Thoughts for the Day

The Passover of the Jews was near, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. In the temple he found people selling cattle, sheep, and doves, and the money-changers seated at their tables. Making a whip of cords, he drove all of them out of the temple, both the sheep and the cattle. He also poured out the coins of the money-changers and overturned their tables. He told those who were selling the doves, 'Take these things out of here! Stop making my Father's house a market place!'

(Church in Wales Lectionary, New Revised Standard Version)

Thoughts

This reading from John's gospel shows us not the traditional meek and mild Jesus, but a very angry one. What was really happening?

Thousands of people came to the Temple from around the world for Passover. They came to pay their Temple tax, and to to offer sacrifices, according to the Law. All this had to be paid in Jewish money not Roman or Greek coins and they had to use money-changers to change their money. But as the theologian Williams Barclay points out they were fleeced by the temple authorities for this.

We also need to remember that the Temple was a series of Courts. People could only go to their Court, on pain of death in some cases. There was the Court of Gentiles, the Court of Women, the Court of Israelite Men, the Court of Priests, and finally the Holy of Holies. Since Gentiles could only go into the first Court, it would seem that all the buying and selling of animals probably took place in their Court. This meant that if they came to pray it would be among this chaos. No wonder Jesus' anger spilled over into action.

Lord God,
may we too burn with zeal
to right injustice in Your world,
wherever we find it,
and seek to put right
things that affect not just ourselves
but any of Your people.
Amen.