The Advent of Easter, Part XVII by Pamela Christian—Copyright © 2019
This post represents the 10th and 11th of Nissan in the last days of Jesus’ life on earth. Remember the Hebrew calendar days begin at sunset and end at sunset the next day.
After Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a donkey colt, uproariously hailed by the crowds, He stopped at the temple. Within the temple grounds was a sort of marketplace where commercial activity allowed pilgrims arriving in Jerusalem for the Passover celebration to exchange their foreign currency for temple currency and purchase animals and other items for sacrifice.
As Jesus looked around, He noted the manner in which the holy temple was being used. He observed the money changers making a profit from the exchange of currency, and the sellers of animals using unjust valuations. This was a blatant misuse of the temple system of worship. Jesus rejected the Jewish system of moneymaking from God’s Passover. He overturned the tables of the money-changers and the seats of those who sold pigeons. The temple was to be known as a house of prayer, not a place where merchants took economic advantage of people.
This display of outrage from Jesus is not the first. The first was early in His ministry when Jesus did a similar cleansing after the wedding in Cana. John 2:14-16 reads, “In the temple he found those who were selling oxen and sheep and pigeons, and the money-changers sitting there. And making a whip of cords, he drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and oxen. And he poured out the coins of the money-changers and overturned their tables. And He told those who sold the pigeons, “Take these things away; do not make My Father’s house a house of trade.” (ESV, emphasis added). Jesus clearly cleansed the temple because those selling pigeons, sheep, and oxen were doing so for personal profit rather than a spiritual act of worship.
However, in the second temple cleansing, Jesus said, “It is written, My house shall be called a house of prayer, but you make it a den of robbers.’” (Matthew 21:12-13 ESV, emphasis added). Jesus cleansed the temple both near the beginning and near the end of His public ministry, making clear He rejected the distortions of temple worship, as well as revealing His authority over those in the temple.
The temple and its system of worship, were revealed by God as an intended foreshadow of Jesus. The temple pointed to the ultimate sacrifice who would usher in a new and better way. Jesus’ cleansing of the temple pronounced judgement upon the whole temple system that had become corrupt and announced the temple would soon be destroyed. Jesus Himself, would replace the temple sacrificial system. Jesus spoke of destroying the temple and rebuilding it in three days, referring to His body as the Temple.
Imagine how all this further enraged the religious leaders of the day, who Jesus has publicly scorned. Their talk of finding a way to do away with Jesus, was now fully heated up to their actually planning how they could kill Him. His popularity, His teachings, His miraculous healings, all had caused the masses to laud Him. They knew they had to have the right strategy or the people would turn against them.
The Day of Preparation is an important element to Passover and will be the topic explored in the next post.
For April 9-10, 2019 read and meditate on the following Scriptures:
Matthew 21:12-27; Mark 11:15-33; Luke 19:45-20:1-8; John 11;45-55
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