Passover in Jerusalem was like Rose Show weekend in our home of Thomasville or the Cherry Blossom Festival in Macon or the Peach Festival in Fort Valley or the Watermelon Festival in Cordele or the Onion Festival in Vidalia or the Shrimp & Grits Festival in Brunswick.
It’s a beautiful time of the year where crowds gather, families come home, food appears out of nowhere, and vendors set up booths to sell their wares. It was customary to sell animals and exchange money outside the temple, but in Jerusalem, the festival of animals and money had moved into the lobby of the temple.
It was almost time for the Passover Festival, so Jesus went to Jerusalem. There in the temple he found people selling cattle, sheep, and pigeons, and also the moneychangers sitting at their tables. So he made a whip from cords and drove all the animals out of the temple, both the sheep and the cattle. He overturned the tables of the moneychangers and scattered their coins, and he ordered out those who sold the pigeons.
“Take them out of here! Stop making my Father's house a marketplace! My devotion to your house, O God, burns in me like a fire.”
— John 2: 16-17
They had everything but wild chickens in the lobby of the temple. All the animals for the Temple sacrifices had to be perfect and inspected by the priest.
The vendors set up shop selling animals and the priests set up shop inspecting them. It was the oldest game in the book called, “You scratch my back and I’ll scratch your back.”
The second game in this system was a shell game with the monetary offerings. The priests only accepted the temple currency, but the people used Roman currency in the marketplace. The moneychangers were extremely happy to buy the Roman currency with temple currency, and the priests were extremely happy to exchange the temple currency for the moneychanger's Roman currency.
Nobody seemed to notice it created a barrier between the people and their temple. But Jesus noticed and he decided to clean house.
He braided a short whip and used it on the vendors and moneychangers while he turned the whole system upside
down — literally turned their tables
upside down.
We’ve all had “market moments” or distractions that push God to the side, and maybe it’s time to “turn the tables upside down.”
Maybe it’s time to walk past the festivals and go into the sanctuary to spend some quiet time with the God who waits for us there?
Charles “Buddy” Whatley is a retired United Methodist pastor serving Dawson Street Methodist Church in Thomasville, Ga. With wife, Mary Ella, they are missionaries to the Navajo.
