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Jesus Cleared The Temple

Jesus returned to Jerusalem on Monday. Yesterday’s events still reverberated throughout Jerusalem. He had wept as he approached Jerusalem and now, as He approached the very heart of the city of God’s chosen people, His heart was filled with a zealous anger again (John 2:17).

I wonder if he began to clear out the temple on Sunday, by telling sellers to go away as part of his overview (Mk 11:11) and now on Monday He began to do so in force (Mk 11:15-18). I wonder if the sellers didn’t take Him seriously until He overturned the tables of the money changers and the dove sellers, stopping the trafficking of merchandise through the temple When feathers and money flew in the air and the shoppers and entrepreneurs would gasp at the perceived mad man who quoted scripture (Matt 21:12-14).

“My house shall be a house of prayer but you have made it a robber’s den!” I wonder if they focused on the fact it was scripture He quoted or did the fire in His eyes pull them away thinking He spoke of something more than words (Mark 11:18).

The Pharisees and the leading men, who made so much money from the temple sales during the feast, could do nothing. This Jesus had turned God’s house back to its original purpose–a service of God before the people. They stared at this turn of event with hatred.

I wonder how the Pharisees ignored the fact that flocks of the lame and the blind gathered at the temple to receive healing at His hands as they continued to plot His death (Luke 19:47). I wonder how the transcendent and now incarnate God, stood in His temple once more in a manner beyond that of the day of Moses in the wilderness?stood there and didn?t wipe those hard-hearted men out of existence. He knew where they derived their profits, He knew what they plotted and yet, He continued to teach–within earshot of murderers with continued signs and wonders (Matt 21:14).

Then again, the Son of Man came into the world not to judge the world, but that through Him the world might be saved (John 3:17). If it wasn’t for His patience and His love and His continued zeal for God, the human race would have long been wiped out of existence.

Look at Him, patiently teaching at the cleared temple, daily; the people hanging on His every word (Luke 19:47, 48). He would die in a few days and knew it.

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