The Zeal of Jesus

At the beginning of His public ministry, as recorded in John 2:13-22, the Lord Jesus Christ cleansed the temple. This language, the cleansing of the temple, might seem familiar. John’s narrative about Jesus especially chronicles His visits to Jerusalem for the various Passover Feasts year after year.

On the first recorded visit in John to the Temple at Passover, Jesus drove out merchants and money-changers from the Jerusalem temple. He overturns their tables, scattered coins, and made a whip to clear the area. The temple, meant for worship, had become a commercial hub, with vendors selling sacrificial animals and exchanging foreign currency at exploitative rates, likely in the Court of the Gentiles. Jesus’ actions challenge this corruption, asserting the temple’s sanctity. The temple was His Father’s house on earth. If anyone knew the importance, it was Jesus. This action revealed Jesus as the Messiah with authority to purify worship and challenge corrupt systems, aligning with John’s goal to attest that Jesus was the Son of God (John 20:31).

The affections of Jesus for the purity of the Temple got the attention of Andrew, who remembered the Messianic reference of Psalm 69:9. The zeal of the Lord’s house had eaten Him up. Not only was Jesus righteous in all His acts, completely orthodox in His doctrinal beliefs and teachings, but He had the appropriate feeling for what was occurring in Israel and in the worship of God in His institution on earth. That kind of feeling reminded Andrew of the kind David had and what one would expect of the Messiah, who would sit on David’s throne.

Others can tell what is important to you by how they see you feel about whatever it is. Do you have a zeal for the things of God like Jesus had? This is what manifested Him as the Son of God and the true, prophesied Messiah. Do you or will you show zeal for God’s house like Jesus did, conduct becoming our Lord and Savior?