In these Wednesday services,
we’ve been looking at the deliberate choices Jesus made that led to him being
arrested, convicted, and killed on a cross.
Tonight we look at one of the biggest ones. Jesus went to the temple courts, took a whip,
chased the moneychangers out of there, turned over the tables, and told the
people there that they had turned a holy place into a marketplace.
Now, some of you know this, but for those who don’t,
here’s a little context. When people
came to the temple in Jerusalem, they were required to either pay some money or
sacrifice an animal. But the money they
used could only be the local currency that they used in Jerusalem, and the
animal could only be one that they bought at the temple with that local
currency. And of course, people came
from all over to worship at the temple, because the temple was the central holy
place of the Jewish people. So, when
people came from all over, they brought the money that was used where they came
from, and they had to exchange it for the local Jerusalem currency to pay at
the temple.
That’s where
the money changers came in. They’d
exchange other types of money for the local Jerusalem currency. And to do this, they set up shop right in the
temple courts, right next to where the money was supposed to be paid. But, of course, they did not do this for
free. There was a charge involved, and
they could charge pretty much whatever they wanted, because after all, what
could you do? You had to have Jerusalem
money, and this was the only place you could get it from. And you had to have a local animal to
sacrifice, and this was the only place you could get that, too. So, the money changers and the sellers of
animals made out pretty well.
The temple
courts were supposed to be a holy place.
And here these people were, making money off it. And not only that, they were making more
money than any reasonable person would think was fair. And they were doing it with the blessing of
the Jewish authorities. In fact,
sometimes those authorities were money changers themselves. Jesus was outraged. And he reacted.
As we look at
it now, we can understand Jesus’ outrage.
But at the time, no one else seemed to be particularly outraged. Maybe some people grumbled privately, but it
looks like most people, even if they were not very happy about it, accepted
it. This was just the way things
were. You did what you had to do and life
went on.
This passage
is often used as an example that Jesus could get angry. And he was angry, I have no doubt about
that. But I don’t think Jesus just blew
his top and reacted without thinking. I
think that, even though Jesus was angry, he still knew what he was doing. I think these actions of Jesus were a
deliberate choice that he made.
So, as we’ve
done with the other choices Jesus made, we need to look at a two
questions. Why did Jesus do this? And what can we learn from it?
Jesus had
other options, after all. He could have
just accepted the situation. After all,
that’s what everyone else seemed to do.
He could’ve just grumbled about it.
That’s what some people probably did, too. He could’ve gone to the temple authorities
privately and tried to convince them to change things. He could’ve just spoken out against the
situation and encouraged other people to try to change it. He could’ve gone directly to the money
changers and told them they were sinners and needed to change their ways. There were all kinds of other things Jesus
could’ve done short of turning over tables and chasing people with a whip. And all of those other options would’ve
gotten Jesus into much less trouble with the authorities than turning over
tables and chasing people with a whip.
But still that’s what Jesus chose to do.
Why did Jesus
do this? It seems kind of extreme,
right? We’re always told that, when
there’s a conflict, we need to communicate.
We need to talk to each other. We
need to look for common ground. We need
to try to compromise. And besides, Jesus
was the Prince of Peace. This was not
exactly a peaceful action, was it? This
was violent. And we’re always told that
violence never solves anything. Besides,
this was going to get Jesus into all kinds of trouble.
In thinking
about why Jesus did this, let’s start with the words of Jesus that are given
us. He says, “Get out of here! Stop turning my Father’s house into a
market!” In Matthew’s gospel, Jesus is
quoted as saying, “It is written, ‘My house will be called a house of prayer,’
but you are making it ‘a den of robbers.’”
Mark’s version is similar, except he says Jesus said, ““Is it not written: ‘My house will be called a house of
prayer for all nations”.
And we’re also told in John that the disciples remembered the words of
Psalm 69, “Zeal for your house will consume me.”
I think, then,
that Jesus did this because the temple courts were supposed to be a holy
place. It was supposed to be a place
where everyone would be equal before God, and where everyone would come to
worship God, to confess their sins to God, and to receive God’s forgiveness and
God’s blessings. And instead, it was now
a place where not only was everyone not equal, but where people were being
taken advantage of, even robbed. And it
was being done in the name of God.
Jesus decided
that situation was not one that could be tolerated. It could not be compromised. It was wrong.
It was bad. It was evil. And Jesus did not see any point in talking
with evil. He did not see any common
ground that could be found with evil. He
could not see any advantage in compromising with evil. The only thing that could be done with evil
was to defeat it and drive it out of the temple. And so Jesus decided he had to do that, no
matter what the consequences were to him.
And I think
that’s the lesson for us. When we see a
situation that is evil, it cannot be compromised, and it cannot be
tolerated. Evil must be defeated and
driven out. Period.
But notice
that we have to apply this lesson very carefully. This is the only time that it’s recorded that
Jesus ever did something like this.
There were times he spoke out against things, there were times he spoke
out against people, but he did not attack them. So we need to know what it was about this
specific situation that made Jesus decide it was so evil that this kind of
extreme measure had to be taken. And
just as important, we need to know what it was about other situations that made
Jesus decide those were not evil, at least not in this way.
For one thing,
it was not the fact that sin was involved.
Jesus ran into sin all the time.
Some of his best friends were the people society declared to be
“sinners”. So the fact that the money
changers were sinners was not the problem.
It was not
something that violated the societal standards of the day. It was not even something that violated the
religious standards of the day. Society
approved of this. The religious leaders
approved of it. That was not the problem,
either.
We also need
to note that this was not something that was done personally against
Jesus. Jesus was not physically or
emotionally harmed by this. In fact,
when people did harm Jesus physically, and even when they turned on him and
betrayed him, he not only allowed it all to happen, he forgave the people who
did it. So it was not a personal thing
that made Jesus so upset.
And it was not
simply that people were making money that had Jesus so upset. There were lots of people who made money in
Jesus’ time, just as there are now.
There were plenty of rich people around in Jesus’ time, just as there
are now. And sometimes they took
advantage of people. Jesus did not
condemn them, at least not in this way.
I’m not saying Jesus approved of taking advantage of people—he certainly
did not—but he did not take after those people with a whip, either. So there had to be more to it than that.
I think what
it was is that Jesus thought that this was a deliberate insult to God. It was not just that it was wrong. It was not just that it was breaking God’s
laws. It was not just that it was
sinful. What made this evil in Jesus’
eyes, so evil that it could not be tolerated in any way, so evil that it had to
be defeated and driven out, was that it was a wrong that was being done by the
religious leaders, by people who knew exactly what they were doing, for their
own personal gain, and it was being done in a place that had been set apart as
holy.
In other
words, the religious leaders deliberately took something that was supposed to
be used for the worship of God, and used it for their own personal
benefit. They claimed to be God’s
greatest champions, and yet they really did not care about God at all. They were just using God to make money. That’s what made what they were doing
evil. And that’s why Jesus could not and
would not tolerate it or compromise with it, regardless of what the
consequences to him might be.
Jesus calls us
to accept a lot of things that we might otherwise consider intolerable. Wrongful actions, personal insults, all kinds
of things. But when we see deliberate
insults to God by people who know exactly what they are doing, for no reason
other than their own personal gain, we should not accept that, and we should
not tolerate it. I’m not suggesting we
should all go out and buy whips. But I
am suggesting that there are situations that cannot be compromised and that
cannot be tolerated. They don’t happen
often, but they happen. And when they
do, we need to be prepared to stand up for our faith. Regardless of what the consequences may be.
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