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Purifying the Temple: Jesus' Stand
Published March 23, 2024
*written by Randall Johnson
So when Jesus comes to Jerusalem riding on a donkey, presenting himself as her king, it is only fitting that he cleanse the Temple of impurity. The impurity he found was not idols set up in and around the sanctuary. It was graft, forcing people, worshipers, to pay exorbitant amounts to exchange their currency for the temple shekel (Exodus 30:13) in order to buy animals for sacrifice. Ironically, the moneychangers and animal salesmen were set up in the court of the Gentiles, an invitation for those who were not Jews to come and find out about the God who loves them. What they found out instead was that this religion was commercialized, it was a money maker, it had a mixed message.
Jesus didn’t have a mixed message. Zeal for God’s house consumed him, and he set about overturning the tables of these merchants. He chastised them for making a house devoted to prayer into a den of thieves, a place to accumulate ill-gotten gain and plot future crimes. Temple worship had become an expensive endeavor instead of an inviting interaction with God. And Jesus would have none of it. True, it only lasted a moment. They soon righted their tables and resumed business as usual. But it was a call for repentance, and failing that, a call for judgment on the nation.
On reaching Jerusalem, Jesus entered the temple courts and began driving out those who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves, 16 and would not allow anyone to carry merchandise through the temple courts. 17 And as he taught them, he said, “Is it not written: ‘My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations’? But you have made it ‘a den of robbers.’”
18 The chief priests and the teachers of the law heard this and began looking for a way to kill him, for they feared him, because the whole crowd was amazed at his teaching.
Mark 11:15-18
King Hezekiah did it: “Listen to me, Levites! Consecrate yourselves now and consecrate the temple of Yahweh, the God of your ancestors. Remove all defilement from the sanctuary." (2 Chronicles 29:5-6). King Josiah did it: "He removed from the entrance to the temple of the Lord the horses that the kings of Judah had dedicated to the sun...smashed the sacred stones and cut down the Asherah poles...got rid of the mediums and spiritists" (2 Kings 23:11,14,24). It’s what a good king should do, cleanse the Temple of any impurities.So when Jesus comes to Jerusalem riding on a donkey, presenting himself as her king, it is only fitting that he cleanse the Temple of impurity. The impurity he found was not idols set up in and around the sanctuary. It was graft, forcing people, worshipers, to pay exorbitant amounts to exchange their currency for the temple shekel (Exodus 30:13) in order to buy animals for sacrifice. Ironically, the moneychangers and animal salesmen were set up in the court of the Gentiles, an invitation for those who were not Jews to come and find out about the God who loves them. What they found out instead was that this religion was commercialized, it was a money maker, it had a mixed message.
Jesus didn’t have a mixed message. Zeal for God’s house consumed him, and he set about overturning the tables of these merchants. He chastised them for making a house devoted to prayer into a den of thieves, a place to accumulate ill-gotten gain and plot future crimes. Temple worship had become an expensive endeavor instead of an inviting interaction with God. And Jesus would have none of it. True, it only lasted a moment. They soon righted their tables and resumed business as usual. But it was a call for repentance, and failing that, a call for judgment on the nation.
We must be careful as His church to do anything that hinders worship of God. He’ll have none of that.