When you picture in your mind scenes of the Lord Jesus Christ, what typically comes to your mind? Often I picture an old painting I know of where Jesus is cradling a lamb in His arms. We might picture Him gently touching a sick person, bringing them healing, or where He is feeding the multitudes. Perhaps we think of Jesus at the Last Supper, or where He is pouring out His lifeblood upon the Cross. In each case, His gentleness and/or love is evident. How about when Jesus came to the Temple, made a whip of cords, and cast out the money changers and those who sold the sacrificial animals? This might seem to be contrary to the meek, mild, gentle and loving personality we most associate with Jesus. But an angry Jesus? Let’s take a look at our Gospel reading today and see what we can learn about the holy and righteous anger that Jesus had.
The setting for this Scripture is in the Jewish Temple in the city of Jerusalem, with the holy days of the Passover about to occur. Devout Jews would come from all over the world for the Passover feast. Because of the great distance many of them would be traveling, they were unable to bring their own lamb, and would need to buy one at the Temple. Also they would need to change their foreign currency to that of currency accepted at the Temple. Because of this, many unscrupulous people set up businesses right in the Temple to change money and sell animals for sacrifice and the Passover. The money changers and sellers of the animals took advantage of these travelers by charging exorbitant fees. A lot of price gouging was occurring, charging high prices to these travelers who had no other choice but to do business with them.
The Temple had become a free-for-all rather than a house of prayer. These sellers were defiling the Temple area by selling animals in a space where people were supposed to be able to pray. All of these business booths were set up in the Court of Gentiles within the Temple, which was where non-Jews could come to worship the one, true God. However, this made it almost impossible for them to worship. These dishonest and dishonorable vendors were more concerned with making money, and they had contempt for Gentiles, anyway. Worship was to be the purpose of the Temple. These people were making a mockery of this holy place.
When the Lord Jesus, the Son of God, saw this happening, He became angry with a holy and righteous anger. When the holiness of God and His worship was at stake, Jesus took fast and furious action. He made a whip and drove them out of the Temple, overturning their tables and booths. Jesus was not acting out of control, as some people have accused. He was righteously upset. Jesus was purifying a holy space, and also protecting people from exploitation. He was setting a wrong right. This was a flagrant insult and disrespect for God.
What Jesus did that day was an initial fulfillment of what the prophet Malachi had spoken of (Malachi 3:1-3), where he spoke of the Messiah’s purifying of the religious worship of His people. The Apostle John, in writing his Gospel, quoted in verse 17 from Psalm 69:9. Jesus would not tolerate irreverence towards God. God’s holiness demands holiness in worship.
As we can expect, this action of Jesus was not well received by those money changers and sellers of the animals, nor by many of the Pharisees. They demanded that Jesus show some type of miraculous sign that would indicate His authority for His actions (vs. 18). They showed no sign of grasping their need for proper attitudes or holiness in worship. Their unbelief only wanted miracles on demand, and within a short time they were back doing the same in the Temple, as Jesus needed to repeat His actions shortly before His crucifixion (Mark 11:15-19). Jesus responded by saying that the miracle that would truly show who He was, that gave Him this authority, was if they destroyed the temple He would raise it up again in three days (vs. 19-22). Jesus used the Temple as a metaphor for His Body and His future resurrection.
When we go to church, do we come in an attitude of worship? Is our church sanctuary one that shows respect and reverence for the Lord God? Or are we more eager to catch up on the latest news from our friends or selling our children’s school or sports team’s candy? We need to remember that the Lord Jesus said that God’s house is to be a place of prayer.
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