Zeal for His house

"After this he went down to Capernaum with his mother and brothers and his disciples. There they stayed for a few days. When it was almost time for the Jewish Passover, Jesus went up to Jerusalem. In the temple courts he found men selling cattle, sheep and doves, and others sitting at tables exchanging money. So he made a whip out of cords, and drove all from the temple area, both sheep and cattle; he scattered the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. To those who sold doves he said, “Get these out of here! How dare you turn my Father’s house into a market!” His disciples remembered that it is written: “Zeal for your house will consume me.”
John 2:12-17

So, you wanna know what makes Jesus mad? You wanna know what fills Him with a righteous anger that shatters that calm vanilla visage we so often have of Him? Well, here is the passage for you.

He walks into the outer court of the Gentiles in the temple shortly before the Passover - a time where every Jewish male must make a pilgrimage to the temple in Jerusalem to worship God and have the sins of the nation atoned for. The scene that greets Him sets Him off. The priests, over the years had developed a lucrative business for the temple coffers of both exchanging foreign cash for Jewish currency at unfair rates, and selling animals for sacrifice at tourist trap prices. The court of the Gentiles was supposed to be the place in the temple where the Jews mixed and mingled with the Gentiles and shared with them the glory of the One True God, yet instead they ripped them off. The focus was not worship but commerce and greed.

So Jesus loses it...He makes a whip out of cords, drives all the vendors out of the temple, and sends coins flying as he upturns tables. Can you imagine that scene? Can you imagine the stunned looks of His mother, brother and disciples?

What made Jesus so angry? "How dare you turn my Father's house into a market?!?" The very place where God dwelt, the very place where His people were able to worship Him was being desecrated by sin. The place where God dwells ought to be holy, pure and worthy of His character. The place where God dwells ought to be a place of worship, with nothing dividing the attention of those worshipping. The temple of God ought to be used for nothing more than beautifully housing God and worshipping Him - certainly not a place for people to profit on the backs of pilgrims.

Jesus anger was twofold: He was angry because people had forgotten and neglected the presence of Holy God, and He was angry because these vendors were preventing people from rightly worshipping God...So He snapped.

I wonder how you might react if I told you a sobering truth this morning from Paul's letters to the Corinthians - "Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God. You are not your own." "For we are the temple of the Living God; as God said, "I will make my dwelling among them and walk among them." If we are a temple of the Living God, that means God dwells in us, and that means our purpose for living is to worship God. Going further, we are to be a Court of the Gentiles for those who do not yet know the one true God - a place where they can come and hear of the glory of the One True God.

O Lord, I am sorry for the many times and ways that I have desecrated this temple. Lord, for all of those times I used this temple for anything other than pure worship, I seek your forgiveness. Clean me from within Lord Jesus, that I might be a Court of the Gentiles in this world where people can come and hear of your glory. Please continue to show grace, mercy and patience to me in my struggle with sin, that I might be a shining reflection of your glory.

Be God's, Scott