On Monday, Jesus returns to Jerusalem, and he is not pleased.
He enters the Temple and witnesses its being treated as a bank, trading post, or flea market. It is no longer serving its primary purpose as a “House of Prayer” for all the nations. Instead, it is a “Den of Robbers” overseen by the religious establishment.
Seeing this sacrilege, Jesus becomes filled with righteous indignation.
He then does something with his constructive anger. Jesus weaves a whip and then flexes his muscle. He dumps chairs, pours out coins, overturns tables, and drives out the merchants along with their oxen, sheep, and pigeons. In the words of one Old Testament prophet, “Zeal for his Father’s house consumes him.”
Jesus then calms himself and acts more “ministerially.” He receives the children, teaches as a master rabbi, and shows tender compassion and supernatural power by healing the blind and lame who come to him.
Oh, and one more thing … Jesus makes the chief priests, scribes, and “principal men” even more indignant. They cannot stand his mastery of the Temple and his acceptance of worship. Consequently, they leave the Temple even more determined to find a way to destroy the Anointed One of God.
Do you see Jesus’ boldness? He is no cowardly minister. All these things Jesus does in the midst and in the face of his foes.
Do you see Jesus’ anger? He is not soft towards sin. He hates unrighteousness with a holy wrath.
Do you see Jesus’ power? As he flexes his mighty arm, he cannot be stopped. “Made men” are nothing before the King of kings.
Do you see Jesus’ love? Jesus is the Sovereign One who is filled with compassion, who humbles himself, who comes to earth, who takes on human flesh and soul, who endures slander and suffering, and is ready to be sacrificed for the sins of horrible sinners like chief priest, scribes, “principal men”, and wretches like you and me. His life is not taken; it is given; and greater love has no one than this — when a divine, omnipotent, and soveriegn man lays down his life for his friends.
Matthew 21:12–22; Mark 11:15–19; Luke 19:45-48; John 12:13-17
Unfathomable Grace 