Dear Explorer,
Read John 2:13-25
What should Jesus have found in the temple courts?
The temple court was the area set up as a place for worship for non-Jews. All were welcome to come and pray there. It was called the Court of Gentiles. Essentially this area had been taken over by a flea market (pun intended). We'll talk more about this problem when Jesus cleanses the temple a 2nd time close to the end of his ministry.
Right now, I want to know why in the world would you sell cows and sheep and doves inside a temple courtyard?
These animals were used for sacrifices.
Let's take a generous view of what was happening and say that it may have started as a convenience to those travelers who came a great distance. It certainly was easier to buy a cow or sheep or bird to sacrifice – than to bring it long distances.
But by Jesus' time, it had become something much worse. Let's go behind the scenes and see what we can discover.
Before you could sacrifice an animal that you had brought from home or bought somewhere else, it had to pass inspection by a priest. If there was a defect, you could not sacrifice the animal. That's God's Law and those defects are spelled out in the book of Leviticus. But in Jesus' day, the priest just about always found a “hidden” defect in your animal (not based on God's Law). Then, you had to buy a new “temple approved” animal at a ridiculously high price. But they would cheerfully buy your defective animal at a ridiculously low price to take it off your hands!
What do you think happened to these supposedly “defective animals”?
My suspicion is that in a few weeks, those “defective animals” would suddenly recover and be sold as “temple approved” animals! And the priests were getting rich doing this.
So, Jesus was a little ticked. No, He was livid! He made a whip from some cords and ran everyone out of the area. Let's see: blocking Gentiles from worshiping God, lying, cheating, fraud. And that was the priests! Let's just say that Jesus turned their business upside down!
John 2:21-22 are a foreshadowing of future events that we will discuss later.
What do you think John 2:24-25 mean?
Remember that Jesus created humans, so He knows us very, very well. I believe that these verses just mean that Jesus didn't get excited about whether people were happy with Him or not. His value or worth or self-esteem was not based on popularity.
What do you base your value or self-worth on?