Unpopular Jesus

Jesus never took the easy road. Here’s what happened when he went to the next Passover.

He found the Temple teeming with people selling cattle and sheep and doves. The loan sharks were also there in full strength.

Jesus put together a whip out of strips of leather and chased them out of the Temple, stampeding the sheep and cattle, upending the tables of the loan sharks, spilling coins left and right.

 He told the dove merchants, “Get your things out of here! Stop turning my father’s house into a shopping mall!” That’s when his disciples remembered the Scripture, “Zeal for your house consumes me.” (Psalm 69:9)

The Jews were upset. They asked, “What credentials can you present to justify this?” Jesus answered, “Tear down this Temple and in three days I’ll put it back together.”  

They were indignant: “It took forty-six years to build this Temple, and you’re going to rebuild it in three days?” But Jesus was talking about his body as the Temple. Later, after he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered he had said this. They then put two and two together and believed both what was written in Scripture and what Jesus had said.

Many people noticed the signs he was displaying and, seeing they pointed straight to God, entrusted their lives to him. But Jesus didn’t entrust his life to them. He knew them inside and out, knew how untrustworthy they were. He didn’t need any help in seeing right through them. (John 2:12-25, MSG)

Oh, God, let that never be us, fine on the outside, but inside rotten to the core.