2:14
People came from various places and needed a creature of some sort to sacrifice. It wasn’t practical to bring the animal with them, so the animals and birds were for sale in the temple courts. The problem wasn’t that the trade was necessarily dishonest, but that it was profaning the temple. The money changers were offering a sort of currency exchange service. People would have a variety of coins, but the temple tax had to be paid in Tyrian coinage, to pay half a shekel.
2:15,16
Jesus reacted angrily, making a whip out of cords to drive out the animals. The money-changers tables were overturned, and the coins scattered. Jesus was incensed that the temple had been turned into a marketplace. It was supposed to be His “Father’s House”. Maybe we need to be careful how we treat church buildings. We can carry out activities that are not wrong in themselves, but we forget about holiness. We forget that the presence of God, that the person of Jesus Christ, is the only “unique selling point”, if I can use such a phrase, that the church has. It is also what we must offer, and is the pearl beyond price. This incident should also dispel any notion of Jesus being “nice”!
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