Since the Passover of the Jews was near,
Jesus went up to Jerusalem.
He found in the temple area those who sold oxen, sheep, and doves,
as well as the money changers seated there.
He made a whip out of cords
and drove them all out of the temple area, with the sheep and oxen,
and spilled the coins of the money changers
and overturned their tables,
and to those who sold doves he said,
“Take these out of here,
and stop making my Father’s house a marketplace.”
His disciples recalled the words of Scripture,
Zeal for your house will consume me.
At this the Jews answered and said to him,
“What sign can you show us for doing this?”
Jesus answered and said to them,
“Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up.”
The Jews said,
“This temple has been under construction for forty-six years,
and you will raise it up in three days?”
But he was speaking about the temple of his body.
Therefore, when he was raised from the dead,
his disciples remembered that he had said this,
and they came to believe the Scripture
and the word Jesus had spoken.

While he was in Jerusalem for the feast of Passover,
many began to believe in his name
when they saw the signs he was doing.
But Jesus would not trust himself to them because he knew them all,
and did not need anyone to testify about human nature.
He himself understood it well.

He made a whip out of cords and drove them all out of the temple area, with the sheep and oxen, and spilled the coins of the money-changers and overturned their tables, and to those who sold doves he said, “Take these out of here, and stop making my Father’s house a marketplace.”

Lets start with a brief description of the temple. The temple was a series of walled off areas. The innermost sanctum was where the ark sat. it was separated by a great veil of heavy canvas that was a foot thick, and only the high priest on high holy days was allowed to go there. The room around that was designated for placing the sacrifices of bread and wine before the lord…, only the levite priests were allowed there. Outside of this room was the inner courtyard, it was divided by the great altar where the blood sacrifices were conducted. Only the levites were allowed behind the altar, and only the “ritually clean” jews were allowed into the courtyard in front of the altar, to bring their sacrifices to the Lord. Outside of this courtyard, but still inside the walls of the temple, was the outer courtyard. This was where the the jews had setup a marketplace.

So why was Jesus taking this seemingly drastic action. The outer courtyard was still a holy place in the temple, this courtyard was originally intended to be a place that gentiles of the whole world could come to worship the one true God. Gentiles were not allowed in the inner parts of the temple, but they were still invited to come and worship the one true god in this outer courtyard. The jewish leaders did not want the gentiles anywhere near them, they wanted to push the gentiles out and away. And so they pushed them out in one of the most vile ways you could think of, by desecrating the temple with consumerism.

There is also another disgusting thing about this scene. The temple sacrifice was meant to be a gift from the person whom is requesting forgiveness. It was supposed to be given as a true sacrifice from their livlihood. It was to be a gift of blood that came from their own household. But instead jews would just show up at the temple with money (with caesars face on it) and they would exchange that idolatrous money for their “sacrifice” and then they would then present that sacrifice to the levites.

This economy was not what the Lord wanted, the sacrifice was supposed to come from best of your life and work, and that you should have an attachment to it. To just show up, and hand one levite money, and another levite the sacrifice that you just purchased, was deplorable, and clearly not what God had intended. The buying of animals was actually originally allowed in Deut: 14:24-26. But by the time of this reading it was seriously being abused. So much so, that it had infact become a “tourist trap,” taking advantage of the pilgrims. At the end of the day, these money changers, in an effort to provide an economy of goods for the sacrafice, were actually breaking the commandment about stealing. So Jesus, by driving out these evil doers (as Lord of the universe), was litterally enforcing the law!

Next, I want to discuss the whip of cords. Jesus did not bring this weapon with him, he improvised it on the spot, deliberately created it out of things he could find on site. To me this speaks of a person that is not full of rage, who instead is witnessing a grave offense to the lord, and through a stirring of righteous anger decides to take action to put an end to it. Futher, I think it is noteworthy to notice that a whip is a very different kind of weapon than a sword.  A sword gives you a distinct advantage in battle. It has a cutting edge, and gives you separation from your opponent in battle, and it provides defense against counter attack. A short whip on the other hand, gives you none of those advantages…, you can’t hide behind it. Using a whip requires close contact, and that makes you vulnerable. It requires courage by the weilder, and the advantage of righteous indignation, over the shame and fear of your opponent.

Lastly, I think that we need to discuss “anger”.  Anger is not a sin, as long as it remains righteous and not wrathful. St Thomas Aquinas speak of all our human passions as having opposites, for example hope and fear, joy and sorrow, but he says that anger has no opposite. Anger is the human response to injustice, whether real or percieved. It is righteous when the anger is in response to the offense of gods law or if it is in defense of the persecution of the weak, helpless, and afflicted. It is un-righteous, if it is in defense of a percieved injustice, or a sinful selfish desire. And it is wrathful, if the response is disproportionally over-aggressive or vengful. I like to think that Jesus’ heart rate probably did not increase one beat throughout this whole episode, because His anger was completely proportionate, and righteous, and like I said he was simply enforcing the law. Jesus was simply responding to the disgrace that had risen up in the temple and was making it right.

And he is still doing that today. Although lately it seems that the evil one is winning, but judgement day is coming. Get yourself right with god, and pray that you are not feeling the pain of his whip.

Oh lord, give me today the wisdom to see the things in my life that cause you pain, and the courage to remove them from my life before you come to do it to/for me. Amen.