Reading for June 21: John 2:12-16

12 After this He went down to Capernaum, He, His mother, His brothers, and His disciples; and they did not stay there many days.
Jesus Cleanses the Temple 13 Now the Passover of the Jews was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. 14 And He found in the temple those who sold oxen and sheep and doves, and the money changers doing business. 15 When He had made a whip of cords, He drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and the oxen, and poured out the changers’ money and overturned the tables. 16 And He said to those who sold doves, “Take these things away! Do not make My Father’s house a house of merchandise!” John 2:12-16 (NKJV)

Discussion Question:

• How is Jesus’ “anger” different than the anger of most people today (road rage for example)?

Comment:

After the wedding in Cana, Jesus and His follows went to Capernaum for a brief stay and then to Jerusalem to celebrate The Passover. While in Jerusalem, He visits the Temple and finds something that really upsets Him. What He finds is people selling animals to be sacrificed to travelers (at inflated prices) and people changing money (with an unfair exchange fee) so travelers could pay the Temple tax with an acceptable currency. This upsets Jesus so much that He makes a “whip of cords” and runs the people and animals out, admonishing them as they went. Why the outburst? Because the irreverence of the people toward His Father’s house was unbearable. Jesus could not allow that kind of disrespect to continue unchecked.

What’s interesting to me is that those activities that had become so despicable probably began as noble attempts to help people. It would have been too difficult for most people to bring sacrificial animals with them over great distances so the Temple provided a service to help them. Also, those traveling from other areas would have money that was of a different currency that would not be accepted at the Temple for payment of the Temple tax, so again a service was provided to help those people. The problem came when sins such as greed got in the way and turned these helpful services into disgraceful exploitations.

This sort of thing is still occurring today in our churches. From the “televangelist” making bogus claims in order to scrape in a few million more so he can build a bigger house to the friendly softball game that becomes so competitive that teams have to be kicked out of the league. These things are disgraceful to God because they dishonor what is His. We know how Jesus responded to this issue; the question is how are we going to respond? I’ll leave that question open for discussion.