Matthew 21: 12-13  ( NLT )

Jesus Clears the Temple

12 Jesus entered the Temple and began to drive out all the people buying and selling animals for sacrifice. He knocked over the tables of the money changers and the chairs of those selling doves. 13 He said to them, “The Scriptures declare, ‘My Temple will be called a house of prayer,’ but you have turned it into a den of thieves!”

After Jesus entry into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday we find him in the Temple but not to preach or teach but to confront the heart of the Church at that time. The Old Testament practice of sacrifice was in place and like most things God entrusts to us we find a way to serve our own best interests and call that part of our religion. The sale and exchange for animal sacrifices allowed for people to travel in and out of the temple without carrying animals around with them and once inside buying a dove, pigeon or other animal that could be offered by the priest on behalf of the buyer for their forgiveness.

This process while fulfilling the physical process for forgiveness lacked the spiritual connection to the sacrificial system God initially setup with Moses for repentance and forgiveness. The sacrifice was to come from one’s own stock of animals and be one of the best that was available. This offering from one’s sustenance would require reflection and repentance for any sins and that had been committed in asking for forgiveness and in committing to a better way of life going forward.

What had happened over time to improve the efficiency of the process was the setting up of sacrifice selling and money exchange areas in the temple. The animals were not necessarily the best that could be offered, and the money changers made a profit for the service of exchange. This became an example in the fulfillment of Isaiah 

Isaiah 29:13 (NLT)

13 And so the Lord says,   “These people say they are mine.  They honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.

The heart of any matter begins and ends with the condition of the heart.  Jesus will continue to come back to the temple over the week in Matthew and try to guide the Church to an understanding that Church is not a physical place or process but a spiritual condition of the heart. Ultimately he will be rejected and put to death on the cross ironically for blasphemy against the Church. We will continue to follow the Church on this journey ……….