Jesus Took A Whip To Church

What is your view of Jesus? Is he boring, a religious reformer, itinerant preacher, a passive prophet or a myth? Many come to Jesus with presuppositions to his existence, demeanor and work. This past weekend we looked at a very interesting, yet less familiar, story of Jesus in John 2:13-22 that tends to challenge some of these assumptions. Jesus got angry! He made a whip and went to the temple driving out all those who were selling sacrifices and exchanging money. Why would he do that?

Inside the temple there were several different sections in which people could go. There was the court of priests, court of men, court of women and the court of gentiles. Inside the court of gentiles is where non-Jewish god-fearers could come to worship. It was also a place where those who were exploring the Jewish faith could come to witness people worshiping God. Booths were supposed to be set up outside of the temple as a convenience for those who were traveling to make sacrifices. Yet, as Jesus was looking into the gentile court he sees these booths inside. People were selling sacrifices and exchanging money, while possibly extorting the people by charging extremely high rates (Matthew 21:13). Instead of witnessing people in worship, or people being able to engage in worship, they would be distracted by sounds of animals and deceptive business practices. This was Jesus' reason for driving them out. He was passionate about people being unobstructed in their worship and coming to God.

Jesus goes on to tell those who challenge his actions that he is the temple of God who has come into the world. The reason Christians do not make these sacrifices today is because the sacrifices were meant to point to someone greater. They pointed to Jesus! He is the one who would make the complete, final, ultimate sacrifice for God's people through his life, death and resurrection. It is through him that we have access to God. What he shows in this text is that everyone, religious and irreligious, should not be deterred from his invitation to come. In John 2 he takes a whip to cleanse the temple, yet in Matthew 27 we see that Jesus takes a whip upon his body for us. There he stood in our place, taking our punishment upon himself, so that we could be cleansed by his work (2 Corinthians 5:21). Jesus is the greater temple, who has done everything to bring us back to God. Go to him.