You’ve heard the expression “the elephant in the room,’ which means there is something clearly right in front of us that we simply cannot ignore.

We have that situation in our text today. Jesus goes into the temple in Jerusalem and starts cleaning house. He didn’t begin by opening Scripture and teaching everyone the proper use of the temple. He wasn’t polite, either. He didn’t ask, “Would you mind moving your animals outside the temple? Could you please carry your coin boxes and tables outside the gates?”

Rather, He saw what was going on, made a scourge of cords, and drove the animals and their owners out of there. He dumped out the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables.

John 2:12–17 (ESV) — 12 After this he went down to Capernaum, with his mother and his brothers and his disciples, and they stayed there for a few days. 13 The Passover of the Jews was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. 14 In the temple he found those who were selling oxen and sheep and pigeons, and the money-changers sitting there. 15 And making a whip of cords, he drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and oxen. And he poured out the coins of the money-changers and overturned their tables. 16 And he told those who sold the pigeons, “Take these things away; do not make my Father’s house a house of trade.” 17 His disciples remembered that it was written, “Zeal for your house will consume me.”

As could be expected, the Jews asked Him, in effect, “What right do you have to do these things?” In the vernacular, “Who do you think you are? Do you think you own this place?” John wants us to understand, “Yes, Jesus owns this place! The temple belongs to Him.”

As the Lord of the temple, Jesus has authority to cleanse it and restore it to its proper use.

Now let us see why Jesus acted as he did.  His anger is a terrifying thing; the picture of Jesus with the whip is an awe-inspiring sight.

When Matthew, Mark, and Luke related the story of the cleansing of the temple, they indicated that Jesus objected to the way the merchants had made the temple a “robbers’ den,” indicating that Jesus was angry about dishonest business.

John, however, indicated that Jesus was objecting to the presence of any business in the temple. The temple was designed as a house of prayer, a place where people from all nations could come and worship God.

What Jesus saw looked more like an emporium or a marketplace than a spiritual retreat. He must have been impressive, even frightening, as He took control of the situation and ran the merchants and the animals out of the temple.

Anger as a way of life is condemned by both Jesus and Paul; but Jesus, on occasion, did become angry–and was able to do so without sinning.”

What is the difference between these two types of anger? One apparently is anger that springs from human pettiness, insecurity, or frustration.

Godly anger, on the other hand, is anger that arises when people are being hurt or kept from God by the actions of others.

• Anger at child abuse, racism, pornography, abortion, or homosexual activity
• The actions of Jesus in the temple, when he drove out the money lenders and overturned their tables.
• Moses’ actions when he broke the tablets of the law and destroyed the golden calf after the Israelites worshiped it

In some Christian doctrines, righteous anger is considered the only form of anger that is not sinful. It is said to be God-oriented, and to focus on how God’s reputation and purposes have been offended.

Jesus saw that the transactions in the temple were keeping people away from God, and that could not be tolerated! Worship is important!!

Periodically, we all need to be reminded to leave business outside our church assemblies so that everyone can worship unhindered.

The passover was the greatest of all the Jewish feasts.  As we have already seen, the law laid it down that every adult male Jew who lived within fifteen miles of Jerusalem was bound to attend it.

But it was not only the Jews in Palestine who came to the Passover.  By this time Jews were scattered all over the world, but they never forgot their ancestral faith and their ancestral land; and it was the dream and aim of every Jew, no matter in what land he stayed, to celebrate at least one Passover in Jerusalem.

Astonishing as it may sound, it is likely that as many as two and a quarter million Jews sometimes assembled in the Holy City to keep the Passover.

There was a tax that every Jew over nineteen years of age must pay.  That was the Temple tax.  It was necessary that all should pay that tax so that the Temple sacrifices and the Temple ritual might be carried out day by day.  The tax was one half-shekel.

God had originally instructed the people of Israel to bring from their own flocks the best animals for sacrifice (Deuteronomy 12:5–7). This would make the sacrifice more personal. But the temple priests instituted a market for buying sacrificial animals so the pilgrims would not have to bring their animals on the long journey. Given the distances traveled by pilgrims to Jerusalem, the provision of a local animal supply probably was well intended, but what had begun as an informal farmer’s market along the road coming into Jerusalem had gradually become institutionalized until it took up the very place of worship.

In addition, the merchants and money changers were dishonest. The business people selling these animals expected to turn a profit. The price of sacrificial animals was much higher in the temple area than elsewhere. In order to purchase the animals, travelers from other lands would need local currency, and the temple tax had to be paid in local currency; so money changers exchanged foreign money, but made huge profits by charging exorbitant exchange rates.

Jesus was angry at the dishonest, greedy practices of the money changers and merchants, and he particularly disliked their presence on the temple grounds. They were making a mockery of God’s house of worship. The effect was somewhat like having loan officers at the back of our churches so that worshipers could obtain money to place in the offering plate.

Besides that, they had set up shop in the Court of the Gentiles, making it so full of merchants that foreigners found it difficult to worship—and worship was the main purpose for visiting the temple. With all the merchandising taking place in the area allotted for the Gentiles, how could they spend time with God in prayer? No wonder Jesus was angry!^[1]

The fact that the money-changers received some discount when they changed the coins of the pilgrims was not in itself wrong.  The Talmud laid it down:  “It is necessary that everyone should have half a shekel to pay for himself.  Therefore when he comes to the exchange to change a shekel for two half-shekels he is obliged to allow the money-changer some gain.”

What enraged Jesus was that pilgrims to the Passover who could ill afford it, were being fleeced at an exorbitant rate by the money-changers.  It was a rampant and shameless social in-justice-and what was worse, it was being done in the name of religion.

Besides the money-changers there were also the sellers of oxen and sheep and doves.

Frequently a visit to the Temple meant a sacrifice.  Many a pilgrim would wish to make thank-offering for a favorable journey to the Holy City; and most acts and events in life had their appropriate sacrifice.

It might therefore seem to be a natural and helpful thing that the victims for the sacrifices could be bought in the Temple court.  It might well have been so.

But the law was that any animal offered in sacrifice must be perfect and unblemished.  The Temple authorities had appointed inspectors to examine the victims which were to be offered.  The fee for inspection wasn’t much but it was predetermined and plans were made in advance.

If a worshipper bought a victim outside the Temple, it was to all intents and purposes certain that it would be rejected after examination.  Again that might not have mattered much, but a pair of doves could cost wasn’t much outside the Temple, but much more inside.

Here again was bare-faced extortion at the expense of poor and humble pilgrims, who were practically blackmailed into buying their victims from the Temple booths if they wished to sacrifice at all-once more a glaring social injustice aggravated by the fact that it was perpetrated in the name of pure religion.

It was that which moved Jesus to flaming anger.  We are told that he took cords and made a whip.

We have seen that it was the exploitation of the pilgrims by conscienceless men which moved Jesus to immediate wrath; but there were deep things behind the cleansing of the Temple.

There were at least three reasons why Jesus acted as he did, and why anger was in his heart.

He acted as he did because God’s house was being desecrated.  In the Temple there was worship without reverence.    

Worship without reverence can be a terrible thing.  It may be worship which is formalized and pushed through anyhow; the most dignified prayers on earth can be read like a passage from an auctioneer’s catalogue.

It may be worship which does not realize the holiness of God.

It may be worship in which leader or congregation are completely unprepared.  It may be the use of the house of God for purposes and in a way where reverence and the true function of God’s house are forgotten.

In that court of God’s house at Jerusalem there would be arguments about prices, disputes about coins that were worn and thin, the clatter of the market place.  That particular form of irreverence may not be common now, but there are other ways of offering an irreverent worship to God.

There is still another reason why Jesus acted as he did.  Mark has a curious little addition which none of the other gospels has:  “My house shall be called the house of prayer for all the nations” (Mark 11:17). 

The Temple consisted of a series of courts leading into the Temple proper and to the Holy Place.  There was first the Court of the Gentiles, then the Court of the Women, then the Court of the Israelites, then the Court of the Priests.

All this buying and selling was going on in the Court of the Gentiles which was the only place into which a Gentile might come.

Beyond that point, access to him was barred.  So then if there was a Gentile whose heart God had touched, he might come into the Court of the Gentiles to mediate and pray and distantly touch God.  The Court of the Gentiles was the only place of prayer he knew.

The Temple authorities and the Jewish traders were making the Court of the Gentiles into an uproar and a rabble where no man could pray.

The lowing of the oxen, the bleating of the sheep, the cooing of the doves, the shouts of the hucksters, the rattle of the coins, the voices raised in bargaining disputes-all these combined to make the Court of the Gentiles a place where no man could worship.

Jesus was moved to the depths of his heart because seeking men were being shut out from the presence of God.

Is there anything in our church life-a snobbishness, an exclusiveness, a coldness, a lack of welcome, a tendency to make the congregation into a closed club, an arrogance, a fastidiousness-which keeps the seeking stranger out?

Let us remember the wrath of Jesus against those who made it difficult and even impossible for the seeking stranger to make contact with God.

Special note: Terry and I have ministered on two occasions where African-American members outnumbered the Caucasian members. I know of one very large congregation in Fort Lauderdale that would have ushers go into the auditorium and remove ‘loud’ children from the worship rather than let them disrupt the worshippers…and, no, we do not have ushers assigned for that task, but we do ask that all of us be mindful of things that can disrupt our worship.

This cleansing was significantly appropriate during Passover because that was the time when all the Jews were supposed to cleanse their houses of all leaven (yeast).

Yeast was used in making bread, but as God was preparing his people for their hasty exodus from Egypt, he told them to make bread without leaven because they would be eating quickly and would not have time to wait for bread to rise.

During the Feast of Unleavened Bread, no leaven was used in any baking and, in fact, was not even to be found in the Israelite homes (Exodus 12:17–20).

 As the Lord of the temple, Jesus examines and judges it in light of its purpose.

Jesus knew that the temple was not to be a place for business (2:16). It was a place for worship, for prayer, and for offering sacrifices. It was the place to meet with God and seek His face (see 1 Kings 8:22-53; Isa. 56:7).

It was the place to gather for the three annual feasts (Deut. 16:16). The Passover, which Jesus here went up to celebrate, was a time to remember God’s miraculous deliverance of Israel from 400 years of slavery in Egypt.

But it had degenerated into a business opportunity for the high priest and all of the merchants and money changers. No doubt they rationalized their activities: It was a useful service for the worshipers. But they were prostituting God’s purpose for the temple.

God’s purpose for His church is that we would glorify Him by growing in fervent love for Him and for one another (the two great commandments) and by proclaiming the gospel to the lost (the Great Commission).

We need to keep on task by evaluating all that we do in light of these purposes. Individually, each of us should seek to glorify God by everything we do (1 Cor. 6:20; 10:31).

Does that fit with your picture of Jesus? Yes, He was gentle toward sinners (Matt. 11:29; 12:20).

He gives “grace upon grace” (John 1:16). He so loves us that He gave Himself for us on the cross (John 3:16).

But He also baptizes with fire. “His winnowing fork is in His hand to thoroughly clear His threshing floor” (Luke 3:17).

“It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God” (Heb. 10:31). As we’ve seen (1 Cor. 3:17),

“If any man destroys the temple of God, God will destroy him, for the temple of God is holy, and that is what you are.”

Jesus hates sin because sin destroys people He loves and sin among God’s people drags God’s holy name through the mud.

This means that first, we should hate our own sin and be quick to repent of it so that He doesn’t have to clean house for us (Rev. 3:19).

Judge, confess, and forsake your sin on the thought level and it won’t go any farther. If you’ve already sinned in word or deed, turn from it, ask God to forgive you, and ask forgiveness of those you’ve sinned against.

Jesus never avoided confrontation if it was necessary to do the will of God. Don’t dodge your responsibility. It’s a necessary part of biblical love to hate sin.

The temple (church) can be abused by…

• forgetting what worship is all about.
• misusing the facilities and buildings of God’s house.
• ignoring God’s holiness and forgetting one’s duty to reverence God.
• allowing questionable, non-worshipful activities.

^[1] Bruce B. Barton, John, Life Application Bible Commentary (Wheaton, IL: Tyndale House, 1993), 41–42.