So the Jews answered and said to Him, “What sign do You show to us, since You do these things?” Jesus answered and said to them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” Then the Jews said, “It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and will You raise it up in three days?” But He was speaking of the temple of His body. Therefore, when He had risen from the dead, His disciples remembered that He had said this to them; and they believed the Scripture and the word which Jesus had said. (vv.18-22)
This question posed by the Jews in our text wasn’t necessarily a bad question. Anyone who drove the merchants out from the temple courts (vv.13-17) and claimed the authority to do it was bound to be questioned. What the Jews wanted to know was did Jesus really have this authority. The problem is that they demanded a sign from Jesus to prove it, making the request misguided: what sign could have been more telling than that which they had just witnessed?
Yet Jesus answered them saying, "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up." Jesus spoke here of the New Temple of His body. He probably even gestured to Himself as He said this. Jesus knew that these religious leaders would attempt to destroy His body, but He also knew that they would not succeed. The irony here is that the religious leaders themselves would be the means by which the prophecy was fulfilled.
At the trial of Jesus, one of the charges brought against Him was that He said He would destroy the temple (Matthew 26:60-61, Mark 14:57-59). When He died on the cross, the mockers reminded Jesus of what seemed to be an impossible promise (Matthew 27:40, Mark 15:29). Jesus wasn’t against the temple, but He certainly looked beyond it. He told the Samaritan woman that there was a day coming when people would no longer worship at a temple in Samaria or Jerusalem, but they would worship God in Spirit and in truth.
Jesus then confidently claimed in our text the power to raise Himself from the dead, and He repeated the claim in John 10:18. It is interesting to note that the New Testament also claims that God the Father raised Jesus from the dead (Romans 6:4 and Galatians 1:1), and that that Holy Spirit raised Him from the dead (Romans 1:4 and 8:11). The resurrection of Jesus then was a work of each Person of the Trinity, each working together. It was only after the death and resurrection of Jesus that His disciples understood and believed both the Scriptures and the specific promises of Jesus.
Today we have those same scriptures to speak to us of the eternal promises of God. As Paul wrote in Hebrews 1, "On many past occasions and in many different ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets. But in these last days He has spoken to us by His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, and through whom He made the universe." (vv.1-2) The question is, Do you believe this?
The Truth: "Therefore my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices; my body also is secure, because you will not abandon me to the realm of the dead, nor will you let your faithful one see decay." (Psalm 16:9-10)
