The Final Week of Jesus - Ticked Off!

With the Passover just days away, the temple business was at its peak. It is the season of tremendous influx of visitors needing to exchange their money for the temple currency, needing to buy sacrificial animals. It’s a free flow of cash and merchandise - a religious black Friday of a sort.

The outer court of the temple was intended as a space for prayer and reflections for the non-Jewish God-seekers, a place where those who are far away can come near to the God of the whole earth. By this time, however, it was converted into a bustling market.  The convenience of the location eventually trumped any last remnant of sensibilities toward the spiritual needs of foreigners. The original intent was either ignored or forgotten. The site effectively re-purposed and nobody seemed to mind or care.

That is, nobody until Somebody came along who actually took God at His Word.  Who made a connection between what was written:

My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations,

and what He saw and heard:

But you have made it a robbers’ den.

And suddenly the infinitely patient Rabbi, the gentle lamb of God transforms into a roaring lion of Judah. His actions calling the religious professionals on the carpet.

And they did not like it.

Not one bit.