Jesus and His Whip

It's kind of hard for some to picture Jesus making a whip of cords, overturning the tables of those that had turned the temple of God into a religious flea market of sorts, and driving men out of the market with a whip.



Something tells me that there was an authority in His voice and a fire in His eyes that caused even the toughest of men to respectfully withdraw. You might remember that the multitudes that heard Him were astonished at His teaching, in part, because He came across with an authority that was unlike the other teachers of His day.

And so it was, when Jesus had ended these sayings, that the people were astonished at His teaching, for He taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes.
(Mat 7:28-29)

And He found in the temple those who sold oxen and sheep and doves, and the money changers doing business. When He had made a whip of cords, He drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and the oxen, and poured out the changers' money and overturned the tables. And He said to those who sold doves, "Take these things away! Do not make My Father's house a house of merchandise!" (John 2:14-16)

I 'bolded' "My Father's house" so that you'd be sure to catch what Jesus was saying to them. He was calling the heavenly father His dad! It was not unusual for the Jews as a people to address God as "Our Father", but individuals did not address God as if He was their personal father. It was as if Jesus was saying that the temple was his family's home, and that He was not about to have them turning His dad's place into a religious business, when it was meant to be a house of prayer. Luke 19:45-48 describes another time Jesus drove people from the temple. Actually, it wouldn't surprise me if Jesus cleared it out on a regular basis when He was in town.

(There is much Jesus did that did not get recorded. The apostle John ended His gospel with these words- "And there are also many other things that Jesus did, which if they were written one by one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that would be written. Amen."- John 21:25)

The word of God tells us that we believers, as the people, or church, of Jesus Christ, are the temple of God in this age (1 Corinthians 3:16-17, Ephesians 2:21). Is there anything set up or going on in you that Jesus would be unhappy about? In your church family? If we claim the name of Jesus, we are a reflection of both Him and His Father.

Best clean house on our own, and not wait for Jesus to come in and overturn the tables.

Yours in Him,

Pastor B.