Are you really zealous about anything? Is there something or someone that you hate to hear anything negative spoken about, and you will quickly jump to their defense? Perhaps it is a loved one or a good friend. Maybe it is some book, movie, or activity that you enjoy, and don’t like to hear them get maligned. How about your faith, and anything related to that, whether it is the Savior, the Church as a whole, or your own individual church, or God’s Word? Will you stand up for them? In our Scripture passage today we see where the Lord Jesus saw when there was something wrong, something that was being done that shouldn’t have been done, and what He did. Let’s look into the Gospel of John.
When our Scriptures open, Jesus had just been at a wedding, where He had changed water into wine. Then the festival of Passover came, and Jesus, with His disciples, went to Jerusalem to celebrate that holy week. While there He went to the Temple and saw something that brought on righteous anger. At the time of Passover many pilgrims from all over the nation, along with many from other countries around the Mediterranean, would come to Jerusalem. Because of the long journeys, it was not practical to bring the needed sacrificial animals along with them, so these pilgrims would purchase animals there in Jerusalem. They would also need to get their foreign money exchanged into local money. In addition, the Temple tax needed to be paid in Temple currency. Merchants took advantage of these opportunities, and they set up stalls right there in the outer courtyards of the Temple.
All of this was necessary, the sale of clean and unblemished animals for the Temple sacrifices, and the exchange of foreign money for local and Temple currency. However, what had been slowly happening over the years was that this business started to be moved inside the Temple itself, particularly into the Court of the Gentiles, where Gentile converts to Judaism were allowed to worship, thus crowding them out with the constant flow of lambs and goats, along with merchants. In addition, these merchants saw this time as a prime time to make a lot of money, so they raised the price of the animals, along with the fees to exchange the money, all to make a good profit. The Temple had become a free-for-all, rather than a house of prayer.
This was a problem on several fronts. First, these merchants were selling animals in a space where people are supposed to be able to pray. They showed no concern for that. They did not care that neither Jewish worshipers nor Gentile converts could pray to the Lord in a place meant to be sacred for worship. Also, there was egregious price-gouging going on. Merchants maximized their profits by charging travelers high prices for everything, which is why Jesus called them a “den of thieves'' (Matthew 21:13). All of this defiled the Temple during the Passover.
Jesus saw this, knew it was wrong, and was not going to tolerate it a moment longer. He wasn’t just losing His temper. Jesus was purifying a holy space, and protecting people from exploitation. Jesus was taking something wrong and setting it right. His disciples recalled a verse from Psalm 69:9, which referred to Jesus’ zeal when it came to God’s house, the Temple (vs. 17). When the holiness of God and His worship was at stake, Jesus took fast and furious action. He will not tolerate irreverence towards God. God’s holiness demands holiness in worship.
The sin of these people was not in selling the sacrificial animals. It was where they were selling them. It was also a sin for those who were charging way more for these animals, and cheating people in money exchange. Even though the sale of animals made money for the upkeep of the Temple, worship was the purpose of the Temple. They were making a mockery of God’s house of worship. Jesus cleansed the Temple that day, but it wasn’t long before the corrupt merchants crept back in with their wares. Three years later, in the last week of His life, Jesus needed to cleanse the Temple again.
How about you? How zealous are you for God’s holiness? When you hear or see something or someone who is attacking or reviling Our Lord or His Word, the Bible, or saying some belittling or demeaning joke about Him, do you just brush it aside, or are you filled with righteous indignation? Are we afraid to speak up, for fear that we, too, might become the subject of their belittling comments, or do we defend the Lord Jesus? Sometimes it seems that we get more upset if someone puts down our favorite TV show than we do our Savior! Jesus could not, and would not sit idly by when the holy Temple was being treated in such a disrespectful manner!
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