The Word This Week
Luke 20:1…
We can only imagine how upsetting it must have been for the Jewish religious establishment for Jesus to come into the Temple courts and overturn the tables of the moneychangers, and of those selling animals to be sacrificed.
There had never been anyone to challenge the hierarchy of the Jewish religion prior to Jesus.
This was not the first time Jesus had done such a thing. At the beginning of His ministry, He had done exactly the same thing. But apparently it had not registered in the religious leaders’ hearts why His doing this was necessary. They simply re-established all He had overturned.
It is important to understand the leaders of the Jewish faith in Jesus’ day were the wealthiest people in the nation, and the High Priest was the wealthiest man in all Israel. Their wealth came from forcing the worshipers to purchase sacrificial animals for an exorbitant price and then making them exchange the money they brought for temple money, which had an extremely high exchange rate.
In today’s money, they were raking in millions of dollars. It was a racket. It cost the worshipers their money, but it also cost them their respect for what it meant to worship their God.
Jesus would not stand for it. The Temple was meant to be a house of prayer, not an institution of financial gain for the privileged few. It was a total misrepresentation of His Father’s will for His people. Since Jesus came to this earth to accomplish His Father’s will, He dramatically brought this to an end. Again.
Just as Jesus would not stand for what they had going on, the chief priests, scribes, and elders would not stand for what Jesus had done.
They interrupted His teaching to challenge His authority.
Just as it is important to understand how much money they were making from their racketeering. It is also important to understand what Jesus had done to overturn their financial interests also became a big part of their motive to kill Jesus.
Jesus was never one to walk away from such a challenge. They were about to learn an important lesson, publicly. Never attempt to win an argument with God, especially in public.
Jesus responded to their challenge question with a question of His own. The answer to Jesus’ question was an easy one, but they could not and would not answer for political reasons, which tells us everything we need to know about the condition of their hearts. They were genuinely afraid of what the people might think.
Pastor Bill
We can only imagine how upsetting it must have been for the Jewish religious establishment for Jesus to come into the Temple courts and overturn the tables of the moneychangers, and of those selling animals to be sacrificed.
There had never been anyone to challenge the hierarchy of the Jewish religion prior to Jesus.
This was not the first time Jesus had done such a thing. At the beginning of His ministry, He had done exactly the same thing. But apparently it had not registered in the religious leaders’ hearts why His doing this was necessary. They simply re-established all He had overturned.
It is important to understand the leaders of the Jewish faith in Jesus’ day were the wealthiest people in the nation, and the High Priest was the wealthiest man in all Israel. Their wealth came from forcing the worshipers to purchase sacrificial animals for an exorbitant price and then making them exchange the money they brought for temple money, which had an extremely high exchange rate.
In today’s money, they were raking in millions of dollars. It was a racket. It cost the worshipers their money, but it also cost them their respect for what it meant to worship their God.
Jesus would not stand for it. The Temple was meant to be a house of prayer, not an institution of financial gain for the privileged few. It was a total misrepresentation of His Father’s will for His people. Since Jesus came to this earth to accomplish His Father’s will, He dramatically brought this to an end. Again.
Just as Jesus would not stand for what they had going on, the chief priests, scribes, and elders would not stand for what Jesus had done.
They interrupted His teaching to challenge His authority.
Just as it is important to understand how much money they were making from their racketeering. It is also important to understand what Jesus had done to overturn their financial interests also became a big part of their motive to kill Jesus.
Jesus was never one to walk away from such a challenge. They were about to learn an important lesson, publicly. Never attempt to win an argument with God, especially in public.
Jesus responded to their challenge question with a question of His own. The answer to Jesus’ question was an easy one, but they could not and would not answer for political reasons, which tells us everything we need to know about the condition of their hearts. They were genuinely afraid of what the people might think.
Pastor Bill