John 2:13-17

13 The Passover of the Jews was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. 14 In the temple he found those who were selling oxen and sheep and pigeons, and the money-changers sitting there. 15 And making a whip of cords, he drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and oxen. And he poured out the coins of the money-changers and overturned their tables. 16 And he told those who sold the pigeons, “Take these things away; do not make my Father's house a house of trade.” 17 His disciples remembered that it was written, “Zeal for your house will consume me.”

In chapters 2–4, Jesus keeps interacting with an important Jewish institution or theme, and through each interaction, Jesus further reveals who He is and that what He can do far exceeds what the Old Covenant could offer. He then offers His hearers a choice to either turn toward Him in faith and believe or turn away from Him in unbelief. Here, the interaction involves the temple in Jerusalem during the Passover festival. 

This is the first of three Passover visits Jesus makes to Jerusalem before His death and resurrection. (This is where we get the idea that Jesus had a three-year ministry, by the way.) The reason for the animals and the money-changers is because Passover brought pilgrims from all over the Mediterranean region to Jerusalem to worship at the temple; pilgrims would need to change their foreign money into local currency before they could buy the animals they needed for the sacrifices. Jesus seems to be saying that all the commerce going on had unfortunately distracted the people from the purpose of the temple—to encounter God.

Later on, the disciples remembered a line from Psalm 69 that seemed to sum up Jesus’s attitude that day, “Zeal for your house will consume me.” Jesus’s opposition to the Jewish leaders would end up getting Him killed—you might say that the zeal He had for the Father ended up literally consuming Him. Jesus is committed to honoring the Father and obediently carrying out His will, regardless of the consequences.

QUESTION OF THE DAY:
Have you lost sight of the purpose of Sunday worship by allowing yourself to focus on other things that don’t really matter?