Why did Jesus Flip the tables at the Jerusalem temple? He cleansed it by driving out merchants selling animals and exchanging money. Overturning the tables was caused by Jesus’s “righteous anger,” over the commercialization of a holy space, declaring it a “house of prayer” defiled into a “den of thieves.
The act, described in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, showed Jesus’s fury at greed, exploitation, and desecration of God’s house.
The Act
Jesus made a whip of cords, drove out sellers of oxen, sheep, and doves, scattered money changers’ coins, and overturned their tables.
The temple courts were specifically the only place for Gentiles (non-Jews) could approach God, and were made a marketplace.
Jesus quotes scripture by saying, “My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations, but you have made it a den of robbers.”
There were reasons for His actions.
- Righteous Anger: It was a passionate, exhaust defense of the temple sacred purpose against profanation and greed.
- Economic Exploitation: Merchants were charging high prices, exploiting pilgrims, and preventing the marginalized from worshiping.
- Profanation of Holy Space: business was happening in the most sacred accessible area, turning a place of worship into a market.
There was significance in the act. It was a symbolic cleansing. It was an act to restore the temple, proper function as a place for all people to pray and encounter God.
It was a prophetic act, announcing the end of the old temple system, and declaring Himself the new temple
It revealed Jesus’s authority. It was a demonstration of His divine authority and zeal for God‘s house.
From Pity to Praise 