There have been times in our lives when we were extremely angry. Often, we cannot even remember why we were so angry. The anger arises because our emotions are wounded, even over things less important than what truly matters. It is anger for one’s own sake.  However, there are times when anger arises for the sake of justice or a noble cause. This can be called “righteous indignation.” 

In Jinju, Gyeongsangnam-do, South Korea, there is a cultural heritage site called Chokseoknu Pavilion. It is the place where Nongae, during the Imjin War, embraced a Japanese general and plunged with him into the Namgang River, where both died. There is a poem titled “Nongae,” which depicts her loyalty. In the poem, her spirit is described as “righteous indignation deeper than religion.” 

Today, I want to examine the event known as the cleansing of the temple, which took place during the Passover period in the final phase of the Lord’s public ministry. This is the event where Jesus drove out those who were selling goods in the Court of the Gentiles in the Jerusalem temple. 

1. Why was Jesus so angry?

1) The cleansing of the temple is understood to have occurred on Monday, at the beginning of Holy Week. In today’s passage, we see the Lord deeply angered. The text says: “He drove out those who were buying and selling in the temple,” “He overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves,” and “He would not allow anyone to carry merchandise through the temple courts” (verses 15–16).  We see Jesus acting in a radical manner, overturning things in great anger. In the Gospel of John, He makes a whip out of cords, drives out the sheep and cattle, scatters the coins, overturns the tables, and angrily commands, “Get these out of here!” Such behavior seems unexpected.  This is because when we think of Jesus, we usually picture someone gentle, meek, and calm. This event, recorded in all four Gospels, is often called the “cleansing of the temple” or “temple purification.” However, from the perspective of those opposed to Jesus, it would have been seen as a “temple disturbance”—a shocking incident in which He caused a commotion and acted violently in the temple. 

2) The question we need to address is why Jesus, who we might think would never get angry, displayed such anger. This was not because He had a volatile temperament or lacked emotional control. The Lord’s character is gentle and humble. Rather, He was angered by the corruption that had taken over the Jerusalem temple. The temple was meant to be a holy place where people meet God and offer pure worship, but it had become filled with human greed, and this aroused Jesus’ anger. He saw that the temple had been reduced to a place for merchants to make money, and He was outraged by what He saw. This was righteous indignation.

2. Who defiled the temple?

1) Why were there people buying and selling in the temple during Jesus’ time? During major Jewish festivals, the Jews were required to come to Jerusalem to offer sacrifices, as prescribed by the Law, three times a year. Sacrifices required animals, but it was difficult for people to bring livestock from distant regions. Moreover, the sacrificial animal had to be without blemish, approved by the priests. This led to merchants selling cattle and sheep to those coming to offer sacrifices. However, the visible merchants were not the only ones defiling the temple.

2) The area Jesus cleansed was known as the “Court of the Gentiles.” Such commercial activities should have been conducted outside the temple, but the market had been established by Caiaphas, the high priest at the time, for his own profit. He collected rental fees from the merchants and amassed enormous profits behind the scenes. Additionally, there was a temple tax that had to be paid using Tyrian silver coins. Ordinary people who did not have such coins had to exchange their money in the temple, and this exchange was riddled with corruption. Consider what Jesus must have felt when He saw the temple—not a place of devout prayer and worship, but a marketplace filled with the sounds of cattle and sheep, money changers, and merchants. We can only imagine His heart.

3) While the merchants were problematic, the religious leaders—the high priests and scribes—were even more culpable. They allowed buying and selling in the temple courts in exchange for enormous personal gain. As religious leaders, they were supposed to guide the people in true faith in God, but instead, they abandoned their calling and were consumed by money and greed. These religious leaders were the most wicked. They pretended to be holy and deserving of respect, but inwardly they were corrupt. The worshipers, too, had become formalistic in their faith, thinking that simply purchasing sacrifices with money—without genuine repentance or heartfelt devotion—fulfilled their religious duties. All of them distorted the true purpose of the temple. This is why Jesus declared it “a den of robbers.” “Is it not written: ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations’? But you have made it ‘a den of robbers’” (verse 17).

3. What is the essence of the church that we learn from this event?

1) Reflecting on this event causes us to reconsider the essence of the church, even though it is familiar to us. In the past, some Korean churches held bazaars for missionary fundraising led by the women’s association. They prepared food and sold it in the church courtyard, with the proceeds going not toward profit but toward missionary funds. Nevertheless, some people opposed this, recalling the words, “Do not make my Father’s house a house of trade.” What Jesus was critiquing, however, was not the act of selling itself but the loss of the temple’s essence and its reduction to a means of making money. In that sense, this temple event offers a lesson for the church.

2) The church must not lose its essence. That essence, as the Lord declared, is to be “a house of prayer for all nations.” It is a place to meet God and an open space for everyone. Just as the Court of the Gentiles was meant to be accessible, the way to the Lord must not be closed even to Gentiles who do not know God. It should be an inclusive and open place where the marginalized and sinners alike can encounter God. Yet what must also be remembered is that while the church is open to all, it must maintain its holiness. It must drive out worldly desires and the profit-seeking mindset of merchants, pursuing instead a holy life in which the Lord is sovereign. If not, it risks becoming exactly what Jesus opposed. The church is called a nonprofit organization because it is not meant to operate for profit. Nevertheless, the church can be tempted to function like a corporation. As the church grows in size and budget, there is a danger of treating it like a worldly business. Questions such as, “How many members are there?” “What is the church budget?” “How large and impressive is the building?”—when the pursuit of growth becomes an excuse to adopt worldly values, ministry turns into business, and the church becomes a “house of trade.”

3) Today, through righteous indignation, the Lord cleansed the temple and restored it to its proper state. What we learn from this passage is that we must always hold fast to the essence of the church, and whenever we drift from it, we must return to that original purpose. Through the Lord, we are shown what the church ought to pursue. The church must be a house of prayer for all nations. The church is not a building; it is the people who, through Jesus Christ, are being built into a temple. As Ephesians says, “In Christ Jesus you are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by His Spirit” (Ephesians 2:22). To be a true church, we must be willing to abandon worldly values. The church should not be a place of profit but a place where we seek and experience the presence of God. It is not a building; we are to become the temple, and each one of us is to become the church. May we, as the temple, live each day in a way that pleases God.