Wild Horses: Tame Your EmotionsNäide

Imagine a devout Jewish man from Galilee. He has carefully selected the best lamb he has. He then prepares his bag, makes his plans, and begins to travel to Jerusalem with his animal sacrifice. The distance from Galilee to Jerusalem is about 80 miles, so to travel by foot while driving his animal, it takes him three or four days to make the one-way journey.

Finally, he arrives in the city. He and his animal squeeze through Jaffa Gate, and he finds himself in an unfamiliar environment while buskers loudly call out to him to come into their shops. He winds through the narrow maze of streets in the walled city and makes his way to the temple.

The outer court of the temple had become a dirty, smelly, noisy marketplace. The deafening den of sellers hocking their wares, the bargaining of money changers, and the bellowing of the oxen were drowning out the voices of the religious racketeers.

And when the devout traveler finally gets to the front of the crowd, he offers his animal to the high priest for inspection. The high priest barely looks at the lamb and quickly dismisses the animal, saying, “Unclean.”

What must he do? He has no choice but to give up his animal and put it in a pen while another priest pulls out another one and sells it to him for an exorbitant price. This new lamb he must now buy with what is left of his money and offer to the high priest as his offering.

This “new” lamb is accepted. What happened to the lamb he brought? It is sold to a different pilgrim! But the ploy didn’t stop with the priests. The money changers were involved as well.

The people of God were being extorted, and Jesus was angry. The Avenger of God stormed through the swirl, driving out the cattle and releasing the doves, the sheep, and the goats. In the madness of the marketplace, Jesus of Nazareth stormed.

Jesus fought against the false values that had been brought in by religion, tradition, and greed. What was His response? He said, “It is written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer,’ but you have made it a ‘den of thieves’” (Matthew 21:13, NKJV).