A Devotional Life

John 2:13-22

The Passover of the Jews was near, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. 14In the temple he found people selling cattle, sheep, and doves, and the money changers seated at their tables. 15Making a whip of cords, he drove all of them out of the temple, both the sheep and the cattle. He also poured out the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. (John 2:13-15)

            The Cleansing of the Temple is one of those stories that drive scholars batty. As you can see, John places this event at nearly the beginning of Jesus' ministry. The rest of the gospels place it at the end, right before He is arrested, tried, crucified, and risen. In an attempt to harmonize this conflict, some scholars have contended that Jesus did this twice. Others have contended that the synoptic gospels (that is, Matthew, Mark, and Luke) are to be trusted over John (because it does appear in other places that John takes a lot of liberty with the life of Jesus). Yet I'm not sure it matters. And clearly the early church - when they were putting the scriptures together into what we now call the New Testament - were not unaware of this conflict, but opted to let it go anyway. I suspect they were even pleased to have stories of Jesus cleansing the temple at both the beginning and ending of Jesus' ministry because it creates emphatic bookends. The whole point of Jesus' life was to glorify the Father and we can see this at the beginning and end of His ministry. And if this is the case, then we are given a huge, glaring, bright Las-Vegas-style light pointing toward what the beginning and end of our lives are all about. It all centers around worshipping our God.

            In television, there's a storytelling device known as a "flashing arrow." A "flashing arrow" is any time characters explain something that helps the viewer better understand what's going on. For example, in CSI, a lab technician might explain a process she's doing to the police officer tasked with the case. The pretense is that a cop or detective won't understand the science and needs the explanation, but in the real world, the cop probably wouldn't even ask. He would just wait for the tech's report. This is done, however, to make the viewers understand what they're seeing. Well, I contend that the early church left these two conflicting cleansing stories in the gospels because it is a huge flashing arrow for who Jesus is, what His life is oriented toward, and who we are to be, as well. And in life - as with TV shows - if you miss the flashing arrows, you'll spend a lot of time confused. This is (part of) why we worship. We worship because without it, we would spend our lives confused as to what is happening and why. But when zeal for God's house consumes us, everything else begins to make sense too.