By Tin-chee (T.C.) Lo
Jesus said to the woman caught in adultery, “Daughter, neither do I condemn you; go, and sin no more” (John 8:10). Jesus used gentle words to influence sinners, which is the attitude we should have when communicating with others.
But this was not the only way Jesus communicated with people. When he saw dishonest merchants exchanging silver and selling sacrificial sheep and cattle in the outer courts of the temple, Jesus mercilessly whipped them and overturned their trading tables. This “cleansing of the temple” event is recorded in all four Gospels, which shows its importance.
These events are recorded in the second half of the three books of the Synoptic Gospels. Only the Gospel of John puts it at the beginning of the book. So some say that the “cleansing of the temple” happened twice. In fact, this is not necessarily the case, because the content of the Gospel of John is arranged thematically, not chronologically. I personally think it happened only once, because Jesus’ judgment is with great authority that once is more than sufficient. Whether it happened once or twice does not matter, as the number of times will not affect the theological perspective we are going to discuss below.
Now we see that Jesus had at least two modes when communicating with people. The question is which “red line” was crossed, causing Jesus’ attitude to change 180 degrees from gentleness to severity? What exactly motivated Jesus to take such harsh actions against those profiteers?
We must first recall what Solomon expected of the temple when he built it. The answer is recorded in his temple dedication prayer:
“As for the foreigner who does not belong to your people Israel but has come from a distant land because of your name—for men will hear of your great name and your mighty hand and your outstretched arm-when he comes and prays toward this temple, then hear from heaven, your dwelling place, and do whatever the foreigner asks of you, so that all the peoples of the earth may know your name and fear you, as do your own people Israel, and may know that this house I have built bears your Name (1 Kings 8:41-43).”
It turns out that under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, Solomon hoped that this temple would be the “Temple of All Nations” rather than just the “Temple of the Jews.” But because of Jewish nationalism and superiority, the Sanhedrin gradually established a rule that prohibited Gentiles from entering the temple area, and any Gentile who entered would be put to death. [Do you remember? Paul was once falsely accused of bringing a Gentile into the temple area, an unjustifiable case that led to his arrest, trial, and appeal all the way to Caesar in Rome.]
During the Jewish festivals, many Gentiles from other places came to Jerusalem to worship. But since they were not allowed to enter the temple area, they could only worship outside the temple. Gradually, the outer area of the temple was called the “Outer Court,” or “Court of the Gentiles.” Since they had traveled long distances from far away and it was inconvenient for them to bring sacrifices, exchanging silver and buying cattle and sheep became inevitable for the development of business, and the “Outer Court” also became a business area. There is nothing wrong with this, but where there is business there must be merchants, where there are merchants there must be unscrupulous merchants, where there are unscrupulous merchants there must be corruption, and where there is corruption there must be crime. The outer courtyard became a big mess.
Why Jesus needed to clean up the outer court?
The purpose of Jesus came to this earth is to save all people in the world, not only Jews but also Gentiles. This is why in the Gospel of John, after describing this cleansing episode, this famous verse immediately appears: “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” Obviously, Jesus’ mission was consistent with Solomon’s thinking about the purpose of the temple.
For the reason that the gospel can be correctly preached to the Gentiles. Jesus viewed the Outer Court as a “Temple for the Gentiles,” giving them a solemn place to worship God, just as the Jews worshiped God in the temple area. In this way, the “outer court” has become “sacred” in Jesus’ eyes, so people must treat it as such. The evil deeds of unscrupulous money changers and animal sellers must be dealt with severely. Otherwise, the Gentiles would not regard the gospel as a serious faith, thus hindering the development of the “universalization of the gospel” as God had promised Abraham long time ago. Therefore, Jesus had to take a stern attitude towards the unscrupulous merchants and take action to “cleanse the “gentile” temple, the Outer Court. The fact that this is recorded in all four Gospels illustrates the seriousness of the situation.
Paul also teaches us to speak to others with a gentle and humble heart. But he also said, “If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone.” (Rom 12:18). The phrase “if possible” shows that “communicating with people in a gentle way” is not an absolute practice.
Galatians 2:11–14 records an incident in which Peter was eating with the Gentiles and when he saw Jews from Jerusalem visiting, he withdrew. Peter’s hypocritical attitude projected a false image of the gospel to new Gentile converts. The matter is of great importance and involves the orthodoxy of the gospel. Paul had no choice but to rebuke Peter very harshly and publicly for the gospel is at stake.
So, we can draw a conclusion: the “red line” for changing from a “gentle” attitude to a “strict” attitude hinged upon whether the gospel is compromised or not. There is time to deal with the situation with a strict manner. If I were to express it in a “wordplay”, the gospel itself is the “red line” pointing to the precious blood of Lord Jesus.
Given Jesus’ example of “cleansing the temple,” how do we apply it to today’s situation? If a seemingly friendly person comes to church, it may turn out that her purpose is to sell life insurance, or to do real estate business, or more directly to sell cosmetics. How do church leaders deal with her? These are all very practical examples. I believe the church leaders would have something to think about.
