John 2:13-22
13When it was almost time for the Jewish Passover, Jesus went up to Jerusalem. 14In the temple courts he found men selling cattle, sheep and doves, and others sitting at tables exchanging money. 15So 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. 16To those who sold doves he said, “Get these out of here! How dare you turn my Father’s house into a market!”
17His disciples remembered that it is written: “Zeal for your house will consume me.”
18Then the Jews demanded of him, “What miraculous sign can you show us to prove your authority to do all this?”
19Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days.”
20The Jews replied, “It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and you are going to raise it in three days?” 21But the temple he had spoken of was his body. 22After he was raised from the dead, his disciples recalled what he had said. Then they believed the Scripture and the words that Jesus had spoken.
When I was in Junior High I had a friend at school who would challenge me about my faith. He would ask me if I thought Jesus was perfect and when I would say “yes” he would point out today’s scripture passage and say, “If he’s so perfect, why did he get angry? Isn’t anger a sin? And if he’s angry then he’s not perfect.” At the time I didn’t really know what to say to him. Was I wrong? Was Jesus really flawed?
In yesterday’s scripture passage (2 Chronicles 29:15-19) we read that the first thing Hezekiah did when he became King was purify the temple. In today’s passage we see that the first thing Jesus does in Jerusalem is go to the temple and clean it up. And just like King Hezekiah, King Jesus gets the job done, not with violence or anger but with zeal.
When Jesus saw that the temple had been defiled—that there were birds and large animals in the temple courts and that money changers were making a profit off those who came to worship—he decided to do something about it.
The first thing Jesus did was make a whip (v. 15). If he was angry he could have used the whip to physically hurt those who had dishonored the temple but instead he uses it to drive out their sheep and oxen. Then he poured out the money changers money (v. 15) and overturned their tables. If he was angry he could have taken the money for himself as a penalty for those who made a profit from religion. But he didn’t. Then he tells the dove sellers to leave (v. 16). He could have opened up their cages and watched as their birds flew away. But he didn’t.
I still stand by what I believed in Junior High but now I know that it was zeal—and not anger—that consumed Jesus that day in the temple. “Zeal for your house will consume me.” (Psalm 69:9).
Youth Department