The Gospels record Jesus cleansing the temple in two places, once in John 2, near the beginning of His ministry, and again in the Synoptic Gospels (Matthew 21, Mark 11, Luke 19) during His final week.
Most of us probably remember this as one event. Some say it was one event remembered in different ways, or John organizing his Gospel thematically. But most of the Church Fathers took the accounts as separate. That reading makes the most sense. Jesus went up to Jerusalem each year. If he began and ended his public ministry by cleansing the temple, we should see that as deliberate. It bookends his ministry and indicates a very important message.
The temple was where people came to worship. But over time, it had become a place to make money. The traders and moneychangers set up shop in the outer courts. The poor had to pay extra. The outsiders were pushed aside. It was still called a house of prayer, but that name no longer matched what was happening inside.
Jesus does not ignore it. He drives them out. He flips the table not once, but twice. What was he confronting? He was confronting the way religion can be used to take advantage of people, especially the poor.
There will always be cunning minds ready to use religion for profit. That was true then and it is still true now. What I’m suggesting is that this is normal. We shouldn’t be scandalized by a greedy and corrupt church. The Gospels are not just stories. They show us the patterns we should expect throughout our life journeys.
So when we see corruption in our churches, or financial scandal, or religion used to squeeze the weak, we should not act surprised. This is what Jesus took pains to clean up twice deliberately, as if to underline the point: this is where religion is vulnerable, and this is where you need to join me in cleaning it up.
We were never promised clean institutions. We were called into them to take up this work. If you follow Jesus, you will face this same fight. Some tables may need to be flipped again.
It would be foolish to walk away from religion because of its corruptions, knowing full well that Jesus almost seemed more passionate about his religious system because of it. But it would also be ignorant to be scandalized by what you see. If the Lord took up a job twice, we should take double notice. Fully expect a corrupt religious system, and let the impurity be a fire in your belly to cleanse it so as to make way for a house of prayer.
Kern Keep 