The Moneychangers

The Moneychangers

5/10/15

This title should not be unfamiliar to many and it might even stir some personal emotions giving the situation that the title of this letter suggests.  I find it amazing that God opens the spiritual eyes of those who wish to learn the deep truth about His Word and this message is no different.  How does this example come into play with our lives and in the life of the Church?  One might be surprised after they read this letter; God is steadily tugging at our lives wanting us to fully understand His Word so that we know everything possible concerning what lies ahead for our existence and also answers the question whether you are a moneychanger or not.

First of all I have to admit that I have struggled with this letter and its writing of it.  God has been giving me many things to write about over the past three years now and the topics continue to flow from His heart every day.  I have no shortage of things to write about for God is a complete God and He follows a specific pattern and does not waiver at all.  I have started this letter two previous times and have been so frustrated with its content, like something was not correct about the words.  I blamed the enemy and then I blamed myself all the while missing what God was trying to get across to everyone.  It was in my hurriedness that I totally missed what God was trying to say; yes, some of the words that I had written are used, in fact, many of them are but in a total different way.  So, I too have learned another example of God through this letter and that is to be patient, for He is in control of things, not me.

What is funny about my rushing to complete this letter is that it basically deals with a similar topic that God has been sharing with us for a while now and that is about our personal lives and how we believe that we can mix the two kingdoms together, especially when they are so engaged for our eternal lives.  I know that I do not completely understand everything that is going on for our lives, but the things that God has shown me to write about have one specific meaning and that is Kingdom.  Kingdom stands for repentance, restoration and for the advancement of God’s Kingdom to a blackened world.  Our enemy is doing a fabulous job in dulling our hearts enough to make sure that we do not wish to participate in this choice, but to choose his kingdom of pleasure and availability instead.

Many of you know that I have four girls in my family.  Right at the moment we are keeping another young lady in our house until graduation and she has become a part of our family as well.  You put her along with all of my other daughters’ friends that call us mom and dad together and our family becomes quite extensive, and I would not have it any other way.  I love all of my girls and through their presence within our walls, I have learned so much about them and about life itself through these ladies, on every level.

A couple of evenings ago my girls came home from their youth group and one of them asked if she could ask me a few questions about what was taught at youth group; of course, I said.  She began to ask me about a specific example that the youth pastor used and I gave her an explanation that she could understand.  While the idea of her asking me a question was wonderful it was the other side of the issue that gave me confidence in what she was receiving at youth.  She actually had questions!!!  Not about how many kids were at youth or what kind of games they played before and after the service, but about the service itself and the content of the message spoken.  And it is through this setting that we can grasp a good concept of how why moneychangers were allowed into the Temple at all.

How easy is it for us to accept things into our lives without knowing what the extent of our decisions will have?  Yet we have countless examples of this occurring throughout human history and even within Church history as well.  We have become a blinded and numb society when it comes to information and accordingly we readily accept this information without making sure it is legitimate.  We continue this path by applying it to our lives and unknowingly indoctrinate ourselves with its information.  It is this path that brings us to the example of the moneychangers and every participant in the example.

As the title of this letter suggests God will be sharing with us about the exchange Jesus had with the moneychangers and the High Priest and the other priests of the Temple.  But there is a few details that some of us may not know about that brings this setting into today’s world and sheds more light on how we have allowed the enemy to enter into our spirits and to accept the world as our standard instead of God.  Matthew 21:10-15 will serve as the reference for this letter; even though verse 16 goes with this setting I am not including it in this article for God has another topic in mind for that powerful verse.  But please know that God is planning on using that verse as well for another topic.

In verse 10 we read that Jesus has entered into the city of Jerusalem and that the city is all abuzz with this arrival.  Today Jerusalem is a modern and bustling city with every type of movement one would expect from such a venue.  In Jesus’ time this would also be the case since even back then Jerusalem was the centerpiece of that era.  Now, the population of Jerusalem was not as it is today but when you compare the overall population of the area at that time to today, one can agree that the proportions would be similar; in other words, with the human population and the vantage of word of mouth travel, it is feasible that the entire city knew that Jesus was in town and were curious to find out what all the commotion was about.  This verse also states that Jesus was very well known in the area and that His words were interesting enough to grab the attention of most of the community and those not of Jewish belief as well.

Verse 11 states that people began to answer those who were asking about Jesus and who He was to them.  This verse also sets into motion the scenario of the moneychangers through the normal participation of humans, for it is through human activity that thoughts, ideas, and beliefs are born and then cultivated.  The center of all Jewish life was the Temple and it would have been very common to see many people in its outer courts every day.  Milling around would have been totally accepted with all types of casual conversations being completed.  Great anticipations from the High Priests and leaders of the Jewish community would have been heard as well here; good or bad information being presented.

If this was the setting that Jesus had walked upon there probably would not have been any true commotion, but it was not the scene that He witnessed and the scene that He did encounter defines the place that we currently find our own churches struggling with today.  Most of us understand the concept of a moneychanger and why that person would be doing business but to do so by taking advantage of the daily situations and placing it into the Temple is way over the top of Temple practices and authorization.

Yet the High Priest and his subordinates allowed this event to take place and for the moneychangers to operate within the confines of the Temple grounds.  Verse 12 states that Jesus came into the Temple and began cleaning house so to speak.  For everyone who has read this passage understands this portion of the verse but it is what occurs before this scene that some of us have not thought about yet it sets the overall facts of why Jesus did what He did to these people.  It also gives us a behind the scenes explanation as to why the leaders of the Temple were so upset as well.

In order for Jesus to have encountered the moneychangers and those who bought and sold in the Temple, there must have first been an agreement with those people and the leaders of the Temple for them to be there in the first place.  Nothing of continual notice was allowed on Temple grounds that the leaders did not approve of first.  This means that the moneychangers and everyone else who was selling items that day had direct permission to do so from the High Priest.  Why?  With the human mind in place here, one can formulate that those people had made some kind of arrangement with the leaders in order for both parties to be accepted within the Temple grounds.  In other words, both sides of the table were going to profit from this exchange.

The moneychangers and their practices had been accepted within the Temple confines and allowed to do their works on Temple grounds unabated.  Is this a condition of the Temple that God would really approve of?  With the arrival of Jesus into the city, and given the size of the city at that time and how fast a person could relay information, the spreading of His presence throughout the city meant nothing to the High Priests or the moneychangers which means that they were comfortable in their spots of trade and according to their surroundings were not in any need of worry.  Have you ever asked yourself why there was not any commotion in this setting until Jesus provoked it?

All of a sudden a man who has some influence within the Jewish community comes into the courts and begins throwing a fit with those who have direct permission to be there.  Today many would scream and cry that they had a right to be there and according to the humans in charge of the day they did.  But in God’s eyes and they were wrong and they needed to be shown in a stern manner of such.  The question now must be asked is this: by whose authority do we have the right to bring our compromises into the church walls?  Many times it is allowed through the leadership of the church and others it is just allowed, period.

When Jesus entered into the Temple and witnessed what was transpiring, His blood pressure must have gone through the roof.  Of course He noticed all of the business transactions ongoing but what really must have got His spirit in an uproar was that the leaders of the Temple were right there watching everything occur, approving of every deal that was made.  Jesus was upset with every side of the setting here but He must have been tremendously hurt by what He saw and heard from the leaders of the Temple; or did He already know of their hearts???

As I have stated above, in order for the moneychangers to have access to the Temple they had to have permission with the leaders of the Temple.  This also sets the stage that the Jewish community had enough knowledge of the Temple leaders to broach the subject of trading within the Temple in the first place, which means they felt like they would not be turned away, or not afraid of their ideas being suggested to them.  The people had to have known the beliefs of the priests in order to suggest this, or how to react if a priest suggested this type of behavior to the people.  In any case, all sides must be considered when humans with selfish intentions are involved.  So, which side of the argument do you place yourself in?

When one places it into a human content it is easy for us to also understand why the priests would allow this to occur, the influx benefited both parties.  The “in thing” was for the Temple to allow such activities, but according to the Laws that God made this was totally unacceptable.  This entire setting indicates that the eyes and hearts of the leaders of the Temple were on the people’s wants instead of the true Laws of God.  This setting actually will play a part into the betrayal of Jesus in just a short period of time; it also depicts of how the heart progresses in spiritual and physical behavior.  The main question today is: what is the “in thing” at this moment and how does it relate to the moneychangers inside the Temple in Matthew Chapter 21?

It is evident that both the moneychangers and the priests had similar ideas about how to make money for themselves and at the same time justifying and defending their choices.  Both took advantage of the situation according to their knowledge of the popularity of the setting and it was this mixing that Jesus took great measures against.  This setting might seem a bit trivial to some but if one understands why Jesus was so upset it will become clear that the true mission of the Temple was being violated.  Jesus explains why He did this act through a few simple words.  Those words are recorded in verse 13 when He said that “My house shall be a house of prayer; but ye have made it a den of thieves.”

This means that the moneychangers and the priests were stealing from God.  What a bold statement coming from a man who the priests did not like in the first place, especially when He was undoing a prior agreement between both involved parties.  Why did Jesus state that they had made His house a den of thieves?  It begins with the first portion of verse 13 when Jesus states that His house is a house of prayer.  This means that when a person comes into that place they should be totally focused upon God, not the things of man.  God takes precedence and sole command of the person’s time, for it serves as a time of relationship with God and a time of communication between Creator and creation.

It is this reason that Jesus makes the statement, in the second portion of verse 13, that they made His house a den of thieves. For their actions to buy and sell were taking away the purity of the Temple and stealing time away from God and His creations.  God’s buildings, designs, plans, and all other means concerning His creations have a direct purpose and one goal in mind and it does not include any distractions of the human heart.  Why is this setting important for us today? Because we need to understand exactly what is going on in this story because in some cases it has already been put into motion and in other cases it is vastly approaching to being put into place within our lives.

It is a dangerous situation since the Bible clearly states that we are the Temple and we need to place it into our hearts the importance of this statement.  If the moneychangers were allowed to roam the Temple freely and promote their products within the grounds, the same type of setting can be introduced into our personal temples as well.  We cannot afford to become comfortable with the things of the world, for if we do then we will eventually allow them into our Temple grounds.  The world did not create us, God did and that means that if He needs to overturn our tables, then He shall do it.  Jesus set the example when He performed this act and it made the Jewish leaders mad for it broke up their evil and divisive scheme.  God will shake His ground at some point in time when needed; it is up to us to heed this example before He has to do it Himself or if our enemy is given the opportunity to perform this task unabated through our choices.

Jesus understood that there are two kingdoms vying for our lives and through His actions that day in the Temple, He took authority over the direction that the Temple was headed.  It was not according to the choices of the moneychangers nor was it according to the leaders of the Temple, but of God’s.  The moneychangers did not have to a “member” of the Jewish community to be allowed into the Temple grounds, but a deal was struck.  The leaders did not have to believe that all was bad concerning the buying and selling of items within the Temple and a deal was struck.  But God had a huge deal with these actions because the only direct link between Him and mankind was being interrupted by man’s earthly thinking and reasoning.

Lastly, in verse 14 it states that the blind and the lame came to Him and He healed them.  This is what the House of God is supposed to be doing.  These types of actions are a direct result of prayer and what it means to be instilled with God.  Are we seeing many healings and praise reports in our churches today?  No!  It is all about who did what to others and what other denominations are doing to suit their congregations.  There is no focus on God and His message to a dying world.  Jesus was NEVER accepted by the world and neither should the Church!  If you are being accepted by the world then you should be made aware that you have become a moneychanger.

Why will you not be accepted by the world?  Verse 15 explains this in that through Jesus’ healings and miracles the chief priests were very upset.  They should be overjoyed!!!!  Yet their true intentions came out and were mad because Jesus did what the Temple was built to do.  Wait a minute….Think about that for a minute and place it on a personal level.  If you are a Temple then that means you should be healing and performing miracles as well; pushing God’s Kingdom forward and not the enemy’s.  It is very clear that we are not completing the mission that Jesus told us to do and if we are not, then we have become moneychangers and have allowed this story to take place in our lives.

There is time for us to wake up and to change our hearts.  We need to change our hearts quickly because the more of the moneychanger spirituality that is allowed into our lives the harder it shall be to end it.  God is asking us to choose Him and to turn from our wicked ways before He has to allow some severe shaking to occur.  God asks us to look at our personal temples and to see the condition that they are in and if we see any mixing we need to rid ourselves of the moneychangers.  God loves us with every inch of His huge heart and it is His desire for us to live in direct communication with Him at all times.  He sent His Son to explain this concept to us and through this truth provide us with a glimpse that there is a distinct line between these two kingdoms.  God is giving us a few more chances to understand this truth before things change for our lives; Repent, turn and allow true restoration that is the message that God wants us to hear.

DLB