Today, we are thankful for Jesus' "consuming passion."

Over time, the Holy Temple of God had been infiltrated with corruption as traders brought in animals to sell and be used for sacrifices and money changers trading Roman for Jewish coins while taking an unfair portion of the trade. Even the high priest participated in the corruption because he received a portion of the funds traded at the temple. Jesus saw these things happening, the bleating of sheep instead of holy adoration and prayer, and immediately took action. He became consumed with such a passion for the Temple God being restored to sanctity that he drove everyone and everything out and demanded that they will not treat the house of God as if it were not a holy place for God’s presence. Let’s look into the story.

“It was nearly time for the Jewish Passover celebration, so Jesus went to Jerusalem. In the Temple area he saw merchants selling cattle, sheep, and doves for sacrifices; he also saw dealers at tables exchanging foreign money. Jesus made a whip from some ropes and chased them all out of the Temple. He drove out the sheep and cattle, scattered the money changers’ coins over the floor, and turned over their tables. Then, going over to the people who sold doves, he told them, “Get these things out of here. Stop turning my Father’s house into a marketplace!” Then his disciples remembered this prophecy from the Scriptures: “Passion for God’s house will consume me.” But the Jewish leaders demanded, “What are you doing? If God gave you authority to do this, show us a miraculous sign to prove it.” “All right,” Jesus replied. “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” “What!” they exclaimed. “It has taken forty-six years to build this Temple, and you can rebuild it in three days?” But when Jesus said “this temple,” he meant his own body. After he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered he had said this, and they believed both the Scriptures and what Jesus had said.”
‭‭John‬ ‭2:13-22‬ ‭NLT‬‬

    1. We can be thankful that Jesus assumed authority to restore the sanctity of the Temple of God.

He fulfilled the prophecy from Psalm 69:9 that says, “Passion for your house has consumed me, and the insults of those who insult you have fallen on me.” I can only imagine the rage that Jesus was feeling as He sprung into action not only removing the people but also the animals from the temple. All of what was happening was an insult to God. Therefore, all of it needed to be driven out.

    2. We can be thankful that Jesus was ushering in a new thing.

The Gospels tell us that Jesus was ushering in a new covenant where we wouldn’t need animal sacrifice. Instead we would give salvation through the ultimate sacrifice as He sacrificed his life on the cross. This would be the atonement for human sin once and for all. Jesus became the new temple, which was destroyed and rebuilt in three days, and the new sacrificial Lamb of God slain for our sins.

The cleansing of the Temple of God was just days before Jesus was sacrificed on the cross for our sins. We can praise God because all things were set in order so that our Lord could properly bring salvation to us. Oh how He loves us!