Pollution at Father's House

Matthew 21:12-17 “Then Jesus went into the temple of God and drove out all those who bought and sold in the temple, and overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who sold doves. 13 And He said to them, "It is written, 'My house shall be called a house of prayer,' but you have made it a 'den of thieves.'" 14 Then the blind and the lame came to Him in the temple, and He healed them. 15 But when the chief priests and scribes saw the wonderful things that He did, and the children crying out in the temple and saying, "Hosanna to the Son of David!" they were indignant 16 and said to Him, "Do You hear what these are saying?" And Jesus said to them, "Yes. Have you never read, 'Out of the mouth of babes and nursing infants You have perfected praise'?" 17 Then He left them and went out of the city to Bethany, and He lodged there.”

The primary issue was that Father’s house had been compromised. It was to be a house of prayer, a place of singular devotion. Instead, it had become cluttered with commerce. The temple was polluted.

I think that Jesus had been watching the growing duplicity all of his life. I imagine that it started something like this. Throughout Jesus’ childhood, Mary and Joseph had told Him the stories surrounding His birth. Life unfolded in their family with constant mystery, wonder, and explanation.

“Who was this child?”

“What is his destiny?”

“One day we will go to Jerusalem. All will be clear once we visit the temple and make sacrifice.” Jesus had heard this explanation repeatedly. It filled his childish heart with hope and longing.

One day, an idea occurred to the boy Jesus. He would raise a calf to adulthood and offer it as sacrifice to God at temple in Jerusalem. He shared his dream with Joseph. They made preparations. Joseph assisted Jesus to select a calf to be raised without blemish as a sacrifice to God at temple. Jesus cared for the calf. Raised it. Protected it from harm and injury, and raised it to adulthood.

When Jesus was twelve, it was time for the family to go to temple and make sacrifice. Jesus’ heart was filled with anticipation and excitement. He was going to temple to worship the Heavenly Father. He would make sacrifice to God.

As a family, they made the trek on foot from Nazareth to Jerusalem. The trip consumed an entire week. When they arrived in Jerusalem, Jesus was excited to get to temple. Joseph explained to Jesus that the bull must be without blemish to be an acceptable sacrifice. Jesus washed and brushed the animal’s coat to perfection. The moment was at hand.

Temple sacrifice required an inspection by the priest assigned that duty. Joseph knew that the inspection process was often less than honorable. He knew that the animal risked pronouncement as “blemished,” not because of any physical blemish, rather because of the profiteering priesthood.

I imagine that the boy Jesus watched closely as the inspecting priest examined the young bull. When the priest began wagging his head from side to side, Joseph knew that the sacrifice had been rejected. The priest recognized them as country folks from out of town. He could tell by their speech that Joseph and Jesus were from Galilee. The priest thought it unlikely that they would hinder their return to the Galilee by taking their intended sacrifice home. He pointed them to the stalls of animals.

Crestfallen, Joseph and Jesus made their way to the animal stalls. Joseph was astonished at the lowball offers the keepers of the animals gave him. But what could he do? He bargained as best he could, and accepted a disappointing offer. Joseph knew full well that the young bull with which he was parting would enter the temple herd and be marketed as an unblemished sacrifice, completing the cycle of fraud at Father’s house.

Next was the matter of purchasing a sacrifice. Joseph and Jesus reviewed the small collection of coins they had received in exchange for the bull. They studied the prices for unblemished bulls for sale in the temple Court of the Gentiles. Unaffordable. They examined the prices for unblemished lambs for sale, still a respectable offering. Unaffordable. They found themselves at a table stacked with cages of doves for sale, the offering of the poor. A dove was the only sacrifice Joseph could afford this day.

I imagine that the pollution at Father’s house was a central topic of conversation between the twelve-year-old Jesus and the temple lawyers. I suppose that the questions Jesus raised ranged from theology to practice. I envision the lawyers were amazed that a boy could innocently and harmlessly point out the pollution of Father’s house and the Law’s the demand of purity. The lawyers were dumbfounded with the boy Jesus’ insights into the doubleminded nature of their worship. Prayer had become comingled with profiteering. He pointed to the glaring fault of the duplicitous nature of their worship with the innocence of a child, the wisdom of the aged, and the idealism of a leader.

I think that something was birthed in Jesus’ heart that day. He was angry that Father’s house had been compromised. He was sad that the priests were corrupted by money and power. He grieved for the exploitation of the poor. Something had to be done to right this wrong. Obstructing access to God through pride and greed was unjust. It was wrong. It was immoral. It could not stand.