Matthew 21:12-16 (KJV)
12 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,
13 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.
14 And the blind and the lame came to him in the temple; and he healed them.
15 And when the chief priests and scribes saw the wonderful things that he did, and the children crying in the temple, and saying, Hosanna to the Son of David; they were sore displeased,
16 And said unto him, Hearest thou what these say? And Jesus saith unto them, Yea; have ye never read, Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings thou hast perfected praise?
This Sunday is what is traditionally called Palm Sunday celebrating Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem. Messages will be preached on the entry, the spreading of palm and other branches in the way and the people shouting and proclaiming Him as the son of David. Something that Jesus did is not often thought about or preached on – Jesus went in and cleansed the temple, casting out those who bought and sold sacrificial animals and those who exchanged foreign currency for temple money so people could pay their temple tax.
This whole event took place in what is called the court of the Gentiles which was not considered sacred. The fact of exchanging money and buying animals was not warm in and of itself. The wrong that Jesus railed against was the covetous and “money-grubbing” process. Animals were needed for sacrifice and people traveling from far distances would need to have a sacrifice. Also coming from foreign areas, they would have to exchange their currency for the proper money in order to pay their taxes – like when we would go to Canada we would need to exchange our US dollars for Canadian currency.
If a person had a foreign currency close to the amount of the tax, then they would be charged six percent to exchange and if the coin they were changing exceeding the temple tax they would charge another six percent. A traveler could bring his own animal for sacrifice, but it would have to be inspected by the priests and almost always it was rejected and they would have to buy one from them which would cost as much as fifty times what they would pay outside the temple area.
So when Jesus cleansed the temple and chased these guys out He was not opposing entrepreneurship but the scalping and pricing gouging – Jesus called it den of thieves. After driving them out it tells us that the lame, blind and other disabled people came to Jesus and He healed them. Then to put salt on the wounded pride of the religious leaders the children began crying “Hosanna, Hosanna, blessed is He that comes in the name of the Lord.”
Jesus looks on today at the church and sees everything that takes place. The question we have to ask is: “Are we doing His bidding or are we just playing church in order to benefit our own self”?
The saddest part of this whole event is that the last verse in the text says that Jesus left the temple and went out to Bethany. Will He leave our churches or will He feel welcome and stay and bless us?