Matthew 21:12

"And Jesus entered the temple of God and he drove out all who sold and bought in the temple, and he overturned the tables of the moneychangers and the seats of those who sold pigeons" (Matthew 21:12 RSV).  

 

Comment:

This is, indeed, a disturbing passage for those who believe everything Jesus did or said in his earthly ministry was loving and kind. And the story is found—in different versions and at different points in the ministry—in all four of the synoptic gospels. Those gospels were written throughout a span of nearly 50 years, which suggests to me this particular story was well known and carefully passed down. Further, it was such a public act, witnessed by so many followers and doubters alike, that to omit it from the story of Jesus would be immediately obvious.

Both Matthew and Luke have the events occurring at the end of Jesus' earthly ministry, at the beginning of his final week. John has the story early in the ministry, as Jesus is just beginning to 'go public' with his teachings.

The point is, I think, that none of the people mentioned—buyers, sellers, moneychangers—are doing anything wrong according to the tenets of Judaism at the time. Indeed, it could be said that theirs was a very sacred responsibility. People arrived at the temple, many of them, from far distances. Once there, they were called upon to offer sacrifice, but it would have been impractical to carry "unblemished" animals or pigeons on the journey. Hence the service that they could buy their living sacrifice at the temple. Further, Jews were forced to use Roman currency in their daily lives, since they were a part of the Roman Empire. But those coins had on them the image of Caesar, and so could not be used or accepted in the temple. So the moneylenders were also providing a religious service.

So Jesus' anger must not be directed at these people, but rather at the religious system behind it all—and that is clearly how it was understood at the time. A common theme of his ministry was that the religious structure had become far removed from spiritual Truth. It was a highly developed, earthly organization with a top-down hierarchy and a pretty strong profit motive for those who rose to the top. It was this structure that Jesus was implicitly criticizing.

So what about the poor shmucks who were just doing their jobs, following the only religious teachings they knew, and now they have to clean up the mess and try to get their coins back? It's a fair question, I think, and it suggests to me Jesus was fully human, and thereby subject to the same fears and distractions we experience in our own lives. If he had lived his life—or even just his ministry—without ever making a mistake, ever losing his temper, then we would have to conclude  he was not fully human but some otherworldly being with no understanding of the human challenges we face. He was fully human, and fully divine—just as we are. He gets a little testy with the Pharisees, he yells at a fig tree—and he loses it when he sees what the temple had become. And I wouldn't be surprised to learn that later, when the crowds had gone, Jesus was still there, helping the buyers and sellers and changers to clean things up.

Blessings!

Rev. Ed