Eviction Notice

It was time for Passover

Jesus traveled from Cana, to Capernaum, then to Jerusalem.

Capernaum to Jerusalem is an uninterrupted walking time of about a day-and-a-half. Add in breaks and a stay overnight and it may be about a two-and-a-half or three day trip.

All Jews were commanded to make the pilgrimage to Jerusalem for Passover ().

This was a trip that Jesus had made many times before. One of the trips, when Jesus was 12 years old, Mary and Joseph accidentally left Him behind in Jerusalem and upon returning found Him in the temple listening to and questioning the teachers.

The Market

None of the other accounts of Jesus visiting the temple for Passover records a market being present at the temple. maybe it was, or maybe this particular year it was new.

The merchants and money changers were proving a convenience to Passover observers.

Sacrifices:

Some worshipers had come from great distances.

Have you ever traveled with an ox?

Currency exchange for the temple tax.

The Bible doesn’t tell us that Jesus had a sacrifice with Him, so He may have intended to buy one from the market, only to find it where it wasn’t supposed to be.

The Scourge

Jesus arrives, and the jubilant mood turns somber for Jesus.

Ready to enjoy some kosher barbecue.

All of that changes when Jesus sees the market in the temple.

He made the whip on location; not found, not bought, not taken from any of the tables in the market.

This took contemplation and time.

Can you imagine what was going through the minds of the disciples?

The Cleansing

He drove out the sheep, the oxen, and the money changers.

The next time someone asks you, “What would Jesus do?”...

What angered Jesus about what He observed?

Why did Jesus do this? Why did He feel that the presence of this market warranted the level of force that He used?

The temple was not used just by Jews to worship Yaweh.

There were non-Jewish (Gentile) believers that observed Passover.

Mark’s account of this event would include Jesus’s reference to .

Gentiles could not enter the inner courts of the temple due to their ethnicity. In fact, they were forbidden to do so under penalty of death (the pillars leading to the inner court had a warnings posted in three languages).

“7 Even those I will bring to My holy mountain

And make them joyful in My house of prayer.

Their burnt offerings and their sacrifices will be acceptable on My altar;

For My house will be called a house of prayer for all peoples.”

8 The Lord God, who gathers the dispersed of Israel, declares,

“Yet others I will gather to them, to those already gathered.”

Gentiles were therefore provided the outer court, or the “Court of the Gentiles.”

It was this court that was occupied by the Jews’ market.

God desires all of us to experience His presence.

A place had been prepared for the Gentiles so they could also come and worship God.

Since the Court of the Gentiles - the place specifically reserved for them to worship - was occupied by this market, they were denied access to it and thus the Jews were denying the Gentiles access to His presence.

Temple worship had become commercialized, probably in a way not all that different from how we have commercialized Christmas.

Jesus only addresses those selling doves (v. 16). Why?

Though oxen and sheep were the preferred sacrifices, there were worshipers who were too poor to afford this type of offering, therefore they were permitted to offer a dove ().

God excludes no one who wants to worship Him, so in His grace He made provision for the poor to make it easier to come worship Him.

Have you ever been poor?

Jesus said, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” ().

I’ve been poor without inheritance. I have no right to the kingdom apart from Jesus.

In essence, Jesus confronted the Jews for taking advantage of the poor by capitalizing on the worship experience.