Frontline Devotion for Friday, March 17, 2006 by Mike Martine

John 2: 13-22

This is a dramatic, and upsetting, passage. It sparks a lot of great discussion, and offers a lot of insight into what went on at the temple—and what was to change with Jesus.

The moneychangers actually performed an important service. Roman coinage could not be used at the temple because it was engraved with the image of Caesar. Temple coinage had to be used for offerings and to buy sacrificial animals. The merchants selling those animals were also performing a service. They were allowing pilgrims to offer pure sacrifices without the burden of having to haul them all the way from home. (Important especially in that, if an animal had any injury or imperfection—as it might sustain on a long journey—it would be unsuitable for sacrifice.)

But Jesus throws them out. Why? Perhaps by becoming a “marketplace” (where “haggling” could occur?) unfair business practices had begun. Perhaps because the sacrifice system demanded too much from the poor. Perhaps, as the prophets had told Israel, because God did not want sacrifice, but rather a broken and contrite heart.

In cleansing the temple, Jesus reveals that the practice of sacrifice will end with his ministry. He reveals that his blood will be the last blood spilled. He reveals that his body will be the body that unites people to God. No longer will there be a delusion that God demands constant death as a payment for sin. Sin will be wiped clean in the person of the resurrected Christ.

Christ refers to himself in this passage as a “temple.” As a temple, what do you need to throw from your life? Better yet, instead of worrying about punishing yourself, how can you better celebrate your life in God?

In many ways, Jesus cleansed the temple because the sacrifice system made God seem like a tireless accuser—a God constantly pointing out the shortcomings of his people and their guilt. Jesus instead offered the purity of permanent redemption, and celebration, in life with God.

Celebrate your life with God, and you will find that the “temple” of your being will be clean indeed.

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