Jesus Cleanses the Temple

John 2:13-22

The gentle teacher picked up a whip and cleared the room.

Jesus walks into the temple courts during Passover and finds a marketplace — cattle, sheep, doves for sale, money changers at their tables, the whole commercial machinery of sacrifice turned into profit. He makes a whip out of cords and drives them all out. He scatters the coins, overturns the tables, and says to the dove sellers: Take these things away! Stop making my Father's house a marketplace! It's not the meek-and-mild Jesus people expect. The disciples remember a psalm: Zeal for your house will consume me. The Jewish leaders demand a sign to prove his authority. Jesus gives them a riddle they won't understand for three years: Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.

• Righteous Anger
• Authority
• Worship
• Zeal