Anchor My Faith

Jesus Becomes Angry

Scripture: John 2:13-14

After spending a few days at Capernaum, Jesus moves on to Jerusalem. This geographical change begins a new major section of ministry. This is the fourth major section, mgev04, and is titled, “Ministry in Judea.” This major section contains six minor sections, gev025 through gev030. Check out these lessons at this link.

It is the spring of AD 29 and the Passover is about to occur in Jerusalem: “The Passover of the Jews was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem” (John 2:13 ESV). We first encountered Passover in lesson H068, when we looked at Luke 2:41 – 42: “Now his parents went to Jerusalem every year at the Feast of the Passover. And when he was twelve years old, they went up according to custom.” What was “The Passover of the Jews?”

A description of the original Passover is found at Exodus 12:1 – 29, but one must go back to Exodus 11:4 – 6 for context. There we will find the tenth plague being described: “So Moses said, “Thus says the Lord: ‘About midnight I will go out in the midst of Egypt, and every firstborn in the land of Egypt shall die, from the firstborn of Pharaoh who sits on his throne, even to the firstborn of the slave girl who is behind the hand mill, and all the firstborn of the cattle. There shall be a great cry throughout all the land of Egypt, such as there has never been, nor ever will be again” (ESV). The tenth plague was death of the first born of everyone through Egypt, but God provided a means of protection for the Jews. Those who followed the directions given in Exodus 12, and placed the blood on the doorposts and on the lintel and stayed inside, would be passed over by the death angel. The Passover that Jesus went up to Jerusalem to celebrate was in remembrance of this event in Exodus. Since Jesus was staying at Capernaum, which was at the north end of the Sea of Galilee and was at a lower elevation than Jerusalem, one would say Jesus was going up to Jerusalem.

When Jesus arrived at the temple in Jerusalem, he found something that displeased him very much. “In the temple he found those who were selling oxen and sheep and pigeons, and the money-changers sitting there” (John 2:14 ESV). Temple here denotes an area surrounding the temple, including the court of the Gentiles, in distinction from the temple building proper, from which those who were not Jews were not allowed.

In the area surrounding the temple, merchants were selling oxen, sheep and pigeons to travelers who needed an animal for sacrifice. Since many travelers had a different currency, they needed to first exchange their currency, therefore, money-changers were sitting there with the merchants. These merchants and money-changers were rendering an important service, but they were in a location that disrupted the worship of non-Jewish God fearing people and in their exchange and selling of animals they were corrupt in their dealings.

In Luke 2:49, Jesus refers to the temple as his Father’s house. As a result, he had a strong connection to it and some strong feelings over how it was being used and was about to do something about it. We will cover that in our next lesson.

Prayer

Father, in this lesson we find sin in the temple, which is displeasing to Jesus. The service being rendered there was an important service, but it was corrupt and made prayer and worship difficult in that area. How has the world crept into our churches and is found displeasing to the Lord by hindering our prayer and worship? We modify our services to attract the world and in the process we end up with little of value to offer them. It is rare today to find a church that will teach the full gospel.