22. The grounds on which this second has to be distinguished from the first cleansing of
the Temple, which is recorded only by St. John (ii. 13-23) have been explained on a
previous occasion. They are stated in most commentaries, though perhaps not always
sat isfactorily. But intelligent readers can have no difficulty in gathering them for
themselves. The difficulty lies not in the two purifications, nor yet in the silence of the
Synoptists as to the first, since the early Jerusalem Ministry lay not within the scope of
their narratives, but in the silence of the Fourth Gospel in regard to the second
purification. But here we would remark that, less than any of the others, is the Fourth
Gospel a history or successive narration; but, if we may so say, historical dogmatics - the
Logos in the historical manifestation of His Person and Work. If so, the first included the
second purification of the Temple. Again, to have introduced it, or the cursing of the fig-
tree, would have been to break up the course, and mar the symmetry of the narrative (St.
John xii.), which presents in successive and deepening shading the attestation of the
Christ: at the Supper of Bethany, on His Entry into Jerusalem, before the Greeks in the
Temple, by the Voice from Heaven before His gainsay ers, and to his disciples.
Nor did the Temple -authorities now, as on the former occasion, seek to raise the
populace against Him, or challenge His authority by demanding the warrant of 'a sign.'
The contest had reached quite another stage. They heard what He said in their
condemnation, and with bitter hatred in their hearts sought for some means to destroy
Him. But fear of the people restrained their violence. For, marvellous indeed was the
power which He wielded. With rapt attention the people hung entranced on his lips,23
'astonished' at those new and blessed truths which dropped from them. All was so other
than it had been! By His authority the Temple was cleansed of the unholy, thievish
traffic which a corrupt priesthood carried on, and so, for the time, restored to the solemn
Service of God; and that purified House now became the scene of Christ's teaching,
when He spake those words of blessed truth and of comfort concerning the Father -
thus truly realising the prophetic promise of 'a House of Prayer for all the nations.'24 And
as those traffickers were driven from the Temple, and He spake, there flocked in from
porches and Temple -Mount the poor sufferers - the blind and the lame - to get healing
to body and soul. It was truly spring -time in that Temple , and the boys that gathered
about their fathers and looked in turn from their faces of rapt wonderment and
enthusiasm to the Godlike Face of the Christ, and then on those healed sufferers, took
up the echoes of the welcome at His entrance into Jerusalem - in their simplicity
understanding and applying them better - as they burst into 'Hosanna to the Son of
David.'
23. St. Luke.
24. St. Mark.
It rang through the courts and porches of the Temple, this Children's Hosanna. They
heard it, whom the wonders He had spoken and done, so far from leading to repentance
and faith, had only filled with indignation. Once more in their impotent anger they
sought, as the Pharisees had done on the day of His Entry, by a hypocritical appeal to
His reverence for God, not only to mislead, and so to use His very love of the truth
against the truth, but to betray Him into silencing those Children's Voices. But the
undimmed mirror of His soul only reflected the light.25 These Children's Voices were
Angels' Echoes, echoes of the far-off praises of heaven, which children's souls had
caught and children's lips welled forth. Not from the great, the wise, nor the learned, but