Jesus told those who were selling doves, “Get these things out of here! Stop turning my Father’s house into a marketplace!” (John 2:16)
In today’s passage, we see how Jesus cleansed the temple after he discovered that as the Passover was happening and there were so many Jewish people doing business and preventing the Gentiles from the one place where they could worship God. During the time of Passover, the Jews who attended annually, upwards of two and a quarter million Jews who gathered in Jerusalem to keep the Passover. So imagine all of the chaos as all these Jews had to pay a temple tax, which consisted of a special temple tax coin that could only be attained through buying things that would allow the money changers to give the correct tax coin. All of this business was being done and Jesus knew something had to be done.
As Jesus saw the temple being turned into a marketplace for vendors to make money, he was overcome with zeal and passion for His Father’s house to be a place of worship. Showing his authority, rather than a fit of violence, Jesus took time to make a whip out of cords and drove out everyone from the temple. As we pursue prayer and righteousness in our lives, God wants us to have a spirit of conversion and cleansing. Jesus is always in the business of first having people converted, coming to realize their sin and their need for a Savior to rescue them. Once the conversion happens, then Jesus is able to cleanse us and make us holy vessels to be used by God.
As we are drawing near to God every day through prayer and reading God’s word, let’s pray for more and more people to be converted and cleansed by Jesus. Jesus is in the business of bringing more people to worship God and to submit their lives to the Lordship and authority of Jesus. Let’s praise Jesus for the converting and cleansing that He does in people’s lives as we pray for more of God’s kingdom to reign on this earth.