It smelled like a feedlot, and it sounded like the midway at the state fair. Vendors shouted, hawking their wares. “Get your sacrificial doves here!” and “Exchange your coins here!”
To Jesus, it was nauseating, gut-wrenching… The King stood in the courtyard of His temple complex, saddened by the utter disregard for His holiness and the sanctity of His Father’s House of Prayer.
With pure and righteous indignation, Jesus waded onto the crowd tossing tables and scattering people. Loud enough for all to hear, He declared, “It is written, my house will be called a house of prayer, but you are making it a den of thieves!”(Matthew 21:13).
Like Elijah on Mount Carmel, Jesus stood against the devil’s evil forces, in complete control of the situation. Alone, Jesus “would not permit anyone to carry goods through the temple” (Mark 11:16).
I can imagine Peter, gently elbowing John in the ribs, saying, “Did you see that?”
With the merchants dispersed, peace blanketed the courtyard. “The blind and the lame came to him in the temple, and he healed them” (Matthew 21:14). As the Rabbi taught, “the people were captivated by what they heard” (Luke 19:48). Children danced and sang, “Hosanna to the Son of David!” (Matthew 21:15). It was beautiful!
But at the outskirts of the crowd, the religious elite huddled to complain and conspire. “The chief priests and the scribes heard it and started looking for a way to kill him. For they were afraid of him, because the whole crowd was astonished by his teaching” (Mark 11:18)
Paul reminds us… “Don’t you know that you are God’s temple and that the Spirit of God lives in you?” (1 Corinthians 3:16). I wonder… if Jesus visited your temple today, what would He need to chase away?
“… think on these things” (Philippians 4:8, KJV).
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