Jesus at the Temple

I had the opportunity to attend the Paris Temple dedication in a local chapel near there and was very grateful to be a part of it.  In one of the talks during the dedication service the speaker spoke about how the temple was central to what the Savior did during His mortal ministry.  Even though the temple served different purposes under the Law of Moses than in our day, I believe that His focus on the temple is still very instructive to us.  Even as an infant His parents took Him to the temple where Simeon blessed Him.  At the age of 12 He spent at least three days in the temple where the doctors were “hearing him, and asking him questions” (Luke 2:46).  At the beginning of His ministry, “Jesus went up to Jerusalem, And found in the temple those that sold oxen and sheep and doves, and the changers of money sitting.”  He commanded them saying, “Take these things hence; make not my Father’s house an house of merchandise,” showing that He indeed considered the temple to be a sacred edifice (John 2:13-16).  He did the exact same thing at the end of His ministry showing that His focus on keeping the temple pure had not changed: “And Jesus went into the temple of God, and cast out all them that sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the tables of the moneychangers, and the seats of them that sold doves, And said unto them, It is written, My house shall be called the house of prayer; but ye have made it a den of thieves” (Matt. 21:12-13).  There can be no question that Christ placed great value on the temple and what happened there. 

               From the scriptures we also know that Christ spent much time teaching at the temple.  He told the Jews who came to arrest Him, “I sat daily with you teaching in the temple” (Matt. 26:55).  Mark told us that “he taught in the temple” during the last week of His life (Mark 12:35).  Luke specifically mentioned that He gave the parable of the wicked husbandmen “as he taught the people in the temple” (Luke 20:1).  After Jesus healed the man who had an infirmity for 38 years, “Jesus findeth him in the temple” and encouraged him to “sin no more” (John 5:14).  In the middle of the feast of the tabernacles John recorded that “Jesus went up into the temple, and taught” (John 7:14).  On another occasion He “came again into the temple, and all the people came unto him; and he sat down, and taught them” (John 8:2).  At the feast of the dedication “Jesus walked in the temple in Solomon’s porch” and testified to the people of Himself and His Father (John 10:23).  It is evident that during His mortal ministry He spent a large amount of time in the temple teaching the people.  It’s no surprise then that when He visited the Nephites as they were “gathered together… round about the temple which was in the land Bountiful” (3 Nephi 11:1).  To the Savior the temple was clearly a very important place for Him where He was able to teach the things of God to the people.  Our temples indeed function differently than they did in His day, but perhaps this focus of His can still teach us that we need to likewise go up to the House of the Lord often to be taught.  There are many reasons that we go to the temple, but surely one of them should be to be taught by the Lord in His own house.  And if He was willing to teach the people two millennia ago there, we can trust that He will also teach us in His house if we are prepared to hear.