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
Jesus was genuinely angry. And why? Because they were making his "Father's house a marketplace". Whereas he knew it was meant to be "a house of prayer for all the nations" (see Mark 11:17). But how could all the nations join together in prayer while the court of the Gentiles was filled with the noise and distraction of those selling and changing money?
From the way this scene portrays it we could understand that the entire sacrificial system had become less an occasion for piety and transcendence and more of a substitution of the merely human and the fleshly. Rather than acknowledge what the need to sacrifice implied about the spiritual state of humankind the people involved appeared more interested in what they could get rather than what they were meant to offer. The result was that the lowest and the least of God's people, the one's who genuinely desired fellowship with God, were crowded out and excluded.
For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins (see Hebrews 10:4).
Jesus was motivated and zealous not only because of the culpability of those involved but also by his desire to be himself what the temple sacrifices could never be. He desired for his Father's house to be a place of true communion between men and God. But he knew that the physical temple and the sacrificial economy could only ever be a shadow of this promise. He himself was where his Father most perfectly dwelled. Those joined to Jesus as stones in a living temple would experience what was always intended for humanity, worship in Spirit and truth (see John 4:21-24).
But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, waiting from that time until his enemies should be made a footstool for his feet. For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified (see Hebrews 10:11-14).
What sign could Jesus demonstrate to prove all that he said, that the temple was "his Father's house" and that it was therefore his prerogative to order it as he saw fit? "Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up." The old temple would be destroyed and not rebuilt. But the temple of the body of Christ, true presence of God on earth, would be raised in three days. At that time the system of sacrifices from the old temple ceased because the one perfect sacrifice had been offered. No longer did the nations need to dwell in the peripheries, distracted by noise and commerce. All were welcome to experience true worship and genuine prayer, the full promise of the experience of the presence of God himself in our midst.
Do you not know that you are the temple of God,
and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?
If Jesus was so zealous for a temple that was merely a foreshadowing of things to come imagine how zealous he is for our hearts? They are meant to be temples of the Spirit, joined to him as part of the larger edifice of his body, which is his Church. If he chased moneychangers away with a whip of cords we ought to expect that his loving discipline will be a part of our own experience with him as he helps us grow and mature in our dedication to him so that we might live for the true purpose of our lives: worship.
Wherever the river flows,
every sort of living creature that can multiply shall live,
and there shall be abundant fish,
for wherever this water comes the sea shall be made fresh.
When we are joined to Jesus and his heart is a temple where his worship is at the center then we too become springs of living water that can enrich a world around us that is desperately thirsty and in need.
Every month they shall bear fresh fruit,
for they shall be watered by the flow from the sanctuary.
Their fruit shall serve for food, and their leaves for medicine.
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