Driving Out the Dealers from the Temple.

(Mat. 21:12-17; Mark 11:15-19; Luke 19:45-48).

Upon entering Jerusalem the Lord headed directly to the temple and drove out the merchants that were trading there. The first three Evangelists narrate this event. Also, the recounting by Saint Mark differs to that of Saints Matthew and Luke, in that according to him, the Lord entered the temple and after having “looked around at all things, as the hour was already late, He went out to Bethany with the twelve.” And it was only the following day (after the condemnation of the fig tree), that He entered the temple and drove out the traders. There is no contradiction here: in relating events, the Apostles did not always adhere to a chronological order. The presentation of logical association of events was more important to them.

Some accept that there were two cleansings of the temple from trading merchants: once upon the Lord entering Jerusalem, and the second time on the following day. Three years earlier, when the Lord came to Jerusalem for His first Pascha after His Baptism, He found the yards and porches of the temple had been transformed into trading areas, so He drove out the merchants. The Pascha of the following year, the Lord apparently did not find any trading activity within the confines of the temple area. On the third Pascha of the Lord’s service, He didn’t visit Jerusalem. Upon the approach of the fourth Pascha, the Jews were worried as to whether Jesus will attend this holiday. Realizing that the authorities have pronounced their death sentence on the Lord, the merchants (with the permission of the high priests), packed the temple grounds and side porches with animals, pitched tents that offered a variety of goods, set up tables with money-exchange facilities and benches with doves — which were bred by the high priests in order to increase their income — and began trading.

The Lord’s entry into the temple was quite unexpected by them. After the triumphant greeting by the people with cries of “Hosanna,” no one dared to oppose Him when, in His first year of ministry, He ‘began to drive out those who bought and sold in the temple, and overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who sold doves. And He would not allow anyone to carry wares through the temple,” i.e. items that had nothing to do with the church services in the temple. Evidently, at that moment, God’s greatness and might shined in the face of the Lord so that nobody presumed to react against Him. Instead, they involuntarily submitted. The high priests also didn’t dare to take measures against the Lord, seeing “how all the people were astonished by His teachings” (Mark 11:18 and Luke 19:48).