The Thing That Got Jesus Mad or "Separation of Church and Store"

"Boy, was he ticked!" "He blew a gasket." "He flew off the handle." "He lost it." If these were said about anyone of us, it would infer that we were out of control and that our anger got the best of us. But when Jesus the Christ, the perfect Son of God, manifested anger and rage he did so in righteous indignation. He was measured, calculated and deliberate and expressed such with a whip. What was the only thing recorded in the scriptures that caused this response from the Lamb of God? What brought about the manifestation of the Lion of the Tribe of Judah?

"Now the Passover of the Jews was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. And He found in the temple those who sold oxen and sheep and doves, and the money changers doing business. When He had made a whip of cords, He drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and the oxen, and poured out the changers’ money and overturned the tables. And He said to those who sold doves, “Take these things away! Do not make My Father’s house a house of merchandise!” Then His disciples remembered that it was written, “Zeal for Your house has eaten Me up.” (John 2: 13-17)

"Doing business" in the temple...hmm. I remember one day standing in the "sanctuary" of the Protestant Church I attended at the time. It was after the service. I had discerned a spiritual need in the life of a young man and was sharing the faith with him. He was not a believer but was an obvious seeker as evidenced by the fact that he was present at the worship hour. My words were piercing his soul and his heart was becoming tuned to the presence of God. It was one of those moments of spiritual destiny where you know God has allowed heaven to touch earth and our souls respond beyond our human reason, and then, a member of the church walked up to us, diverted our conversation, and began talking to me about his insurance company. "You would make a very good insurance salesman, Nathan. Let me invite you to a meeting we are having this week...blah...blah..blah..." I look on him with amazement and looked upon the young seeker man with desperation as he walked away. This church member had proselytized me, not for the things of the faith but for the advancement of his business. He was "doing business" in the Temple at the expense of a man's soul.

Recently, I received a letter in the mail addressed to "My Fellow Church Members". One of our Orthodox brothers had decided to "do business" in the Temple by obtaining the addresses of all Church members and sending a solicitation letter to our homes. He reached into the sanctity of the Temple and made it his "house of merchandise". He just wanted us to know that he was with a new company and to tell us how he could be reached. I presumed his purpose was so that he could make money off of us by selling us his particular product.

2000 years have not changed the fact that the same people with whom you work in the marketplace will also worship in the same Temple. The key word here is "worship". We worship with our brothers in the temple and may do business with them in the marketplace. There is no ambiguity as to how Christ feels about the blurring of such lines. He pulls out the whip and responds as the Lion and not just the Lamb. Surely the Scripture and Church Tradition clearly validate the "separation of church and store".

"My house shall be called a house of prayer, but you have made it a den of thieves."

I do not ask forgiveness for addressing in a public way what was and is perpetrated in a public way, and I don't ask for forgiveness for feeling the same ire and anger that Jesus did, for "Zeal for [His] house has eaten me up." Moral of the story:

Keep your business out of the Temple.

It is the Orthodox thing to do.

Anything else is "whippable."