My family and I recently attended the national tour of a famous musical. The talent was outstanding and the venue was beautiful. But, like at any big event, the concessions were overpriced. As one person remarked, “If you went to a grocery store, you could buy an entire case of waters for the price of this one bottle.”
Whether at a football game, a Broadway show or an amusement park, we’ve likely all paid inflated “convenience” prices like these. We’re used to it. And so, even though we know it’s exorbitant, we pay the price and move on without thinking much about it. But this week, the pricing caught my attention. It reminded me of what was happening in the temple in John 2:13-16.
“The Passover of the Jews was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. He found in the temple those who sold oxen, sheep, and doves, and the changers of money sitting. He made a whip of cords and drove all out of the temple, both the sheep and the oxen; and he poured out the changers’ money and overthrew their tables. To those who sold the doves, he said, “Take these things out of here! Don’t make my Father’s house a marketplace!” (WEBBE)
Every year, the Israelites commemorated the Passover by journeying to Jerusalem and offering sacrifices in the temple. And so, some smart business people had set up a convenient “sacrifice shop,” complete with currency exchange, in the temple courts. On the positive side, this made things easier for those traveling long distances. But on the negative side, these sellers and traders likely charged high prices for the convenience. It had become a racket.
And while those of us familiar with modern-day, convenience pricing might not think this a big deal, Jesus’ was very concerned about it. In fact, He was so concerned that He passionately cleared the sellers out of the temple courts altogether. Why? Well, perhaps it was for two underlying reasons:
ONE. Jesus wants all people to know the Father’s heart.
Passover commemorates how, long ago, God rescued the Israelites out of slavery in Egypt. If you recall, at that first Passover, God had told His people to take the blood of a lamb and apply it to the doorframes of their home. This ensured that when the angel of death passed by they would be spared.
That first Passover revealed that God was a God of both love and truth. In love, God provided all the Israelites a way of escape from death and captivity. It wasn’t an opportunity available only to the best behaved or the wealthiest among them. All were invited to experience this redemption. But in truth, God let them know that their rescue had a cost and had to be applied personally. The cost, surprisingly, wasn’t theirs to pay, but it still existed. In order for them to live a lamb had to die. And then its blood had to be applied personally by each family in order for it to save them.
As you can clearly see, the Passover was meant to point forward to Jesus. He is the Lamb of God, whose blood cleanses us from sin and spares us from spiritual death when we apply it personally by faith. And in John 2, as the Israelites prepared to celebrate Passover, this very Jesus was finally there, among them!
This was an opportunity for the Israelites to look at Jesus (whom John the Baptist had recently declared “the Lamb of God”) and connect the dots. This was a chance for them to see the truth that they still needing saving and that God was lovingly providing for that need in Him.
But instead, the clarity and hope of the Passover message were distorted by human greed. As Passover celebrants were greeted by merchants, they more likely to be thinking about the cost of buying a lamb than the cost of that lamb giving up its life for them. Suddenly, Passover became about money and not mercy. It distracted people from seeing the kind heart of God in the Passover—and gospel—message. And Jesus wasn’t having it.
In this passage, we see just how important it is to God that we get to know the real Him.
You see, unlike those merchants suggested, God doesn’t approach broken humanity with a “what can you give me?” attitude (even though He is worthy of our everything). Instead, He comes to us with generosity, giving us the life, pardon and love we could never buy on our own. God’s heart is beautiful—and He wants us to know it without distortion. I believe this is why Jesus cleared the temple court! He was ensuring that nothing kept people from seeing the holy, merciful heart of God and reaching out for Him.
So, in light of this, let’s ask Jesus to clear out all the things that are keeping us from seeing God as He truly is. They may be activities we cherish, beliefs we’ve always assumed or ways of thinking we inherited from the culture around us, but if they keep us from seeing God rightly, they are not worth it. Let’s let Jesus overthrow them and remove them from our lives so that we may know Him more.
TWO. Jesus wants His people to reflect the Father’s heart.
As Christians, it may feel tempting to look down on the unjust merchants in that temple court with a sense of moral superiority. They were clearly very worldly people, after all! And yet it’s likely that those unjust merchants were actually religious leaders—the very people tasked with representing God to the community.
This should convict us. As Christians, Jesus not only wants us to know the Fathers heart, He wants us to reflect it to those around us. Yet so often, our witness is tainted by worldliness. Just like those religious leaders’ greed misrepresented the generous heart of God, sometimes the things we chase, the corners we cut and the gossip we spread misrepresents the heart of God to those we interact with.
- We each need to consider the question: How accurately do my priorities, conversations, business dealings, etc. reflect the heart of God?
- And then, we need to pray and partner with the Holy Spirit.
The truth is, the only way we can accurately represent God’s heart is for God to make our hearts more like His. Our world needs to see transformed Christians more than trendy Christians. And thankfully, this transformation is exactly what the Holy Spirit promises to bring about in every Believer.
As we submit to Him, even our imperfect day-to-day witness can point people to Jesus and usher them into the very presence of God.
May His heart be known and seen in us today.
This devotion is based on one of the Scriptures from my 2025 reading plan: “A Year in the Gospels” To receive a copy of the reading plan (and future reading plans), sign up for the email list below. Hope you’ll follow along! You can also learn more about my Scripture over Screentime experiment here.
Written by Paige K. Burhans
©2025 Paige K. Burhans
Scriptures taken from the World English Bible British Edition. Public Domain.
