Money Changers in the Temple is a striking story. Aside from verbal attacks at religious leaders this is the only example of Jesus getting physically angry. So what is going on here. Notice it is the tables of the money changes that have upset Him. He isn’t directly attacking those selling animals for sacrifice. Most people would need to buy them.
It was a skewed business in favor of the money changers. The rule was that only temple money could be used to purchase the animals. The money changers were “ asking a killing” so to speak, at the expense of the population.
This diagram shows the place of the event was not part of the worship area of the temple. Yet it was indeed considered to be holy none the less.
How might we think of “money changers” in our worship today?
Some contemporary churches have worship that has become more like a performance. Some more traditional churches pay singers to be in their choir. I have known some that slept through sermons.
We might even wonder about church fund raisers. Where do we draw the line. We Protestants in my home town we alway upset with the Roman Catholics over Bingo.
We lived in Tucson for 5 years within site of The White Dove of the Desert. It seemed more a tourist attraction than a place of worship. Although certainly donations helped the poor congregation.
More troubling are the popular pastors getting rich off the mail in contributions from elderly people on fixed incomes.
