Why did Jesus become angry when he saw the vendors in the temple? What did his actions in the temple mean? What do our temples look like? Should churches own buildings? If so, what should that look like? Can you have a faith community without a building?
"No building? No problem." - a reflection based on John 2:14-22.
In the temple Jesus found people selling cattle, sheep, and doves, and the money changers seated at their tables. Making a whip of cords, he drove them out of the temple, [including] the sheep and the cattle. Jesus also poured out the coins of the money changers and threw over their tables. He told those who were selling the doves, "Take these out of here! Stop making the house of my Abba a house of commerce!" His disciples remembered that it was written, "Zeal for your house will consume me."
Then the other Jews said to him, "What sign can you show us for doing this?" Jesus answered them, "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up." They then said, "For forty-six years this temple has been under construction, and will you raise it up in three days?" But Jesus was speaking of the temple of his body. After he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this; and they believed the scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken.
Works Referenced
Croy, N. Clayton. “The Messianic Whippersnapper: Did Jesus Use a Whip on People in the Temple (John 2:15)?” Journal of Biblical Leadership Vol. 128, No. 9 (2009): 555-568.
Culpepper, R. Alan. The Gospel and Letters of John. Nashville, Tennessee: Abingdon Press, 1998.
Gafney, Wilda C. A Women’s Lectionary for the Whole Church, Year W. New York City: Church Publishing, 2021.
Klay, Phil. “A Whip of Cords.” Commonweal Vol. 149, Issue 5 (May 2022): 16-21.
O’Day, Gail R. “The Gospel of John.” In New Interpreter’s Bible, Volume VIII. Nashville: Abingdon Press, 2015.
Reinhartz, Adele. “John.” In Fortress Commentary on the Bible: The Old Testament and Apocrypha, edited by Gale A. Yee, Hugh R. Page, Jr., Matthew J. M. Coomber. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2014. Kindle edition.
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