Zeal For His House

"Jesus entered the temple area and drove out all who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling dove. 'It is written,' he said to them, 'My house will be called a house of prayer', but you are making it a 'den of robbers" (Matthew 21:12-13).

Wait a minute, just wait a minute; where is my mild manner savior? John writes at one point in time Jesus made a whip to clear out moneychangers from the temple. Overturning tables, this is not the picture I hold most dear in my mind of Jesus. Try and picture the scene, Jesus has just entered Jerusalem with people throwing palm branches on the road way, and their cloaks before Him, then this next scene. Off to one side, I imagine, there is Jesus winding together material to make a whip, and then swinging that whip, grabbing tables that are full of money and violently turning the tables upside down.  Then Matthew writes the next verse, "The blind and the lame came to him at the temple, and he healed them" (Matthew 21:14). Now there is the Jesus I want to know and have come to know, He is back. Are you having as much trouble picturing Jesus in anger chasing people away, or is it easier to see Him with children, healing them, loving them. What a contrasting picture Matthew paints in these three verses.

Then I begin to wonder, what was so wrong selling sheep, and exchanging money. Jewish believers travel great distance to come to Jerusalem for the Passover and they are not always able to bring a living sacrifice and they needed to exchange their foreign money for the temple money. Seems alright to me, so what the "hey" Jesus, why all the fuss? A deeper look tells the story, as Paul Harvey used to say, "Now here is the rest of the story." Even those who brought their lambs to sacrifice needed to have them examined for imperfections. Guess what, Sorry Charlie your lamb is not suitable, so you must buy one of our lambs, at their price, to sacrifice. Oh, how about this, those Roman coins, well, sorry, you must exchange your money for the temple money and at an exorbitant exchange rate. Alright, I am getting a little angry, where is my whip? All this activity taking place in the outer courtyard preventing many (Gentiles) to not be able to worship freely to Yahweh, to God they had converted too. Now all this makes sense, Jesus had zeal for his Father's house; "His disciples remembered that it is written (Psalm 69:9) 'Zeal for your house will consume me" (John 3:17)

Looking deeper I find something rather disturbing. The inner Temple area was pure and the High Priest, this High Priest was about to enter, the one and only day of the year the Most Holy where the Spirit of God is: and those Jewish people there worshiping while the outer courtyard was vile and impure. This I am afraid is the status of far too many people who claim Jesus as Savior. He came and made us pure by our faith in Him, and as His temple where the Holy Spirit is now residing: "Don't you know that you yourselves are God's temple and that God's Spirit lives in you" (1 Corinthians 3:16)? Jesus could not allow that duality, Purity only in the inner courtyard and impurity showing in the outer courtyard. What condition I think to myself is my outer self, that outer courtyard, does it really represent what Jesus has done for me. Is the purity imputed to me by Him shown to my world or does it need some "whipping," some cleansing?

Daily Prayer:

Father, thank you for your forgiveness through Jesus' sacrifice on the Cross.  If you see any impurity in me, teach me what I cannot see and if I have done anything wrong, I will not do so again. My Your light, the Light of Wisdom and Truth shine from You through my outer courtyard so that the world can see You.    Amen