“The Passover of the Jews was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. In the temple he found those who were selling oxen and sheep and pigeons, and the money changers at their business. And making a whip of cords, he drove them all, with the sheep and oxen, out of the temple; and he poured out the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. And he told those who sold the pigeons, ‘Take these things away; you shall not make my Father’s house a house of trade. His disciples remembered that it was written, ‘Zeal for thy house will consume me.’ The Jews then said to him, ‘What sign have you to show us for doing this?’ Jesus answered them, ‘Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.’ The Jews then said, ‘It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and will you raise it up in three days?’ But he spoke of the temple of his body. When therefore he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this; and they believed the scripture and the word which Jesus had spoken. Now when he was in Jerusalem at the Passover feast, many believed in his name when they saw the signs which he did; but Jesus did not trust himself to them, because he knew all men and needed no one to bear witness of man; for he himself knew what was in man.” (John 2: 13-25)
The scene of Jesus basically looking as if He’s totally lost it when He stormed into the Temple and turned over tables and kicked all the people out who were selling things inside the Temple, can be disturbing. Of course He was angry and He had every right to be angry, it broke His heart to see how little the people there actually cared about His Father’s house. There’s no doubt that they could have conducted their business outside of the Temple walls, but instead, they chose to do so within the walls of the Temple.
Of course this made Him angry, but what made Him the most angry was not so much the selling of material items within the Temple, the anger was more towards what this behavior was doing to the human soul. He was angered at the fact that these things were separating His people from the Father.
He wanted His children to be aware of the importance of their souls and not what they had in material items. He didn’t want them to be more concerned about buying and selling than they were about their very own eternal souls. This is what angered Him and it was righteous anger that the people saw, even though they didn’t know this truth, they simply thought He was some crazy zealot!
Fast forward to today and you’ll see that not much has changed, in fact it might even be worse. There is so much more today in society that separates us from God than sheep, oxen, and money changers of Christ’s day. Think about all the distractions and “shiny objects” that the secular world tempts us with. The internet, social media, negative news, cancel culture, politics, social justice warriorism that turns brother/sister against brother/sister, and so much more that points us away from God. How do you think Christ would react to all of this if He were to walk the earth right now, right here? His heart is more than likely swollen with righteous anger and pain because what He sees are souls that are being robbed of the grace, mercy, love, joy, and peace that comes from letting Him into our hearts and in turn taking His Holy presence and sharing it with those who need to hear the truth that there is nothing that this world or our society can offer us that’s brighter and more life-giving than knowing Jesus Christ!
Knowing that Christ’s purpose has always been to save our souls so that we might share in His wealth of heaven for all eternity. We should never put the material world in front of us, we also should never want credit for anything that is given to us from our Father in heaven. We should always remain humble and want the world to know who saved our souls and who can save theirs as well. There is nothing that can save our souls but Christ. No amount of money, no church, no pastor, no government, nothing can save our souls but our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ!
No Thought Police 