passover of the Jews,” for two possible reasons. First, he said “Passover of the Jews,” instead of “Passover of the Lord,” perhaps because the people celebrated it in an unbecoming manner, for their own pleasure, rather than for the Lord. “Was it for me that you fasted?” asked the Lord (Zec 7:5). Second, perhaps the Evangelist said, “Passover of the Jews” to differentiate it from our Mass, for the Passover lamb was but a symbol of the Lamb of God, and the immolation of the lamb was but an imperfect figure of the true sacrifice of Christ on the cross. St. Paul instructed the Corinthians, “Christ, our paschal lamb, has been sacrificed. Let us, therefore, celebrate the festival, not with the old leaven, the leaven of malice and evil, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.” (1 Cor 5:7)

“And Jesus went up to Jerusalem” (Jn 2:13b). Jesus expelled merchants from the temple on two occasions. The first occurred before the Baptist’s imprisonment; this is the one reported by St. John the Evangelist here. The other occasion, reported by St. Matthew (Mt 21:12), occurred during the Passover on which He died. It was not unusual for Christ to perform a particularly significant action more than once. For example, He healed two blind men near Capernaum in Galilee (Mt 9:27-31) and two other blind men just outside of Jericho in Judea (Mt 20:29-34).

In a spiritual sense, the name “Jerusalem” was understood in biblical times to mean “city of peace.” It signifies for us eternal happiness. Christ had to first go down to Capernaum before He could go up to Jerusalem. He had to suffer and die before He could rise. He condescended to become a man, that He might raise fallen human nature. The same divine person who came down to us in the Incarnation, arose and ascended in glory, as St. Paul said, “He who descended is he who also ascended far above all the heavens” (Eph 4:10). His disciples did not enter Jerusalem with Him on this, their first Passover as His disciples, for their ascent must follow upon His ascent: “No one has ascended into heaven but he who descended from heaven, the Son of man” (Jn 3:13). This signifies that Christ is “the first-born among many brethren” (Rom 8:29).

Next, the Evangelist recounts the historical event that prompted Christ to speak of the greatest of signs: His own bodily resurrection. First Christ exposed the avaricious behavior of the merchants and money-changers; then He applied a suitable remedy.

“In the temple he found those who were selling oxen and sheep and pigeons, and the money-changers at their business” (Jn 2:14). Greed is a dangerous vice that afflicts the rational animal. The devil appeals to man’s inclination to cupidity in order to denigrate, and even to destroy, sacred things. The prophet lamented: “The dogs have a mighty appetite; they never have enough. The shepherds also have no understanding; they have all turned to their own way, each to his own gain, one and all.” (Is 56:11) Even the priests of Jerusalem fell prey to the vice of avarice. When it came time to go up to Jerusalem to offer sacrifice, the faithful who lived nearby brought their own animals, while those coming from a distance purchased sacrificial animals in Jerusalem. The priests of the temple saw to it that merchants had a sufficient supply of animals on hand for the pilgrims, and they allowed the merchants to conduct their business within the temple precincts, that is, inside the outer wall that separated the sacred from the profane. Three land animals were used for sacrifice according to the law: oxen, sheep and goats. Two birds were used: doves and turtle doves, the latter being a wild pigeon (tor in Hebrew). It sometimes happened that a pilgrim came without coin that was acceptable in Judea. To remedy this, the priests allowed money-changers to be seated in the courtyard in order to exchange foreign coinage or to provide the pilgrims with money in exchange for merchandise which they brought along with them. All this business–the currency exchange and the sale of animals–was done within the temple precincts, thereby profaning a holy place. And if it were the case that the priests had made a profit from the business, then they would be guilty of profaning their sacred office as well.

We can also interpret this verse in a spiritual sense in three ways. First, the merchants signify those who buy and sell spiritual goods for the Church, for the oxen, sheep and pigeons signify spiritual goods. The oxen symbolize the apostles and doctors of the Church, for spiritual goods are consecrated and authenticated by them: “Where there are no oxen, there is no grain; but abundant crops come by the strength of the ox” (Prv 4:14). The sheep represent the martyrs, as St. Paul said of them, “For thy sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered” (Rom 8:36). And the pigeons signify the Holy Spirit, Who descended upon Christ at His baptism in the form of a dove (Jn 1:32). Therefore, those who presume to sell spiritual goods should realize that they are giving away the treasury of apostolic teaching, the merits earned by the martyrs, and the gifts received from the Holy Spirit. Second, it sometimes happens that prelates “sell” the oxen and the sheep and the pigeons, not overtly by simony, but covertly through negligence, by neglecting the spiritual welfare of three classes of people entrusted to their care. In this sense, the oxen signify preachers, for Isaiah said, “Happy are you who sow beside all waters, who let the feet of the ox and the ass range free” (Is 32:20). This means that prelates ought to minister to both the wise, represented here as the ox, and the uneducated, represented as the ass. The sheep represent all those engaged in the active life, like Martha, the sister of Lazarus (Lk 10:40). The sheep depend upon their shepherd for guidance, as we look to Christ the Good Shepherd: “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me” (Jn 10:27). The pigeons represent contemplatives, like Martha’s sister Mary, as the Psalmist mused, “O that I had wings like a dove! I would fly away and be at rest; yea, I would wander afar, I would lodge in the wilderness.” (Ps 55:6-7) Third, “the temple” may represent the spiritual soul, for the soul is the form of the body, and St. Paul said, “For God’s temple is holy, and that temple you are” (1 Cor 3:17). The oxen, because they are used to plow the fields, represent earthly desires. The sheep, who remain fixed in place until a shepherd leads them, signify man’s obstinacy. The pigeons, who fly about freely, represent man’s instability. The meaning is this: he who sells oxen and sheep and pigeons gives free reign to vice and sells himself to the devil. But just as Christ drove out the merchants and money-changers, He can drive out the vices from within men’s hearts.

And here is Christ’s remedy, which came in the form of an action (v. 15), followed by explanatory words (v. 16). First, the action: “And making a whip of cords, he drove them all, with the sheep and oxen, out of the temple; and he poured out the coins of the money-changers and overturned their tables” (Jn 2:15). We can make five points here. First, Christ’s bold and unprecedented action displayed His divine power, for “The Lord brings the counsel of the nations to nought; he frustrates the plans of the peoples” (Ps 33:10). Second, although the merchants and money-changers had been performing a useful service, Christ did not cast them out for the good they were doing, but because the priests had been using them for their own profit, and not solely for the glory of God. Third, if Christ condemned something that had a certain aspect of liceity, because it was ordained to the worship of God, then He shall more readily condemn those sinful acts that are not directed to higher goods. Fourth, His action pointed to the day when all temple sacrifices would cease, and the true worship of God would be taken up by Gentiles who accepted the gospel, as Christ said to the Jews two years later in the temple: “the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a nation producing the fruits of it” (Mt 21:43). This pronouncement was in line with the parable of the talents (Mt 25:14-30; Lk 19:12-27), in which the servant who mismanaged his master’s money, lost his coin to the other servants and was cast out into the darkness. Cast out, too, was Simon Magus, who tried to buy a spiritual thing with money, that is, to commit the sin of simony. St. Peter said of him: “Your silver perish with you, because you thought you could obtain the gift of God with money!” (Acts 8:20) Fifth, St. Augustine noted that Christ made a whip from cords because He forms from our own sins the matter of our punishments. Sin is like a cord which binds us, taking away our freedom: “The iniquities of the wicked ensnare him, and he is caught in the toils of his sin” (Prv 5:22). Christ said, “[Amen, amen], I say to you, every one who commits sin is a slave to sin” (Jn 8:34), but then He added, “if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed” (Jn 8:36). St, Paul told the Romans, “We know that our old self was crucified with him so that the sinful body might be destroyed, and we might no longer be enslaved to sin” (Rom 6:6). Similarly, he explained to the Galatians: “when we were children, we were slaves to the elemental spirits of the universe. But when the time had fully come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. . . . So through God you are no longer a slave but a son, and if a son then an heir.” (Gal 4:3-5, 7)

Christ then followed his action with words: “And he told those who sold the pigeons, ‘Take these things away’” (Jn 2:16). Christ first warned those who sell pigeons, that is, those who buy and sell spiritual goods, as Simon Magus wanted to do. The pigeons, as we said, represent the Holy Spirit. One cannot buy or sell His gifts, nor put a price on grace, for grace, by its very nature, is that which is freely given, not that which is owed as part of a bargain. Grace and the Gifts of the Holy Spirit cannot be bought or sold for any price. To try to do so is futile and presumptuous, a sign of human hubris.

Then Christ said, “You shall not make my Father’s house a house of trade” (Jn 2:16). We have three things to note here. First, In saying this, Christ fulfilled the prophecy of Zechariah, who said, “And there shall no longer be a trader in the house of the Lord of hosts on that day” (Zec 14:21). Second, Christ said, “my Father’s house” in order to exclude the error of those who held that the God of the Old Testament was not the God of the New Testament. This heresy was preached by Marcion of Sinope, who was the son of a bishop from Pontus. Marcion arrived in Rome in 140 and was excommunicated by 144. This heresy was also propagated by Bishop Priscillian of Avila (d. 385) and by the Albigensians or Cathari (katharoi, pure), who were neo-Manichaeans who flourished in France from the eleventh century to the fourteenth century. There is no substance to the claim that the God of Israel is not the God of Christians. Both Jews and Christians believe that there is one God. The temple in Jerusalem was the focal point of Jewish cultic worship. It was the place where the people believed that the God of Israel dwelt. For Christ to say that the temple is His Father’s house, is to say that the God of Israel is His Father, the same God the Father that Christians worship and adore. Third, the reason why the Jews were not disturbed to hear Jesus call God His Father is because they presumed He meant that He was God’s adopted Son, not His natural Son. It was not uncommon in Jewish literature to see oneself as an adopted son of God, for God Himself said, “I thought you would call me, My Father” (Jer 3:19). But, though many of us are God’s children by adoption, Christ is the God the Father’s only natural Son, His Only Begotten Son. The Psalmist says of Christ, the natural Son of God: “You are my son, today I have begotten you” (Ps 2:7). The Jews did not persecute Christ when they thought He was claiming to be an adopted son of God. They began to persecute Him when they realized that He was claiming to be God’s natural son, and hence, of the same divine nature: “This was why the Jews sought all the more to kill him, because he not only broke the Sabbath but also called God his Father, making himself equal with God” (Jn 5:18).

“His disciples remembered that it was written, ‘Zeal for thy house will consume me’” (Jn 2:17). This refers to Ps 69:9: “zeal for thy house has consumed me, and the insults of those who insult thee have fallen on me.” Love is the movement toward an object, and zeal is an effect of love, arising from the intensity of love (STh I-II, 28, 4). Zeal is a love so intense that the lover refuses to tolerate anything repugnant to his love. One who zealously loves God, as Christ loved the Father, cannot patiently endure anything that dishonors God, as the Psalmist proclaimed, “O Lord, I love the habitation of thy house, and the place where thy glory dwells” (Ps 26:8). Such holy zeal leads one to defend the truth and to correct perversity. If one cannot do so, one experiences sorrow. Like Christ, Elijah had a holy zeal, as he confessed to God, “I have been very zealous for the Lord, the God of hosts; for the people of Israel have forsaken thy covenant, thrown down thy altars, and slain thy prophets with the sword” (1 Kgs 19:10).