Cleansing of the Temple

Giving

INTRO TO THE SERIES

There is something that has happened to Christianity over the last few hundred years that is significant and something that hasn’t served us well.

As followers of Jesus we has dwindled down the role of Jesus in our lives. If you grew up in church you where given stuff about Jesus, or a template about him and who he is and what he does.

Savior

Sin eraser

Ticket to Heaven

Savior is not the primary role or title that Jesus accepted. In fact, Jesus never called himself the savior. Others did and he accepted that title, but that’s not what he said of himself. In fact, it was so much more than that. Don’t believe me? Listen to what is said in the opening of each Gospel.

Matthew — Chapter 1 — Immanuel (God With Us), King Herod tries to kill him b/c he called a king.

Matthew 2:1–2 NIV

1 After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem 2 and asked, “Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.”

Mark 1:15 NIV

15 “The time has come,” he said. “The kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news!”

Luke 1:30–33 NIV

30 But the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary; you have found favor with God. 31 You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus. 32 He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, 33 and he will reign over Jacob’s descendants forever; his kingdom will never end.”

John 1:1 NIV

1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

Jesus as king, not just savior, but THE king.

Leah does my laundry, I do not introduce her as my maid. I cook, she doesn’t introduce me as her cook.

However, when it comes to Jesus we introduce as someone who we can things from or who does things for us. This whole series is going to be built around this concept as Jesus as king, not just savior. You see it throughout all the Gospels.

Kingdom of Heaven — here now, not there then.

CONNECTION

Today we’re going to look at one of my favorite stories in the NT.

The tension is that conversation changes everything about your relationship with and too Jesus AND everything about his role.

This series: The King is Coming. B/c the king came into this world in order to establish his kingdom.

But what does his kingdom look like? and More importantly, what do his kingdom people do?

We see it all in the last week of his life — The Holy Week. In this series we are going to go day by day through the last week of Jesus earthly ministry b/c in that timeframe he doubled down on what it meant that his kingdom was about to established.

Today the moment we’re looking at is something that all of us can appreciate regardless of whether we grew up in church or not.

SCRIPTURE

This is after the triumphant arrival. Hosanna, Hosanna.

Jesus arrives to the Temple.

Matthew 21:12 NIV

12 Jesus entered the temple courts and drove out all who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves.

Historical Context

When Jesus walked into the Temple and began overturning tables, He wasn’t just acting out of anger—He was making a deliberate statement against a corrupt system that had turned worship into a business of exploitation.

The Money Changers

Every Jewish male over 20 years old was required to pay the annual Temple tax (Exodus 30:13-16). However, the Temple only accepted one type of currency—the Tyrian shekel—so pilgrims had to exchange their everyday Roman or Greek coins.

This is where the money changers came in. They charged high exchange rates, often 10-15% per transaction—a huge profit, especially during Passover when thousands of worshipers flooded Jerusalem. And who controlled this operation? The high priest’s family, led by Annas and Caiaphas. What should have been a simple act of devotion—giving to God—had become a money-making scheme.

The Pigeon (Dove) Sellers

For sacrifices, the wealthy could bring a bull or lamb, but the poor were allowed to offer pigeons or doves instead (Leviticus 12:6-8). The problem? Temple inspectors often rejected personal sacrifices, forcing people to buy "pre-approved" pigeons from vendors inside the Temple—at outrageously inflated prices.

Outside the Temple, a pair of doves cost about 5 cents.

Inside the Temple, the same pair could cost up to 75 cents—15 times the price!

Once again, the ones who could least afford it were being exploited. Those selling pigeons weren’t just vendors; they were part of a system that preyed on the poor, turning worship into a financial burden.

Some of you in the room understand this better than most and you’re indignant right now. B/c you’ve been hurt by religious people like these pharisees and money changers. You’ve been hurt by people in church that put their own needs above yours.

Someone who said something about what you were wearing.

They made you feel terrible b/c you didn’t have money to give.

You had honest questions, and someone shut you down instead of listening.

You were struggling, and instead of grace, you got judgment.

You thought church was a place of family and belonging, but when you needed support, you felt abandoned.

You saw hypocrisy—leaders saying one thing but doing another.

These religious folks… they missed the point. Jesus is about to make sure they understand.

And it hurt. Because when the place that’s supposed to bring healing ends up causing pain, it makes you question everything.

Some people have taught this that Jesus is upset at the economic entanglement, that’s not true. Jesus was upset angry at the corruption and the purpose of the Temple was not to be a place where to made a fortune it was meant to be a place of worship. They were keeping people out of being able to worship. That was a problem for Jesus.

Matthew 21:13 NIV

13 “It is written,” he said to them, “ ‘My house will be called a house of prayer,’ but you are making it ‘a den of robbers.’”

Literally — you have “thieves” in the house of God. Not b/c of the exchange of money and selling of doves. That was perfectly fine in God’s eyes when the Temple first started. But now it is a problem… b/c people exploited the system and it was hurting people. Jesus as the king is mad b/c his people are being hurt by something that was meant to serve them.

Here’s something to remember...

When you hurt the king’s people, you hurt the king.

Don’t say you serve the king at one moment and then hurt the people the king loves.

Jesus wants them to see where they’ve gone wrong — and this is why he is so amazing — if you’ve ever been hurt by the church he is on your side and he is for you. He wants to remind them of what the Temple was originally used for...

Preach thru the next bit. Probably line by line.

Matthew 21:14–17 NIV

14 The blind and the lame came to him at the temple, and he healed them.

This was significant b/c in at the temple those people weren’t allowed. Only the healthy and Jesus is allowing the people to come into the temple courts. Jesus undid the entire thing.

Who could do that but the king? This king, was sent to set things right. He sends a terrible condemnation of the temple practices and begins to do what it was originally meant to do.

Be a place of healing, spiritually, emotionally and physically.

Matthew 21:14–17 NIV

15 But when the chief priests and the teachers of the law saw the wonderful things he did and the children shouting in the temple courts, “Hosanna to the Son of David,” they were indignant. 16 “Do you hear what these children are saying?” they asked him. “Yes,” replied Jesus, “have you never read, “ ‘From the lips of children and infants you, Lord, have called forth your praise’?” 17 And he left them and went out of the city to Bethany, where he spent the night.

This, the resurrection of Laz, the triumphal entry. That was it. This Jesus guy had to go. So they kept finalized a plan to kill him.

Jesus came to the Temple to reset the order of things. To fix what was broken and as the King he was the only one who knew how. He was the only one who had authority to do it.

APPLICATION

Hurt People

Someone got so focused on the Temple or the dogma, or the “way we do it” and their view of christianity drifted from the Kings view. And you got hurt in the process.

Or maybe someone in my position leveraged their power and authority for a purpose and perhaps it wasn’t for you.

To those people I say on behalf of the church — I am sorry. And, if you are struggling getting back into church or back to God I completely understand that.

I would like to point out that those people — those who were rejected by the religious establishment — they found their healing in Jesus, where at the Temple.

Don’t let the religion ruin your relationship with Jesus.

I understand the hurt, I completely get it, but the king came to set things right. If you’ve been hurt by the church or by religious people, don’t let that get in the way of your healing. True healing is found in the king.

Healing looks like taking one step. The people outside had to take a step towards God again. The same is true for us today — we have to take the next step.

attendance

community

singing

worshiping

trusting

Extras

Hardened People

You’ve heard it all. You know church, you’ve been in church your whole life. You don’t struggle with severe church hurt. You struggle with a harden heart, like the money changers. You can articulate the importance the Temple or the church, but you’ve lost something core to it. The reason why it’s here — you’ve become hardened.

See they had been part of the Temple system for so long that they wrestled with they started to think about only themselves.

This is a real trap for every church — start thinking that we’re here for just us. Right when that happened we become hardened.

What happens is we become part of the system and part of the problem, and then the more people get hurt.

Don’t let your religion ruin your relationship with Jesus.

B/c that’s what happens when we prioritize what we want and begin ignoring what the king cares about — the king cares about people.

Hardened heart leads to hypocrisy — like the high priest.