God's House Series

Open your Bibles if you would to John 2:12. We have been going through the book of John. We are taking as long as we need to go through the book of John. It looks like it is going to take a little while longer. You may recall last week we looked Jesus’ first miracle; the miracle of turning the water into wine. This week, as you can tell by the video, we are going to be looking at Jesus cleansing the temple. Clearing out the merchants and cracking whips and that sort of thing. Last week, we got to see the nice, gentle Jesus that does everything nice and what people want. Helped his mother out. Helped the bride and the bridegroom out and the master of the banquet. This week we get to see the angry Jesus that makes everybody mad. We don’t like this kind of Jesus. The question we have to ask, and hopefully we can resolve it, is why did Jesus get so upset? Hopefully, as we read through the passage and go through the sermon we might understand why. Reading from John 2 starting at verse 12. (Scripture read here.)

These first few verses remind us that when it was almost time for the Jewish Passover, Jesus went up into the temple. That is where he found men selling cattle, sheep, and doves. That is what seemed to upset him because he saw them also exchanging money. A little bit of background about this idea of Passover. Passover was one of the three required feasts for Jewish men over 18 years of age. They would all have to attend three major feasts. One was Passover. Another was called Pentecost and another one was called The Feast of the Tabernacle. Of the three, Passover was probably the most important feast. It was big feast. You may recall that Passover was the feast that celebrated the deliverance of the people from the hands of wicked Pharaoh. That is what was celebrated. The word Passover actually comes from the event that preceded the deliverance of the people. It was the night before the Pharaoh let the people go and the people were instructed by Moses to slay and lamb and put the blood of the lamb over the doorpost of their homes. When the angel of death would pass through the area, they would pass over their house and hence the name Passover. Passover was a very big feast. Estimates are anywhere from one to four million people would come into Jerusalem for the week-long celebration of Passover. It was a big deal. A lot of celebration. A lot of good things going on. A lot of joyous things. It was probably like a Mardi Gras of some sort. It was also a good thing for the merchants. The feasts were very good for business during that time. The merchants would set up the tables and booths and sell things like food and clothing. They would sell beverages. They would sell supplies that they would need to go back on their pilgrimage. Of course they would sell things that were required for sacrifice for people to be able to go up into the temple which is where they were all heading. Up into big Herod’s temple known as God’s House and they would sell them these supplies. Things like salt and oil and yarmulkes and of course animals. Doves and cattle and oxen and sheep. They knew that the pilgrims were coming in to do sacrifice so they would sell them these things. Many of them would set up on the outlying roads leading into Jerusalem to get a head start on the crowd as they came in. The farther out they sold these things, the pilgrims would probably get a better price. That is the way it worked.

One day, somebody got the bright idea, probably someone from the Jewish council, to set up a relationship with some of these merchants. That they can set up a contract with them to where they bring the merchants directly into the temple ground and they can set up their booths there. They can just sell all the things they need. They wouldn’t have to buy it out in the countryside. They can buy it right there at the temple. It would be a convenience for these people. At least they saw it as a convenience. When there is a convenience, sometimes there is a convenience fee attached to it. When you buy things right at the ballpark, it is expensive. That is why I buy my peanuts on the other side of Roberto Clemente Bridge. While I have the luxury to buy peanuts on the other side of Roberto Clemente Bridge, the pilgrims didn’t have that option. They had to buy the stuff right there at the ballpark. They didn’t have a choice because the Jews were in charge of regulating the quality of the animals. If they didn’t put their kosher stamp on it, they couldn’t use those animals. Someone might bring their lamb or dove in and they would look at it and say this isn’t quality stuff. You need the stuff that is kosher. You need the stuff stamped by us. They are thinking this doesn’t seem fair. The price is about two or three times. You are getting good quality stuff not the cheap stuff. So they take out their money that would be Egyptian coin or Greek coin or Roman coin and pass it to the person. The person would say sorry we can’t take this money. We only take temple money here. I don’t have any temple money. There is a guy over here that will fix you up. If you bring your Roman coin to him he will exchange it for you. It will be a nice courtesy. The trouble is the person who would exchange it would mark it up about 15%. They would go over there and they would give them $10 and get $5 back in temple currency. By the time you got into the temple, you felt ripped off. You surely didn’t feel like worshipping. They had a real problem with what was going on there.