As we saw yesterday Jesus was coming into Jerusalem and the road was lined with people praising Him and laying palm branches in His path. This was the week of His crucifixion and yet only days before His execution He was causing others to ask who He was and to follow Him praising Him. While in the city Matthew 21:10 tells us that “all the city was moved, saying, who is this?” Jesus was causing quite a stir, but nothing like what was about to happen as he shows righteous indignation when He enters the temple.
As Jesus entered the temple, He saw those that were taking advantage of those who had need of animals for sacrifice. It was for the convenience of those that would rather bring their money than the required sacrifice. Note, convenience should never dictate what we do for God. If that is your guide you care more about yourself than you do about worshiping God. If that is your determining factor you will miss more worship services than you will attend. Satan will do what He can to make it difficult for you to worship and serve God. In this passage Jesus makes it clear how God feels about it, He called them thieves. He threw all those that were exploiting offerings of sacrifices out of the temple. This is the same situation that Jesus found in the temple in John 2:14-16. He reacted the same way. Except for this time, He made a whip out of cords and turned the tables over, poured out the money they had collected, and drove out the sheep and oxen. These men knew what they were doing was wrong. God had given instructions on this matter in Isaiah 56:7 when He told them His house was a house of prayer.
What Jesus showed was righteous indignation. He was always seeking to please the Father. It made Him angry because they had turned what God had required and what was good into something sinful in God’s house. There is a time when anger is not only ok but is needed and good. Righteous anger is being angry at things that oppose God. Righteous anger springs forth from a sense of justice, it seeks to bring things to light that are against what God calls right and good. It is not getting angry because someone has hurt us and we seek revenge. In order to exhibit righteous anger we need to look at the heart of God and see what grieves Him.
When was the last time you felt pain and anger toward something that was against the heart of God? Does it bother you that our world has gone sin crazy, that the things God has deemed an abomination, our world has said are good and right? Think about it. How are you reacting? Only days before His crucifixion Jesus was taking care of His Father’s business.
Matthew 21:10-13 “And when he was come into Jerusalem, all the city was moved, saying, Who is this? And the multitude said, This is Jesus the prophet of Nazareth of Galilee. And Jesus went into the temple of God, and cast out all them that sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the tables of the moneychangers, and the seats of them that sold doves, And said unto them, It is written, My house shall be called the house of prayer; but ye have made it a den of thieves.”
John 2:14-16 “And found in the temple those that sold oxen and sheep and doves, and the changers of money sitting: And when he had made a scourge of small cords, he drove them all out of the temple, and the sheep, and the oxen; and poured out the changers’ money, and overthrew the tables; And said unto them that sold doves, Take these things hence; make not my Father’s house a house of merchandise.”
Isaiah 56:7 “Even them will I bring to my holy mountain, and make them joyful in my house of prayer: their burnt offerings and their sacrifices shall be accepted upon mine altar; for mine house shall be called a house of prayer for all people.”
